Today's walk report: 111213

Hey twerp, play me something I can enjoy!

I walked the 8.26 km walk really fast listening to this from the Overture up to but not including the Finale. It was really a lot of fun and my shoes were getting a ridiculous amount of attention.

Speaking of Frank Zappa, there was this.

There was also a very nice display going on for the other side of sunset. That means I'm looking due east here.

Today's walk report: 110913

We interrupt this program...

Today at 2 PM there was this broadcast on BBC Radio 3. If you click the link I provided it's currently available for streaming for 7 days. Any real Frank Zappa fan has already listened to it and any die-hard Zappa fan has recorded it. I'm a die-hard Zappa fan.

It was marvelous but I actually fell into a light sleep during the broadcast. I planned that. My cat slept on me and I slept on the couch in front of the stereo. I haven't slept well for about 9 months and could tell that if I didn't get a nap in I was going to have a really short evening. I'm not sure where it became dreamlike background music, how long I slept but I rose up just before the finale, Strictly Genteel. I'll be listening to it again soon and will probably figure out exactly what I missed when I do. I dumped the snoozing cat from my lap, prepped for the walk and had 1/2 a cup of coffee before ending the recording and heading out the door--probably about 4:20. Sunset today was 4:55 so, despite a short detour into the garden, reaching the top of the hill and getting a shot of that was my goal and that's all you get. I'm going to enjoy a long evening. Ciao.

Today's walk report: 102313

It's 7:10 PM and I forgot to do something really important today...

Eat.

That's right I'm just about to have my 1st meal of the day. I realized at 6:33 PM that I had not eaten and went for about a 3 km walk just to get some tension out but clearly I was starting to lose it from not consuming food all day. There were a couple of times that I thought, 'haven't eaten yet, should eat something' but I never followed through. Backtracking a little now, it appears around 2:30 this afternoon until that 6:33 PM realization struck that the concept simply had not resurfaced and that I was running on fumes.

This morning... I was doing my usual BS paperwork for the probate process which has been sucking my life energy since late March. Actually, there's a break there since it took 4 months for my petition to have its day in court. Nevertheless it was looming overhead like a thundercloud all that time and I have to admit that this sort of crap designed by lawyers for lawyers really doesn't sit well with me. I have most of what I need to do right now done except I need to call someone, my referee and ask a couple of questions. This person only works two days a week. So I went into a holding pattern.

All the while I kept thinking I'm an idiot for not buying a ticket to see the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform Frank Zappa's 200 Motels at the Walt Disney Hall downtown, one night only special extravaganza, tonight. The reasons I did not are pretty complicated and it's too much to share but I realized today as I saw anticipation mounting via others that I had made a horrible error in judgment. So I got on the phone and called the box office. I knew it was sold out but also figured some tickets would get released and that's what the 1st guy told me. Well, he said, "maybe." So I kept calling every 1/2 hour. Then I asked myself what would keep this obsession at bay?

My stereo receiver. I wrote about this here. As of 10 AM it had been in "the shop" for 55 days. Partly because tubes were coming from Russia and partly because I wasn't a priority. I actually asked from the beginning, "if it can save me any money to put me on a back burner, please do so." Do so they did but I don't know if that saved me anything. There was an unexpected problem or two too. It's boring. Yes, more boring that what we have here so far. Anyway, I called and lo and behold, it was ready.

Harman-Kardon, TA-260 with new power stage (quad) tubes and a bunch of other stuff.

Besides getting the thing and being really happy to have this stereo back up in the living room was another factor that made going to a concert at downtown Disney not a good idea... The repair was pretty darn pricey. Could I buy a new receiver for the same money that would perform as well? No. Could I buy a receiver on the market today which would fit vertically into the beautiful cabinet this goes into? No. Could I really afford to have this work done? Not really. Am I happy I had it done? Yes. Could it be looked upon as an investment? Yes.

So there you go. Now I've finished here and finished my sandwich. I'm going to relax to apple pie and ice cream and some orchestral Zappa on the stereo.

Oh, here, one last thing. This house is right around the corner. Basically what I did was I walked a real big circle around my neighborhood. Hand held with my pocket camera but not the point. I'm assuming this is an effort at Christmas lights. Nice, huh? It's October 23rd!!!