We went to a wonderful play at Center Stage. Called “Skeleton Crew”, it is about factory workers in a plant that will shut down soon. The story line is realistic, the acting is great. As a super bonus, we got a free parking spot right in front of the door. We didn’t even have to cross a street to get to our car.

Our other big news this week was an interview with Assateague National Park. They are looking for volunteers to work from early April through the end of June. We were lucky. We found a time when we and the interviewers were available, and the government was open, on the first go. It can be frustrating when the government shuts down unexpectedly, but one grows to expect these things to happen when living in a third-world country. The park service is pushing to get a decision made before the government shuts down again.

We’re looking forward to another neighborhood party tonight. This one is a soup potluck.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It was another quiet week in Columbia. But things are coming back to life.

We had a “death” this week. The cute little blue box you see here was an HP computer. I bought it for $200 in early 2012. Its mission was to stream video onto our TV set. It performed its mission briliantly and even did more than I expected. When my laptop needed repair, I was able to load a couple of extra programs on it and used it for my daily computing until my laptop returned. Recently, Microsoft released an upgrade that was so large that it wouldn’t fit on the computer’s disk. Its days were definately numbered, since running a computer that doesn’t have all the updates is definitely not wise these days. Then it started acting up. Parts to fix it are not readily available. It wasn’t worth a lot of effort to resuscitate it. It’s gone.

The Circle luncheon last Monday was nice, but not everybody was able to attend. Tina Bauman has been suffering from celiac disease attacks. She had to stay home. Her husband Bill is suffering from major league pain in his back. He was there, but he wasn’t comfortable.

I got my first bike ride of the year in yesterday. The old body felt kind of rusty. But I completed the ride.

We had a SOCA concert last night. We had a guitarist who does the senior home circuit. He’s definitely not good enough to sell CDs. But everybody had a good time, and the deserts were very good.

Today we attended a concert at the Baltimore Symphony. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is a great favorite. The pianist was Gabriela Montero. She definitely knows her way around the keyboard. Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra was brilliantly  performed — by far the best I’ve heard. It was hauntingly beautiful in many spots.

That’s it for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

This is a long weekend, and we have plenty of activities to fill it up. Friday, we had a neighborhood party. Today, we had a breakfast just for our condo at Bob Evans. Tomorrow, we’re going to a concert at Johns Hopkins to hear the Philadelphia Brass Quintet. And Monday we have a circle lunch. Woo-Hoo!

I have recovered from my blue light treatment. But my earlier recovery process and lousy weather have kept me inside this week. So I did a home automation project. When my old sump pump alarm went on the fritz, I replaced it with a Smart Home hub made by Samsung. Well the hub can do more than just one alarm. Now, when we go away for a long time, I can click one button on my tablet. That will disable the garage doors and make the overhead lights turn on and off at defined times. That’s pretty cool if you ask me. I also wanted to add a water sensor to detect a leak in the clothes washer. Unfortunately, the sensor was defective so I’m waiting for a replacement.

Our ceiling fans have lights. These are unusual lights that one doesn’t always find at the hardware store. I went to Amazon ordered LED replacement lights that are a little brighter. Unfortunately, the package was lost and I had to re-order them. They should be in by Monday. That will be very good indeed because BG&E has offered to do a free energy audit. As part of the audit, they will install LED lights for me in any fixture I request. We have one fan and one ceiling fixture that are on a 20-foot high ceiling. They won’t have the speciality bulbs, but I will. So we’ll get new bulbs in those 20-foot high fixtures. There’s no way I would consider using a ladder that high, and it would cost at least $100 just to have an electrician visit the house. This is a very good deal for us.

Here’s a picture of an icicle we had hanging from the furnace exhaust pipe. It was nearly 8 feet long. We had some warm and rainy days and it’s all gone now. It reminded me of living in Omaha when I was about 10 or so. I remember houses would have snow blow almost as high as the roof. Other houses would have an icicle wall off one side of their porch. We didn’t have anything like that. But the icicle was pretty impressive for a while.

That’s all for now. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The winter of 1977-78 was very cold. The bay froze over. People were walking across the bay under the bay bridge. The northeast experienced shortages of salt (for the roads) and coal (for electric power plants). For Baltimore, ships couldn’t get up the bay to deliver supplies. There were plenty of supplies in the railroad yards, but the hopper doors were frozen shut. They had to build fires to melt the ice so they could unload the cars. This understandably slowed the unloading of supplies. It’s not that cold this year yet. But it will be if low temperatures continue. Lows are well into the single digits. Highs are below 20. Icebreakers are patrolling the bay. Our furnace is not quite capable of meeting demand. It turns on at night and runs continuously, leaving the house at 65 — 3 degrees lower than the set point. Today there’s plenty of sunshine, but we’re still 2 degrees short of our desired temperature.

The temperature has a profound effect on our electric car. Last Sunday was a 5th Sunday. We took the Leaf to Miss Shirley’s Restaurant for breakfast, in the Inner Harbor. As we drove up towards Baltimore, it became evident that the Leaf has 1/3 to 1/4 the range it has in the summertime. We made it home fine, but we decided to turn the heat off and use that electricity for a little more driving range.

There were a few more niggles this week. On Monday, I hurt my back while lifting my razor. It’s a Gillette Trac-3, with 3 steel blades. I just might be the first person ever to hurt their back while lifting one of these babies. I spent a couple of days hobbling around the house.

Yesterday, I got a “blue light” treatment for my face. The doc says this kills off precancerous growths. It feels exactly like a severe sunburn to me. But I’m just a lay person. My face is so sore I won’t even think of getting into the shower. And I’m not lifting that Trac 3. I’m not allowed to be in sunlight for two days. Danita and I can go out for Sunday breakfast, provided we get back before sunrise. (That’s pretty easy for us.) But I won’t be able to go to Church. Our church is having a dinner Sunday. Danita and I usually volunteer to serve. I’m staying home and Danita is going just to eat, along with a few other people from the neighborhood. They’ll bring me a take-out meal for dinner.

Monday it’s my turn to bring donuts to Men’s club. I plan to get the donuts early in the morning, drop them at the clubhouse, and come home. Technically I can go out Monday if I’m wearing sunblock. But my face is quite sore and I’m pretty sure I won’t want to walk back and forth to the clubhouse in the sunshine.

All the Christmas decorations are put away. We’re blissfully tracking plastic pie tree needles around the house. We should have the last of those picked up about the same time the house gets up to 68, in a month or so.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.