I May Be 65

[howeird]

It is after 2:30 am EST on November 15, so in throey I am now 65 years old. But there’s a catch:

Though I was born at about 2:30 am on November 15, back in 1975 I flew across the International Dateline to Thailand, which made me lose a day. In 1977 I continued across the planet, never re-crossing the dateline, never reclaiming that lost day. So am I a year older today (11/15), or tomorrow (11/16)?

---

It was a busy day. I was up at 7:30 and dressed by 8, because Best Buy was supposed to deliver the freezer between 8:30 and 10:30.

10:30 came and went, and as I was picking up the phone to call BB, it rang, and the driver said he would be there in 3 minutes.

10 minutes later two guys and a truck showed up. They unpacked it out on the street, and used this double strap thing which went under the machine and made for a carrying device for two. They carried it up the steps and into the kitchen, plugged it in, adjusted the legs and were on their way by 11.

It fit through the door with a couple of inches to spare.

I watched some TV, played online, and finally pulled out the vacuum and cleaned up the porch before hauling the rocker and the table back up there.

And then I put the kitchen table & chairs back in place.

2 pm there was a lecture at the library on planning a drought tolerant garden. Between the early wake-up this morning and the talk not having much at all of interest to me, I started nodding off several times. There were a couple of suggestions for how to protect newly-planted plants, but her talk was for people with big plots of land, and her suggestions on what to plant did not strike me as very attractive.

But I did have plans to do some gardening, and stopped by Lowe’s on the way home to buy two big bags of dirt. I wanted to buy some herb plants, but they have completely done away with that section, it is now bare, and I think the idea is to put Christmas stuff in there, because the rest of the store is all about Jesus Day, and the part of the garden section right next to the main store already is full of that merch. Disgusting.

Had time to watch some football, but then it was off to Sunnyvale Community Players to see Evita.

There had been some PR on how this was a “re-imagined” version.

I was there at 7:15, got my ticket, but they made us wait outside till 7:30, and the house didn’t open for another 10 minutes. On entering, there was a sheet hung from a set piece at the back of the stage, on which was a projection of a story which took about 6 slides to show. It was looping. In a nutshell, the director decided that instead of telling the story as written, he was going to be all about 26 years later, when the coup rounded up all the Peronistas and sent them to jail, or never to be seen again. And we will tell this story as if these prisoners are watching the movie on the prison screen, and re-enact it themselves. Which is how Man of La Mancha basically works.

Except the set doesn’t look like a prison, nor are the people in prison garb, except for the guy singing Che’s part, who is in a uniform which fits him well but looks more like a USMC dress uniform without insignia.

In a nutshell, it was horrible. It totally destroyed the effectiveness of the story. Songs were out of order, some sung by the wrong characters. The orchestra was horribly out of tune and sometimes out of rhythm.

There were 5 people I know in the show, Che, Peron, and three of the ensemble. The ensemble people were completely wasted , but Che, Peron, Evita and Peron’s mistress all sang great, and made the show good enough to not walk out on.

The set sucked, it was just two rolling stair ladders, some chairs and some minimalistic slap-on pieces. Ludicrous prop – in place of the classic standing mike, they put a broom handle in a bucket, and tied an egg beater to the top upside-down. As if a prisoner can find an egg beater.

---

On the way home, to celebrate the freezer and the birthday, I stopped off at the supermarket and bought some egg nog and an ice cream cake. And a German chocolate cake. If I find one tomorrow, I’ll get a Black Forest cake, and put the

German chocolate cake in the freezer.

Plans for tomorrow:

• Find a nursery, buy some oregano and thyme plants
• Shovel out the redwood chips and dump in the store-bought dirt
• Plant stuff
• 1 pm pick up Janice and take us to Palo Alto Players’ Clyborne Park. I don’t know any of the cast personally, but have seen the leading lady in 3 other shows, and she is worth full price.
• Eat cake. Drink egg nog. Take out the garbage.

Comments

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday!!! That is a big one, 65!! I have been there for 5 years. I am looking forward to pictures of your trip to Reno, NYE. I got married the first time in Reno and have been up in that area many times, but never took the train in winter.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Well, happy whatever-it-is. You have me all confused with that dateline thing - but it seems to me like somewhere in your return to your time zone of origin you must have crossed something somewhere. Either you are the center of all time, in which case your circumnavigation caused time to go backwards for the entire planet, which would also extend to all humans, some of whom also do the same thing, and time would go back a day for each - but also forward a day for each who travel in the opposite direction. Or - or ... time is a constant, and people moving about the globe have no impact, except in their imagination. Both solutions seem ridiculous to me.

[howeird]

I lost a day, and never got it back. Most people who cross the dateline from the Americas make the return trip back across. I've done that several times. Thailand 4 times, Fiji once, Australia once. But not the first time.

But you raise a good point. All the Asians who have come to live in the Americas have gained a day. They are all a day older than most of us.
:-)

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

How was Fiji? It's on my list of places I'd like to visit in 2020 if the Worldcon is in New Zealand. Also thinking of less popular Pacific islands. And maybe Sydney. Already saw Melbourne (but people were great and I wouldn't mind going back.) And I want to see more of NZ, maybe get to the S. island. Or Wellington. Or both.

[howeird]

Fiji was good. I spent the first week at a scuba resort seeing more fish poop per square inch, but also more fish. Went to a couple of kava parties, the more kava one drinks, the better the music sounds. The second week was on the main island, got carsick on the ride to a village where friends of friends had invited me. They took very good care of me, but I was sick for days. Very friendly people. Very handsome men, homely women. How did that happen?

I loved Sydney, even though I was there for work, and under duress. Lots of night life. Very photogenic during the day. Went to an opera in the opera house, but the cheap seats have no view, and the acoustics are meh.

Never been to kiwiland, or any of the minor islands. I am told Cook Island is worth a short visit.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I was thinking maybe something really obscure, like Tonga. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a good travel agent who's been to them all.

The important part of it for me is to space out stopovers to get the shortest possible flights. My lower back is not happy on long flights.

Oh, and here's some info you won't want to hear: http://www.livescience.com/44292-international-date-line-explained.html

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

To beat a totally dead horse, the reason you don't actually gain or lose a day on the IDL when you circumnavigate the globe is that the hourly changes in time zones add up to 24 hours. Without the IDL, if you adjusted your watch in each zone, the calendar on your watch would be off by one day when you returned to your starting point.

[filkferengi]

Happy Birthday! I hope it rocked!