“Once more unto the maze, dear friends, once more.”*

* apologies to William Shakespeare

This was our 6th year to search the Pumpkinville Corn Maze, but it was first time that Charlotte brought a friend with her. I edited her friend out of the obligatory Maze Entrance Photo. I'm not sure how her parents would feel about her being on the blog.

The temp was predicted to be 85 degrees, so we arrived when the maze opened at 10 AM. I was worried that it would be miserably hot in the corn field by the afternoon, but we were fine. The day was overcast and windy. It felt like autumn.

I would have booked a campfire if it would have been about 20 degress cooler: 

"Campfires are available but must be pre-scheduled. We get the fire going for you, provide adidtional wood, roasting sticks, picnic tables and chairs. Bring your own food and beverages, roast hot dogs and marshmallows! If you have a large group have folks bring folding chairs. Electrical hook-ups can be arranged for $10. Campfire cost:  Campfires are $25 for the first two hours and $10 for each additional hour."

We split into two teams. We went left. The girls went right.

Sure, the design looks small on paper, but my Fitbit had counted 13,000 steps by noon (we had walked our dog that morning, too.) I wore my Adel Sweet Corn Festival t-shirt to match the day's theme.

Charlote and her friend enjoyed shopping for pumpkins and gourds more than traversing the maze. I walked around and took pictures to kill time.  

Daphne and I had a fall wedding, and we decorated the reception tables with white pumpkins. They were harder to find 19 years ago. I'll always have a soft spot for them. 

When it comes to nostalgia, I don't think anything beats traditional, orange pumpkins. 

It was fun and worrisome to part ways with Charlotte and her friend (I won't even get into maze symbolism.) As we walked up the first row I said, "This feels so weird. We've never been in here by ourselves..." Daphne nodded in agreement. Then I added, "But no one is going to complain a whole bunch and ask to sit on our shoes, either." Daphne laughed.

We all had cell phones. Char checked in every 20 minutes or so by calling or texting. She was really good about it. Sure, technology is great, but holding a phone is not the same as holding a hand. At one point I spotted Charlotte laughing and running down a row about 30 yards parallel to us. She had no idea I was there or how relieved I was to see her. 

I know that children have to grow up, but giving your kid freedom can be scarier than any Halloween movie. 

It's Finally October!

The fall temperatures are going down and the Halloween decorations are going up.

 

I love this month!

The Garage Theater 2.0 presents: "The Lord of the Rings"

Daphne has wanted to watch the Lord of the Rings movies with Charlotte for a long time. (It's hard to believe that The Fellowship of the Ring is already 20 years old.) We finally decided that Char was mature enough to enjoy the films. We also decided that the best way for her see them for the first time would be on the "big screen."

The garage theater was going to make a comeback! Yes! 

I was excited because I had some improvements I wanted to make. I used the electronic equipment I bought from shopgoodwill.com last winter instead of just computer speakers and a DVD player. 

Now I can control the volume with a remote!

The Realistic Minimus 7s work well as satellite speakers for the Yamaha subwoofer.

My old Proxima projector doesn't accept HDMI cords, but an early model Blu-Ray player still has the RCA outputs.

The Roku SE from 2015 also has HDMI and RCA outputs. Now we can stream Boomerang cartoons until Mom's ready to watch the show with us.

I'm sure using the yellow RCA out degrades the Blu-Ray's picture some, but the image looks a lot better than what I got with a HDMI to RCA converter. 

What's a movie experience without popcorn? I recently rediscovered my Stir Crazy popcorn maker. I had this before we were married. The Stir Crazy is fun to use, and it pops a lot of popcorn at once. I like this better than microwave popcorn, but the real deal at the theater still can't be beat.

All of this would  have been a waste of time if Charlotte didn't enjoy Lord of the Rings, but she did. She loved The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. I think we'll finish The Return of the King on Friday night. I'm dreading the scene with the giant spider, and we've already warned Charlotte. 

I was proably seven when I first watched Earth vs. The Spider on Saturday afternoon TV. The scene where the Sheriff is attacked by a giant tarantula terrified me.

Speaking of being scared, I think I'll keep the garage theater open for some of my favorite Halloween movies. I'll let you know if something really jumps out at me.

Another Unnecessary, but Kinda Cool Project

My dad had all kinds of supervision duties when he was an elementary principal. We were always going back to school. We'd go back on Tuesday nights for JV basketball games. We'd go back on Friday nights for varsity football games. On Saturdays we'd go back for volleyball games.

I swear Dad would yell that it was time to go anytime I was watching a favorite TV show. I hated that; whatever I was watching would become an eternal mystery. VCRs were not available yet, and so I would never know how the show ended. I remember wishing for an endless power cord so we could take the TV with us in the car. 

I think that's what drew me to this Casio portable TV at Goodwill. This would have been a game changer for nine-year-old me.

