Oh, the humanity!

Something terrible has happened.

My Dish reciever has problems. It started by dropping Sirius 5 and 6--which, of course, will be where Cousin Brucie debuts this weekend. I didn't know this when the stations first dropped out, so I ignored it, because I had my 22, First Wave.

Today I get the bright idea to call tech support to get 5, 6, Food Network and whatever else was missing back.

Now I have no music stations. I have a bunch of PPV baseball stations and like, the religious stations, and those frikkin' UHF stations I never watch since the second dish I was do desperate for went up.

No music...except FM radio.

*curls up in ball, dies*

I guess I could always play my MP3s, but...it's not the same.

Dish is sending a new reciever, of course, but that won't be here until Saturday. Cousin Brucie will have had his first broadcast by then. AUGH!

Oh, the humanity!

Intent to post.

I see that phrase used a lot on those newsgroups I shouldn't be using (all have the word "audiobooks" in 'em--the only photo binary group I subscribe to anymore is the astronomy group so I can see what I'm missing when the weather is as cloudy as it is now, I'm not into other kinds of photos, unless I need to find bodies for jokes and/or drawing guides) and it always means loads of stuff I probably won't look at is coming down the pipe. It's a tragic fact of my life that I'll get great ideas and even write notes to myself to post about these things, and then I never do it. I insist I'm going to do it someday, but I think I'm out of time for some of the ideas. Like how much I love Xanadu. I really needed to get that across in 1984, when it wouldn't have caused funny looks. ELO's great, though. Michael Beck, not so much, and I would have wanted Kyra to end up with Danny, but that's life.

I got all that deadline stuff done in time, and now, as me mum has told me, I have to do it in the real world now. I will, of course...someday. I just had to finish making doll clothes, and that's done, and once the recipient of the doll sees my work, I may post a picture, even if it won't make sense. It's an in-joke, you see. Even our families don't fully get it.

The rest of my time has been going to playing with the cat in the yard. He likes to play in the yard and if he doesn't get to go outside, he raises hell. I swear, I caught him carving a pentagram in the carpet yesterday. He's doing me a service, though, because while I'm outdoors with him, I'm thinking. I'm thinking of storylines for that comic strip, and I'm thinking of things I can write about. I also think about cleaning the gutters and painting the fence--my mind is about as easily distracted as the cats. One of the cats, anyway. I mean, these cats are twins, and yet one has all the patience and can sit for hours just staring at shasta daisies. The other one, he's the one that needs the stick to chase, and if he doesn't get it, he climbs things to get his own stick to play with. So this week, I have to keep only one cat from damaging himself. Next week, I suspect they'll change places. They do that.

The dog (bless her beautiful hide), has my back when the psycho kitten climbs the curtains. She's enjoying telling him not to do things, I think.

There are pictures, of course...and I'll get to those one of these days, too.

(I changed the station on my radio to learn some new songs, and so I have no clue what's on.)

Intent to post.

Yo-yo-yo...yo.

I keep hearing this commercial for an Oreo jingle contest, and Randy Jackson (the American Idol judge, not one of the Jackson 5) comes on and says he loves that jingle. I'm thinking it's because of the food element, because Randy never seems to like songs on American Idol. Anyway, the commercial's on a lot, and I feel bad because there's about to be very many homeless cookies and cakes down the road.

(Not really, but I wanted to think of a way to go from "Randy Jackson's freakin' me out, man!" to, well, this:)

They're closing the supermarket we shop at, along with the Dunkin' Donuts and Radio Shack in the same small strip. I don't know why, no one does, and it's just tragic. I'm not sure what is going to become of the property, the stores have a huge parking lot, so I guess anything could be built there, but I hope it'll be something useful. I will now need to drive a whole extra mile up another street to get my veggie patties, and I don't want to have to be bitter about that if another storage facility goes up where the old store used to be. We already lost one supermarket to a storage facility, but I didn't mind that so much because the store used to smell like sewer gas.

I mowed the bejeebers out of my lawn yesterday, I even got down with the hand clippers to clip grass out from between the flowers and everything, so I'm sort of dead at the moment.

Yo-yo-yo...yo.

From the "Could have gone into an e-mail" department:

I am a great beliver in the radio as an oracle of the unknown. There are people that open the bible and randomly point to a verse, there are people that consult the Magic 8-Ball...I randomly tune through radio stations.

Just now, something amazingly freaky happened. I'm listening to my jury-rigged Dish receiver/Sirius radio/PCtv on my headphones, and Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes comes on. Sirius 22 does not repeat songs that much, and that they should come up with that song on this day is almost as freaky as when WLIR played that very same song on this day two years ago. I cranked it up both times. So far no one has been nearby while Youssou N'Dour is yelling out of my ears.

Happy anniversary, Mr. & Mrs. xodiaq. ;)

From the "Could have gone into an e-mail" department:

Out of the fog and into the smog....

OMG, it's hot here in NY. I finished all that stuff I had to do, and not a moment too soon, because I am beginning to melt. My foot is missing; I think it may be the puddle in the backyard that the cats poked with sticks earlier.

So...that's what I've been up to. Now, to catch up on loads of e-mails, comic and blog reading, radio station critcism (not Cousin Brucie...why? WHY? Damn you, Infinity!) and sitting around going "Damn, it's hot."

I also have to make some doll clothes before a certain date. I don't use the sewing machine, so this is an ongoing project rather than a day's fun. I enjoy making doll clothes, though, and this is for a very silly, special reason, so it's even more fun. Or at least it will be if I ever get back to the little pants.

(On the radio is a Simple Minds song I have never heard, I think it's called Speed Your Love To Me. At least, that's what it says on the screen. My radio is on my tv, which in turn plays on my computer. Truly obscene.)

Out of the fog and into the smog....

Just when you thought it was safe to touch foliage....

I have black cherry aphids! I think the freeloaders have been living off our cherry tree for a few years, but I never bothered to look at them close enough to see that they are, indeed, insects and not just some weird fungi. The cherry tree is the last of the original trees standing in our backyard, and even though it's all artsy looking from numerous bad prunings, I love that tree. I loved the other two trees that rotted and threatened to kill me so much that I planted new versions of the same types of trees, too, so I may need to seek counseling where my tree relationships are concerned.

My yard has really pretty stuff in it that ends up not looking so great by the end of the year. The hedges have powdery mildew; I tried hosing them down with milk and water, and I swear to this day the hedges smell like someone hosed them with milk. I was told to use light horticultural oil during the dormant season too, but the idea of showering the land we walk on with oil didn't go over too well, and I'm just not ready to use the Round-Up on it all yet. :)

This year, I'm planning on picking up any diseased leaves as soon as they fall, because that's supposed to help. I give myself bad odds following through on that, because as soon as the really hot weather arrives I usually shrivel up in a corner somewhere and cry until October.

So...that was the big news of my day, now I return to trying to beat a deadline, which is probably going to take me all weekend. Writing things about stuff sucks when it has to be good and needs to be done fast. This here doesn't count, this is for fun, even if it was about aphids.

Just when you thought it was safe to touch foliage....