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jimsjournal
My weekend -- 08/04/08

Friday night the Culture Coalition of South County (a grouping of eight local museums, art centers, and historic sites) held a fund-raiser dance at Kinney Bungalow (yes, that is one of the eight). It was a recreation of a WWII USO dance with a band (Joe Parillo's Band) playing "Big Band" style 1940s vintage pop and jazz and a trio of female vocalists (The Hummingbird Trio) paying homage to the Andrews Sisters. Now normally Nancy and I would probably have been there, but she is still side-lined by her recent foot surgery. However, I could not resist popping in with my new Flip video camcorder and capturing some video of the event.

I edited about eight or nine minutes of video down to about 1:50 and made this video... which I then put on YouTube (and posted it on the Kinney Bungalow and the Culture Coalition sites).

I wish I had had my digital camera with me so I could have gotten some still shots of the WWII posters to use as bridges in the video.

So, editing the video took some time on Saturday. And I did other stuff. What? I can't remember... chores around the house, probably involving emptying dishwasher, filling dishwasher, laundry, cooking, cleaning, the usual. And then Nancy wanted to go to the five o'clock service on Saturday because that appears to be the least formal service at her church (Episcopal) and it is difficult to dress up when wearing a moonboot on your foot. (I don't think she would care for me to post a picture of her foot in a moonboot but I did post a picture a few years ago of my moonboot when I fractured my left heel and had to wear one... except hers seems to be blue where mine was grey.)

I've been having problems lately with my ignition... not with the ignition system itself... the car starts nicely when you turn the key... the trouble is that sometimes the key won't turn. But trying a few times (or a few dozen times) and eventually the magic works and the key turns and the car starts. I kept telling myself that I should get that fixed... Yeah, so Saturday evening after church service, it would not turn. Not at all, no matter how many times I tired it... And thus the car would not start. So, we got a ride home and I then grabbed two spare keys and hopped on my bike and rode back down to the church. Unfortunately, those other keys would no more start it than the key I had been using.

I called AAA (American Automobile Association for those of you who live elsewhere) and asked for "roadside assistance" -- I wanted them to tow me a few blocks along Main St. to the automobile shop we usually use (A-Quick Tire, 257 Main St., Wakefield) -- but when the guy got there, he said he thought he could fix the problem, at least enough so I could get home. He showed me how to tap with a pair of pliers while wiggling the key until everything fit just right and the key turned and the car started.

In the meanwhile, while I was busy with my car, Jill got back from spending a week on a lake in rural New Hampshire with Eli and some of their friends. So I made a couple of pizzas and we settled down to watch the National Treasure sequel. I remembered the original film from a few years ago as being entertaining... or, rather, that the first three quarters or so was entertaining and the last quarter was rather dumb. This one was just dumb all the way through; I proclaimed that the script was so bad that even Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell must have turned it down.. In fact, the only way we could stand it was to make fun of it. sort of MST3K style.


Sunday... mopping and vacuuming and such... and making some updates to the Kinney Bungalow site... and going for a run around the block with Jill. She only had time for one mile because she had to go to work -- she was supposed to have the day off but discovered (when she called in to find out what here schedule was for this week) that she was on the schedule for working from 2 until 8 on Sunday. So we ran a bit faster than we might have done... and then the last two or three hundred feet Jill just took off and flew to the finish. So she did the mile in 8:30 and I did it in 8:50. Okay, so that was for just one mile -- I couldn't put three together in a row like that, at least not right now, but I figure this shows me that if I keep at it, keep training, I might be able to get in a decent run at the CVS Downtown 5k in September. (I went online last week and entered Jill and me in the race.
Hey, Tom and Mike... and Allison... are you guys going to run it?) I did a little workout with hand weights (biceps curls, etc.) and then did 40 minutes on the exercise bike.

This morning I drove into town and dropped my car off at A-Quick so they could repair/replace my ignition switch... and scheduled work for next week on my emissions control system... and then I ran/walked home (only about two and a half miles, but a good chunk of it is uphill). They phoned to say that they were able to get the parts for the emissions system right away so I told them to keep the car overnight and do it now rather than bringing it back in next week.



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