Full moon pie

So Halloween is now a few days away. I guess that's the start of the holiday season and for me in my time-killing mode it's a new experience. Not much to do for Halloween except buy some candy and make sure you're at the house to answer the door. That really kills the evening. You do have to keep an eye on the property to be sure no vandalism is taking place. As kids we never did much destruction as long as we got a response and some candy. Our neighborhood here is pretty tame. We lost one or two mailboxes in the 20 years we've been here. I always kept an extra on hand.

Being home now, it's important NOT to stock up on any candy which would be too accessible. Since I'm the food shopper I have held off on getting the candy so I am safe and willpower is not an issue. Well, that's what I thought. Somebody else who shall remain nameless purchased a bucket of MOON pies. Yes, the original marshmallow and cracker combo with chocolate covering which became an evil treat when I lived in the south. The northern version of the Moon Pie was a Scooter Pie which didn't compare to the original. The Moon Pie is like an industrial strength Mallomar. This bucket full are the mini size but still a decent size snack. So what does all this mean?

It's Operation HIDE the MOON PIES.. I am not sure where they are. Usually we get candy that I don't like such as Starbursts, Skittles and licorice. I am not going to look for these Moon Pies but I would like to save a few for Thanksgiving dessert.

Power Hungry

I was reminded of some recent time killing as I read my last blog "Seasons"...I recall not being quite ready to post that and it shows, however, it was a day where our electric power was shakey so I hit the publish button before I lost it (yes, I should have saved). The power went down seconds after I published that and I was now ready to kill some time in the dark. It seems that we have no stability when it comes to electricity up here in Hooterville. As soon as you hear a report of windy you have to be prepared - get the batteries and candles. Hell, if you hear a report of "breezy" you have to brace yourself. And, it's not just wind. We've lost power in standard rainfall, snow storms and basic thunder and lightening.

Not sure of the reason for all this but there are a zillion trees around here. Would be nice to see all the wires go underground - keeps NYC from losing power so often..

Back to powerless time killing. What to do without power? All depends on whether it's day time or night time. If it's cold out you will soon start getting chilly (in the dark). You hope you don't lose food in the dead refrigerator. Of course there's no TV or computer but that's not the worst. When you have well water that is driven into the house by a submersed pump and there's no power you have just entered the DO NOT FLUSH zone (DNFZ). You're stuck with just the water that remains in the pressure tank (God knows how much is in there).. Over the years and the many black-outs, that has created the most annoying problem. Many people have gas powered generators. You can hear them chugging all through the night just so they could tinkle..

In the mid-90s we had the mother of all snow storms (in April) and lost our power for five days. There were three of us in the house and we slept in front of the fireplace to the cozy sights and smells of a Duraflame log. In the morning we all went to work/school shower less but raring to embrace the sound of an industrial flushing toilet!!

Seasons?

I started this latest time-killing journey last February in the midst of a typical winter. I guess it was typical, I just can't remember such things. I should keep tabs on how many times my snow blower gets used - like notches on the handle. Spring wasn't memorable for me either. I remember it being cold and summer never really got going until August when we had 2 weeks of tropical weather (that everyone complained about)..As quickly as it arrived, it left. Was good to have central air for that time but it wasn't really needed otherwise.

So here I am watching football which is in its 6th week. Leaves are almost all down. Halloween is coming soon and many houses are decorated and there are Christmas ads everywhere (that always gives me the creeps)..Yes, get your tickets now to Radio City's big holiday show. Be the first one to see a camel take a dump live on stage. I've never seen the show.

The best part about this time of year (for me) is baseball's post-season action. And, it's extra special because those crazy Yankees are in the mix. I'd watch if they weren't in it but it's a real bonus when they are in the hunt. Last night's game ended at 1:20 am. In a weird way I am glad I didn't have tickets since I did look into that. I wonder what I missed? I'm pretty sure no camel took a dump on the field..

