I was asked to look for a video for my daughter, and naturally I went to Fry's which is close by. The VCR media section is gone, kaput. it's all DVD now. Doesn't bother me, but my daughter's mom hasn't yet converted.

Kinda' like when all the record stores stopped selling vinyl albums. Video is going the same way. I predict that VCR media will become increasingly more difficult to find and will essentially have vanished from mainstream consumer outlets in about a year - perhaps less.

Learning how to live without my kitchen, which is undergoing remodeling. Currently it's an empty shell and I'm doing my food preparation elsewhere - or typically, finding something already prepared. The first phase of the project is nearly completed. After ripping out the old stuff and rewiring everything, the walls are now repaired and painted. Cabinets may take some time, the guy doing those has a pretty busy schedule - hinted that two months was about the current backlog.

More work on the back yard which is also getting renovated. Pulled out some of the old sprinkler system and a plant that had gone crazy for twenty years. It's just a fern, but this fern had a root ball two feet in diameter.

Bought some track light for the stairwell. It did wonders for the living room so I'll see if I can duplicate that environment. More difficult in the stairwell because there's no way to balance a ladder on stairs that will get me high enough to install a fixture. Will have to get creative. Might have to build a platform of some kind just to install the light.

Converted most of the house lighting to flourescent over the last two weeks. There are a few places where incandescent is still needed - namely anywhere that a dimmer is required. But for all the utility lights, bathrooms, etc. I'm using a quarter of the power on lighting as I was before. That's a big deal here in California. This summer probably won't be fun...

Added this "rantings" link to the website because there wasn't any other good area except "feedback" in which to just spew conscious thought. To keep the main page uncluttered I combined the music and guitars sections. Also doing some background work on a "members" area. Don't worry, I'm not going commercial. This site gets quite a few visitors. Family, friends, and surpisingly a whole lot of others that either dropped here randomly, or are waiting for the shower cam to come back. I'd like to facilitate letting more of you interact.