Another year gone by.

Okay, not quite. But 2014 (pronounced twenty fourteen) is looming large on the horizon.
Casey left yesterday after being with us from Christmas Eve. Peggie celebrated her birthday Saturday and we went to the movies. We were again able to skype with GajT while opening gifts on Christmas morning. I must again express my gratitude for the techie geniuses who developed skype in time for us to use it with our distant family.
Oh, my pneumonia is cleared up.
We recently saw "Saving Mr. Banks," which made us get "Mary Poppins," a movie neither Peggie nor I had ever seen from beginning to end. Over the years we have seen pieces of it, but never the entire thing. Strange, I know. We also saw "Walter Mitty." That was okay, but the result was that we want to go to Iceland.
We originally thought we would begin the upstairs remodel this coming week, but that is now scheduled for March. We are engaged in selecting tiles, cabinets, hardware, lighting, and paint. It is good to have a little more time for that.
Just a silly observation.... I realize that it has taken seven years for me to adjust my thinking from "school years," to "calendar years."
What the heck?  At the risk of giving ammunition to my sister and other smart-alecks, the use of "two thousand" in expressing any year beyond '09 rubs me like fingernails on chalkboard. I don't know why. It is really a non-important issue. I can trace it to Stanley Kubrik who made 'two thousand one a space odyssey' followed by 'twenty ten the odyssey continues' way before the rest of us thought about how to say the years of the twenty first century.

We actually had an adventure

Yesterday, Peggie and I went to Scottsdale for a follow-up on my pneumonia. It is not gone. So, I have new antibiotics and a new inhaler and instructions to get plenty of rest and drink plenty of liquids and come back in two weeks.
We took Casey's birthday presents and called to take her to dinner to celebrate. She had a date with a friend to screen a movie due out in January. He has a part-time job that involves getting audiences for events like that. So, while we were having dinner, he arranged for us to see the movie, as well. He did the whole thing wordlessly on his smart phone while we ate and talked. The name of the movie is "Lone Survivor" and stars Mark Wahlberg. All I can say is that it is a true story of a SEAL mission in Afghanistan. It is very bloody and intense. But, I recommend it to all for the heroism. Think "Band of Brothers" and "Saving Private Ryan."

When is a cold not a cold?

When it is pneumonia.
The cold I came home from NY with morphed into pneumonia. We stopped at our Dr.'s office in Scottsdale on our way to Thanksgiving in Cottonwood last Wed. Peggie had the appointment, but I asked if they could check out my persistent cough while I was there.
Yep. They could. And I got a breathing treatment, X-ray, shot, anti-biotics and cough medicine. My sneak-in visit was longer than Peggie's scheduled one. I have to go back tomorrow to see how all of that worked.
Aside from the pneumonia, Bill, how was your holiday?
We had a good time. We stayed with (brother) Don and Karin at the house they bought in February. It has a wonderful view of the Sedona red rocks. They have a recliner sofa, so I could sleep in a semi-upright position. Better for the cough. We got to go jeeping twice. We chased around Sat. night trying to find somebody with coverage of the Territorial Cup (ASU v UA football) on TV. Nobody had it. The cable provider in the Verde Valley doesn't provide that channel. Casey was bummed. She has season tickets, and would have been at the game, live, if she wasn't in Cottonwood. At half time, Peggie was able to find a  live-stream. So we watched the Sun Devils absolutely cream the Wildcats. Good news is; if the Devils win one more game, they get to play in the Rose Bowl.
The train derailment in NY was on the line that Greg rides, but was not his train. Still, beginning yesterday, he has to find alternative ways to get to work until they get it cleaned up and repaired.

What is going on?

Have I mentioned The Conspiracy to Frustrate Me that is carried out by nameless, faceless, unknown people somewhere?
I like Wildcats basketball. I like watching the games on TV. I like recording the games so I can fast forward commercials and half-time. Before the season started, I checked the scheduled broadcasts to be sure my cable agreement included all the channels to be used. Two channels, accounting for three games, are not on my plan. Okay. That's why sports bars exist.
Fast forward:  Miraculously, I found that I could watch those two channels, and I was able to set up recordings. No need to go out and spend money. The first of the three games everything went well.
The NIT (I think National Invitational Tournament) is a prestigious pre-season event to which the Wildcats were invited. In fact, the first round of two games were hosted right here at McHale Stadium. I attempted to replay my recorded game about 30 minutes into it. WHAT? It came up as Not Allowed. When I set up the recording, I was receiving and watching that channel. Now, it is not there. Aarrrgh!!
Well, I had noticed on the schedule that it could be live-streamed. It took me a few minutes to figure that out, but was able to watch the remainder of the game that way. So, I canceled the following game and planned to live-stream it, as well. Except, the next game time came, and the tabs and links on the schedule were different. After 15 frustrating minutes (see conspiracy title above) during which I exercised, but did not exhaust my vocabulary, it finally became clear that the live-stream was blocked. Why? What was different?
Never mind. There was a link to listen to the game. So, that is what we did. Listen. As in, no pictures. Remember those days? The World Series on radio. No need to know the color of uniforms, just good play-by-play announcing.
Well, I've been spoiled. I like seeing the action. I like instant replays. I like stopping whenever I want to go to the bathroom without missing anything. I would like TV commentators to commentate less and call the action better, but that ain't gonna happen. I would like the games to be broadcast on channels I get without paying the most expensive premium, but I don't think that is going to happen either.
I am certain the conspirators have access to this blog, and are having a good chuckle right now.