Twit wit

When I worked and killed time at a corporate desk it was important that I knew what was going on in technology - it was a focal point of my job. I think I did OK considering I was an outcast Mac user in a company with 98% pcs and their dreaded windows operating system. There were many times where my outcast Mac-user group had to adapt to a windows world. Most times we were compatible but there were some glitches. From what I hear they are still suffering from incompatibility.

It remains important to stay current (I think) with software, hardware and technology. It's easy for people my age to become a dinosaur or a technology-fearing Luddite. I still have to use my former company's interfaces to get info, register for benefits, get my many, many PINs & communicate with them. I've had some glitches and worked them out on my own keeping me from the dinosaur cage. So I feel like I keep current, email, blog and most recently - twitter...

I have to admit as I read many twitter logs, I had trouble following the thread. Most of those twitter tweeters are folks a bit younger so I figured I was just out of it.. The same way I feel out of it when I watch the Today Show and the musical guest may as well be from Mars as far as I know - and they have thousands of fans crammed into the plaza. So I discovered that I wasn't that twitter ignorant. It turns out as I read this one log that the "greyed out" link was actually a connected link to the topic at hand.. AHHHHH, I found the Rosetta Stone and this finally makes sense..Greyed out type (to me) was always a dead end - I stand corrected

I've been bombarded in the past months with Face book requests. I registered and accepted many a "friend". It's pretty simple to follow but I have very little interest but I seem to have a lot of friends which I guess is good. Some of them twitter...

So now that I have twitter figured out, the question is should I participate and let the world know about my time-killing exploits every half hour?? Let me think about that - I DID just buy a toilet auger today and I could give progress reports on its efficiency!? Stay tuned...

News flash - moon dud kills time

I was sure to be watching the TV at 7 30 am today because there was a week long hypefest about this rocket crashing into the moon. This was to churn up traces of matter including water to further investigate just what the hell we got up there. I figured (as the Today Show did) this was going to be a Grucci-like display of sparks, dust and cool plumes broadcast LIVE. After all, 40 years ago we watched those moon-walking Apollo astronauts jumping off the ladder, riding in the golf cart and posting the American flag. It just wasn't must-see TV today. There was nothing to see

It seems, however, that the mission is on target and results of the blast should be available soon. Unfortunately it did knock the news of Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize off the front page (for a moment). The most positive result I can see is there was no Letterman updates today but there IS a picture of him on a major magazine cover without his pants on. One small step for man...

Brush with not so greatness

Where would we be without our celebrities? Even if I try to ignore such "Entertainment Tonight" style of news I find that time killing is still filled with such things. Every week there's something new. Some is interesting, some is sad & some is fun. It ranges from Michael Jackson to Jon and Kate to the latest and most surprising - DAVE, we hardly knew ye.

I've been a fan of David Letterman forever and with my new schedule I am able to see his show now and then - well, at least the beginning. So last Thursday night I was watching while drifting off and thought he was starting some kind of off-beat gag while talking about his sexual escapades. I wasn't convinced it was real so I went to the internet which had nothing which was odd. The show tapes at 5 30 and the telecast is 6 hours later.. You figure the media would have had a heads up. Doesn't matter as the news was out soon enough.

By the weekend the NY tabloids were having a field day. You just knew he was going to be a target after dishing out much of the same criticism over the years. The odd thing was that the next evening's show made NO mention of the "event". That Friday show is actually taped on Thursday so that was a factor. CBS didn't seem to have the same level of coverage of some of the other networks, however, the CBS Sunday show had a piece.. A piece on Paul Shaffer. Dave was part of that piece and showered Paul with all sorts of praise. I think Dave knew this would air in the midst of his troubles and he seemed very contrite although nothing was mentioned.

I was remembering when I had a tour of the Letterman theater as I have a good friend who worked at CBS News and we had special access. It was a real highlight and I remember walking around the stage as the band was rehearsing a Beatle song. It was surreal for me..I never did get to see Dave's love nest as it is on the 14th floor. I don't think many knew about it.

I wonder if tonight's top ten is going to be something like " Top Ten Reasons To Keep Your Worldwide Pants On"....