Friday Check In

I do enjoy Endeavour. The stories are well done. And I love Inspector Thursday.

Its good to see you back. I haven't seen you in a while. Whats new?

I've been plodding on trying to fill in the gaps in my WW2 news collection along with my favourite big band shows - ONS, Spotlight Bands etc. It's become harder and harder to find fills but must keep trying.

I also purchased a transcription turntable and have spent quite a bit of time over the last few years acquiring and transferring ETs for a variety of different shows.

A year ago I started having medical problems which basically stopped me from doing anything and I lost motivation completely. But now …………. I'm back and ready to rumble.

Thanks for the comment.

Welcome Home CompleteDayMan. You've been missed. I hope all is well in your world.

Yes Seamus. That's the 2019 Indian Scout. It's been decades since I've spent any real time "in the saddle." But I do occasionally dream about gettin' another bike. And it would definitely be an Indian Scout. But if I could find a way to make it somethin' like this one, OH BABY!!!

This Saturday I'll be @ SPERDVAC and making a Suspense presentation! The trip to California has morphed into mainly a family reunion-ish trip so I will only "almost" attend the SPERDVAC convention and will still never really have been at one from end to end. Their recreations and the like that they have scheduled look so enticing and are always well done, I'm sorry I'll be missing them. But there's always next year for that (I hope!). Hoping to get more collector interviews while I am there.

CompleteDayMan really good to have you back. Sorry you have a hard time of it, but glad to hear you are back at it. Cobalt Club is a great place to unwind and we will keep you motivated.

And I always enjoyed your WWII contributions. Keep on coming in for the Friday night updates we are always happy to hear what everyone is doing and share. Think of us all sitting around in front of a roaring fire in leather club chairs enjoying good conversation and lashings of Ginger Beer.

Space nothing quite like an Indian motorcycle was so happy when Polaris revived the brand. Iconic legendary all the way. I boast 55 Indian Motorcycle T-shirts and have super rare Indian sweater from the old days of Indian.

Thanks Seamus.
Today the wife and I are going to see the long-awaited 'Midway'. The bar for me was set very high by the original movie decades ago so we'll have to see. I felt very let down by the much touted 'Pearl Harbor' some years ago - fell way short of Tora, Tora, Tora IMHO.
I'll report back tomorrow.

It's gonna be a long weekend. Stomach bug. UGH! But at least I'll be able to start catchin' up on my movie backlog.

Alexa, bring me a drink.

Beulah, peel me a grape.

More movies coming this weekend, a handful of new oldies plus a great comfort film from Space's good graces. Unlike my friend CDman, I have won a couple auctions from beatin' my feet down at e Bay, so they're coming in now. So it'll be a weekend of laundry, paperwork, movies and packages.

I'll be sending a fresh bottle of Ma Findley's Sasparilla and Gopher Sulphur Elixr over to Space, to help him with his stomach. The waist is a terrible thing to mind.
Jeff

Howdy folks was a long day for me. Moving houses to down by the sea in Wicklow. Beautiful area. So I am plum worn out.

Got some more vinyl. Fleetwood Mac 75 on white vinyl and various blues and jazz albums. Was a nice day sunny and mild. Fall in Ireland means nice mild days interspersed with days of raining buckets.

Relaxing now watching classic cartoons with the wife. 3 hours of fun on Amazon Prime. a nice way to unwind.

Stomach bugs are the sh*ts pun intended.

Yes check back in after you see Midway always love any of the special effects around the planes. Love to see the dog fights and above the deck action.

Jeff that eBay is addictive I won't announce publicly the amount of auctions I have participated in and I can stop anytime I want. Nope don't have a problem at all. Cos I want to own all the vinyl. It ain't but a thing.

My mother moved to Wicklow to live with her sisters after my father died. They were just off Main St. in Bray so I spent many a day taking hikes along the sea front and over Bray Head. Her family originally came from Cong in Co. Mayo so I had lots of visits in that neck of the woods as well. Beautiful country Seamus.

Now on to the new Midway. It is pretty good and well worth seeing, but in my opinion I think I still like the original better in a straight comparison, for three main reasons. It told the actual battle of Midway better, the acting was better plus it had footage of the real battle scenes included at a time when computer graphics was just in its infancy.

Having said that the new version is very well done. There is minimal love story in it thank goodness, the graphics are fantastic and the action is almost non-stop. Before seeing the movie, I had a hard time visualizing Woody Harrelson as Chester Nimitz but he didn't do a bad job at all. My main criticism is that if you didn't know how the battle actually unfolded, you might have been hard pressed to figure out what was actually going on.

I am down the road from Bray in Greystones. Bit of an artist community down there but nice and tranquil. Lovely to hear you have good memories of the place. Its still a bit untouched by time. Loads of book stores and little cafes. Individual shops not malls or box stores. Its nice to be down by the sea again. But far enough back where was are not constantly cleaning the salt off everything.

Midway sounds good for the effects. I am thinking in the original most of the flying was actual pilots flying those planes. The chaos of it all when they are in full battle mode is insane. Pilots flying by their skill and the seat of their pants. Truly an amazing generation.

