I had plans for some good blogging this week — about the train ride we took on the White River Flyer last weekend, and how you should go this weekend (particularly since Dave will be playing guitar down there at the station before the train leaves and hope to play on the train as well). And about seeing “An Inconvenient Truth”. Oh, and I completely forgot to post about Wimbledon (and how it is not Wimbleton or Wimbledown). Other stuff too: I’m writing a town news column for our local paper every week now. I’m a little panicked about what to write for next week. I need to get out and talk to some people.

Instead I’ve been spending time visiting a friend who broke his leg. It was a big break. He is in the hospital, done with surgery and beginning recovery. My folks are still here as well and it’s been nice being with them. Mom and I are watching DVDs of the “Upstairs, Downstairs” series from the 70s. We watched them back then, too, but I never saw it from the start.

They’re here for another week but I’m not sure we’ll have time for the next disc. Netflix is doing their deliberate thing to slow down my viewing. They have me returning discs to Worcester, MA this week. Last week it was Manchester, NH, and before that White River Junction. I expect we’ll jump to Kansas City next.

I’m not sure I understand their need to slow me down in particular, but I get the concept. Apparently this is some kind of standard business practice of theirs. They start you out with a nearby facility so the discs during the trial period are exchanged swiftly. Then as soon as you are a paying customer, they find ways to delay your shipments and keep you to whatever they think is a reasonable number of discs. I haven’t decided to get irritated about it yet. Frankly, the discs arrive and I don’t exactly have time to sit down and watch them immediately. That and there are so many other things in life to irritate, why focus on that?