Ramblin' with Roger

To which you say, “How are we supposed to miss you when you never leave?” Good point.

Actually, I’ve been away from December 23-31, but thanks to a savvy co-conspirator, I was able to post every day. (Thanks, co-conspirator.) I had written something for every day before I left, some of it short, and would have used it them all save for the fact that James Brown and Gerald Ford passed away.

Carol, Lydia and I trekked to Charlotte, NC to visit my mother, sister Marcia, and niece Alexandria. My sister Leslie and her boyfriend Bobby came from San Diego in midweek. I hadn’t realized it until we thought about it, but I don’t think I’d been in Charlotte since January 2002, and now I remember why: it’s tricky.

Even before we left, my wife announced that we wouldn’t be going NEXT year, because arranging all the things one needs to do before one goes away by car with two adults and one child seemed to be endless. [That may change, though.] It didn’t help that she got one last-minute project that took three hours, and another that took two. Initially, we were going to leave on Friday night, December 22, but that was causing too much stress.

New York drivers must have been feeling the Christmas stress, for I saw one woman just laying on the horn behind a car that was trying to turn left, but couldn’t because of traffic. One driver roared into the gas station in Oneonta, not seeing that our car was at the pump, saw that I was just starting to fill up the car, then stormed out, leaping the curb in the process.

Our “early morning” departure on Saturday the 23rd turned out to be 9:30, and with a lengthy stop the Powell grandparents, we didn’t hit the Pennsylvania border until 1 p.m. We ended up, exhausted, in Harrisonburg, VA at 8:30 p.m., 475 miles later. The next day, we went the rest of the 305 miles. Fortunately, Lydia is a MUCH better traveler than she was a couple years ago, when she’d fall asleep for an hour, then wake up screaming for the duration of the trip. Now she’s satisfied with her dolls, food, and occasional conversation from the parents.

Based on our limited examination, I’ve discovered that fast food places in NY and PA have changing tables in the men’s bathroom, but the ones in VA do not, only the women’s room. But one in a rest area south of Wilkes-Barre, PA had the changing table blocking one of the two urinals in the men’s room, and (I’m told) one of the two bathroom stalls in the women’s room.

I have a very irrational attraction for West Virginia based on remembering listening to WWVA in Wheeling, a powerful country station, during my childhood; it’s also the last state to enter the Union east of the Mississippi, in 1863, when it broke away from Virginia during the Civil War. But I need to remember that when I order tea in the South, and that apparently includes WV, they’ll serve you iced tea. (If you want tea, you have to ask for “hot tea”.)

Invariably, I get lost in Charlotte. Even though we were on WT Harris Blvd, a major road which wasn’t far from our final destination, I found myself pulling out the city map, to no avail, while standing in a mall. Fortunately, some former New Yorker took pity and gave us directions; we STILL got lost again, even though we were clearly in the neighborhood.

Found the house, finally, and eventually ate dinner. Watched some videos, and went to bed. Lydia was supposed to sleep on an air mattress, but THAT didn’t work, so she slept comfortably with her mother on an Eva Bed Base, while I slept on the air mattress. Lydia, though, had a coughing jag, so I got her cough medicine, which she didn’t want to take, and she started to cry. Carol gave her the liquid anyway and she REALLY started to cry, which woke up my sister. It also woke the dog, who started barking, which woke up my mother and my niece. It’s 1 a.m., and the whole house is awake. Merry Christmas.

More on this trip later, alternating with whatever strikes my fancy.

