We sang Christmas carols with the choir at Methodist Hospital Sugar Land tonight. I decided that if I felt good enough to write in my blog, I felt good enough to go do something for sick people. We started on the first floor, moved to the third and never went to the second. I'm not sure what's there, maybe ICU or CCU and they probably aren't interested in much except getting well. For a while I got pretty emotional because it brought back recent memories of my visits to Nannie while she was in the hospital. I'm glad we did it, though.

Then we were off to a local home for the party. The house was in Sweetwater, the ritzy part of Sugar Land. It's kind of like River Oaks in Houston. Big houses, big yards, big electric bills in the summer. The owner is, of course, a choir member. One of the more successful judging from the looks of things. I suspected that was the case when he told me his family owns the X-Bar ranch in Sonora, a place I've tried unsuccessfully to visit a couple of times for a star party.

Party was good but, as a brand new Methodist, I'm not use to church members guzzling white Zinfandel. The Baptists did it, just not in front of each other. We left early because I'm on some kind of Motrin cold medicine and it didn't take long for me to poop out.

My nose is not as snotty today. I honk into a tissue only about every hour or two. But I'm taking the advice all medicos give people with rhinovirus: rest in bed and drink plenty of liquids. I supposed a Futon can qualify as a bed. So now a big decision. Am I well enough to go to the church choir Christmas party tonight. If I go, I'm committed to be there tomorrow morning, in my robe, ready to sing or squawk as the case may be. I'd feel pretty much like a rat if I partied the night before and didn't show up in church. Maybe I'll flip a coin.

You've got questions, we've got answers...most of which are profoundly incorrect. That phrase should be Radio Shack's motto.

As part of my mother's estate, I inherited a 32" TV, one that I went with her to buy less than a year before she died. Since I already have 5 televisions in the house, I was rearranging them to maximize screen sizes.

I have 2 in my office, a little 13" to watch while I'm on the computer and the other, a 20", in front of the Futon where I can stretch out and watch Monday night football. So, to make a short story long, I replaced a 25" set downstairs with the 32" and moved the 25 into my office. No cable connection here (actually I don't have cable, at which my friends express astonishment) and I wanted to buy a better antenna for the 25". So, off I went to Radio Shack where I paid $35.00 for one of those phony "powered antennas" thinking maybe it would get rid of some of the ghosting I got with the plain old rabbit ears.

Upon bringing it home and unsheathing it from the box, I found that it didn't work at all. When I connected it to the set, the signal on every channel was mostly noise. I tried it in the "powered" mode and non-powered mode. Nothing worked. So, as best I could, I boxed it back up for return. Incidentally, there has to be a special place in hell for the designers of product boxes from China. Once you take it out of the box, it's impossible to get it back in.

Fast forward to the next day. I walked into Radio Shack with above antenna and told the electronics genius who waited on me I wanted to return it. As usual she asked me why. I explained that it didn't work and in fact, I exhibited better antenna characteristics by just touching the coaxial cable with my finger. Then she asked me the $64 question, "How big is your TV screen?" I told her I didn't see how that made any difference. She retorted with, "The bigger your screen, the bigger your antenna needs to be." I couldn't believe my ears. Here was someone who is supposed to have all the answers telling me an absolute lie. Now I know she wasn't really lieing but only parroting something someone else told her. But it makes no sense that she would be allowed to tell a customer an untruth. I replied that she was incorrect in her statement. She then spent the next 5 minutes trying to convince me she was right even though I explained to her that I spent the last 38 years of my life as a broadcast engineer. I finally gave up, took my credit slip and left the store. Too bad they don't have any competition.

I've done nothing much except drag myself to work the past few days. On Monday a little tickle started in my throat, the next day my throat was on fire, by Wednesday I was snorting and sniffling, yesterday coughing, and today was the snotty nose phase. I have, of course, a common cold but I think I'd prefer hemorrhoids.

A huge fire a few miles east of our home in Sugar Land. This chemical plant exploded a few minutes before 6 pm with people saying they felt the concussion 20 miles away. We felt nothing at all. Pretty strange.