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"One month" -- say the phrase. Does it sound like a long time?
I've been back to work for more than two weeks, and I don't think I've even blogged about Christmas and New Year's.
Christmas(1) really is the most wonderful time of year. For me, at least. Really wonderful things can happen at other times; that's for sure. Last year's spring break trip to Disney World was as wonderful as Christmas, but it's an isolated incident, and it doesn't happen every year.
But at Christmas, I get to experience the anticipation of the events which will happen, and then I get to experience them, and finally I get to remember them. Buying gifts is great -- I get to think about the people I love and how I can brighten their day with something they want. Taking a break from work is great -- the stress can melt away for a couple weeks. Spending time with my family is great; listening to, and singing, Christmas songs is great; sleeping late is great; hosting friends is great; playing games and watching movies and eating scrumptious goodies and being surrounded by holiday decorations -- all great. And yes, celebrating the birth of the Savior. The Reason for the Season.
It's hard to believe that it's only been a month since vacation started. In many ways, Christmas vacation seems like it's not part of Real Time. I get so disconnected from the daily grind that I forget what day of the week it is, and I don't stress about deadlines, budgets and all the other things that occur in Real Time. But once vacation ends, and I go back to Real Time, vacation is unreachable. It's Past, but not Real Time Past. In the Real Time Past, things happened that I have to remember: What was that deadline? What was that budget? In the Christmas Vacation Past the things that happened are things I want to remember.
I don't know -- somehow, Christmas deserves a better entry than this. But I am not going to just throw this away, simply because it's not yet good enough. I stop myself from expressing my thoughts too often using that excuse.
There are plenty of wonderful things to which I can look forward this year. I am not morose and sad that Christmas is over. It was wonderful. I look back on it fondly. And I look forward to the next one, as well.
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(1)Despite my pastor's yearly attempts to convince me otherwise, "Christmas" means
"the period of time leading up to December 25th, and following, when we anticipate and experience
the celebration of Christ's birth." This certainly includes the holy day, but it also includes the
many blessings which are a part of the season.
Things I miss:
I am blessed to have had them. And I'm doubly blessed because I can still have some of them again.
"Sojourn"
As a noun it means "a short or temporary stay." Any guess as to what its verb meaning is? This is not a trick question. It means "to stay for a time in a place." Look it up if you want.
And so what do people mean when they say or write it these days?
They think it means "journey" or "trip."
Precisely what it does not mean.
celebratoryI am so pumped up!
Why? You ask why?
Because we are no longer Sprint customers!
[Pause for applause ... or confused silence]
Look, the story is far too long to make it interesting, but the short version is that the person who sold us our multiple-phone Sprint cell phone plan lied (or was misinformed himself) and, as a result, I have had to call Sprint every month for the past 15 months to get our bill adjusted. Now, it finally turns out, because of the initial mis-information, all of those bills were probably technically correct, but since I would never had signed up for the plan as it exists, I was able to convince them to cancel my contract without any penalties.
Wooo Hooooo!!!!
So, each month, I spent between 15 minutes and an hour on the phone with them. This month, it was 3 hours! But finally, the answer which had eluded almost 20 Sprint representatives was uncovered, and after talking to EIGHT people this month, I am Done With Sprint!
Strangely enough, despite talking to almost 30 employees over the past 15 months, I was only treated rudely once. In almost every other case, the person on the phone was very friendly and tried very hard to be helpful. So, it is not the people who are the problem. It is the process, and apparently the lack of education of the employees.
Anyway, the Sprint bill has been a stress producer for over a year, and its removal from my life makes this a very happy day.
So what are we going to do about cell phones? Midwest Wireless. The boys have had that plan for a few months and it works well for them.
It's strange how the removal of a source of pain can be so pleasurable!
lyricalThose of you who read this blog already know this (1) but we recently completed the addition of a sunroom to our home(2). Here are some stray thoughts, lessons learned, and reactions:
I hope everyone who visits us gets to enjoy this new room at some point.
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(1)I think Lucas and Mike may be the only people who do. If you are not one of these two fine and discerning people, and would like to be included in such illustrious company, send me an e-mail .
(2)To see some before/after pictures,
see this link.
(3) Are you listening, Adam? (That was teasing!)
What makes a TV series a candidate for this list? First of all, it’s “Steve’s” – it’s mine. So clearly, the series has to have these attributes:
Point 1 means I won’t be considering some shows that many people would put on the list. The Sopranos may top some lists, but I didn’t see it. Same goes for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Seinfeld gets excluded for a similar reason. I’ve seen some of it, but I have not even seen half the episodes, and I rarely watched it during its first run. [After seeing some shows which made my list of series to consider, I will have to reexamine this exclusion.] And, given my age, any series which aired before 1966 or so is not going to get on my list. This leaves out I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners, which is probably too bad. Not to mention Edward R Murrow's news shows.
