Welcome To The Future…And The Past : A Curmudgeon’s Weekend

It’s been a pretty solid weekend. Honestly, the last two or three weekends have been what I would call solid time spent outside of work. Lots of record spinning, lots of walks, quality time with my wife…I guess what I’m saying is I can’t complain. But knowing me I will soon stumble upon some reason to complain, because that’s one of my many superpowers. I can sniff out something annoying like a hellhound on the trail of Robert Johnson. It’s like one of those pictures that you stare at for like 30 seconds and wait for it to reveal a word like “Jesus”, or a clown face in the midst of just random colors and dots. I can stand back and look at a reasonable situation -to the naked eye it looks perfectly harmless and pleasant- and then see the massive amounts of BS that’s going on.

That is the curmudgeon super sight.

But I will say that the last couple weeks have been pretty damn good. From seeing our adult kids succeeding and making great choices for their futures, to just myself enjoying the simple things like spinning albums to working on music to just sitting in the excitement of making things again…I guess you could say I’m letting gratitude do its thing.

Two big things that happened this week was buying a new laptop and picking up a new(old…vintage) turntable. One was something I desperately needed, while the other was something I’ve just wanted for a long time. I ordered myself an Acer laptop on Prime Day, and it arrived the very next day. I hadn’t gotten a chance to open it and get it up and running until Saturday night. The day it arrived the wife and I headed north to Three Rivers, MI for something we can only get in Michigan. We also grabbed some donuts from our favorite donut spot Bullseye Market. And as an added bonus we stopped in White Pigeon, MI and got a couple ham and cheese grinders and breadsticks to go from Mancino’s Pizza n Grinders. It was a pretty great way to finish out the work day.

Thursday I was out inhaling clouds of dust while mowing/bagging pine needles, after which I grilled some brats and dogs. By the time I was done with all of that I was too tired for technology, so the laptop had to wait.

Friday after work is my clean the house time. It was a pretty busy week at work, so by the time I was done sweeping, dusting, and shining up the bathrooms I was ready to just sit and watch a crappy movie(which was Winnie The Pooh : Blood and Honey…and it was bad.)

Saturday my dad came over for morning coffee. We talked a little about the US political dumpster fire that’s going on now, but mostly we just talked about movies, books, and then watched some old SCTV clips on Youtube. After he left I made some ham and eggs, then took a shower. The wife and I were heading over to our daughter’s apartment to hang out with her sweet Celeste and take her out on a walk or three while she was working.

Our kiddo was planning to come over after work and eat dinner with us, which was BBQ pork nachos. I found a great recipe for carnitas you make in the slow cooker. We had them originally down at Big Woods Pizza in Nashville, IN on one of our family vacations. I felt like I could do it at home, and it turns out I could. And very well, I might add.

Before we headed to see our grandpuppy, we made a pit stop at Karma Records of Warsaw and picked up my new “old” turntable, a fully restored Pioneer PL-A35. A guy I work with restores vintage stereo equipment and had started taking the restored turntables into Karma and selling them. He’d taken in a Fisher TT back in late spring. I thought it looked immaculate with the wood base, but by the time I asked about it someone had snagged it up. So when another came along I didn’t wait.

We grabbed the turntable and headed over to hang with Celeste.

Columbia City, where my daughter lives, is what you’d call a small town. But as far as small towns go it’s pretty nice. They have festivals often, and have plenty of great, local spots to eat. Given that we’re in the middle of October now they’ve got the Haunted Columbia City Jail set up. It’s been a longstanding haunted house for people to go through and have the crap scared out of them.

The building was the actual city jail back in the 1800s, so the chances of some real ghosts being in there amongst the locals dressed as zombies and monsters is pretty high. The building itself looks like an AI-created building, like one of those ‘Abandoned Places’ pics that looks so cool until you realize that it’s fake. This place is the real deal.

We also walked by Main Bowl in downtown, a bowling alley/lounge/restaurant where you can get all you can eat fish everyday. I bet there’s some ghosts in that place as well.

We took a couple long walks, hung out in the apartment, then headed home to get the pork shredded and make some homemade salsa. Of course the FIRST thing I did was set up the Pioneer. This is the first vintage table I’ve had since I had my parents old 70s Pioneer player. It was also the first time I could use the Phono input on my Onkyo receiver. My Audio Technica had a built in pre amp, so I never had to use the phono input. It had the option to turn it off, but there was no ground wire so it sounded pretty bad through it. The PL-A35 is quieter than my AT, but it has a much more natural sound to it. I was pretty impressed. My new The Hard Quartet vinyl sounded amazing on it, as did Miles’ Bitches Brew.

After dinner was put together I sat down to set up the laptop, which really wasn’t much of a thing. I really just needed to download a couple programs for my music making and that was it. This thing is MUCH larger than my Chromebook. It will take a little getting used to, but so far I’m loving it.

It’s currently Sunday morning, and after finishing this up I’m going to work on a little music. Then get a fall walk in. It’s a little cooler out now, and overcast skies. Kind of the perfect walk weather, really. Maybe watch a movie in the afternoon and then chicken fajitas for dinner.

Once again, a damn fine weekend has been had. But there’s still time for it to go south(shut up, you damn curmudgeon.)