Friday Check In

Folks its been a bit of a crap week work wise. Just one of this things.

Same old routine different day.

Wishing all our American members a Happy Thanksgiving and on to a better new year of hope and dreams.

Stay safe my friends

We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving with half of our family (Covid conspired to keep our Number One Son half a country away). A little dusting of snow and good fellowship, food and humor.

I lost (for a day) the left lens of my glasses and as such couldn't see much up close, so stopped writing commentaries for a time, and couldn't work on the novel, so just enjoyed company and tryptophan-induced naps.

More snow on the horizon on Monday.
Be well and blessed, my friends.
Jeff

Just another boring/exciting week here. Boring, in that the routine doesn't vary much. Exciting, in that we're getting the house and property in order. We're looking forward to our oldest son and daughter-in-law visiting in March.

I smoked a 12 lb. turkey for Thanksgiving. But since it's just the wife and me, most of it went into the freezer. The wife put a "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree on an end table, so the Christmas decorations are completed.

Now, I need a nap.

A busy week folks. As we roll to end of year I have project I have to finish for launch in January 2021 so I enjoy being busy as it makes the day roll by. We will hopefully be rolling out the vaccine in January as well and I will be first in line getting jabs in both arms just to sure. Happy thats coming.

Slowed down my vinyl deluge as it's amazing how quick you can get up over 600 albums and not know where they all came from. Slowed the books down too as I am cranking through them I will hit 200 books read this year so up from the 100 some last year. It's like we were indoors for a pandemic or something.

So what's the plan for December folks. Gonna be a low key xmas here as no one can fly in. I refuse to risk our health and that of others for holiday. We can all celebrate in the summer. We were supposed to do big family/friends thing on the Amalfi coast in Italy so hopefully we can get that back on track. I will be sitting in the sun doing my impression of someone who is not moving just zen chilling.

Stay safe and healthy my friends....

Christmas packages are starting to roll in now, though some stragglers are getting on my nerves since they were ordered many weeks before the ones we've received.

Mighty cold with no snow yet, but we'll be hit, I'm sure. Jasper Fforde's *The Constant Rabbit* is on the reading list--funny and satirically relevant. It inspires work on the novel which is now cresting 220 pages with much more to reveal.

Laundry, grocery shopping and more laundry are in my future.
Be well and safe and blessed, friends.
Jeff

Cold, wet and dreary. That's the way I'd describe today. We got our first snow a few days ago. I expected a few scattered flakes but we ended up with a light dusting. For the wife and me, it was exciting. The first snow we've seen in about 20 years.

Not really looking forward to Christmas. We plan to spend it isolated and alone. The Charlie Brown tree is on the mantle in the living room and that's all the decorating planned at this point. But if the wife decides she wants more, I'll light this place up like a Vegas marquee.

I just ordered a 16 GB thumb drive for a project I'm about to attempt. Converting an underpowered useless old laptop into a Chromebook clone. Mostly, because I just wanna see if I can do it. At best, it'll be a toy to watch videos, surf the web and maybe emulate a few games. Yes, I own physical copies of the games I'll emulate. Most people are amazed, when they find out what I have in my vintage video game collection. All the way back to a Bently Pong deck. And yes, I have a working Atari 2600 Heavy Sixer in the collection. I even have a working set of original wireless Atari 2600 controllers. 23 different consoles and thousands of cartridges.

Be well and be safe my friends.

I'm still sorting through boxes, ranging from high end collectibles to "Why did we lug this crap" brick-a-brack. In with a box of the latter, I found a piece of Cobalt Club history. And I just sat there with a silly grin on my face and a tear in my eye.

There was a time, when the namesake for this area of the club was working as a writer and online editor for that upstanding pillar of journalistic excellence, The Weekly World News. Or as Mars described it to me, "Whoring for a paycheck". And being Mars, he used to poke fun at his buddies here at The Cobalt Club, by writing and publishing outlandish stories in that weekly scandal sheet, using the names of those buddies here as the principles in these stories. In this particular story, he gaffed another pillar and long lost member, OmahaRadio.

I'm including a direct link to the image, because between imgur and the quirkiness of image display here, it cuts the edge off the image. That way, you can read the "story".
https://imgur.com/rtcQHGl

This one's for you Boss.

The days run into each other and somehow I have forgotten to finish my Casey book though I keep editing it. It must be all these reels around here. All I remember is that when I left the self storage area, I had done a good job of taking stuff out, and then when I went back, it seemed like there was more than when I left it. You can't leave those reels alone in the dark for too long, I guess.

