A thought engendered while standing in the check-out line...

There's a Nobel Prize in store for the person who can make issues such as war, peace, economics, and politics as understandable and as absorbing as the fact of J.Lo returning The Ring.

That, or a swift bullet in the back of the head.

Or both.

Cheers...

I'd like to thank the Academy...

A strange title, to be sure, as it came randomly to me as I sat at my computer after a long day at the store. Maybe the feeling of having survived this long is affecting my brain.

Galina called earlier today. The Ford's transmission did the Dutch act on Interstate 10 near Houston this morning. A new transmission will call about $1400 and Galina went ahead and rented a car to go to Florida. She called me from the rental place to ask if she should take the additional insurance, and I suggested she call American Express and sign up for their comprehensive "we take care of it all" insurance that costs about $20 per rental (as opposed to about $15 per day with the rent-a-car agency...). Speaking of which, the miserable s.o.b. with the agency was doing a magnificent job of trying to instill FUD about insurance while Galina on the phone with me. (Farblegarg, and other expletives.)

I made a decision and signed up with the Dish Network, primarily because (yes, I know it'll sound silly) they provide local channels and the NASA channel for less, on the basic plan, than what DirecTV charges for their basic package sans local channels (and certainly sans NASA). In addition, Dish provides some kind of Tivo-like hardware that lets you record up to 100 hours of video, which I might actually use, since some programs I might be interested in viewing come on at times when I'm doing something else (like sleeping, or working).

My fixation with the NASA channel has to do with the fact that there is a lot of good content there (especially educational stuff, which I'd love to be able to record, if possible), and it may actually be of use in my work (depending if they have a regular update on ISS news, which is useful to me professionally). The NASA Channel was available with DirecTV, but only with their "everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink" plan that was prohibitive in cost.

Time to go upstairs and relax.

Cheers...