Thanks for the update.

Today we went to see Ford vs Ferrari. Highly recommend it. Bale and Damon are awesome as Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby and some of the action and dialog are hilarious. Car racings pics have come a long way.

Friday night check in. I am beat. Bone tired. Did a ton of work at the new house. Gonna veg some Flix then hit the hay. Its a windy, rainy night in Greystones and its got that sound of mystery. Tomorrow morning the dog and I will ocean and walk the beach to recharge. Then off to hunt to vinyl.

How's everyone doing?

CDM that movie is top of my list.

Catching up from the California trip. Karate weapons class on Saturday morning, and then a relaxing weekend. There is a Downton Abbey exhibition at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC https://www.biltmore.com/downton/ that we will be visiting next week. Looking forward to it all. And then Thanksgiving is almost upon us!

Fall has finally arrived in Central Florida. I awoke to a brisk wind and 55 degrees. I could do without the wind.

No major plans for the weekend. I promised a friend that I'd replace the 72 pin connector in his old Nintendo system. I'll also teach him the proper way to clean his game cartridges, so that he doesn't just gunk up the new connector. Then we'll probably spend the rest of the day playin' vintage video games. That'll mean I have to drag out my SNES system and pile of rare Adventure/RPG carts. Zelda, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Harvest Moon and The Secret of Mana. Hmmm... we're gonna need snacks. Lots and lots of snacks.

I've started leg two of the movie marathon, starting with Post #202. I've reached the halfway point of Stephen King's *Doctor Sleep* and so far like it as much as *The Shining* which is saying something.

Tonight is another Christmas Festival on Hallmark, so the Ghemrats TV will be taken over by the Mrs. (I will probably hibernate in the bedroom with my movies. . . unless our dog won't let me. . .) A final projected bill for finishing the basement comes in on Monday with work to restore it with patched paneling and new bookshelves will commence soon after.

Actually fearful that the weekend Christmas caroling on the local radio station is growing on me. . . I laugh at loud at Dean Martin's rendition of *Rudolph* when he consistently call him Rudy.
Jeff

We had our weekend this week! On Wednesday and Thursday we went into the North Carolina mountains to Asheville and visited Biltmore, the estate of Cornelius Vanderbilt. They are having an exhibition of costumes and sets used on Downton Abbey. It was great fun and I recommend it to fans of the show to see if it travels near them. https://www.downtonexhibition.com/ Other locations have not been announced yet for after it leaves Biltmore in early April.

This weekend I'll be working on finalizing some more sets and getting ready for Thanksgiving.

We finish The Crown tonight on Netflix... having trouble figuring out what to binge next...

You guys--world travelers all. The biggest trip I've taken lately was when I misjudged how many steps led into the basement. One day maybe I'll drive twenty-five miles down the road and climb Mount Pleasant, MI.

This weekend I'll continue with Stephen King's novel *Doctor Sleep* which is SO much better than his last novel, *The Visitor* (good enough for a short story but not a 600-page novel, and it shows). We'll also be bingeing on the six or seven new episodes of *Mad About You* with the original cast. It has always been one of our favorites, because the Buchmans seems so much like Mrs. Ghemrats and myself.

That's about it, except for more movies (I'll have to wait for cheese until the basement is finished and I can unpack the several hundred other movies that got moved out, Space). But the countdown to Thanksgiving is a joy.
Jeff

I thought the first two seasons of Mad About You were some of the best and craftily written TV comedy ever... and then it seemed to drift off into just occasionally funny lines trapped inside some forced plotlines. There seemed to be a beginning-to-end fullness of that first season. I guess we can't get the new version and will have to wait for it to show up somewhere. From what I can tell, only Spectrum customers can get it (we're Internet-only customers, so it won't happen for us) for now, so maybe it will end up on Prime or Netflix one day. But those first two seasons are a real joy to watch -- and I think it would have been a great radio program... but we'd miss the full and engaging performance of Murray.

Hey folks. Still working on fully moving in to new house. Gotta say this place is way cosy and comfy. Great location and down by the sea. Nice place to live. Tv's are setup the broadband is fined tuned so got all my shows. Watched the Mandalorian on Disney + and really enjoyed that show. Got some new vinyl in the mail and some new books so life is pretty good. Enjoyed all the updates.

Jeff I have been all over Michigan. A lovely state my fave was the UP amazing landscape and lovely towns. Toured the great lakes and really liked he smaller towns.

Grey sounds like you had a good time.

And... I'm back. The weekend to this point has been all about a celebration of my aunt's life. But I'm back now and ready for some zany adventures. If it wasn't so frimpin' windy here, I'd go jumpin' today. Oh well, somethin' will turn up. If nuthin' else, I'll go to the range and poke holes in paper.

Because of the US holiday tomorrow, does today count as psychological Friday?

It sure does how is the training going?

Well you guys can go ahead and get a jump on the weekend if Ya want. But I've gotta work straight through the holiday. Can Ya believe it?  I've gotta overindulge on a schedule.