Fast-forward to yesterday, and a plastic bag left by the curb somewhere on our street on another windy day. The bag, filled with styrofoam peanuts, was no match for the wind and was blown into the street, where it was hit by a passing car that tore a hole in the bag. A substantial number of peanuts were scattered, but the bulk remained in the bag, which some well-intentioned(?) soul picked up and placed into my yard. The gusts didn’t abate, however, and the bag, now with a significant hole, emptied into my yard. I threw away the bag and what remained inside, but my heretofore plain plot is presently populated by a platoon of pink packing peanuts.

When I got home tonight I borrowed Tom’s Shop Vac in the hopes that I could get rid of the peanuts, but the damn things are too big for the vacuum’s hose! So they continue to infest my lawn, and it’s too cold (and too dark when i get home) to pick them up one at a time.

I figure that right now, a couple of people are running a serious karma deficit.

So today was the first day back in the office in nearly two weeks. And among all the other things I was doing at work, I couldn’t help but notice that I was hungry, despite having eaten a normal sized lunch for me. I guess it’s no surprise that all those days of hanging around my in-laws’ house, with tons of snack food and sweets readily available (not to mention beers to try), had gotten me used to consuming a lot more than I ordinarily do during the day. And that hadn’t been the only source of disruption to my generally healthy eating habits — during the preceding month, there had been our annual party plus leftovers, office holiday parties, and candy all over the office. And it’s a given that I need to revert to my pre-holiday intake pattern ASAP, lest the consequences overwhelm me. So while the hours passed at work, I did my best to avoid the vending machine, all the while conscious of how close it is, and how easy it would be to grab an extra bite. Tick. Tock. Somehow I made it through the workday without any snacking — success!

When I got home, I ate the last 6″ of the Subway sub I’d purchased on the drive home yesterday. Then I had a little bit of the ridiculous amounts of chocolate lying around the house. Then I went over to Tom’s, taking a beer and an unopened package of Hanukkah M&M’s that my friend Barrett had given me. Tom didn’t eat the M&M’s, but I did — I figure I ate about five ounces, plus some cheese and crackers Tom offered up. So much for success. Maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow. Sigh.

The wonderfully cheesy 1991 video to “Sexuality”:

A solo version of “She Came Along to Me” (from Mermaid Avenue, an album Bragg made with Wilco, putting music to unrecorded songs of Woody Guthrie):

And finally, early birthday wishes + “A New England”:

The aging process seems imperceptible, but the 23-year-old prediction that my eyesight would improve slightly several years before I’d need bifocals has begun to come true. The recommendation at Friday’s appointment was that I should try to avoid using my glasses when I’m reading, in the hope that I can strengthen my eyes so that I won’t need bifocals. The optometrist said that my astigmatism may make it too difficult, but that it was worth the try. I type this paragraph without my glasses, and I can just make out the words. For the proofreading, I put the glasses back on.

My friend Pete sent this to me, joking that it was something for the beer party. Maybe in past years, but all I could think of in the here and now was, “Oh yeah — I could see Little Miss Destructo Girl having a reaaaaallly good time with that. Sure she’d just ‘look’ at it.”

Alas, being December, it also means that sickness is capable of rearing its ugly head in any variety of ways. The malady that struck me is some sort of stomach bug, one that made my innards feel as though they were covered in bile and left me with no appetite whatsoever (it took a lot of willpower just to eat a few crackers, a banana, and a package of Ramen yesterday). Fever/chills and throbbing headache are the bonuses.

Consequently, I missed work yesterday, and skipped last night’s beer dinner. I’m feeling somewhat better today (no bile!), but still very weak, so I also stayed home today, figuring it was better to rest up a little more and regain my strength. The remnants of the kegs with the two rare beers go on tap at 5pm, but I went slightly green when Kathy offered to make me eggs this morning, so beer isn’t an option, nor is tonight’s Hanukkah party.

My goal is to be healthy for our party, and for the slew of prep that’s needed to get the house ready. As for Kathy, she seems to have come down with a cold herself (it seems to be one of the standard variety ones), but trooper/masochist/martyr that she is, she’s working through it. Emelia might have been sick last week (and in fact, might have given me my illness), but if so it was mild for her, and right now she’s doing fine (knock wood).

Kathy reading to nieces Leynie and Lauren and nephew Hunter as my sister Shari looks on

Luke, Emelia’s younger (by three months) cousin

Hunter

Leynie

Lauren

Most of us before the Thanksgiving Morning 5K (we walked)

My brother Josh with Emelia

My brother-in-law John with Leynie (his daughter)

That being said, at $400 I think it’s at way too high a price point, especially since that only gets you the reader (for that price they could at least throw in a couple of free downloads!). For $400 it’s possible to get a laptop that can do all the things that Kindle can do, and then some. In essence, you’re trading the versatility of a laptop for the size and readability of the Kindle. Apple showed with the iPod that it’s possible to charge a premium for size, but the iPod offers features that are comparable, not inferior, to the competition.

