Friday Check In

Sounds like we are all just limbo dancing our way out of 2020... lets hope 2021 has a lot of new starts in it...

Another Friday winding down. Has been a lovely hot week here much walking was done. The doggo was happy.

Nothing much to report here. Same old routine. New vinyl comes to the house new books. I go out do a bit of food shopping. I have seriously curtailed the baking as I was eating the results.

How is everyone doing. Anything new and so exciting I am using only the very edge of my seat to listen.

Stay safe my friends...

It's starting to cool down here in Ohio.
But, all is right with the world. The Buckeyes are back.
Look out Clemson and Bama.

Yup, I'm stuck in a similar rut right now as well. I'm about to order a few movie collections from the TCM site. Some awesome, some silly. Among the silly, are the complete Ma and Pa Kettle and Francis the Talking Mule collections. Because some times Ya just need a little simple silly fun.

We hope to nail down an exact retirement date this week. But maybe not. Slow and careful are our watch words through this process. Some time in November is the goal. But it could be as late as early next year.

I hope everyone is safe and well.

Space I can't wait until "we" get our new acreage. So word to the wise we gonna need some space for the flat track ...just saying... I will supply the bikes and we gonna get Jeff out there with us cos if we doing something foolish we all going out together....

oh, Sign me up, Seamus.

Got the car back finally, so despite the Stay At Home order, I feel a little less confined now that I can actually go somewhere (like the grocery store) or take out food without having to beg the neighbors for a ride. I hate depending on others when I feel I'm capable of doing things for myself.

The novel has topped its first 100 pages now with more developments every day. Keep a positive thought for its continued unravelling and eventual publication; not that I'm prejudiced, but I think it's very funny.

I'm reading two books now--the biography of Norma Shearer, which is fascinating, and *Rage* by Bob Woodward which induces the title in moral disdain. I've pretty well finished up the Alice White run of movies now, so will switch soon to Joe E. Brown work and some more current entries. I have Neal Morse's new vinyl coming as well as his *Grand Experiment* records.

Not much more beyond our schizophrenic Michigan weather, which given the choice I will take over just about any other climate right now.
Be safe and be blessed.
Jeff

WOO HOO!!!, tentatively...

All of the hurdles have passed except for the property closing. That's scheduled for October 2nd. I'll be officially retired by October 27th. and we should be moved into the new home by the 30th. Of course I'm waiting for Murphy's Law to assert it's self. And the new accelerated schedule could be slowed down again. But right now everything looks good.

I hope everyone else can find a reason or two to celebrate as well.

Be safe and be well my friends.

Brilliant news Space. I am packing my bags as we speak. Have to fill a shipping container with bikes and cars. I am bringing the 63 vette so prep for burnouts.

Lots of work related stuff this week and other financial stuff that was positive so yes reason to be pleased also.

Same weekly routine going on so glad for that as I am used to this slow floating now.

Hope everyone is safe and happy.

Sending out prayers and good vibes to Tom and Carolyn.

Good news all around, Space. With retirement you'll be in even hotter water with TCM (and the Mrs.).

Movies and vinyl showed up today--some Norma Shearer, Cary Grant, Joe E. Brown and Neal Morse on record.

Prayers of support go out to Tom and Carolyn, as well as continued blessings to Space and Seamus and everyone else who will remain safe and moderately sane in the midst of whirling chaos.
Cheers.
Jeff

I didn't realize that we could go public with Tom and Carolyn. But my thoughts and prayers are with both of you. I'm hoping for the best possible outcome. And please keep us informed when there's news.

Boss, you'll find a landing pad for auto-gyros and Vtol craft on the east side of the property. Larger craft should use the landing field to the south. Don't land in the north field. That's a natural banth habitat. Landing would be fine. Debarking could be somewhat problematic. Also, there's currently no available garage space for guest vehicles. But we'll be adding a detached garage very soon.

Jeff, I don't need more time to get into hot water. I stay in hot water 24/7. Life's too short to let it be boring. Live, laugh and run like Hell. That's how you live an interesting life.

Dear folks,
Sorry I haven't written lately...
It's been a very busy few weeks with lots of OTR stuff going on, including a disc discovery and some other curious matters. Thankfully, we're both doing well and enjoying the change to Fall weather here in North Carolina. It's one of the reasons we moved here eight years ago with its extended Spring and Fall and limited Winters.

