Meanwhile... Pt. 1

[dan bailey]

Have been a bundle of nerves the past 24hrs since being told there were a series of break-ins just around the corner from where I live. Really hope our house doesn't get robbed because having been robbed before its a horrible experience. I think more than anything its knowing people you don't want in your house access your belongings. Its a frightening experience. In some ways I wish I wasn't told.

Being the victim of burglary is indeed unnerving. Happened to me & my family at the time (2nd wife, 2 stepdaughters) a couple of times in the same week late in, I believe, 12/87 (so during the height of the holiday season -- how festive!). Adding insult to injury, one of the break-ins -- through a patio door that was really hard to secure till we had an extra lock installed afterward -- occurred while we were a couple of counties away at a funeral, either for my wife's grandmother or her uncle, who killed himself a few days after his mother's death. *sigh* The perpetrator lived not far away & had been over visiting the youngest daughter, it turned out. He was identified because he used my wife's stolen Discovery card at the Radio Shack a couple of miles away from us; we're not talking about a criminal mastermind here. Ultimately, he wasn't charged in connection with our stolen possessions (jewelry, my ghetto blaster, an antique wooden box of silverware from one of my grandmother), though he went to prison for similar stuff.

I have to say, being a victim of something like that was a bit of an eye-opener for me, simply because of how relatively blase covering countless criminal trials as a newspaper reporter had made me.

[dan bailey]

Very rough night in Manhattan thanks to Hurricane Sandy. My best wishes to all affected by this storm-of-the-century. Thankfully I was 2 blocks away from a flood zone and did not lose power. I went out this morning at sunrise to assess the damage in my neighborhood and felt an eerie,empty vibe. Streets are empty,no cars or cabs and most stores boarded up. Over by the east river there is debris all over the streets and standing water. When they can get mass transit up and running again no one can say but it seems to be days away. Certainly a major hit to the country's and local economy.

Closest thing I've ever experienced was a record snowfall in Little Rock in, I think, 2/87. Up nortth, 12 1/2 inches of snow isn't a big deal, I'm sure, but in central Arkansas it was the deepest accumulation in a century, & walking through an absolutely dead downtown (the newspaper, of course, was open for business as usual, though pretty much nothing else was) gave me a real appreciation for the concept of nuclear winter. I do know that at least some of the bus lines were running, though, because that's how I got to work after my '73 Pinto (which I've always though must've been made of old melted-down iron skillets, so we didn't mind if it got battered or anything, as opposed to my wife's '86 Celica) slid out of my driveway & into the front yard across the street when I tried to head across the river to the office. The car stayed there about half a week until the ice melted sufficiently.

Otherwise, I've been about 3 blocks -- & on the newspaper building's top floor, beneath glass skylights, at that -- from where a tornado touched down in, I think, the mid-'90s on a day when something like 47 tornadoes raked Arkansas, but I've been extremely lucky so far. My year & a half in the New Orleans was hurricane-free, for all intents & purposes.

[MDG]

Very rough night in Manhattan thanks to Hurricane Sandy. My best wishes to all affected by this storm-of-the-century. Thankfully I was 2 blocks away from a flood zone and did not lose power. I went out this morning at sunrise to assess the damage in my neighborhood and felt an eerie,empty vibe. Streets are empty,no cars or cabs and most stores boarded up. Over by the east river there is debris all over the streets and standing water. When they can get mass transit up and running again no one can say but it seems to be days away. Certainly a major hit to the country's and local economy.

i was texting on and off with my son and DIL In Bay Ridge much of the night. They seemed to get through okay-- no power loss, no water in the streets, even though they're only a couple of blocks up from the Narrows.

But my sister in white plains woke up to find a tree on her car.

[zryson]

Donated another box of comics to charity. All genres, but mostly superhero including some western and horror. With Xmas fast approaching, I want to ensure there are enough comic books to go around to everyone who comes into the stores hoping to find some. And it makes sense. I don’t need to accumulate things for the sake of accumulating them. I have been through that phase and sort of come full circle now, whereas I only keep what I really want to keep and nothing more. It’s sort of like going through things and refining your tastes and items over and over. It helps get rid of things that are only adding to so much baggage and its good that the items are finding new homes.

[Polar Bear]

Donated another box of comics to charity. All genres, but mostly superhero including some western and horror. With Xmas fast approaching, I want to ensure there are enough comic books to go around to everyone who comes into the stores hoping to find some. And it makes sense. I don’t need to accumulate things for the sake of accumulating them. I have been through that phase and sort of come full circle now, whereas I only keep what I really want to keep and nothing more. It’s sort of like going through things and refining your tastes and items over and over. It helps get rid of things that are only adding to so much baggage and its good that the items are finding new homes.

What kind of tax deduction do you write off for these? Cover price? A buck an issue?

[zryson]

hi Polar Bear - its the latter.

