2009 — 15 January: Thursday
What shall we have for tonight's picture of Christa? How about this, taken on our first seaside holiday / delayed honeymoon in Cornwall in September 1975:
My word, we were both very young! Exactly 15 months ago, Christa left this house for the last time. <Sigh>
Doing my bit for the economy... dept.
With (fleeting) reference to the A/V woes of yesterday evening, I have just arranged delivery of the following can of alphabet soup in the near future.
Sony replacement for my poorly Yamaha
Mind you, last time I had a Sony amplifier it was totalled by an all-too-close encounter of the ball lightning kind. (Very scary.) All I have left of it is one of those copper heat pipes which I used for some while as a novelty coffee stirrer. G'night at 02:26 or so.
Good morning, cruel world!
Is there anything more doleful than the sound of intellectuals entertaining the nation on aspects of Thoreau before one has had one's first cuppa? Still, in better news, the grand tea mug / tea stain / tea pot experiment is having very promising initial results. I'm hungry, too.
It's said, is it not, that misfortunes occur in threes? So I've seen the loss, within a week, of the Echostar digital satellite box, the Technics FM tuner, and now the Yamaha A/V amplifier. I have to say it brings to mind Kai Lung's lugubrious advice:
Should a person in returning from the city discover his house to be in flames, let him examine well the change which he has received from the chair-carrier, before it is too late; for evil never travels alone.
Today's new word: "psammophile". (Source.)
It's 12:07, there's a jolly burst of Handel warbling away, and I've just returned from my local emporium with a new toy to plug the temporary (albeit, gaping) hole left by the removal of the corpse of the Yamaha A/V amplifier until the Sony arrives. It was a bargain, Christa, and it's good to have a spare! Besides, it's almost like being a hi-fi reviewer again.
To business
It's 16:45. I've lunched. Quite a while ago. Heck, I'm just back from a minor-league expotition for coffee cake and a cuppa with my main co-pilot. I've read the new toy's manual. Time to stop procrastinating and fit it into the system and then see if it all works. I'm predicting it will be once again at the top of the stack rather than the bottom. Indeed, there are opportunities to rearrange all the kit, I guess. Lessons learned the hard way. And a report — doubtless — to follow.
Here's the revised layout. Good grief, it's 20:03. Where does it all go? Tick tock. Now it's 22:14 and I'm a bit dusty having been tidying up some very old audio cassettes that can most easily be reached while the two hi-fi stands are empty and on the other side of the room. Dry work: definitely time for the next cuppa.