Since it was manufactored in 1998, I knew that the Casio TV-770 couldn't receive modern digital TV signals. As is, it was useless as a TV. I didn't care. I thought it was cool, and I had a suspicion that I could do something with it.

A Google search turned up YouTube videos of people wirelessly playing movies on their tiny, portable TVs. How were they doing that?

They were using an antenna signal booster. 

An antenna booster takes the signal that an antenna receives, strengthens it, and sends the stronger signal on to your TV. In theory, you should receive a cleaner (less pixelated) image. 

Apparently, if you connect an antenna signal booster in reverse from a VCR and send the signal to a passive "rabbit ear" antenna, the rabbit ears become a VHF signal transmitter, like a very weak TV station. You can pick up whatever is playing on the VCR (or a DVD/ VCR combo player) with the portable TV's antenna.

Here's a very scientific diagram: 

This is exactly the kind of unnecessary thing that I wanted to try! 

I use to have a DVD/VCR combo player that I kept at school. That player was mistakenly barcoded as UHS property by the I.T. team and then later discarded because they deeemed it obsolete. I didn't care back then, but now I wished I had it. I'd need a combo player with a cable out connection to play a DVD on my little TV.

A GE antenna and a Philco player followed me home from Goodwill. 

I bought an antenna booster from Amazon, and used a female to female F-Type connector to join the antenna to the booster. 

A VHS copy of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was the test movie. Are you kidding me? This works? (The picture looks better in person.) 

So, I'm in my basement with a large screen TV across from me, but instead of using it, I'm watching a DVD of Freejack on a 2.3 inch screen. 

Does that make any sense? No.

Is it fun? Yes.

I'm going to count this as a win.

Halloween Isn't the Only Thing Sneaking up on You

Char, that evil, Jack-in-a-Box clown at the grocery store isn't what you should be worried about. 

Unbeknownst to Char, she was ten minutes from getting her flu shot. Let's just say it wasn't a welcomed surprise... 

I can't say that I blame her. 

She's Feeling Blue and Happy About It

Char has been asking to get her hair dyed since second grade. At first she wanted to go with bright pink, but for the last few years she has asked for blue. 

Daphne would reply, "I think that's more of a middle school thing. Why don't we wait until you get into sixth grade?" The question was rhetorical. Daphne had no intention of dying Char's hair before that.

Sixth grade is here, and Char had not changed her mind. She still wanted to go blue. Daphne asked a few of her students at the middle school what they used when they dyed their hair at home. She ordered supplies from Amazon, and they got to work on it on Labor Day.

Before shots:

It's now a waiting game...

Done! She's blue! After shots:

I don't see colors very accurately. Daphne and Charlotte say that they really like the color and are happy with how it came out. Good enough for me. Daph used a semi-permanent dye, and I assume the blue will fade with time. But I hope not too quickly. Hair color is just harmless fun.

Am I Coming In Clear?*

I wanted to watch the Olympics in our basement this summer, but we cut the cable cord last January. Our Rokus are handling streaming duties, and the TV antennas upstairs bring in local channels, but the TV reception in the basement stinks.

Small antennas like this one do not work well down there. I could get channel 8-1, the HSN, and four different channels showing the same televangelist. Channel 13-1 (our Olympic channel) might come in if I stood in one spot with my arms raised like I was in a Mr. Bean skit.

While moving into our house, I discovered that the previous owner left behind a large TV antenna in the garage attic. It's the size of what you would have seen attached to a house in the 1970s. I suspect he placed it up there when the house was being built. There's no way that antenna could have fit through the access hole in the ceiling. 

I would have never ditched cable TV eight years ago. Back then I thought that worthless antenna was taking up valuable storage space. I was going to dismantle it with a bolt cutter and throw out the pieces, but I forgot. I'm glad I did. Now that attena is like finding buried treasure.

The previous owners also left behind a satellite TV dish on our roof and a nest of cables in the garage wall. I pulled the wires out and found the cable for the attic antenna with Daphne's help.

I connected the antenna to the cable that ran around the house and into the basement. Then I ran downstairs and did a channel search on my TV. Nothing happened because I forgot to connect a cable to the TV (in my defense, I was pretty excited.) I ran the channel search again, and I was watching Olympic volleyball in no time flat.

Looks "good!"

Alright! Go USA!

I began watching other channels when the Olympics were over. I had forgotten how much I like the programs on PBS and MeTV. A lot of those shows air when I'm either alseep or at work. I wondered if there was a way to record them without having a cable service's DVR. 

One affordable option is the Mediasonic ATSC Digital Converter Box. I didn't expect too much for $30, and I was pleasantly surprised. The Homeworx is a bit clunky, but it works. I can record and watch shows without any kind of a subscription. That's cool. I like it.

You have to provide your own external hard drive to store the programs that you record. I went with a Seagate 1TB drive. The Twilight Zone airs at 11:30 PM, but now I can watch it when I want. 

The Mediasonic instructions really are terrible, so thank goodness for the people on Amazon who answer questions and leave ratings. This converter box would be a converter brick without their help.