[zryson]

Had a terrible experience a short time ago. Was asleep in bed when I heard some noises coming from my window. I called out who is it? And the noises stopped. So I got up, no car in the driveway. And nobody rang the doorbell. Scared me tremendously because it might have been an attempted break-in. I wish I could say I was brave but I was not. It really scared me.

[dan bailey]

Had a terrible experience a short time ago. Was asleep in bed when I heard some noises coming from my window. I called out who is it? And the noises stopped. So I got up, no car in the driveway. And nobody rang the doorbell. Scared me tremendously because it might have been an attempted break-in. I wish I could say I was brave but I was not. It really scared me.

Really aggressive trick-or-treaters, maybe?

[zryson]

Hi Dan, I considered that but do not think it was people playing a trick. A friend of mine thinks I imagined the entire thing considering I was asleep in bed when it first began. But I remember laying there and waking up and realized it was not my imagination and was real. And I became alarmed when I called out and nobody answered. So I got up and checked the driveway but there was no car. And it was none of my friends as I called them and asked them if they had called around without ringing first. So I was scared. My windows thankfully are securely locked. Still if there was a prowler (and I really hope there was not), then I guess all the security in the world cannot stop somebody who is very determined to break in, as I discovered years ago when our house was burgled.

[zryson]

To calm my nerves, I have been thumbing through a stack of comics books which I am using to read before passing them onto others. One of the comic books is the series 'Secret Origins' - I read the rehashed formation of the Justice League a short while ago. It's a fun read, nice artwork and lots of in-jokes. I remember being amazed by the Secret Origins series when I first saw it. I thought it was a very cool series. In retrospect, I still think some parts are, though others fall flat. Still for a buck, it was cool to pick up a dozen issues. Can't argue with that.

[dan bailey]

Yeah, z, one never knows. My next-door neighbor had her front door partially kicked in during the day while she was at work a few months ago, & someone was in her backyard outbuilding when she came home for lunch a few weeks before that. The people on other side had all their Xmas presents stolen from their SUV a couple of years ago; my previous car, which didn't have functioning door locks, was rifled through more than once. It's just the way of the world, I guess.

[Judomaster]

I've been slowly working through my soda stash. Last night I finally popped the cap on the bottle of Cel-Ray I bought after having learned of its existence on this forum. I really enjoyed it. My wife hated it. Who'd a thunk celery seed and sugar would make such a wonderful flavour. I can see where people compare it to ginger ale, but I think the celery seed flavour is quite distinct.

I was very disappointed with Lurch Birch Beer. It left a syrupy taste in my mouth after every sip. Great wintergreen flavour on the nose though. The Simpson Springs Birch Beer was, on the other hand, fantastic. I tend to like the clear Birch Beer's better, so probably no surprise.

I plan to give the Moxie a go next.

[adam_warlock_2099]

Two TVs bit the dust two weeks in a row. Granted one is the first TV I bought when I moved out of my folks house 15 years ago ... My son's shoulders sag when he has to go from a 20 some inch TV (my old one) to a 13 inch till I can afford to replace it. I didn't even have a TV in the house till I was 13-15 or so much less one in my room. Oh how these kids have no idea how soiled I have made them with all these conviences, game consoles and TVs. But I am glad to spoil them when I can. I want them to have what I didn't,

[dan bailey]

Oh how these kids have no idea how soiled I have made them

Have a care, sir. If memory serves, Slam Bradley's wife works in child abuse services or something of the like.

I mean, what consenting adults do with & to one another is their own business, but when the kids are roped (perhaps literally!) into it ... No. Just no.

IMHO.

[dan bailey]

Otherwise, as for the TV business ... yeah. We always had a TV when I was growing up, but I didn't have a color set till I bought one (along with our first VCR ... I distinctly remember the month & year because it was during my first paid vacation ever, which of course turned out to be comparatively expensive) at age 26 in 3/86.

That TV, which must've been a 19" or 20", gave out in 5/95 -- also an easy date to pin down because it was while I was watching the miniseries adapting Stephen King's "The Langoliers;" given the wonders of modern technology, I was able to continue taping it even though I couldn't watch it till I replaced the set with a 25" later in the week.

The 25" gave up the ghost a couple or 3 years ago; I've got a 32" (I think) flat-screen now.

In the meantime, I haven't fired it up in years, but I've still got my mother's old 13" black & white, which she must've bought around 1980 or so after the 17"(?) Zenit b&w finally expired. As of shortly after I moved here, in late '01, it was still working. It's sitting on the floor about 4 feet to my right even as I type.

In retrospect, I wish I'd kept the big old boxy ... whatever it was (Philco?) ... tube set that my great-aunt had from the '50s. When my first wife & I moved into my mother's old house in the fall of '84, it still worked, though the picture wasn't exactly flawless.