Funny how leaving the overcast skies of Seattle and flying into the overcast skies of Phoenix are nothing alike. Up north it's all steel greys and shadow blues, as opposed to the still uniform brownness of the desert landscape. It's a brutal place to call home, but beautiful in it's own way as well. I suppose I'd be happy if I was described that charitably from time to time!
The kids were glad to see us. Hyper hyper hyper. Mika was helping Nana with dinner, which was fun to watch. Gena and I have much to chew over, reviewing different points over the last few days, examining, wondering, dreaming, and telling ourselves not to get too excited one way or the other. In the meantime, we have a road trip to prepare for, which should give us more than enough to keep us busy the next few days.
On the plane ride we were seated next to a woman with a not-quite-two-year old. We always like those times, since we empathize with the stress that the mother is under to keep the child as quiet as possible, and it's nice to let them know that we aren't freaked out by the fact that their child occasionally screams and cries. I don't have any desire to return to those days, though!
One of my main goals in the next few days is to update the stereo deck in the mini-van we bought used last spring. It has a very nice deck in it right now - extremely nice, I found out today. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an external jack to plug our iPod in. On the bonus side, it's hooked up to a ten CD-changer that sits under the front passenger seat. I had hoped to just buy a new deck with an RCA jack, and hook it up to the existing changer so we could have both options at our disposal. Alas, I was informed that this is not possible.
Firstly, because decks and CD changers are (or more accurately were) paired together by manufacturer, rather than being interchangeable. So if I bought a different deck, it wouldn't necessarily be compatible with the CD changer unless it was the same manufacturer. Then I found out that there was a workaround from the deck manufacturer. Except that the workaround doesn't support the newer iPod devices. Finally, another workaround was found (thanks to the very helpful Mark at crutchfield.com), except that it required the out port currently being utilized by the changer.
It looks like we'll have to just buy a new deck, which I had originally assumed. But we'll have to give up the CD changer, which I hadn't assumed. Apparently nobody even makes CD changers anymore. It's amazing how quickly technology changes. And were I grumpier, I might lament about being old enough to have lived through not just one, but several massive changes in the way that stuff like music is created, stored, sold, replayed, etc. But rather than grump much about it, I'll just marvel at how much has changed so quickly, and how much better certain things are - such as music storage, portability, and playback - have become on account of this.
I'll probably go to Sounds Good to Me - a local audio store that I've been going to sporadically for close to 20 years. Except they've moved locations about a mile west, thanks to the continued massacre of Tempe by major chain drug stores and retail outlets. I was going to have a buddy here in town help, but I'm worried it will be more of a hassle now. I hate to impose, and I'm on a tight time frame. At least I trust the folks at Sounds Good to Me.
And as a final odd note, I'm meditating on and reading the book of Lamentations for Lent. It's hauntingly beautiful.
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