Point 2 should be obvious, but I felt I needed to state it, for completeness. I’ve seen a bunch of Wheel of Fortune in my time, but have I enjoyed it enough to even consider it? Get real.
Point 3 is my “cover my rear” clause. I am sure to forget some great show. Further, I probably loved a show 20 years ago, but I won’t think of it while I’m writing this.
Beyond those three primary rules, what causes me to consider a show for the list? Well, maybe the thing to do is just generate a list (unordered for now) and then see what happens.
| Star Trek (the original series) | Star Trek: the Next Generation | Battlestar Galactica - the recent SciFi Channel show | Stargate: SG1 |
| Hill Street Blues - In case you thought I only consider SciFi | M*A*S*H - Yes, I consider comedies, too. | Babylon 5 | ER |
| Lost | Heroes | Nowhere Man One season only. What a shame. | Quantum Leap I include it, but... |
| The Cosby Show | Newhart - though it's tough to decide between this and The Bob Newhart Show and maybe they should just both be on the list. | The Carol Burnett Show | Scrubs - with caveats. I'm breaking my own rules by listing it. But they are MY rules. |
| Frasier - though I must admit I haven't seen them all, either. | St. Elsewhere - Does anyone remember when Denzel Washington was a fresh face? Or when David Morse was the sensitive and victimized doctor? Or Howie Mandel - with hair - in a semi-serious role? | Family Ties - has to be in the discussion. Alex P. Keaton for goodness sake. And talk about a mom who's "got it goin' on" - Meredeth Baxter! | All in the Family - Funny and important. |
| Columbo - Another rule-breaker. It was never, truly, a series. | The X-Files - has to be on the list. | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - If ST:tNG is on the list, this must be too! | Star Trek: Voyager - Can't make Top 10, but ... |
| Enterprise - Its percent of good episodes is probably higher than ST: Voyager's. | Survivor - my favorite "game" show. And it overcame my initial preconceptions. | thirtysomething which was un-missable. | The Cosby Show |
| The West Wing | Sports Night - short lived but very well written. | NYPD Blue | 24 Gripping. |
| Kate & Allie | 3rd Rock from the Sun | Perfect Strangers - Balki and the "Dance of Joy"! | Monty Python's Flying Circus |
| The A-Team Great? No. Great fun? You bet! |
It was enough work to create the table. I think I'll leave the rating for another time. In fact, I will leave some parts of the table blank so I can fill in with shows as they occur to me.
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I've made significant additions to this since it was first posted. I may re-post at some point, but for now, it's easier to revise it in place.
A couple weeks back, the e-mail pals (to whom I refer as "Milords") discussed a topic that made its way into the discussions of my lunch pals (the "Dudes") as well as the dinner table (the "Family")
It would be fun to document some of that discussion. I won't be quoting anyone (at least not without permission) though I will likely mention points which were discussed.
Anyway, to document something I said at the beginning of the conversation, here's a quote from an e-mail I sent to Milords ("BG"=Battlestar Galactica - the current series on SciFi; "B5" is Babylon 5; "H" is Heroes, which got us started on the topic):
It seems very American to want to classify things as "better" or "worse" than other things. We seem obsessed with Top 100 lists, and get into silly (but fun) discussions as to whether Archie Bunker is really a better TV character than Lucy, or Homer Simpson, or whatever.
I could certainly make a case for BG being the best TV series ever. This, of course, assumes that it continues with its current quality until it completes. Yet I would be willing to entertain other suggestions -- B5 was excellent for its time, and if considered without its 5th season, certainly competes (though not in acting, I think -- Olmos could act circles around Boxleitner.) Other series that would enter into consideration for me: The West Wing, M*A*S*H, Star Trek, -- I'm sure there are more -- probably shows from the 80s. We discussed this at lunch yesterday, prompted by Mike's comments. Shawn nominates "The Sopranos" but I have only seen an episode or two of that. I might consider "X-Files" and "ST:tNG" though there were some real stinker episodes, and BG has just had one episode that was less-than-great (in my opinion.) I hear "Seinfeld" was excellent, but I saw it sporadically. And I really do think the first 5-6 seasons of "All in the Family" were hilarious, and important in its time period. "Sports Night" was one of the best written comedies I've ever seen -- but it only lasted two seasons, and its humor was obviously "my kind" of humor and not appreciated by enough people.
Maybe we should develop our own lists: Top Drama, Top Comedy, Top Medical, Top Law, Top Sci-Fi -- with the 10 best in each!
Nah -- we don't sit around enough bars having debates to make it worth the time... :-)
So I think I will put some entries in about "Top" shows. It could be fun. Maybe the blogosphere is close enough to a "bar" -- or as close as we're going to get!
