two things

We have completed phase one of the installation of the combination DVD/VCR.
Last night’s (Sunday, January 7, 2007) foray was not so much to install it, but to start installation.
We started about 8 p.m., and the combination DVD/VCR lobs various hairballs I wanted to avoid so there wouldn’t be immense pressure to complete the entire installation within a very short period of time.
So the drill was to get it out of the box, put it in front of the TV, and see if we could get it to drive the TV, which isn’t even stereo.
Hookup was fairly simple, the same as our current VCR — although I think the TV is only playing one sound-channel; was previously.
And it drove the TV with either VHS tapes or DVDs (we have a few).
What it wouldn’t do is play the cable-feed by default (defoult). Our current VCR played the cable by default (defoult); but it appears the combination DVD/VCR has a menu-driven setup.
I’ll attack that next foray. I only had about an hour; so baby-steps.
Plus Linda wants to paint the wooden box I made long ago for the VCR and the TV. The new combination DVD/VCR will fit inside the box, so there’s no sense making another installation-attempt until the box is painted.
It also appears all the functions are on the remote. Our old VCR had most of the functions as buttons also on the case-face. So we never did much of anything with the remote. (The VCR was two feet away; arm’s-reach.) Remote/Re-shmote. Ya still have reach over and put the playing medium into the gizmo.
The new combination DVD/VCR also lacks a “reality-regenerator” button; our old VCR had it. We never knew what it did, but pushed it once causing weird things to happen at the palatial mighty Mezz offices, and in Ashburnham, Mass.
So we are back to where we were before it came out of the box — old VCR driving the TV.
I can’t just drop everything to set it up. And the dreaded manual was written and translated by Japanese monkeys, so isn’t much help.
I’d invite the all-knowing bluster-boy to come out, but I’m leery of his ballpeen hammer.

The need for daily naps seems to be winding down.
Used to be we’d eat breakfast after walking the dogs at so-called elitist country-club; but we switched to breakfast first.
I usually had to take a nap after the so-called elitist country-club, but no more — not enough time.
Or perhaps I should say I feel I can get by without a nap.
I’d come home from the mighty Mezz utterly bushed .
Driving the Messenger web-site was a mental monster. 89 bazilyun things could go wrong — in which case I had to science out the problem on my own.
“If you have a problem, call the Webmaster or the ‘pyooter-guru — let them handle it.”
But they were swamped, and just threw up their hands. I could do it, so “you’re on your own.”
So I’d come home so mentally wacked-out I had to take a nap.
Poor physical condition was apparently causing fatigue too.
But my condition has improved enough to apparently curtail the naps.
I take one once-in-a-while, but I can usually get by without one.
(Cue almighty Bluster-King, who stokes himself with gallons of caffeine and giant sugar-hits, and apparently doesn’t work his brain enough to need a nap. —He also hasn’t had a stroke.)

My brother in Delaware loudly insists Route 261 has always been spelled “Foulk” Road, but in 1957 (when we moved there) it was spelled “Faulk.” (1957 is one year before he was born.)