Monday, January 09, 2012

Busy Weekend ~ Busy Week

Well, the holidays are finally behind us. The decorations came down Friday evening (at the end of Epiphany) and are all stored away for the next 354 days. I had someone in to do some work, and of course, we had some lovely sunsets and sunrises!

Friday, I hired a handyman to replace the lighting fixtures that had burned-out in my kitchen and laundry room. Turns out that they are wired in series and the failure of the one in the laundry room (apparently there was a short in the circuit) caused the ballast in the other to burn-out. The kitchen light had been dimming and failing for a couple weeks now – I am relieved to have it fixed.

The good news is that I now have plenty of light in the kitchen. I can see to cook, clean, etc.

The bad news is that I now have plenty of light in the kitchen and laundry room. I can see exactly how badly I need to clean! I spent much of the weekend rectifying this situation.

The roads were a bit icy when Saga and I went out yesterday, the snow of the day before was the culprit – well, the snow and the frigid temperatures overnight. But we had good thawing last night and we’re supposed to be in the fifties again today – that’s good! I have lots to do today, I have a couple meetings early this morning and then my Homeowner’s Association meeting this evening.

I guess that as it is going to be a long day! I had best get going.

Wherever you are today I hope that you have had a good weekend and that your week will be a productive one.

Don Bergquist – January 09, 20012 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi - I know that in past years you have said that you were not interested in football or your Denver Broncos. These days people all over the United States are talking about the mighty Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos. I was wondering if that has gotten you excited about football (or do people in Denver not even talk to you anymore about the Broncos because they think you are not interested)?

Have you even heard of Tim Tebow? (If not, he is the current starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos).

Actually, I have a secret admiration for intellectuals who don't like football but I am somewhat addicted to football myself (but fortunately not enough to join a fantasy football league).

Anonymous Reader

Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous Reader,

Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog. You are correct; I have (on more than one occasion) said that I do not follow nor am I a fan of football, that I am not a fan or the Broncos, and that I could care less about most professional sports – but that would take a specific effort on my part that I am not willing to make. I will even admit that occasionally, for comic affect, I will feign ignorance of some sports reference or other and follow up with the words “oh, is that some sort of sports thing?”

I will admit that this is really feigned ignorance. One would have to be catatonic not to know SOMETHING about the Broncos here as they garner a disproportionate portion of the “news” coverage here. But, in short, no. An over abundance of coverage of a topic I could care less about does not really lead me to have more of an interest in it than I had, it only steels my will to dislike it.

Consider it thusly: Do you believe that if, suddenly, half of the news coverage in your town were to be on a topic in which you have zero interest that you would develop an interest in that topic? In a recent election here, there was a referendum to fund repairs to a local public museum that was in desperate need of repairs. The interesting thing about it here was that the same people who see no problem using tax dollars to support tearing down a perfectly good football stadium to build a new one complained that if the museum was so good for the community, it should be able to support itself.

Now, do you really believe that people who think this way are going to run out and buy tickets to the opera if the news coverage should somehow immediately become 50% Mozart and Puccini? C’mon, really? I would think, that like me, it would just annoy them and drive them to try and glean what news they could hoping for some shred of actual news in their news.

Admittedly, I would no more like my news to be all Arts & Entertainment than I do like it being all Broncos. But I don’t control the news. And this brings us to your other question. Yes, I do know who the Quarterback of the local team is. Again, I would have to be a hermit of world-class credentials to have missed that one. But again, even if you know nothing about classical music, I would bet that you at least know one of the names I used in the previous paragraph.

You have to lead a pretty isolated life not to know at least something about topics that don’t interest you. There are lots of topics that I have no interest in that I do know something about. I prefer to keep my addictions nice and healthy – reading, books on my iPod in the car, coffee, walks with the dog. That sort of thing.

Again, thanks for reading and commenting on my blog.

Don

Anonymous said...

Thanks for responding to my comment. Your comment about tearing down an old stadium and building a new one with public money was something that I could relate to. I had thought about that in my own town a few years ago when they tore down a perfectly good stadium to build a new one. What bothers me is that the general public is not benefited by this (unless you are pretty well off financially). I think you have to pay at least $50 to go to the stadium that was bought with public money to see a football game (I would know the exact price if I went to the games). I think that the richer citizens in general spend more time in the stadiums at various events than the poorer ones do.

Another thing that is starting to bother me about football is the injuries. A sport where every NFL team in the country might have at least one player injured in every game takes some of fun out of the game. If injuries are guaranteed every week then I have a problem with the game. I am also becoming a strong opponent of air shows for a similar reason.

Thanks again for commenting on my comments and have a nice day and a Happy New Year.

AR