Today is kind of a big deal. The COVID-cancelled MidAtlantic Nostalgia Convention (Martin Grams' annual event) is trying to pull it together with a virtual convention. They're replaying some of their best guest interviews (I'm listening to the Roy Thinnes chat about The Invaders right now). I'm on semi-live with a recorded Casey, Crime Photographer presentation and it will be followed by live video Q&A from here at this very keyboard.

More details of things soon -- some big Suspense news about to be made in a few days!

CASEY CRIME PHOTOGRAPHER presentation today, September 26 at 1 pm Eastern, during the virtual Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. The event is on the following Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MidAtlanticNostalgiaConvention
The slide presentation has been pre-recorded and moves along quickly, and is packed lots of information and listening suggestions. BUT, I will be taking Q&A LIVE (on video if all goes well) immediately after, beginning at about 1:40pm. You can send questions during the presentation, too. This way we can start answering questions right away.
BE SURE TO REFRESH YOUR SCREEN at 1pm to ensure you can catch the event on time. You may need to scroll down a little bit to see the post where it will be streamed.

ooh the Roy Thinnes chat about The Invaders sounds interesting.

Good to see you are keeping busy and safe. Let us know more about the events at the virtual convention.

Folks was a busy week. I looked up and it was Friday.

Charlie Mingus vinyl came today and got it on now for the perfect Friday vibe. Sunny and nice today did a 6 click walk with the doggo and back home for fresh tomato sambos for lunch.

Other new vinyl Hannah Georgas brilliant album and Kathleen Edwards also brilliant album. Rush Clockwork Angels which is beyond brilliant. The last album that Neal Peart the drummer wrote. What a great album to finish a career on.

Lots of good books came. Reading hilarious book about building stuff in your shed by Henry Cole. All so true. Nothing more relaxing than working on a project in your shed with no time limits not rules. Just you building stuff. Fixes your soul. Highly recommend the book.

Stay safe and regale me with what's happening ...

Fiddlin' paperwork, financial decisions, moving plans and everything that goes along with the aforementioned. Not much time for the fun stuff. But in about 3 1/2 weeks... SCHOOL'S OUT!

That's what I yelled when I retired, Space.

This weekend it's clean-up time: sorting, tossing, stuffing (the washer and dryer), stacking (movies and books), and snoring after it all.

Life is a carnival.
Jeff

Happy belated Friday 10/2

Gosh things have been busy. Hope you caught the Casey presentation for the Virtual 2020 MidAtlantic Nostalgia Convention https://youtu.be/QqsPHkdBMaY

Big doin's in the NE... an elderly OTR collecting pioneer needs to clean out his reels and things as he is going into skilled nursing. His discs have been collected by one of Cobaltia's own, but unfortunately there is little of value there so far. The big haul, however, will be the hundreds+ half track 7.5ips reels of recordings from disc from very early in the hobby. Arrangements are being set to retrieve them and they will end up stored near yours truly. We will be asking for $$ contributions to cover their shipping here and the storage space... still figuring how to do that and what orgs can be of best assistance. Will keep Cobaltia posted...

The Suspense stuff keeps piling up. Three months ago, my upgrades were done. Now I'm being flooded with them. The big event last week was the release of the missing episode Fury and Sound. There's info on the thread. It is such a wacky program that anyone listening is guaranteed to hate it. The somewhat secret background of it being a roast of Bill Spier changes it all. There were lots of informational posts about it on Facebook and I'm working to build a webpage that has all of the details.

Mrs Greybelt is still having a slow recovery and gets evaluated again on Oct 12. The scar tissue cells that accumulate changes its overall shape and affecting fine aspects of the distorted vision. I told my karate teacher that she sees like a funhouse mirror in that eye, and images are elongated. "Great," he says, "she thinks I'm a tall, skinny man." So this has its moments... The last evaluation showed the scar tissue changing but also shows ongoing healing of the nerve bundle to the optic nerve. No sign of the much desired cataract. Gosh that seems so strange to say that. Day by day, like so many of the things we deal with...

Working on the Casey book and really want to get that onto Amazon in November. So far so good.

Been working on digitizing reels and some of them have posed great challenges. One reel just refused to cooperate no matter how much I baked it. I posted on the OTRR FB page and asked for advice. Turns out that some of it is just plain lack of moisture in the reel oxide coating, and this may have been a case where baking would not improve it. This is what I did, so others will not have to suffer. It did work! The procedure had to be done for the second side as well. Got 2 Duffy's upgrades of some really bad recordings (so we now have less bad recordings) and 1 Duffy that had fallen out of circulation from years ago. Now I know for the next time...

