Searching for your eyes

First, I should say that I am home right now because Sunday night/Monday morning I had a falling accident and by about Wednesday I was beginning to feel it in my back. Yesterday at work was quite painful. Today I'm using some of my sick time to try and recover, so I'm home now. I can sit here without much discomfort as long as I sit up really straight. If I start slouching, I'll feel it. I don't think I want to go through another day like yesterday. Bending over to read meters just about killed me.

So anyway, I was just scanning several more album promotional stickers and did a search through my mp3s for "in your eyes" because I wanted to make sure I knew which Peter Gabriel album is came from. This may sound strange but sometimes I think I let the attic of my mind get a little too cluttered and I'm not always 100% certain about details like this.

This search turned up several hits. Here's the list.

See Me In Your Eyes - 38 Special
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Bryan Ferry
The Light In Your Eyes - LeAnn Rimes
I Can See it In Your Eyes - Men at Work
The Story In Your Eyes - Moody Blues (twice! I'll have delete one of them)
In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
Don't Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes - Skeets McDonald
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - David Sanborn (yes, I have a couple of his pieces--let's just keep that among ourselves, shall we?)

Opening up the search a little for just "your eyes" yields two more songs.

Your Eyes Have Told Me So - Buffalo Bills
Open Your Eyes - The Sands

And a search for "eyes" only? That's a long list.

Reading

When I was younger I was a voracious reader. Sometimes perhaps a little too voracious (Six Hardy Boys books in one weekend? Get a life, kid!) Anyway, I fell out of the habit but recently I've been trying to get back into it. I have been wanting to do more reading for a long time now, but I have a very hard time staying awake when I'm sitting or lying still enough to read. However, lately (as in this week) I've been forcing myself to stay awake and read from 9PM to 10.



I am kind of taking it easy, though, and am starting out reading some short stories. So far this week I picked up a copy of some Robert Louis Stevenson shorts that I found lying around and read "Markheim." Odd little story. Now of course Treasure Island was one of my early favorites followed very closely by Kidnapped. I had an aunt who was a polio survivor and perhaps it was her disability that got her so heavily into books. Both of those books I first read from her collection. Anyway, "Markheim" could easily have been made into an episode of The Twilight Zone.

A few years before my grandmother passed away, I gave her as a Christmas gift a book of short mysteries titled Murder for Christmas. During the last year of her life, she parceled many of her earthly possessions out to her relatives (mostly her grandchildren) and gave me the book back since she had read all of it. A few years ago I read about half of it; this week I started on it again at the point I had left off--the old bookmark was still in it. The title is not entirely accurate; some of the stories deal with other crimes than murder, but all are set around Christmas-time. Thus far I have read "The Adventure of the Dauphin's Doll" by Ellery Queen; was amused to find that the following story was the aforementioned "Markheim;" then also read "The Necklace of Pearls," a Lord Peter Wimsey story by Dorothy L. Sayers. Last night I reluctantly turned off the light in the middle of an engrossing story called "Blind Man's Hood" by Carter Dickson, which seems so far to be both a murder mystery and a ghost story. This book also has the occasional cartoon/illustration by the great Gahan Wilson.

I actually have one other collection of shorts like this, which my wife found for me at a used book store, called Murder Most Merry, and which are also all set at Christmas-time. I don't think I'll read it this year, though. Once I finish the one I'm now reading, I think I'll go into something else. I have been developing quite a taste for mysteries during the past few years.

Of course there are a few other books that I've had stacked next to the bed for a long time and dip into them now and then. I have been slowly perusing through The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes for some time. I've read this one before but it's been a while and I still enjoy refreshing my memory with many of these anecdotes. For a long time this was my "truck book," that is, the book I kept in my truck so I would always have something to read just in case. It became so battered that I had to tape the covers back together with packing tape. (My current "truck book" is a book of crossword puzzles--I don't have an actual reading book out there right now).

One book that--no matter where I've lived since I bought it--I have always had by my bed is a thick tome of The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe. It's something I sometimes just pick up and open at random, reading wherever I happen to open it.

Cool new gadget

Blogger now has a gadget that will display your most popular posts, according to their (also fairly new) stat-keeper function. I just installed it at the bottom of the left sidebar. An interesting list of posts. I should re-create that old Hellsing post just to see if it would take everything over again.

That's an odd one...

Does anyone else think this is an odd path for a tropical depression?

More old vacation pix: U.S.S. Lexington

Word of the day: Turbinado!

Well, I found the thing I've been trying to find but every time I go look for it they're out of stock, that is: a pressure canner. Not merely a pressure cooker, but a pressure canner. My wife has been wanting one of these for a long time and I hope this helps a little in making up for me forgetting her birthday last year. [Ouch] Which reminds me, I think I know someone else who has a birthday coming up soon. Who am I forgetting?

Anyway my wife began learning to can several months ago and she's getting pretty good at it. She hasn't had much time to do it lately because of other more pressing matters, but we still have quite a few Mason jars of pinto & green beans on the shelves. I'm hoping the real pressure canner will help reduce the number of popped lids that she still gets now and then.

