Posting will be light here today, then normal over the weekend, then light again on Monday. Monday, I'm directing a Garfield recording session in the morning, then having minor surgery on my right knee in the afternoon. Today, I have to do all sorts of things to prep for both.
Monday will be one month to the day since the knee, which had been a problem for a little over a week, suddenly and inexplicably went from bothering me a little to bothering me the way being hit with a baseball bat would bother one. My orthopedist doused the agony with a shot of cortisone which did wonders but now seems to be wearing off…or something. I am in zero pain as I sit here and write this. I am in minor pain when I walk on it as long as I keep moving. If I stand in one place, it hurts somewhat more. And if I go up and down stairs — like, say, the ones in my home — I need to bite on a bullet or something. Monday, I'll be in and out of surgery in an hour they say…and back here by nightfall.
Two different readers have written to say they're looking forward to my inevitable (to them) postings about how I hate my new Time-Warner cable TV set-up and, like Ike Turner pleading with Tina to take him back, will be begging DirecTV's forgiveness. Right now, the begging all seems to be on the part of DirecTV, which is sending me offers they never made me when I was an 18-year customer of their service. I don't think it's impossible I will return but so far, I'm not unhappy with Time-Warner.
The worst change for me is that on Time-Warner, shows on Comedy Central and HBO are copy-protected so I can't do what I used to do when I had DirecTV. I'd move episodes of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and Bill Maher's program to my PC, edit them down to the segments I especially liked and save them on my computer. There are workarounds for this but they're involved and time-consuming and I don't want to mess with them. I wish those networks would make those shows available for download for a buck or two an episode. I can understand them not wanting to do that with programming that might have enduring value for DVD release and such…but those three shows are topical and most of what's on them has the shelf life of Chinese Food stored in your refrigerator. I would think they'd want to make some extra bucks off them while they can.
Several folks who read my piece on our old family friends, Ben and Betty Zukor, wrote to ask if they were related to Adolph Zukor, who founded Paramount Pictures. As far as I know, no…though I must admit I never asked.
Okay, gotta go. Lots of running-around to do today. And I have to choreograph it to make as little of it as possible involve stairwells.