Happy New Year! Been away. More details soon. Little time for blogging or reading the news. Something about the flags at half-staff because Michael Jackson showed up at James Brown’s funeral? That can’t be right. So I’m going to go read a week’s worth of newspapers and get my DVR below 95%. Meanwhile:
From Tosy again. It’s that he’s SUCH a good thief himself.
1) My uncle once: Well, I never had an uncle. My parents were both only children. received a Purple Heart. Now my great uncle died just before the family, who were rushing to the hospital, could see him. First recently dead person I ever saw.
2) Never in my life: Been to Minnesota.
3) When I was five: My baby sister was born.
4) High school was: A balancing act, getting along with the politicos and the theater people and the music people and being tolerated by the jocks.
5) Fire is: what burned down a whole apartment complex on my grandmother’s street when I was nine. Four or five buildings. No one hurt, I don’t think, but dozens dispossessed, and the smell reeked for months.
6) I once saw: Daniel Patrick Moynihan walking down the street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
7) There’s this woman I know who: Constantly underestimated her worth until she moved out of his house.
8) Once, at a bar: I got a really high score on Ms. Pac-Man.
9) By noon I’m usually: Just getting started.
10) Last night: I went to bed, exhausted at 10:30 p.m.
11) If I only had: the power of flight, so I could get more things done.
12) Next time I go to church: it’ll be to sing.
13) What worries me most: Escalating violence in the world.
14) When I turn my head left: I see 50% of my books.
15) When I turn my head right: I see a mess.
16) You know I’m lying when: I’m talking about cars or going shopping in a positive way.
17) What I miss most about the eighties: won’t appear in this blog any time soon.
18) If I were a character written by Shakespeare, I’d be: melancholy.
19) By this time next year: I’m hoping Lydia will be sleeping better.
20) I have a hard time understanding: people who LIKE to shop. Seriously – it’s like something out of a Lord of the Rings novel; impenetrable.
21) You know I like you if: I tell you something “real”, not just conversational piffle.
22) If I won an award, the first person I’d thank would be: Well, I suppose it would depend on what I got the award for.
23) Darwin, Mozart, Slim Pickens & Geraldine Ferraro: All were alive in the past 250 years.
24) Take my advice, never: Lie, particularly about substantive stuff. It’s too hard to keep track of.
25) My ideal breakfast is: Waffles, eggs, sausage. Which I almost never have.
26) If you visit my hometown, I suggest you go to: the junction of the rivers.
27) Why doesn’t everyone: Vote.
28) If you spend the night at my house: We’ll find a wayaccommodatedate you.
29) I’d stop my wedding: If pigs actually flew.
30) The world could do without: Rudeness.
31) My favorite blond is: Big Bird.
32) If I do anything well, it’s: Think too much.
33) And by the way: When I become rich, I’ll get a massage every single day.
***
WTO Announces Formalized Slavery Market For Africa At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa that took place on Saturday, November 11, the WTO announced the creation of a new, much-improved form of slavery for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500-year history of free trade there.

This guy I wrote about a few months back who was interested in finding out about my grandfather wrote this about that station where Pop used to work. And since it’s New Year’s Eve:

I am a nostalgia person. I’m always looking up things from my childhood that evoke pleasant memories. WNBF-TV was the first channel that Binghamton had. One of the things I discovered Monday night before I hit your site was a listing of the first commercial TV stations from 1950. WNBF started Dec. 1, 1949. We received our first TV for Christmas 1951. In those days I believe channel 12(WNBF) was located in the Arlington Hotel at the corner of Chenango & Lewis Sts. across from the train station.
My first memories were coming home from school and watching Kate Smith and then “Chuck Wagon Playhouse” from NYC. That was like 4 or 4:30. WNBF started the broadcast day at 3:30, I think, and went to about midnight. This was a few years before Bill Parker started his shows. I remember the Ranch Club, Officer Bill and a couple of others that he had of course. In those days a lot of programs were 15 minutes or a half hour and very short commercials. My favorite night was Thursday when my mother’s father(who lived up the street from us) would come down for The Lone Ranger at 7:00 and right after was the Cisco Kid. We had a 17″ Admiral TV (B&W naturally) that my brother made a stand for. We were the first in our neighborhood and all my friends would come over to see the westerns and Kukla, Fran and Ollie. I was about 10 or 11 then. As a matter of fact the TV signals use to come by microwave(I think) through Albany and Cherry Valley. Whenever they had signal problems they would flash a sign saying “Trouble with signal from Cherry Valley”.