Still can't find any corn candy pumpkins. Only in the "mixed bag" variety, and that's not satisfactory. I want to find them in bags of NOTHING BUT PUMPKINS. My sister said they have them at Wal-Mart but none of the ones I've been to have anything but the mixed bag. By the way, those candy corns with the black ends they put in the "autumn mix" taste bad.

Also, nobody better give me any candy corn this year that's made without honey. That corn syrup-only stuff is horrid. If anyone gives me some, I'm going to meld it all into a big sticky wad and shove it down their throat.

I have quit sweetening tea with artificial sweetener. I don't sweeten it much anyway, and in fact in restaurants I typically drink it unsweetened. I just sweeten it a little when I make it at home to give it a little smoothness without actually making it taste sweet. I've begun sweetening it with that "Sugar in the Raw" that I discovered at the coffee counter of a Tiger Mart a few months ago. I'm not doing this under any belief that it's healthier or anything--I just use it because I discovered that I like the flavor.*

Finally got hold of some of that Dr. Pepper made with sugar instead of corn syrup. H.E.B. was stocking some special 125th anniversary DP that was made that way. I bought a 12-pack, when it was gone I went back for more and haven't been able to find any. I'm still running into the odd bottle of Mountain Dew Throwback in convenience stores, but at $1.39 a pop I can't bring myself to really stock up on it.

I didn't get to do any music editing last week due to being just too worn out to do much of anything even when it required only sitting at the computer and listening attentively. I'm hoping this week will be easier. I need to put in a couple of Saturdays of overtime but we're so far ahead of schedule that we had to stop working any OT. Looks like we're going to have cooler temps and no rain this week, so that's a plus. Our regular contingent of meter readers are now backed up with 5 or 6 temps who are really helping to take the pressure off. We'll have them until the end of the year. I'm hoping that at least one of them (a former co-worker of mine from another job) will get to be made permanent by year's end. A new employee has to jump through so much red tape to get hired where I work that it actually streamlines the process of they're a temporary employee first.

*I knew someone once who acted like if you used regular salt instead of sea salt, you were basically trying to kill yourself.

Separated by birth and about 500 years

James at Hell in a Handbasket has noticed a striking similarity. I post this because it regards one of my favorite pipe-smoking actors.

Rule #2: Double-Tap

Just wanted to mention that I finally got around to watching Zombieland today. I generally tend to avoid movies with Woody Harrelson but I gotta say this was a great zombie movie. Zombie purists may decry it because all four main protagonists survived. I think the narrator's rules were also good and could be applied to just about any emergency situation.

Also the Bill Murray scenes were just hilarious.

More pix from Mission San José

I'll try to keep all my directions correct. The chapel and other structures are mostly on the (roughly) northeast corner of the grounds. This is a shot of the bell tower framed by a mesquite tree. The tower is on the south end of the chapel entrance, the shot taken from the southern part of the grounds.

This is a shot of the chapel entrance facing pretty much directly east. That is, I was facing east. The entrance faces west. There's the unusual oval window I mentioned in the old post.

This is around the back side of the chapel. Around back here, the buildings have gone mostly into ruin.

The chapel and some ruins to the rear taken from a point southeast of the chapel, facing northwest.

Another shot of the bell tower from a southwestish direction.

Album promotional stickers, part 5

Yes, Classic Yes; Miles Davis, Tutu; Julee Cruise, Floating Into the Night (cassette); Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A. "Factory Sealed," unknown, but evidence that the record companies were protecting us from the terrorists, even back in the 80s.

Long overdue photographs

It's been a little more than 2 years since we made the tour of all the missions with the kids, and when I wrote that old post I just grabbed some photos that were available on the internet, at that time saying that when I got my own photos developed I could post some better pictures that showed the vastness of the inner grounds of Missions San José. Well, we finally got around to getting 5 rolls of film developed so I now have some photos. It will take me a while to upload these so I'm not going to do it all at once. This won't be new to locals--unless you're a local who has never visited the missions, and if you are, what are you waiting for? Seriously.

Click on all images to enlarge.

This is the only shot I took at Mission Concepción. It's just the cross overlooking the entrance.

Some of the photos look very yellow, and I don't know enough about photography to know why. I do recall the sky was very overcast that day, and it did rain a couple hours after I took these photos. This is along the east wall, I think, looking back toward the chapel.

This is from a path along the south wall looking back toward the chapel and other buildings. In the old post linked above I had mentioned how most people had a hard time grasping how big the Alamo grounds were during the famous battle because there's really almost nothing left of it now. This and the following photo might help you to get a better idea of how big the Alamo grounds were.

This is from the far southwest corner of the grounds looking back toward all the buildings. This is the same kind of wide open space the Alamo defenders on the walls had at their backs. They had nowhere at all to go once the battle began and the walls were overrun.

More later.

