Four things

102.3 Sunny-FM, WVOR in Canandaigua, the radio-station they play at the PT-gym, has taken to airing all Christmas-music.
We knew this was coming. They were doing a countdown all last week.
Normally they are a soft-rock station; decent enough to make me try it on the car-radio.
But almost immediately I shut it off. Their signal was so boosted it was unbearable.
“Boost” was explained to me long ago by my hi-fi store.
Radio-stations amplify (“boost”) the quiet parts of an input, so that the quiet parts are as loud as the loud parts.
Radio-stations do this to snag listeners even during the quiet parts.
I was told the only radio-station in the Rochester radio-market that doesn’t boost its signal is WXXI, the classical-music station we listen to.
So now we were serenaded with 89 bazilyun versions of “Winter Wonderland,” and “Jingle Bells.” Also 89 bazilyun covers of “Jingle-Bell Rock.”.
And Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” (ba-ba-boom), Elvis singing “Blue Christmas,” (“Thank you. Thank you very much”), and various advertisers singing “I’m dreaming of a green Christmas.”
The store-owner walked in and said “aren’t there any radio-stations that aren’t playing Christmas-music? I like Christmas-music, but this is ridiculous.”

Yesterday (Monday, November 20), after exercising at the PT-gym, I patronized the mighty Canandaigua post-office to mail 44’s Christmas-present.
I was wearing my mighty Curve jacket, and the tattered engineer-hat I got years ago at Steamtown in Scranton.
I’m sure my loving brother in Boston would consign it to the flames, and poo-poo me as some kind of indigent ne’er-do-well. (CUE BLUSTER KING!)
The clerk eyed me earnestly, and said “I bet you like trains.”
“Yes, I do,” I answered.
“Well, so do I,” she said.
“In that case, by all means, by whatever means, go to this place,” I said, pointing to the Curve-embroidery on my jacket.
“It is by far the best train-watching spot on the entire planet.”
“In fact, if you have a computer.......”
“I do,” she said.
“Google Horseshoe Curve. You’ll get 89 bazilyun hits.”
“One of those is the Curve-site; I have no idea which one.”
“Fire it up, and you’ll get a home-page lined with links; one of which is the web-cam.”
“Put that web-cam on in the background, and I guarantee you see a train in 20 minutes. Don’t be surprised if you see one when you fire it up!”
She wrote everything down on a tiny scrap of paper, and stuffed it into her shirt-pocket.
“I gotta try this,” she said.
“I thought the best places to watch trains were in Colorado,” she said.
“I’ve been there; California too,” I said. “Believe you-me, Horseshoe Curve is the best.”

Mighty Wal*Mart finally has a store in Canandaigua it can be proud of.
I reconnoitered it yesterday to verify it did indeed exist, and the old store was closed.
The incredibly-powerful Tim Belknap, who despite being only the City Editor at the mighty Mezz, continually puts executive-editor Bob Matson, and Managing-Editor Kevin Frisch, on-the-trailer, says the new Wal*Mart is a 500-pound gorilla in the local supermarket wars.
The new Wal*Mart is right down the street from mighty Weggers, and has a grocery-section as big as Weggers.
Tops is hardly the competition that Wal*Mart can be; although as always Weggers isn’t selling price; it’s selling ambience.
What’s strange is that Wal*Mart isn’t accessed from the street; it’s accessed from the mighty Lowes parking-lot.
Wal*Mart is visible from the street — it’s gigantic. But there were no more vacant-lots along the four-lane. Wal*Mart had to locate behind a couple small restaurants.
As such Wal*Mart couldn’t access the four-lane directly. They had to use the Lowes entrance; and as far as I ever knew, Lowes is a Wal*Mart competitor.
Whatever; I’m sure we’ll try the new Wal*Mart eventually. The old Wal*Mart was dreadful; and I think they have gotten beyond the foul-smelling kissing greeters. At least the last time I shopped the old store I wasn’t attacked by a stinking geezer.
And thankfully the old store is shuttered and “available.”

No free turkey this year. We don’t qualify — apparently the Honeoye Falls Market-Place has upped the qualification to offset all they gave to the Honeoye Falls-Lima School District.
This means the regular Thursday meal (salmon/rice/peas), and no turkey/stuffing this weekend; or for weeks on end. Linda won’t miss all the work.
The local supermarkets are selling turkeys at 29¢ a pound; which is like giving them away. We’ll pass.