Is it that time again?

I spent a couple of hours this morning fiddling with the garage door, while Shiloh ran around her domain, emitting short barks from time to time and eating snow.

It turned out the hinge holding together the bottom two panels on one side of the garage door sheared a bolt, most likely because the bottom panel has warped. So I spent some time in a near-freezing garage looking for suitable hardware to effect a repair, and came up short.

I took care of the hardware deficiency with a trip to the hardware store and managed to get the door closed by shoring up the bottom panel so that its warp wasn't so pronounced. Given this state of affairs, I'm afraid the car is going to stay outside until I find a solution for the warped door panel.

I managed to fix the door without injury - those panels are heavy and you do not want one of them to drop down and hit you - but managed to slam a filing cabinet drawer on one of my fingers. The thing still smarts (and is starting to look ugly).

The plate for 2009 is starting to accumulate work. I've already got two documents to translate and received a call yesterday, while driving home, asking if I was interested in working a meeting in Moscow later on in January. I have no objection, but wonder what will happen after the first of the year, when some folks higher up on the decision-making ladder get involved in staffing the meeting.

Cheers...

Anticipation in the hinterlands...

Folks in Times Square are nearly 30 minutes into the New Year as I write this, sitting in the Mountain Time Zone. (Heck, it's... 3:30 pm or so on January 1 in Brisbane, Australia, if my mental calculation is correct!)

Here in Colorado, it's just Shiloh and me. Drew stopped by around 6 pm to wish me the best and give me a hug; he still had about 5 hours of deliveries left.

Moi, I rented the latest The X Files movie while visiting the grocery store earlier today, and watched it after Drew left, leaving me to my corned beef and potatoes. And as much as Mulder (and I) might "want to believe," I think the kid under Scully's knife in the movie has a better chance of survival than the concept's franchise.

Or maybe not. On the one hand, I think it's really hard to shoot a proper movie based on a television series, because if you're true to the small screen's backstory, what you end up with on the big screen is, basically, a longer episode of what you'd see on the tube.

On the other, I am prepared to watch any continuation of The X Files, short of some pathological excursion, although not at first-run prices. In my mind the chemistry between Fox and Dana still works, even if some part of the modus vivendi depends on the wasteland between my ears. I want Mulder and Scully to succeed; to be happy (although if they are to succeed dramatically, their mellow must always be under threat of being harshed). I want them - need them - to be triumphant over the powers of darkness.

The story was worth the price of admission.

Cheers...