There’s also the risk that the market for these devices doesn’t develop, so you’ve put a good chunk of money down for an item that won’t be supported in the future (this wasn’t such a risk in the early days of portable mp3 players, since mp3s were already being made and used en masse by the time portable players showed up). Then you have to pay for the content. At $10/book, the price is about the same as for a paperback, except you can’t share it or sell it. There are also monthly subscriptions available, e.g., $0.99 for blogsites, and more for magazine and newspaper subscriptions, though the content for almost all of these subscriptions is already available for free online (I believe it actually costs more for the Kindle version of the Washington Post than the paper version does, without the coupons!).

The fact that Amazon is also using a proprietary file system is also troubling. Apparently it’s possible to convert pdf files (the format previous e-books have used, and the standard for home computing) to a version that can be read with the Kindle, but why should you have to?

So I guess I’m pretty skeptical that sales of Kindle will be able to catch fire. I do, however, think that they could make it work in one of two ways.

The first way would be to, in addition to lowering the price of the unit, ditch the per item approach and follow the music subscription approach — have a $14.99/month (or something like that) subscription to unlimited content that’s tied to the particular device, and whose access is contingent on maintaining one’s subscription. I admit that I have no idea how such an approach can work as far as splitting the subscription fee among all the authors and publishers whose works would be used, but I’m looking at it from the consumer side, and this seems like a service that could have some appeal.

Another way that it could succeed is if they’re able to make all textbooks available (something that doesn’t appear to be the case right now). Given how much a semester’s worth of books weigh (and cost), college students would be delighted to have access to a light (and hopefully more affordable) way to have all their books. And once college students have the device, they could conclude that purchasing additional reading material wouldn’t be such a big deal, particularly if they grow to appreciate the format.

It should be interesting to see if the Kindle takes off. I think it can, but not unless Amazon makes some significant changes.

My cousin Jeff has been a stage manager for various off-Broadway theater productions, and while someone might mistake that fact for his occupation (it isn’t — he’s a high school English teacher in Brooklyn, a challenging task to say the least), it’s much more accurate to say that role perfectly describes him. He’s the guy behind the scenes who gets things done. That wasn’t why I asked him to be my best man (technically he was also the maid-of-honor), but when I got sick the Friday before my Sunday wedding, that talent came to the fore when he and Kathy took care of the last-minute details. As it also did when little things needed taking care of at the wedding.

It’s been a tough couple of months for Jeff. His father (my Dad’s brother, Paul) died in September after a four-year battle with cancer. And for the last few months of his father’s life and also during the aftermath, Jeff was shuttling down to Brevard, North Carolina, missing work to be there, helping his stepmom and being there for his sister. Both my Dad and I encouraged him to grieve for himself rather than continue his role as stage manager even then, but for Jeff that was easier said than done. There was a memorial service in Brevard at the end of October, to which Kathy, Emelia, and I went. As Kathy put it so succinctly, he’s always been there for us, we should be there for him. During the ceremony, Jeff broke down when he was supposed to recite something, but later recovered in order to give an incredibly moving, eloquent, funny, and wholly spontaneous reflection on his father.

A couple of weeks after the memorial, Jeff’s mom (my Aunt Faith) fell, shattering her left ankle, tearing all the ligaments and breaking her leg. As her only child, Jeff immediately dropped everything to be with her in New Jersey (Uncle Paul and Aunt Faith divorced when Jeff was a child), once again missing school, even though he had already fallen quite behind. After Aunt Faith’s surgery, Jeff sent out an update to his friends, which said, among other things,

Beyond that my freaking birthday is next saturday and I could really really use time to see a bunch of people. I was just adjusting to my dad’s death and trying to get myself back together this past weekend when i got the call about my mom.

It may not sound significant, but those two sentences were remarkable in that Jeff asked for help, rather than giving it. I gave my MLS ticket to a friend in the hope that he could sell it, and e-mailed Jeff’s old roommate and best friend, Tony. I set it up with Tony to stay with him and his wife, and didn’t tell Jeff I was coming. Tony suggested Jeff come over early to go out for dinner before heading to the bar where everyone was to meet up. Jeff’s double take expression when he saw me was priceless, and the entire evening, from dinner on, was great. Tony observed that it was the most relaxed he had seen Jeff in about a year.

As for me, it was great to know that I was able to give something to him, and I didn’t miss the game at all.

Jeff with Emelia in North Carolina