Entering a Brave New 2008

A potpourri of stuff...

Two things to add to my 2007 list below...

(Other) Best Techno toy: TomTom 720, which I still strongly suspect is Peggy's bastard Borg love child.






In our trip up to Lopstick Cabins in Pittsburg, NH, the Tommy led an unsuspecting Fred and Peggy down a dirt road leading to what we thought would be paved highway that eventually would take us to the Rangeley Lakes in Maine. Ten miles later, as we still proceeded - alone with nothing but scrub brush and trees on either side - along a washboard road, I finally realized as a Big Scary Truck filled with Maine Pine advanced directly at us that the TomTom had found a direct route to Rangely - a direct route that involved taking a logging road across the two states, a road untrod by man or beast except for those paid to haul the big wood... and, of course, us.

It was an interesting trip, equal to the one where Peggy led us through the middle of a cattle drive in Nevada, as cows mooed forlornly through my car window and cowboys solemnly tipped their hats to Peggy as we glided by, pretending that we belonged there.

And added to the best out-and-abouts - Newport RI and and the Chanler at Cliff Walk, which foggy-headed Fred totally forgot about, lo those 10 months ago. I'm doubly-shamed, as we also had one of the best meals of our lives at the Chanler's restaurant, The Spiced Pear.

While putting together the list, I was thinking how few books, music, and movies impressed me in 2007. Here's hoping 2008 has more of interest.

And, finally, if you actually visit fhb versus using some sort of reader, you'll note that some blogs have come and many have gone on the ol' roll for 2008. Doesn't mean I hate you - or even dislike you - if you're gone, just that I'm ah, not reading you through fhb anymore. But I still get a summary of most who were on the roll through Google Reader. You join a select company of "who Fred used to have on the blogroll," which includes Neil Gaiman and William Gibson among others. Chalk it up to changing tastes and ever-dwindling time. It's just faster to read summaries than bop all over the Web.

The ones on the right are the ones I still take the time to visit, albeit irregularly. The new ones have intrigued me enough to add them on the roll, at least for a time.