I received an e-mail earlier today from my friend Wayne. He recently retired and has moved to Louisville. He has been learning how to dance and is taking up horseback riding. Another friend of mine, Ron, has retired and has moved to Ocala. He spends his time fixing up his retirement home when he is not fishing or hunting. Things to do, and all the time to do it.

I am jealous. I have five more years to go before I can retire. I think about all the things I could do with all that time. One fellow employee, Craig, already has his retirement planned out. When he retires, he is going to buy a recreational vehicle and go across the United States.

As a teenager, I was able to see quite a bit of North America. I have been to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, the Smokey Mountains, the Cascade Mountains, the Allegheny Mountains, and the Florida Keys. On vacation with my parents, we had seen a lot of the United States, traveling across the wheat and corn fields of Nebraska and Oklahoma into Texas. We went across the Northwestern States into Washington and down into the Redwoods of California.

There are two places that I have not seen, however. That is the East Coast states and and the New England States. On one vacation, we drove down through the New England States on our return from Canada. We did not get to spend a lot of time there. I have also not traveled to the east coast of the Carolinas or Maryland. I have not seen Delaware or New Hampshire.

Therefore, I have decided that when I retire, I will drive up the east coast on I-95 and go all the way up from Florida to the New England states. Stop for pizza in New York between stops for crabs in Maryland and lobsters in Maine.

Until then, I have things to do here. I am not retired yet, so time is precious. I have a lot to do between now and then. I want to do more writing, and take up drawing again. I would like to find a place where I can do printmaking and get back to throwing clay on a potters wheel. I like to take pictures, but I never learned to develop. A blogger wrote about touching a painting. I want to touch a canvas with my brush and use acrylics, oils and watercolors. So many things to do.

But before I do any of that, pizza sounds good about now.

I was listening to a news radio station on the way to work this morning, and there was a story about the Federal Communications Commission looking into the cable television industry. For years, cable television companies have had a monopoly on certain areas throughout a city. If you live in a neighborhood and you want cable installed, you only have one company to deal with. And you have to pay the subscription fees that the company sets. The FCC is considering making the cable industry more competitive, letting consumers have a choice of cable companies. There is also talk of a "ala carte" menu, which will let subscribers select the channels they want. If you want news, weather, and sports channels, then you could select those that appeal to you and not have to take other channels that comes in the cable package.

I never subscribed to cable for these two reasons. There are a lot of channels that I am not interested in. And I do not like having to pay a set price for many channels I do not want. If I could select a company to provide service and give me the channels I want, I would subscribe to cable.

For reception, I use an antenna to receive regular broadcasts. Most of the channels come in very clearly. With my television not working, however, it does not matter what I use for reception.

I do not watch much television. I watch the news while I have dinner, and there are a few shows that I watch in the evening. Another reason I never subscribed to cable was the fact that if I was paying for it, I would feel like I had to watch it all the time. I have to be moving around, so it is difficult for me to sit for long periods of time clicking a remote through all the channels just to see if something is on that may be of interest. I do not like to watch films on commercial television, since there is something that is always edited. I will go see the movie at the theater or rent the DVD.

I remember before cable television was available, there were only 5-6 channels available. The three networks ABC, NBC, and CBS, plus the local PBS stations. And there were always one or two independent stations that showed syndicated television shows and movies. I enjoyed watching late night television on the weekend. There was always a "creature feature" on Friday or Saturday nights, with bad special effects and acting that was even worse. So bad but so good! The public broadcasting channel would show old silent films from the 1920s. Many were classic, and much better than some of the films today.

I don not see those any more. If I am up late on the weekend, all that is on are infomercials, with some actor or actress hawking kitchen appliances that you will only use a few times before it ends up in a yard sale. Or it is exercise equipment or some get rich quick scheme. And if I am paying for cable, I am paying for watching a commercial that is a half-hour long?

When I get around to buying a new television set, I will hook it up to my antenna. If I wait for the FCC to make changes to the cable industry, it's going to be a long time.

I have my home theater system. Instead of getting cable, I'll just have my own "creature feature" and play my Vincent Price DVDs with no lights on and a big bowl of popcorn.