Here it is, Friday, and there are big doings ahead. First, a real haircut by a real barber. Mrs Greybelt has done her best with the electric trimmer but today's the day that the real thing happens.

Tomorrow a basement in Pennsylvania gets emptied out of 3,000 reels of tape and on Sunday, if all goes well, they end up here. A massive undertaking that will keep many of us busy for months and months and months. Details will emerge as each box is open. The contradictory emotions of happiness and dread of the tasks ahead seem appropriate.

I finally got all the notes together about the recently released missing Suspense episode. They can be viewed here https://sites.google.com/view/suspense-collectors-companion/click-for-home-arrow-for-more/fury-sound-the-strangest-suspense-episode. Did some work on the Casey book the other day. More work needed there as I run all of these reels.

Monday is eye doctor day for Mrs GB -- things seem to have stabilized since the last visit, but the imaging will tell the tale.

We have been enjoying Britbox and AcornTV these past months. Lately we have been watching Waking the Dead which has a rich complexity that makes worthwhile viewing. We finished Brokenwood Mysteries which was great fun, finding the happy medium of simplicity and quirkiness and somewhat endearing characters, fit for a relaxing end to a busy day. We have heard that Vera is back in production after its COVID delay.

Busy days ahead. Hope everyone is well.

Great update GB. Looking forward to a report on what is on those reels and if you find Jimmy Hoffa I want to be the first to know.

Sending good vibes for Mrs. GB's eye test is positive news.

Same old here with new vinyl arriving weekly with new books.

Work is ticking along nicely as is the at home routine. Covid cases have started to uptick again so we are worried about that. But we stay away from people so are fine.

Stay safe everyone...

Is it Friday again? Where did that week go?

I'm also curious as to the goodies to be found in those boxes. I hope there's a lot of accurate documentation that came with the boxes. And I'd love to hear that a few "missing" episodes popped up at some point in the sifting/sorting process. As always, all the positive vibes I can muster are being flung your way, in hopes of a positive report for you and Mrs. Greybelt.

Boss, could you offer a few specifics about the vinyl you've received lately? What faves have you gotten your greedy hands on?

In my world, we've closed on the new property and everything retirement related is green and go. The big move is planned for the 27th./28th. We should be in the new digs and mostly settled before the end of the month. I may get to freak out a whole new set of neighbors for Halloween this year.

Be safe and well everyone.

So much happening for everyone in Cobaltia, and I stand alone in finding nothing expansive to report.

It will be a weekend filled with ravenous cleaning until Sunday when Number Two Son and his wife come to celebrate his birthday, closing in on his mid-thirties. We have some goodies for him--a vinyl version of Neal Morse's *Jesus Christ The Exorcist* (not blasphemous as it sounds, but a musical investigation of Jesus's powers), a graphic novel of *Slaughterhouse-Five*, and a Blu-Ray to augment their Disney collection, *Song Of The South* (1946), a beautiful clean copy. (We'll have the obligatory deconstruction of it over dinner.)

On my vinyl front I just picked up Neal Morse's *Sola Gratia*, a musical investigation of St. Paul, an autographed copy of Texas's *The Conversation* (Signed by Sharleen Spiteri) and a couple Beach Boys classic albums.

That's it here. Quietly biding our time until the election to determine if we're going to move to Ireland or not. . .
Safety and blessings to all.
Jeff

Space I will my latest vinyl conquests to the Hi-Fi den so as not to clutter up here and to remind me I should be posting my vinyl stuff there.

Jeff you should post your vinyl triumphs as well. And any other Cobaltian who wants to share records.

It's Friday again! What a busy week!

Mrs GB's eye exam went well-- all seems to have stabilized, no further scar tissue accumulation, and still slow healing. Next visit in February where they may make a decision on a corrective lens to make the outside of the vision less bad but won't affect the center vision distortion of that eye. That was Monday.

Sunday, Martin Grams and his nephew arrived early at a storage unit with 300 discs and 3000 reels from a 1960s/70s collector in Pennsylvania that through various providential occurrences over these six weeks or so ended up in my possession. OTRR funded the transportation and Martin donated his driving, about 20 hrs over 2 days, and the help of one of our fine Cobaltians who worked diligently to catalog all of the discs. The discs are being dispersed around the country to some of OTRdom's best dubbers. I'm gradually sorting reels, finding 4 new Whistler, some Suspense and Inner Sanctum upgrades, and I've only opened about 1/5 of the boxes! It will be a busy few weeks here! There will be news about this for months and months to come!