Joe Hehn went to Notre Dame and remained a big fan of the football team. There's over 70 reels of ND football games over the years, all recorded at 1-7/8ips. That's okay. The tape noise is covered by the crowd noise. Can't find a taker. I contacted John Miley, now 90, who is the legendary sports collector, and he turned them down as he seems to have most all of them or has no one he knows of interest in them. But Miley did tell me of his interactions with Pat Rispole, the recorder of most all of the WROW Suspense and YTJD. When Rispole died at 53 in 1979, the family called Miley and collector John Furman to take everything away. Which they did. The family wanted no part of the recordings. I guess they wanted their basement back! Miley carted away his stuff and Furman took away the OTR stuff. I met Furman many times at FOTR and we are lucky that he and Rispole were heavy traders. So it is likely all of Rispole's stuff is out. But Miley had Furman's phone number, so therefore Furman must still be alive. Isn't that a law of physics or something? Furman is over 90 and I will attempt a contact to see if Rispole's original reels exist. Miley may be 90, but he's still sharp and still enjoys his recordings very much. He was a delight to talk to.

Getting ready for Christmas, but not pulling out the decorations in any big way. Mrs GB's Nativity from her mother is out, and the most important thing about Christmas has already been done: the cookies! Hands off until 12/25, I'm told, but I did help with QC on the days of the baking.

Just finished Dandelion Dead on BritBox with Michael Kitchen. Funny to see him as a villain of the story, deservedly hanged at the end of it.

Working through Waking the Dead slowly. BB just posted the spinoff Body Farm which we understand did not do well but still may be worth watching. Nothing makes one think about the spirit of Christmas than the solving of grisly murders, it seems.

Good weather this weekend... time for last grilling opportunities of 2020.

Great update GB I enjoy the news on the reels and transfers.

Those cookies sound good. I cooked our traditional fruit cake and its in tins where I add some whiskey every week to keep it tasting moist and rich. Only tiny bit but it makes it.

Same old routine here I am glad 20 is coming to an end. You big house will be getting a clean sweeping and new tenant and huge sigh of relief from the world and vaccine is on the way so lots to be thankful for.

Stay safe my friends...

GB, I get excited every time you post an update. Hoping to hear that a few more "missing" episodes might trickle into circulation.

Boss, I'll believe it when I see it. And when it starts showing results. I have no confidence in any talking head on the boob tube. And less in any politician.

In my world, things are still slowly coming together. The wife and I finally got brand Alabamy driver's licenses. And we started the process to change the tags on the car. That's a more complicated process. Personal projects? I finally got an old Windoze craptop converted over to a Linux Mint system. I may convert another somewhat more capable old laptop over to Ubuntu. I don't have any real end purpose for either system. Just exploring the possibilities.

Be well and have fun kids.

The work is piling up in preparation for the holidays. Number One Son is still waylaid by travel restrictions but will be spending Christmas with a friend in Oregon, while Number Two Son and his lovely wife will be here next Friday for a couple days to celebrate Christmas early.

Work on the novel is going well, 235 pages and counting. It's still funny, so I think we're fulfilling our goal.

A little dusting of snow makes it seem closer to the holidays.
Be safe and sane and blessed, ya'll.
Jeff

The work is piling up in preparation for the holidays. Number One Son is still waylaid by travel restrictions but will be spending Christmas with a friend in Oregon, while Number Two Son and his lovely wife will be here next Friday for a couple days to celebrate Christmas early.

Work on the novel is going well, 235 pages and counting. It's still funny, so I think we're fulfilling our goal.

Visits to the Balcony have been sparse with everything to do, but I have found a a few new/old films to kick back into gear soon.

A little dusting of snow makes it seem closer to the holidays.
Be safe and sane and blessed, ya'll.
Jeff

Jeff we got a dusting of torrential rain and storms coming from Africa. So one day warm the next wet and cold.

Look at the description on this cover. I expect your book to deliver thrills so intense they ARE intolerable.



Ain't that the truth about talking heads most do nothing but some are destructive those ya got boot to the curb. We all live in hope.

Me I can't see shot of 2020 quick enough. What a crappola year. But we survived and will laugh and love and hug another day.

yes thats 2020

Happy Friday, Cobaltians. Today is the day. I finally get my Alabamy tag for the car and complete the transition to RETIRED! This of course demands a ceremony to commemorate the occasion. So, in a dignified manner to suit the occasion, I'll be taking the alarm clock which has ruled my life for many years into the woods and putting a 40 caliber round through it. Said alarm clock will then be interred in an unmarked shallow grave. A toast will then be offered to the non-lamented clock, with a glass of my beloved Courvoisier Cognac XO.

Feel free to join in the celebration, wherever you are and however you see fit.

FREEDOM!!!

Space, great news and like The Christmas Story when the Dad buries the leg lamp you can swear you heard taps playing in the distance while you bury that clock.