In those days too, WNBF and WKOP Radio had disk jockeys. Bill Parker, Ken Kirkander, Bill Kunkel and several others would ply the time on WNBF. They also filled in on TV since it was the same ownership, Clark Associates, I think. Several years later in the late fifties they moved to the Sheraton Hotel on Front St. which is now a senior housing facility. As far as I remember WNBF was always a CBS affiliate primarily but they carried programs from all the networks (NBC, ABC, DuMont and syndication) until WINR-TV started in 1957. It was owned by Gannett Newspapers and was primarily NBC. By then, I think, DuMont was gone and they split ABC programming.

I don’t remember just when channel 34 started 1962 but it was the ABC affiliate.

Sitting watching what was there then something there. I thought Sat, clearly a Sunday (Nov 25, 1962)

Anyway, I just usually go on Google on nights when the Yankees aren’t on and type in things that are pleasant for me and see what comes up. That is how I came across McKinley Green by accident and to my great pleasure. The only problem is I have dial-up because I’m too cheap for Roadrunner. I’m also a fan of Jerry Colonna and Jimmy Durante. There is a great site from England… http://great-song-stylists-uk.com/ that has Colonna, Durante, Danny Kaye, Eddie Cantor, etc. with songs and radio programs that I go to quite often for a few laughs.

I read that you used to listen to the out of own stations when you were a kid, so did I. In the 50s I’d pick up Boston, Charlotte, Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, Minneapolis, DesMoines and even Tulsa. When rock-n-roll was in I used to listen to Dick Biondi on WLS-Chicago every night. When I was going to Broome Tech in 1959-61 it would start coming in at about 9PM very clearly to about midnight. I used to listen while doing my assignments. One of my favorite programs was easy listening music. Holiday Inn and American Airlines used to have a female disk jockey that sounded very sexy. It was syndicated I think and on several clear channel stations that I could pick up. Ah, those were the days.

A couple pieces I found re: this here and here.

So, looking back on the past year, what were the most important/interesting things did you do/learn?

For me:

Going another year with Lydia without doing her appreciable damage.

Seeing my mother, sister Marcia, and niece Alex this summer; more importantly, my mother seeing, and getting to know, Lydia. Lydia recognizes my mother’s picture now.

Went on about 9 dates with my wife this year; not so great, but it’s something.

The office move to Corporate Woods: I know I used to complain about it a lot, though not so much lately. I still hate it, especially now that things have started disappearing from people’s workstations on the floor. Since no one can get on the floor without badges, it’s either other people working on the floor or the cleaning crew. And me without a door.

Listened to a lot of good music, and a little I wasn’t so crazy about, largely due to the efforts of Fred, Lefty, Gordon and their compatriots. Merci! I’m devastated, though, to have sunk to #5 on Lefty’s musical guru list. Ah, well, the price of fame.
Lost about 20 pounds this fall, then gained about half of it back after the bicycle crash. Eh.

Donated blood six times this year, again, even though I’m peeved by the ban on gay donors.

As a political science major, I’m as turned off as ever by politics. Yet I still vote, every time.

I’ve pretty much abandoned church committees. Not where I’m at, presently. Still doing the choir thing, though.

Yet I have taken on being Vice-President of the Friends of the Albany Public Library, and I’m trying to create definition for the job whose only actual function is to run the monthly meeting if the president”s away. I’ve lined up a speaker for National Library Month and started a blog, so far.

I’m sure I’ll think – or you’ll think – of other things.

Sometimes ya gotta cheat. Have a bunch of family stuff, so it’ll be next year (i.e., next week) for answering your questions, a book review, a movie review and sundry other ramblings, though I do have something for tomorrow and Sunday. Meanwhile, for my work blog, I wrote this series of pieces on copyright, which I like, especially the third part, which talks about the Air Pirate Funnies and Tom Forsythe’s “Food Chain Barbie”, an example of the latter which appears above.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
***
Then go over to Greg’s blog and read his robust, 77-part saga about his recent trip to Egypt.

Bye.