09 February 2014

The Day After The Night Before, and Some Iditarod News

Yesterday was a good day, all told. You may remember that I mentioned, some time back, our Samsung blu-ray/theater system was malfunctioning.

After purchasing the thing last year, it only worked well for a few months before the problems began.
After inserting any disk (DVD, CD, Blu-Ray), it would clunk, whirr & whine, and repeat for about 60 to 90 seconds. Then it would eject the disk, with a message that the disk was corrupt, or unreadable, or whatever.

We sent it to the nearest repair facility some 2,000 miles away in California, where it languished for a month or six weeks before they returned it. It worked reasonably well for another two months, until mid-January when it refused to read Blu-Ray disks; DVDs played just fine.

Then the iPod docking station stopped sending the music tracks through the amplifier. iPods would receive power, but the tunes continued to play from the tiny speakers in the iPod instead of the 7.1 channels.

Yesterday, we replaced that 'cadillac' system for a Sony unit at about one-third the price of the other. It has all of the same features, except it's a standard 5.1-channel playback.

All it cost me, other than money, was a couple hours of crawling around the living room on my hands & knees, re-routing the new speaker wires. I can safely say that I won't spend big bucks for the fancy units, ever again. And it was awfully nice to watch newer movies on blu-ray last night. :)

* * * * *

It was 2 degrees when I awoke this morning. Finally, Alaskan weather returns.

* * * * *

Regarding that warm spell which melted so much of our snow, there's news from the Iditarod HQ:

The official start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race may be moved from Willow to Fairbanks if trail conditions don't improve, race organizers said Saturday.

The ceremonial start of the 1,000-mile race to Nome is set for Anchorage on Saturday, March 1, and as of now, the restart is still scheduled for Willow on Sunday, March 2, organizers said.

However, trail conditions -- especially from the top of Rainy Pass in the Alaska Range to Nikolai -- may not be acceptable, according to an update sent to mushers and a statement posted on the race's website Saturday.

Iditarod organizers said they will decide by Feb. 17 if trail conditions will force a restart in Fairbanks on Monday, March 3. The Saturday ceremonial start would remain in Anchorage.

During the restart in 2003, Karen Land gets her dog team back on track near the Riverboat Discovery on the Chena River just downstream from the starting line Monday in Fairbanks. (ERIK HILL — Anchorage Daily News)

As you can see, it's happened at least once before.

14 comments:

Stephen said...

Perhaps it's time I update from the old video tapes and player. I've heard those new fangled DVD things are just the cat's meow.

PioneerPreppy said...

Look like we are going to get another blast of Alaskan weather the next two days but after that things are looking kinda nice.

It's snowing now again though and I had to pull the wife's care into the driveway cause she got stuck.

Home on the Range said...

We only have a foot and a half of snow, but it's not warmed up above zero for a few days. Hope the conditions for the race work out.

Rev. Paul said...

Okay, now that I'm done laughing ... it's like switching from 8-tracks to cassettes: the new ones take up less space. :)

Rev. Paul said...

Sure, rub it in, Preppy. We actually need the snow. Heh.

Rev. Paul said...

That sounds like Alaska weather to me, Brigid - I hope you get some normal temps.

Old NFO said...

Sometimes, the 'cheep' stuff is just as good (cause it works)!!!

Rev. Paul said...

Absolutely, NFO. Never again will we pay top dollar for a sound system ... or anything else, if we can help it.

Cathy said...

Well, ya know you're encountering a different breed of man when ya hear a sigh of happy relief about temps dipping to 2 degrees.
Enjoy ! :)

P.S. Don't 'spose you could hike down here to help me get my VHS tape player workin'.

Rev. Paul said...

Thanks, Cathy. I suspect the hike would take too long, or I'd give it a shot.

Teresa said...

So sorry about your system breaking down like that. We spend money on electronics but my husband researches down to the last detail. We have seldom had an issue with something going bad like that. (a pricey system like that should have been under warranty!) This may be why we still have a stereo receiver that works beautifully... bought in 1983. LOL.

I hope your new one works well for years. :) After pulling everything out of the tv room in the basement yesterday, my husband is now trying to decide what we "really" need to put back in once the floors are done. That is just too funny.

Rev. Paul said...

We researched that system, but there weren't many comments on it at the time. Now there are lots, including a number that are similar to mine.

Thank you for the good wishes; this new system has 4 1/2 stars on Amazon, with some 120 comments. Aren't smartphones wonderful? :)

ProudHillbilly said...

You had my particular attention when you said Samsung. Mine's older, but it has never worked right, and I suspect that by summer I will be disassembling it to rescue an disc before trashing it. It won't be a blu-ray disk, though, because it won't play blu-ray anymore.

Rev. Paul said...

Understood; there's a surprising amount of info on the 'net now about Samsung blu-ray machines that don't work.