The cold.

There is the cold you feel. Haven't had that yet.
There is the cold you get. Got it.
It was teasing me with its introduction on the plane ride home last Saturday. Julian had it. Greg got it. I smugly thought my recent flu shot would shield me. Hah. Cold viruses (should it be viri?) are not affected by inoculations for flu. (it took me four tries to get inoculation spelled correctly)
So I got it. Got it good. It peaked, I hope, on Wednesday. I had to reschedule my teeth cleaning, and decided to sleep sitting up in the recliner. The recliner I had decided to get rid of. Maybe keep it. We had to leave the TSO concert last night because of my cough. Annoying, that.
But the Wildcats were playing the season opener, so the evening wasn't a total loss, entertainment wise. You can cough all you want at a game on TV. Of course, I don't want to cough at all. Anyway, speaking of the Wildcats, I predict a winning season.  PAC 12 champs, with a trip to the Final Four. The player talent is there. This season is the litmus test for the coach. He has no excuse this year. It is lay the foundation for a Lute-esque dynasty, or settle in as a second-rater. I am pulling for you, Sean. It is time to do TV commercials all by yourself, without Lute doing back-up.
Yes, I am doing all the right things to beat the cold. Plenty of rest, liquids, echinacea and Nyquil.

We have returned once again

New York is beautiful this time of year. We had good weather the whole time. We are glad not to have leaves constantly falling and having to be raked. Actually, everybody in Greg's neighborhood uses blowers. And the blowers are handled by the yard guys once a week. I like it.
We got to have nearly unlimited Julian time, and shuttled Ariana to her myriad activities. In addition to school, she has Japanese school on Saturday, she has ballet class, violin lessons, music skills class, suzuki method lesson, and she practices violin and piano every day. Julian pulls himself up to stand at furniture and walls. He learned to go up stairs, but hasn't mastered going down yet.
Greg was off work the first week, so Peggie helped him clean up the overgrown, abandoned garden while I entertained Julian. We took a three day weekend to Auburn and the Finger Lakes. Greg and Tomoko tried various wines, while Peggie and I watched the kids. Many of the wineries are interesting for the architecture and art, as well as the wine. There was an art quilt (really, fiber art) that opened the Sunday we were there, and one of Peggie's fiber artist friends had a piece in it. The show was quite impressive. And next door was a museum showcasing the area history. Ariana and I enjoyed it first, then brought Peggie over. It was fun for Ariana to lead Grandma through and point out what interested her. She also got to play some tunes on the old piano in one of the rooms. The Auburn area (including Seneca Falls) has a history of civil rights activism. Harriet Tubman lived there. Also, William H. Seward, Secretary of State under Lincoln and Johnson, who purchased Alaska, lived there.
Peggie and I went into Manhattan for two days and a night. We really love the city. We went to the 9/11 Memorial. We walked the High Line for its entire length at sunset. The High Line is an abandoned railroad that carried freight to the west side of midtown. It is elevated, so has no road crossings. It is essentially a mile long linear park.  It is planted with all kinds of flowers, shrubs, and trees, has benches, and has art of all kinds. Street musicians play at several locations, though they were packing up when we went through.
We got half-price tickets to see After Midnight on Broadway. It is a retrospective of the music heard at The Cotton Club in Harlem in the thirties. No play, or story line, just the music of Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, and others. And dancing! Wow!
We also walked across Central Park to see a quilt show at the American Folk Art Museum. Then we went to see Gravity in IMAX 3-D. So realistic, we actually ducked the space debris.
On Halloween, we volunteered in Ariana's kindergarten class. We helped at a station where the kids beaded a necklace, then went along on the costume parade through the halls. All the students lined the hallways and cheered as the Kinders and Firsts paraded through in costume. Then we went Trick-or-Treating with Ariana that night. There is a neighborhood in Briarcliff Manor that does Halloween the way Winterhaven does Christmas in Tucson. It was packed. Of course, we had four adults for two children. Ariana was the pink Power Ranger, and Julian was the world's cutest Superman. I took him to one of the houses for his first treat, which I ate for him. Shh. Don't tell him. It was fun to see Ariana greeting kids from her school as we went around. Reminded us of the days Greg and Casey went around our neighborhood.

Going Dark for a while

Saturday, we are flying to NY. We will be there for two weeks, and I don't anticipate having access or interest in posting. It will be our first visit to GajT's new house and we are excited. Julian is mobile now, so that will add an element of interest and maybe some exercise.
We have actually been busy, sometimes we have been busy trying to avoid actual work. There are chores to do, repairs to make, projects to get to. Oh, well. We are retired. We will get to what needs doing. The rest will wait.
The Red Blue game was fun. Visiting with Janice was fun. Seeing the Wildcats playing makes us excited for the season. When was that not true?
When we get back, I will try to catch up on this. We are hoping all our adventures will be the good kind.