Yep, if you are in this area you’d be well-advised to bring in the brass monkey that I am sure you all have sitting on your porch. It is going to be damn cold here this week, with -30° to -40° F wind chills over a few days. Tomorrow there’s a “wintry mix” in the forecast and going into Thursday there’s more precipitation as the temperatures drop below zero.

I’m hoping it won’t get too bad tomorrow; slippery highways are no fun. I’ve got a couple of things to do and I’m also trying to make sure that I have everything I need for later in the week when it gets so cold. I can always go Tuesday if it’s too nasty tomorrow. Nothing too urgent. I’ll still get my groceries delivered though. I’m kinda enjoying that perk.

I’ve still got plenty of things to do inside the house and the next few days I could get stuff done since I’ll be hibernating inside. Plenty of ruined items to toss out after water and humidity damage. It sucks throwing so much away, even after I pulled out the recyclables, but it’s just how it is.

I saw an interesting article about airline frequent flyer status, and if you collect airline miles it’s perhaps worth clicking on the link. The article talks about too many “elite” status fliers with points to upgrade are clogging the system, with too few upgrades for too many people. It goes on to talk about the issues and if it’s worth it to stay with one airline.

In the past I have mainly used Alaska airlines. They have a great Mileage Plan (one of the highest-rated) and between them and partner airlines you can get most anyplace in the world. The amount of miles I currently have is enough to go one way, if not round-trip, to many worldwide destinations. The miles I had previously were worth a RT First Class ticket and the other was a RT Coach ticket to Alaska. This will be my third ticket for basically free since I joined the Mileage Plan.

I have started to change my thinking since I now have more options to get places cheaper and with more flights on the schedule. The sale fares are pretty reasonable these days and I’m getting to be more about not just the price but the schedules as well. Yeah, I would still usually sign up for frequent flyer programs, but I am getting away from that since looking to save money on airfares to get someplace is more important than brand loyalty. I’ll still book direct with the airlines due to previous experience, but I’ll be shopping around more for flights. No third-party booking…you know the sites I’m talking about.

A few posts back I wrote that I had ordered some Cotopaxi socks from Bombas. I’ve been wearing them and I am impressed. Very colorful, fun, comfortable, and great quality. Made me a bigger believer in the company. They are more expensive than a lot of socks, but with everything about the socks and the company it’s money well-spent. And with the quality I am sure they will last a while. I’m probably going to get a few more pairs and that will cover me for a long time.

I used to be a huge music fan. I’ve been to probably hundreds of concerts between buying tickets for shows “back in the day” as a teenager and working in stage lighting/stage production for many years doing lights for many concerts. I have been a radio DJ. Plus I have written several of my own songs or cowritten some with others. I kinda got out of music over the last many years but have started to renew that relationship.

A friend I have known for more years than I will cop to has always played in bands in Colorado over many years. He was in a very popular band in the 80s in the Denver area.

He recently sent me some live video of his latest band that plays classic rock. They are pretty good and the songs are excellent choices. My friend and the guitar player have alternated being voted top musician in town for the last several years.

Seeing his live footage kinda got me back to listening to some of the old stuff. I have not done that for a while and it’s been cool to get back into it. Since I listen to some rather eclectic things normally this is certainly a change, but it’s been fun to go back and pull up stuff from the 60s and 70s. Getting antsy to get to Woodstock after hearing some of these songs!

With my cell plan I get Apple Music every month at no additional charge so I have started to take advantage of that perk recently. I have been updating my music library with Apple Lossless or Dolby downloads to listen to. Better quality and more airplay for the artists to to get paid for.

Some of the news stations & websites have started airing year-in-review stories. Hard to believe we have just a few weeks left before 2023 is upon us. I have done those updates in my blog before but I pretty much post most everything exciting in my world in these pages as they happen so I have really not found the need to do it too much these days. I’m going to stay the same for this year; it’s mostly all here in my posts. Not everything, but most of it. If you want to know, then you’ll have to go look at ALL my posts!

I happened across a news story a few days ago that brought back some childhood memories. It was an interesting article and it led to another website with all sorts of old pictures, adverts, menus, etc. of places all over KC. Some I did not remember, but most I did.

When I was a youngster we’d pile in the ol’ station wagon at this time of year and head to downtown Kansas City, MO to see the lights. Sometimes we’d go to the Country Club Plaza and see those world- famous lights. Kansas City is home of the American Royal livestock show. The lighted decorations downtown looked like giant crowns in honor of the American Royal. The lampposts were decorated as well, but these crowns and their streamers hung in the middle of the intersections on, I believe, Grand.

My Grandpa on my Dad’s side was a maintenance man at a bank building in the heart of downtown so sometimes my dad & I would go see him at work deep in the bowels of this old building. He let me operate the elevator, which was the old-school type that had an elevator operator if used with the public. We’d see a lot of these old places on that website. When I did concert lighting I worked at various bars in the area doing lighting for local bands plus we used to hand out at some of the bars so I saw a lot then as well.

That’s about all for this one. Thanks for stopping by; I’ve been having many visitors from around the world and everyone is welcome.