Saturday, November 8, 2008

On the Prowl

This was the weekend for the Annual Art Prowl held in our little burg. The Art Prowl started in 1999 with artist studio tours and has grown some in subsequent years. It is one thing to go to an art gallery and quite another thing to see the artist in their element. The Prowl has also incorporated some artist demonstrations. This year there was a weaving demonstration, and today we had the chance to see a demonstration of monotone painting. It wasn't quite what I expected, but interesting just the same.

Also on tap this weekend was the Mistletoe Market, which sponsors area businesses. Also very cool and you always meet such nice people there. It gives you the chance to see their merchandise without having to go to their business. One of the new businesses is Delmonaco Winery which opens next weekend. It is a big deal in a county in which you can't buy package liquor. You can buy beer, but wine and liquor have so far not been available in this county. So this will be a real treat and shorten our trip for wine by 10-30 miles.

One of the best things about this weekend's activities - it inspired us to start hanging pictures we brought from Michigan.

I feel so full of culture now!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Glad That's Over

The longest campaign season in history - at least 21 months is over. History was made with the election of the first black man to the highest office in our land. Congratulations, Mr. Obama.

Two races in Putnam County, Tennessee came out the way I hoped: Baxter, TN gets to sell package liquour and the wheel tax was defeated.

Over all, I don't feel jubilant or sad, just an overwhelming relief that for a few months we don't have to deal with another presidental campaign.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Election day

On one hand, I can't wait until this blasted election is over since I am so tired of the nearly two year long campaigning. As usual the campaign has descended into sniping and way too much money has been spent. Five billion dollars - can't even imagine numbers like that.

On the other hand, I will certainly miss the SNL spoofs. What can I say - it's my sick sense of humor coming out.

Tuesday is election day, vote early and vote often!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Buh-Bye Daylight Savings

I am so sad. Sniff.

We've reached the end of daylight savings time*. To me that is the saddest day of the year. So what if we get an extra hour of sleep.

All our clocks changed except 4 - not counting cars. The clock in his car changed in October because of the software. It did that last year too and the car dealer said it would be $185 to correct the software. This year, after having to deal with the time change in November again (we went 3 weeks in the spring with the wrong time) DH called the manufacturer and was told all dealers were sent the software for dealing with that. He took his car into the dealer and sure enough, they had no idea what the software was for, took care of it free of change and we will find out when we take his car out, if it worked. My car has manual time change.

OK, I really don't mind physically changing the clocks, but the atomic clocks are great. At least all of the ones in the house except the one in my office, which did not change. What is up with that?

The clocks in the kitchen - microwave and stove. Microwave is easy to set, stove you have to hold that button in while it advances 12 hours via advancing the minutes. How stupid can you feel standing there with your finger on a stove button for 60 seconds?

In the bedroom, he has an atomic clock, I have the old-fashioned kind, which I set when we retired for the evening (as opposed to just retiring.)

So why is this the saddest day of the year? It will get dark really early - at 4:44 p.m. By the time December 22nd comes around, I will be so thankful for those 2 extra minutes of daylight we'll get. I'm a daylight lover, what can I say!

*If you missed the switch back to DST, or need any other time and calendar information I recommend Time and Date.com. It's a great site and you can print a list of more holidays than you will ever recognize.