Dear Diary

*laughing* Give me a break. It does seem like a diary. Except that this isn't where I write all my deep, dark secrets. Mostly because I don't have any deep, dark secrets. Is that kind of sad? Hmmmmmm. Deep, dark secrets ... deep, dark secrets.

Nope, I think I fessed up to a big part of my weirdness last blod entry. You know, that I believe in fairy-god-persons. :D Hopefully they won't take revenge for that 'fairy' part. Jodan, jodan.

I've been mildly productive the last two days. I finished working out my taxes and sealed them in their little envelope in preparation for mailing on Tuesday (Monday being President's Day Holiday). I'm glad I held off because I had more charity aknowledgements come in. I cleaned out cabinets in the kitchen, threw out stuff I don't use and straightened up the rest. I also trimmed back my peach tree. Now I may be able to mow under it this summer without being mortally wounded every time I mow. It's a little cooler out today than I like, but not bad weather for doing some minor yard work. I've also started this week on a campaign to keep the cats brushed several times a week. They'll be going into full shedding-mode pretty soon. My house will be filled with clouds of cat fur and my clothes will become cat fur magnets.

Yesterday my DVD/VCR player stopped working correctly. It stopped responding to the remote. So you can put a movie in and push play and you're fine, but if you want to change anything, like languages, subtitles, or move to a different scene or episode, you can't. Even beyond the language issue, this is a problem. If you have a DVD with 7 episodes on it and you've already watched 5, you don't want to have to re-watch those 5 just to get to the 6th one. So I did all the logical things: tried several different DVDs, changed the batteries in the remote and then changed them again in case the new ones weren't any good, powered the system down and then back up a couple of times, even unplugged and replugged it, checked all the connections I could find. Then I did the next logical thing .... went to Fry's and bought a new one. A new DVD/VCR player, not a new remote. What's the point of getting a fancy 'universal' remote that I may or may not be able to get to work with my system even if it's the remote that's broken.

I also discovered that DVD/VCR's are out of style. That really doesn't surprise me. Even I am not replacing my tapes when they die, or if I really liked the movie, I'll look for it on DVD. Fry's only had a couple of different styles, on the very back wall of the store. I figure this one will probably last me as long as my tapes do ... tabun. In general, I have more trouble with the DVD part not working than the VCR part of systems. All my systems are hooked through my 'home entertainment' system with the 'surround sound' so that the sound comes from there, but the DVD player in that system hasn't woked for years. I had it repaired once but when it broke again, I just bought the first DVD/VCR player. I guess the one I bought yesterday makes about three of them I've owned.

I was sitting on the floor with a flashlight behind the TV routing the new player through the cable box and the TV and the sound system, and I forgot it there when I got the system to work. I found it again just before I went to bed last night when I was trying to figure out where the light was coming from.

We're such a disposable society. But really, electronics are sooooo inexpensive, and it's difficult to find anyplace that will repair them, unless you send it back to the company. And if you take it or send it to be repaired, you're without anything in the meantime. From the time I realised that I wasn't going to magically make my system work yesterday, until I had the new one in place and working, was probably less than 2 hours.

I'll tell you a secret. Last summer I upgraded my phone. I didn't want to. I really like my phone. But nobody has batteries for it. I tried five local places, and each one said the same thing. "We don't carry them any more. Just upgrade your phone. It's free." Yes it's free, if you're okay with the phone they want to give you as a free upgrade. So I resisted, but at the fifth place, I succumbed and said 'fine, upgrade me.' So I walked out with this 'new, free phone'. This phone is so ........ let's just say that calling it 'flimsy' would be a significant understatement. A plastic coke bottle is better constructed. It just feels like if you handle it the least badly, you'll be holding pieces of a phone. So I tried to use it and it wouldn't read my SIM card. I took the card out and put it back in, waited for it to read, no dice. When I got home, I moved the SIM card back to my old (current) phone, went on-line and ordered batteries for it. I then carefully packed up the 'new' phone and threw it in the back of my closet. And my phone carrier charged me an $18.00 'upgrade fee' for my free upgrade.

Why didn't I go back to the store? Because I didn't want to explain to them again that I don't want a new phone, free or otherwise. At least in the back of my closet they can't give that free piece of junk to anyone else.

Heeee. I guess I am telling secrets here. Do I have any others, I wonder. Probably, but if I put them all in one blog then my future blogs will be even more boring than they are now. Scary.

Anyway, I'm going to cut this short today. I'm in the mood for some on-line shopping and cst is getting impatient.