Svengoolie was airing The Beast Must Die (1974) on Saturday evening. I recorded that while we were watching Lego Masters upstairs. I watched the movie last night (spoiler alert: Dumbledore is the werewolf) and had a lot of fun. I enjoyed being able to fast forward through the commercials and rewind when needed. 

MeTV airs shows I haven't seen before, like Mannix and Cannon, and programs that I haven't even heard of before, like The Time Tunnel and The Invaders. All of these programs run after midnight, so recording them is the only way for me to see them on my "big screen." 

I've also been absorbing America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Country, and Milk Street on Iowa PBS. Food Flirts is a hoot. There are gems to be found on the Laff, Comet, and Mystery channels as well.

Is any of this necessary? Not really. I can find most of this stuff online through one streaming platform or another. 

Am I having fun? Absolutely. How else am I'm going to record Svengoolie? 

*Did you ever notice in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that the American actor playing Mike Teevee sounds a bit odd when he says, after being sent through the TV, "Am I coming in clear?" That's because he was hanging out with the British actress who played Veruca Salt, and her accent had crept into his own inflection. 

Happy National Dog Day!

The picture Charlotte chose for Girl Scouts:

Ellie and Earl:

The girls:

Sounds too familiar:

Might be a good day to give someone an extra treat... Char gave Ellie a "Puppuccino" from Starbucks. It was well received. 

 Don't forget to use your "puppy voice!"

Iowa State Fair: 2021 Edition

Of all the Iowa State Fair commericals on TV, I like this one the best ------> Link

My reason is at the 20 second mark:

There aren't any pictures of the 2020 Iowa State Fair because it was cancelled. The ISF sent out a call for people to submit their favorite fair photos from past fairs as a way to get promotional material. That picture of Char eating a Fair Square is from 2014, and she is almost five years old. We received some free fair tickets because her picture was chosen.

Not going to the fair wasn't an option. We did set some rules for ourselves to be as safe as we could: 

1) We'd only attend one day.

2) We'd wear masks indoors and in long lines.

3) We'd bring water to drink and water to spray. 

4) We'd go on opening day when it was forecasted to incredibly hot and humid in hopes that we'd miss the huge crowds.

Our day started out at the Center Street Park and Ride. The buses started rolling at 8:30, and we were first in line for the first bus. 

The bus filled up pretty quickly, and the fairgrounds were very busy when we arrived at 9:00 am. 

Char couldn't get poffertjes from the Breakfast Delights stand at the Downtown Farmers' Market because they didn't return for the 2021 season. Luckily, the Wooden Shoe at the fair sells poffertjes, and they are made by the same gentleman who makes them at the famers' market. 

They were exactly the way Char remebered, "YES! These are sooo good!" 

Grabbing a free egg-on-a-stick from the Iowa Egg Council is a tradition.

So is cotton candy. The stand that Char really liked in 2019 didn't return, though. This is a bit of a cotton mess made by a first-time employee. It still tasted like melted sugar, though.

The Big Slide moved locations, but it was as fun as always.

We stopped by the Turkey Federation's Grill for a couple of turkey sandwiches. You can see that Char couldn't muster up much of a smile. That's not the turkey's fault. It was noon, and we were baking in the heat. The heat index was nearing 100 degrees. Sitting under a tent with no air flow did not help us any.

The Exhibition Center is air-conditioned, so we watched an indoor horse competition while we tried to cool down. Our masks must have been working well. We had no idea how strong the manure smell was until we lowered the masks to drink our water. We then crossed the street to walk around the newly renovated 4H building which also had AC.  

We were feeling better, so we stopped by Iowa Craft Beer tent. The tent had been relocated it to the west side of the fairgrounds. The space was much more open and comfortable. There were also some really nice breezes blowing through. Daphne and I shared a couple of brews, and Char had milk and cookies. 

I thought the beer tent was going to be our last stop, but I got my appetite back. I asked Daphne if she'd share a Gizmo with me. Her end has the banana peppers.

We sat on a shaded bench near the Bill Riley Stage to eat. It was weird. That area is usually full of people, but it was like a ghost town. Both Daphne and I wondered if there had been some kind of storm warning that we had missed. We checked our phones, but didn't see anything. Maybe 4:00 pm is low tide?

Char was a little disappointed that she didn't get a PB&J-on-a-stick at the fair. So, Mom made her one for dinner.

We didn't go home hungry, but this was the first time we didn't eat anything fried. No corndogs, cheese curds, or Grater Taters were consumed. I also didn't take many pictures. I think it was just to too hot. The heat index had reached 104 degrees when we got back to our car at 4:30 pm. We were all ready to go home.

Our plan to avoid the biggest crowds did work. The Day 2 attendance was 26,477 more people than on Day 1.

This wasn't exactly the Fair 2021 experience that I was hoping for, but it was a whole lot better than no fair at all.