Short night...

Sleep eluded me, so I got online last night and noodled around with various items that've been bouncing around the inside of my head like bones in a simmering stew.

It turns out The Man from U.N.C.L.E. will be shipping at the end of November on DVD. While this was my favorite TV series when it was broadcast in the mid-60s (I probably watched too much TV as a kid, but nothing near the amount most kids watch today, but I digress...), I am not at all sure watching what must be very nearly the ultimate set of reruns will be all that entertaining. (About 10 years ago, I caught a telecast of a TV-movie-length episode, and it was pretty hokey.)

The Google page displaying the link to the shipping information also showed a link to AOL, which apparently offers streaming downloads of a number of shows, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I started to watch an episode, but the hokeyness level became very nearly unbearable (The Finny Foot Affair, with a very young Kurt Russell). I then recalled that some time ago, episodes of Spenser: For HIre had been offered by AOL, and sure enough, there they were.

I dumped the spies for the private eye (season 1, episode 1) and was entertained.

AOL inserts 30-second commercials at the appropriate points of the show (which actually helps the flow, because the fade-to-blacks and resumed action before and after the commercial, respectively, assume that there's going to be a break in between, and serve to close and reopen the story).

Anyway, I got to sleep around 1 am.

Shiloh woke me up at very nearly 6 am.

I plan to spend a lot of time cleaning the joint, which needs it.

Cheers...

Slogging through Sunday...

There is a part of me that wants to jump into the car right now and drive to Pagosa, or maybe just drive anywhere. This empty house - empty except for me and Shiloh - is starting to get on my nerves. Or maybe it's the enforced lack of anything to do but wait. In any event, I must take care of what needs taking care of, after which I shall be free to leave for Colorado.

I watched the next two episodes of Heroes today, maintaining a viewing rate that might be described as "14x real time" (this assumes that normally, one episode was shown every week). I notice that, even though there is enough interest in the story line to maintain my interest, it still remains an effort to sit down and watch the next episodes; if there was anything else to do instead, I'd probably be doing it.

This is, I think, an outgrowth of my teenage attitude toward sports telecasts, especially basketball. When I was a kid, I didn't take particular interest in watching sports on TV, but if I happened to land on a game of some kind and there was nothing else to do (yeah, I know you can always do something other than watch The Tube, but humor me for a mo', kay?) I'd become sufficiently engaged in the game to watch it to the end.

I think the last TV series where I cared about catching episodes was The X FIles, and during the last season, I'd typically cede control of the tube to Galina, so she could watch a new series called Alias, which I've seen about two episodes of and interests me not at all.

Despite having food in the house, I nevertheless stopped at a Chinese takeout place on Forest Avenue earlier in the evening and got some Shanghai Chow Mein and some hot-and-sour soup, mostly because I didn't want to cook.

I've got to snap out of this funk, and I will. Shiloh will help me.

Cheers...