Another week of shoveling coal into the business fire. Ended the week on a high note and on towards Christmas holidays next week so looking forward to spending some time at home. That never gets old.....

stay safe my friends

Number Two Son and his wife are here to celebrate Christmas early, due to travel concerns, and they'll be here for another night. Hooray! Something has gone right this year.

Funny story--we found an alarm clock with a 40 caliber shot punched through it buried in our backyard. Probably some disgruntled retiree with space/time continuum issues.

Here's hoping this next week is a splendid display of human kindness. Thinking of you all in Cobaltia and wishing you good humor, good health, good fellowship and blessings galore.
Jeff

Retirees are rarely disgruntled. This one is more relaxed than he's been for several decades. My wife says I've found my laugh again. And I didn't even know it was missing.

That's right, Space. Retirees are GRUNTLED most all of the time! It's been two years for me and it's been great, with too much to do but no deadlines other than the ones I want to make. It felt so good this past summer to "de-business" my LinkedIn profile, to toss the business cards, to even toss project notebooks. All done!

Another subject: more items added to the Hehn collection
https://archive.org/details/joe-hehn?sort=-publicdate
It's been fun writing the show background for each of the pages.

Mixed in the batch of reels are radio interviews he did. One one night in 1965, he was on the Amazing Randi's overnight radio program along with other guests David Goldin and nostaligia and other talk show legend in NY, Joe Franklin! The sound is not the best, but it was awful before the touchups. The link is in the paragraph above.

One of the more exciting finds among my "mystery" boxes while settling in, was my complete collection of Gene Shepherd disks. Some time this week, the entire collection is being loaded onto my media server.

I have my complete Collection of Shep on my iPod that is on constant rotation. He was funny alright. Totally natural on the air DJ. Never a dull show. Don't make em like that any more.

Christmas Story is on Deck for Friday. Never miss the yearly Christmas viewing.

Happy Friday Cobalt Club. No, nothing major to report this week.

I did finally pull the trigger on a new toy. No, it's not a new Bang Bang toy. I finally decided on and purchased the new drone I've mentioned before. My new DJI Mini 2 arrived yesterday. The two SD cards for 4K video recording should arrive today and I should have it flying by tomorrow. The capabilities of this little 249 gram drone are amazing. It has a range of 6 miles (But can't be flown outside of visual range) and a maximum elevation of 12,000 feet (But can't be flown higher than 400 ft. above ground). 1080p video at 60 FPS and 4K at 30 FPS. It'll be a while before I start getting out and exploring with it. Gonna take my time learning to fly safely at first. But it will definitely take the trip to Hawaii in May, with the wife and me.

Be well and be happy my friends.

Space

Happy New Year everyone.

Wow Space sounds like a fun toy nice to use for surveying and patrolling your whole property. I want more info and incredible 4K pics of you finding Bigfoot.

I got another turntable and amp setup. Yes I know this is number 3 but I got a great deal on a nice Thorens 160 MK II which has had some serious audiophile mods. So now I can have different setups for different types of records. I have a sweet old top end Marantz turntable for 7" singles. And two setups for LP's. And I agree its over the top nonsense but it keeps me off the street causing trouble.

So into 21 we go quietly and not touching anything until we see if things are going to get better.

What's up with everyone else?

Stay safe and happy my friends...

It seems like ages since I posted on Friday. I have been really busy neglecting my Casey book.

The Hehn stuff has become overwhelming. The folks working on transferring reels have now come up to an incredible pace and there is too much to handle. So... like the saying goes about eating an elephant, you do it a small piece at a time.

I did Zoom with Toebig who is helping me out on this side of the project. Toebig's been down on his medical luck of late, but doesn't have COVID but has been getting over some other passing issues.


We could use another reviewer on the Hehn stuff, someone who is familiar with what's already out in OTRdom's circulation or at least knows what to check. Very soon I will be posting the marvelous sounding MGM Theater of the Air episodes that were in Hehn's discs, as well as the 20 or so consecutive Road of Life that I don't think were ever transferred. They'll be up on archive.org. Cobaltia will get the head's up on this as soon as they are.

Working on the Kelez-Falk reels. Yet again, it is amazing what passed for excellent at that time, and how OTR benefits from sound processing of the most basic. Most everything from disc at that time had disc rumble and some hum. Now that's often complicated by squealing reels.

OTRR will be needing some more folks for reel transfers and also some sound processors to help out. The reel folk need to be in the US for shipping costs, but the processing folks can be anywhere. Damon Fries in the Netherlands is doing an incredible job as is David Gibbs in BC.

Things are otherwise the way they've been. We're doing fine, still not venturing out unless necessary.

Tonight's the night we finish Waking the Dead. Except for season 4, what an incredible series that has been, and the clunkers have been very few.