Added the BBC News ticker to the header, as well as an old tagline of mine, “Redmondo delenda est,” which points to a site
that I strongly identify with lately. Cato the Elder ended all his speeches in the Roman Senate
with “Carthago delenda est,” or, “Carthage must be destroyed.” Redmond, WA, is the home of Microsoft.
Month: May 2003
At church this morning they made an appeal for platelet donors. Since I had about 3.5 hours to kill between the end of the
11am service and rehearsal for Evensong, I went over to the Blood Center and plopped myself down.
After explaining my travels in Europe since 1980, that I hadn’t slept with anyone, HIV-infected or otherwise, and telling about the one time I couldn’t give
because my iron count was too low (!), they strapped me into the machine and cranked it up. They wouldn’t let me turn the pages of my magazine with a long stick held in my mouth, so I was forced to watch the last half hour of “Sweet Home Alabama” that
my neighbor was watching before I could pick something: “Return of the Pink Panther”, which was lying out on the desk – a classic which I never tire of seeing.
About 2/3 of the way through giving, the power in the whole neighborhood went out. They do not have backup generators at the Blood Center. After about five
minutes, power was restored, but they could not get my machine to reset. They pressed all the buttons. They fiddled with all the knobs. They called Tech
Support (glad it wasn’t Windows-based, or I’d be dead). My arms start getting cold from all the saline solution rushing back into my body. Finally they got it
reset, and continued the process. Only ended up being late for Evensong by about 20 minutes, which is pretty good, considering. Used the ordeal as an excuse
when I initially started canting on a cypher in the chapel’s organ rather than the note John played.
While at Sam’s, picked up a copy of Kinky
Friedman’s Guide to Texas Etiquette. And I bought it even without Vane prompting me. Funny stuff. And thoughtful stuff, too:
Years ago, my mother had a sign on her desk….It read, “Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given.” That may be as close to Texas Etiquette as any of
us every get.
Went electronics shopping with David this afternoon. After shopping around and comparing components and prices and checking online, we got a good deal from Paul
Singh at the Home Theater Store on Westheimer. Ended up getting 5 B&W LM-1s for the speakers, a B&W ASW-300
subwoofer, and a Denon AVR-2803 receiver. Picked up a
little Hitachi DVD player at Sam’s for $80, and took it back to East San Antonio and hooked it all up. Moment of truth: popped in the Lauren’s newly-purchased
copy of The Matrix, and jumped to the lobby scene. David was *very* happy. 🙂
Now just have to hook up all the old stuff in his upstairs den. And mount the speakers. And get another sat receiver. At least we got the old entertainment
center up the stairs. Whew.
Just got off the phone with Laura Rosenberg (executive director, arts administration & chorus director – Hot Springs Music
Festival), and the upshot is if they like my sound, then I’ll be doing the role of Speaker and understudying Papageno in their new English version of Magic
Flute the first two weeks of June. Sending them a copy of “Eilt, eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen” as soon as I get it from Dr. Lynn on Tuesday. Now I just hope
Cliff’ll let me out for the first two weeks.