15 May 2012

As I begin to type this, it is 6:20 AM. I have to be at work somewhat later than I normally go in because I have all day training (yawn) starting at 9 AM, and had expected to sleep in a bit later. But some thunderstorms moved through the area, and at 5 AM I was awakened by profoundly loud thunder. I have therefore been lying awake in bed for more than an hour.

I am aware that as one ages, one needs less sleep and it is common for older folks to lay awake tossing and turning in bed. I have since been resolved, then, to listen to what my body is saying and get up and do something productive or interesting instead, and make up for sleep some other time in the day (if needed). Well... that's my plan, anyway.

Might as well write a blog entry!

The new camcorder arrived yesterday, and it is a minor marvel. My first camcorder was bought in late 1986 as a gift from my mother; it was a full-sized, shoulder-mounted Panasonic unit which used big VHS tapes. In retrospect it's hard for me to believe that I lugged that thing around so often to take movies of the kids, but I did. (I am very glad I did!) We had that until it was mysteriously broken by one of the kids in 2001, so it lasted just over fourteen years. It was the machine that captured my kids' early childhoods.

We replaced it with a Samsung Hi-8mm unit that was about half the size of the VHS camcorder. Not only was it smaller, but it took images of better quality; it was the unit that captured my children's teenage events - cheerleading, high school plays, that sort of thing. We had that until I dropped and broke it in the airport last month, just over eleven years.

This new Samsung camcorder is again half the size of the previous one - my wife and I were marveling at its small size and light weight. It's only somewhat larger than a point and shoot camera. It, too, takes better images than the unit which preceded it. (It uses digital high definition files stored on a SDHC card. Since I'm now dealing with files rather than a physical media like a tape, I have to be more diligent about an archival storage method.) It only takes up a small part of the bag which carried the Hi-8mm unit, so now I can fit more electronic junk (cables, chargers, etc.) into it. I hope that it will be the camcorder which captures grand children's activity. As Neil Young once wrote in a song about a car he owned, Long May You Run.

Last night Cari and I watched another fun Rick Sebak PBS documentary, Sandwiches You Will Like (2003). I've blogged about Sebak's work before. He does films about Americana: ice cream, hot dogs, amusement parks, flea markets, diners, etc. If you weren't hungry when you started watching this one you were when it concluded! Lots of lingering shots of juicy roast beef sandwiches... hmmmm. Sad thing is, though, I normally see a place near where we live that we can explore for ourselves (Eastern Market in D.C., Carl's Frozen Custard in Fredericksburg), but none of the sandwich joints in this documentary were in Virginia. And we drove right by one in downtown Los Angeles earlier this month, Philippe. Next time!

Tonight should be fun. Cari won a prize in a church service exchange (she contributed one of her spectacular home-baked fruit pies): a young married couple are coming by to give us a musical performance in our living room. The husband plays cello and the wife is a violinist in the U.S. Army string ensemble, both are gifted. This will be great!