I am still here

This week was the week when I should have finished my usual hardest routes for the month and everything got much easier. It didn't happen. I have been hit with bad route after bad route and have just been exhausted every day when I finally made it home. I haven't been doing anything but checking my email--most days didn't even bother opening Firefox.

Oh yeah, and on Thursday we had our annual meeting where a bunch of beggars come and tell us all how great it would be if we had them automatically deduct charitable contributions from our paycheck. Screw that. It just means an hour and a half wasted in the morning and makes the day run all that much longer.

Street boarding

My mom, who lives in Port Aransas, sent in a couple of pix to KENS that she took yesterday during heavy rains there. Check it out.

Sunday in Port Aransas

My air horn goes BANG

LoHud.com:

"I don't think it's overkill," said Carrie Budke, who was picking up her 6-year-old daughter , Emma. "Right now screaming isn't helping. An air horn would scare any animal away — even a sick one."

Or in other words, if it doesn't work, do it LOUDER.

If a coyote is so sick--rabid--that the illness has overcome thousands of generations of instinct to avoid contact with humans...

I don't know which is more insane, a rabid coyote or a human who thinks an air horn will scare it away. Once again, I am stunned at the stupidity of these people. There is only one way to deal with a rabid animal. There is a loud noise involved, but it's only a side-effect.

Album promotional stickers, part 4

The Doors, Classics and Alive She Cried; The Sugarcubes, Life's Too Good (cassette); REO Speedwagon, Wheels are Turnin'; Kate Bush, Aspects of the Sensual World.

Strange on East Pyron

From my regular cycle 17. There's a part of E. Pyron that branches off S. Presa, crosses a train track, goes a couple hundred yards or so, curves and goes another couple hundred yards until it dead-ends up against the San Antonio River. This sign appeared last month after they had done some kind of "construction" work on the river bank.

I have no idea what they're talking about with the "boat ramp." I can't see anything that I would call a boat ramp anywhere near. I do have to actually go out onto the river bank off the end of the road to read one meter--I have no idea what it's supposed to go to and it doesn't get used anymore, it's just there (this is not unusual). This sign is in the first section of that road, before you get to the curve, and at least a good 200 yards from the river.

The first thing I noticed was that I'd never seen a sign prohibiting digging for fish bait before. The second thing I noticed were the cameras. WTF? Note: There is no way these cameras could see anyone using the alleged boat ramp or digging for fish bait on the river bank.

Possibly worthy of a strange designation? Perhaps.

Paper CD display boxes, part 3

REO Speedwagon, The Hits; Marillion, Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other; Kate Bush, Hounds of Love.

Ian Matthews - Valley Hi (1973, mp3 download)

So I finally finished downloading this album from Amazon today and I gotta say this is a really excellent Americana album, in spite of it being released some 20 years before that term came into use.

Ian Matthews--or as he has returned to the original spelling of his name, Iain--was a member of the 60s group Fairport Convention. This album shows heavy influence from American folk-rock and country, although Matthews himself was born and raised in England. Three of the songs were written by him, with other songs written by such as Jackson Browne ("These Days"), Steve Young ("Seven Bridges Road"), Randy Newman, Michael Nesmith and Don Gibson. One of the most country-sounding songs is "Shady Lies," which is interesting because it was written by Richard Thompson, another Brit.

This album is from 1973, and it may seem pointless to even bother mentioning such an old album, but hey, it's new to me and that what counts. Favorite tracks are "Old Man at the Mill," "These Days" (better than Jackson Browne's original, in my opinion), "Seven Bridges Road" (vastly superior to the Eagles' version), and "Propinquity" (by Michael Nesmith). Nesmith also produced and played guitar on this album.

I've already burned this one to audio CD for listening in the truck. Amazon doesn't have any hardcopy versions of this for sale new, although there are used and collectible versions. They do, however, have it as a digital download for a reasonable price.

Album promotional stickers, part 3

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery; Deep Purple, Perfect Strangers; Clannad, Macalla; Boston, Boston; Alan Parsons Project, Vulture Culture.

Propaganda - A Secret Wish (1985, LP)

NOTE: Not to be confused with a Serbian band of the same name.

This is another one I've mentioned before, but I list it again now because I've finished ripping it from the vinyl instead of just my old dupe tape of it.

As I said before, a single copy of this record turned up at the Hastings in Seguin and it sat there on the rack tantalizing me for a while before I broke down and bought it. After I bought it, it never showed up again. So apparently I bought the only one they had in the store. They never had the CD version there, either.

This is another one that I will put on my list of favorite albums if I ever get around to making one. It's German synth-pop, so YMMV. It has a great rendition of Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream" and the whole album is just great.

Interesting reading about them at Wikipedia. It's a real shame that their fame was possibly eclipsed by Frankie Goes to Hollywood--what a waste. "They" later made one other album but it really had only one original member on it, and without Claudia Brücken singing it just wouldn't be the same, so I'm not interested in it. I would be interested in hearing some of her stuff after she left this group.