My television no longer is working. Last week, the picture went off by itself. Throughout the week, I could turn the television on and watch a program, then the picture would go off. I was able to watch the women's figure skating on Thursday with no problem. On Friday, I started to watch the news, and the picture went out. And it has been out since. I contacted the manufacturer on-line, and they gave me a 1-800 number. I called the number, and all they could do was tell me the number of a repair service. I think I am better off buying a new television.

In the meantime, I have not been able to go out over the weekend to take a look at new television sets since I have a part-time job on the weekend. I will probably go out during the week and look, but I have a few things to do. I wonder how much I will be able to get done because I am not sitting in front of the television.

Maybe this is a good time to take advantage of the situation and do the things I always tell myself that I will get around to. I wonder how much I can do. All those projects I wanted to do but could never find the time to do them.

There are some books that I have that I never read. As a matter of fact, there are a few books that I never finished. Photos that need to be organized. I have some art supplies that I have not used in years. Maybe I can take up drawing again. Or maybe do more photography after I organize my photos, slides, and negatives. In case you are wondering, I do not have a digital camera. One of these days, I will buy one and start posting pictures in a gallery along with this blog.

I have plenty I would like to do. I will start looking at televisions this week. Before I do any of this, I need to straighten up the apartment and dust the furniture.

I hate dusting, but it has to be done. And I do not have a television to use as an excuse not to do it. I do have this blog, though. I can use that as an excuse.

Where did I put that furniture polish?

Earlier this afternoon, I went down to the laundry room at the apartment complex where I live to do two loads of laundry. I was able to get off work early, so I figured I would take advantage of that time and do some work on the computer while my clothes were in the wash. After running my clothes in the washer, I put my two loads in separate dryers. I set the dryers for normal load and deposit my quarters. Later on, I return to the laundry room only find my clothes are still damp. In both dryers.

Needless to say, I was so mad that I wanted to tear the doors off the dryers and shout every vulgar word known in the human language. With a lady present, however, my gentleman side took over. I did not swear or slam anything around. I removed my wet clothes from the dryer and told the woman present not to use these two dryers. She thanked me as I walked out holding any obscenities under my breath.

This usually would not bother me, but this has happened before. But only with one dryer. Not two. Several times in the past, one of the dryers are not working properly, and you lose a dollar to the laundry gods. Now the price is one dollar and twenty-five cents. The laundry gods are eating good.

I load my laundry into the truck cab and drive up to the shopping plaza. There is a coin laundry in the plaza that is open until 8:00 p.m. Unfortunately, the coin laundry is closed on President's Day. WHAT?! I am a government employee, and I did not have the day off. What gives.

As the owner of the laundry apologized for the inconvenience, I waved to him and drove off. Are there any vulgar words I have not used yet? I am trying to remember.

It gets better. I then drive down the road to another coin laundry as a trail of obscenities float in the breeze toward the intersection of Conway and Curry Ford Road. The laundry is open, and I carry my two baskets of clothes that are beginning to smell funny. I set my baskets down on the folding table as the flies start hovering around.

I find the owner of the facility and I tell him of my situation while handing him a five dollar bill for change so I could use the dryers. "I am so sorry. You can use the dryers only if you washed your clothes here.",he said.

I continued to tell him of my plight, only to be told the same thing. "We do not make money if people only use our dryers."

At this moment, I am waiting to hear the narrator from "The Twilight Zone" tell the audience that this is a story of a man looking to dry his clothes, only to enter the Twilight Zone laundromat. A place with all washing machines, and no dryers. I grab my laundry baskets and escape before I am somehow stranded there for eternity in the Twilight Zone and drive like a madman to the next laundry.

The third time is a charm. A polite man answers my questions and points me to the change machine. And it takes five dollar bills, too. I put three quarters in each dryer, and twenty minutes later, I have dry clothes. And they smell great,too! Thanks to whoever the person was who invented fabric softener sheets.

From now on, I will take my laundry to the USA Laundry, as it is called. Clean, plenty of washers and dryers, and I can take my dry cleaning there, too. I wonder is they would wash my friend's dog? He is smelling really bad. And fabric softener is not going to help.

Short and Sweet: Happy Valentine's Day to everyone at Blogstream.