Batteries fade over time, and not a long time at that. The battery on this laptop holds a charge for just under two hours; when new, it kept the laptop running for three-and-a-half hours. The iPod battery that rocked on for more than eight hours now just makes it to seven. Both are less than a year old. Freeplay, a South African company, has just gone public on the London Stock Exchange with a line of products that can charge batteries with wind-up and foot power. They also make a multi-source, multi-band radio.

I've been wearing glasses since I was five. The only time that I was without them for a extended time came as the result of a walk through the woods after dark. (It looked like a shortcut on the way in to the woods.) A stray branch knocked my glasses off and in the dark, thick underbrush, I couldn't find them. In those days, it took a week to get a pair of glasses, so I spent the time in a Mr. Magoo blur. If only I had these, I'd have been all set.

My father has a 1971 phone book on his kitchen counter. You never know when you'll need to look up the phone number that someone had nearly 35 years ago. That was two area codes ago for him. He's had the same phone number since the late 50s, back when telephone exchanges were in common use.

The eastern sky was bright red at sunrise. We're expecting more snow, although the Cape will get hit the hardest again.