Handy, Decisive Person for Hire.

I like to think I am a very handy person to have around. It is unfortunate all of that technical skill, and can do it attitude is always hidden behind an impenetrable wall of bad decisions, or indecision. Today we were watching television, and the sound stopped working. I tried to fix the problem. Relying on years of survival training, and technical prowess earned through the foolish pursuit of the perfect video creation app* I made things worse.

I tried restarting the cable modem, and it didn’t help at all. Ten minutes, wasted. It does leave a nice waterfall scene on the soundless television.

Somehow, since I am hardly ever allowed to use the remote control, it appears to be a UFO control panel, and there are at least three of them, I went right to the television itself. It only has a bare minimum of buttons. a few rocker switch things, and some sort of option panel. I pushed the wrong one, and the screen went blank, no picture, no sound, just a little “no input” flashing. I have made this mistake before and have never found the way back. I said “maybe we should wait until our son gets up.”

He got up, and showed me, again, how to get the picture back. This time I will remember, this time is
different. And then he said, “I have been meaning to talk to you about the cable box. Don’t reset the modem, just reset the DVR box.” Three minutes later we had sound, picture, the fury of television.

When he went to the kitchen to get a drink I said, “I could have done that. What a little show off.”

Today, we are going to the Arnold Fitness Festival. An event custom made for a mans man, like me.

I will have a full report tomorrow. Now you have something to look forward to.


*I am still looking for the app, so let me know if you have one.

Thank You, Art Bell, An Antidote To Indifference.

Have you ever looked into the night sky, amazed at all the stars, and the incomprehensible distances, and thought "we can not be alone"?  Or, looked into the dense fog that can surround, and seem to move through, wooded areas and felt that something was looking back?  Did you ever think in the golden age of digital data, and knowledge we have forgot how to dream, and imagine, and think beyond what we are taught?  Did you ever think that day is the time for humans, but, the night belongs to "them"?  If you could answer yes, or maybe, to any of these questions, and have satellite radio, rejoice!

Art Bell is back.  And the night may belong to "them" but night time radio will always be Art Bell's, at least as long as he wants it, at least for Satellite Radio subscribers.

Art Bell, and his show Coast to Coast AM, is a wonderful, delightful, entertaining trip through the fantastic. If UFOs interest you, this is the place, in fact his home studio is so close to Area 51 they could share a parking lot.  And, UFOlogists were regulars on his show, some of whom said they had infiltrated the top secret government facility.  He even received a package with what was claimed to be debris from the extraterrestrial crash in 1947.

He spoke, at length, and several times, with a man who claimed to be Southern Baptist Minister who accused him of being the "Devil's Mouthpiece."  On another occasion he took a call from a man who claimed to be the "son of Satan."  As equal opportunity as it gets.

Big Foot hunters, time travelers, people who could describe races of advanced beings living underground all made visits to the Art's phone lines.  As did a man who claimed to have seen an experimental wide area weapon used by the US government that had the power to target only certain people and leave others unhurt.  There was never a shortage of material on the show.



And now it returns.  And we should all celebrate.  In a time when conformity, and formula rule the air, and commercial success depends on duplication, the maintenance of well defined boundaries, and the artificial outrageousness of popular culture here is something that walks it's own path, and gives voice to the side of humanity that is often overlooked, or ridiculed as being trite, and absurd.

Whether you believe in, or even care about, any of these things matters little, you should be grateful that the people who do have their place, and you should listen to them, just because there should be room for a little wonder in all of us.  Without that life would be so common, and drab.