Weather has been fantabulous here as the slow encroachment of Fall in NC continues. Back to karate classes inside on Saturdays with 8-10 of us spread across a basketball court, unable to test our blocking and striking but working on our forms and posture and stepping and our weapons (karate's weapons are mainly farm implements since the Okinawan royal family prohibited the ownership of weapons of any kind, so there's impressive innovation in simple things of farming and fishing tools... and they prohibited the teaching of karate except to themselves!).

But I digress... interesting thread on the OTRR FB page with 94-yr old collector Dick Judge turning over his collection and equipment to much younger collector Shawn Wells, who was thrilled by the entire thing. Dick is still very active but thought it was time to do it before something happened to him and someone else made a decision he would not be able to make. He was one of the hobby's pioneers... and thankfully still with us and still collecting and still listening.

Great update GB. Really interesting info on the stash you just got so plenty of updates on that please. Always amazing that something new arrives and more lost shows are found. Great news on Mrs GB. Lense replacement is very advanced now so good vibes for that.

For me its the same mixture of working from home and before all the Covid stuff I had already made the transition so I am setup pretty nicely. One thing that I have done is cooked and baked WAY more than I did and that has been great. I stick to my sanity saving regime of walking and exercising. Eating healthy and taking care of myself. In Ireland Covid is once again on the upswing so a major concern to keep safe and sound. I am pretty optimistic that by mid 2021 we will have a safe vaccine and we can begin the rebuilding and hopefully lessons learned we do a better job of it.

I have started posting again in the HiFi Den so please people get in have a look and share your record collections as I am seriously always on the hunt for new things to listen to.

More vinyl and books arrived as is standard ops here. Love to read and listen to music. Had a bit of a laugh here the other day. Some how I forgot to check my emails properly for two weeks. I get alerts on my watch. I looked at those and not the others. Had to spend a whole day answering 168 emails. Thing is I never missed the darn thing at all. I looked and was oh crap. I just will not tether myself to a constant device. I use for emergency and have on when out. But at home now I am less and less concerned with updates. I unsubscribed from about 80% of the feeds I had. I have two curated no noise news services now and I avoid like the plague all the BS news. Have no social media at all. Maybe I am going to be missing stuff but I have the sneaking suspicion there is nothing to miss. And celebrity influencers ... Oh vey... if Covid taught me anything is these people are vacuous nutbags.

Halloween movie marathon is here, so far I have been averaging two Halloween movies a day. Look here in Mars Place thread I have a Halloween thread on movies. Jump and post your faves. I am listening to a Halloween show everyday. Life of Reilly and Gildy so funny their Halloween shows. Another fave is Aldrich Family Halloween so funny. Gildy and the haunted house so funny. Maybe funniest of all is Life of Reilly. Post any funny ones you like.

Stay safe and sound my friends...

It's great to hear positive news about Mrs. GB. I'll keep my fingers crossed for even more good news in the future. I don't want to add more work to your OTR adventure Greybelt. But if you'd like to set up a string specifically for updates on the disk and tape stash, please feel free to do so. Many of us are excited to hear about any and all discoveries that may turn up.

Boss, I'm not supposed to know about it, but I'm going to be receiving a piece of "collectable" vinyl by the Beatles as a thank you gift. I have no idea what "collectable" means but I'll let you know if it's anything interesting. Of course that means that Crazy Ol' Space Cadet will need to buy a turntable system. And it may open the floodgates for a whole new collection of vinyl.

Busy, busy, busy. Planning, making decisions and packing. But, it's exciting. And we've tentatively scheduled the Hawaii trip for May.

Be well my friends.

Well, Space, you know by this time everything in America is Collectible. I still have a Kellogg's Frosted Flakes box in mint condition, bearing Tony The Tiger in a Detroit Tigers uniform, celebrating their win of the World Series. As Don McLean says, the more you pay, the more it's worth.

Our novel has been keeping me busy, along with the daily commentaries on movies. I might direct folks over to The Balcony for thoughts on some vintage "Horror" movies or Pre-Code Hollywood fun. (I will need to set aside time to contribute to the Halloween Movies and Vinyl threads. . . . so much time, so little to do.)

Like all good Cobaltians I'll be keeping the prayers flowing out for Mrs. GB (and the Mr. as well, as caregivers need help too). And the possibility of new shows makes me giddy with excitement and anticipation.

More stuff to come.
Be well and blessed, all.
Jeff