Blizzard '11

If you haven't heard, much of the midwest and northeast have been pummelled with snow, ice and wind.  Our neighborhood is no different.  The snow and wind were nonstop last night and we awoke to the last snow showers and falling winds that became sunshine by midday.

Once more I must praise my wife for tackling this challenge with minimal help from me.  She really is wonderful, and will be not wonderfully sore after this.  This is looking towards the end of our driveway:

Before:  blinding white masses.



After:  some perspective now, eh?



Click for full size, or just click read more for these and some more before and after shovelling shots.

Mystery Shoveller And Traffic

The mystery shoveller has struck again!  It again snowed this morning starting about the time I left and ending sometime around noon.  When I got home a bit ago the whole walk, steps and driveway were shovelled, except for a small bit in the middle of the driveway.  I did not surprise anyone off, but there is some ice in that area so I wonder if the mystery shoveller slipped and said 'enough'.  I, oddly, talked to 4 different neighbors on the street when I got home and, of course, no one saw a thing.  Hmmm.  Well, there will be more snow in the next few days so I guess we'll see if it happens again!  I'd like to know who to thank!

In another odd happening lately, my traffic has jumped significantly lately to well over 30 hits a day average for this past week and a half.  Hi everyone!  Set a spell, take your shoes off.  Seriously, I get a lot of hits because of my pic dumps and as far as I can tell some popular site must have linked to the 'People In Animal Costumes' pic dump since that seems to have drawn the most attention lately.  Also, if you ever make it to the bottom of this page you will have noticed a few trackers in the right column.  Those were added early New Year's Day and are kind of neat, I think.

Well, thanks for visiting and if I find out who you are, mystery shoveller, you're going to get the biggest most heartfelt 'thank you' you've ever received!

*Update:  Today's shovelling was done by my father in law.  But he is still adamant that he did not do it the first time, and with more snow coming we'll see what happens!

The Cat Who Lives In A Tree

via here and here

Teach Me How To Raji

...9 more days              GO PACK GO!


The original 'Teach Me How To Bucky' here.

PT And A Mystery

Only gained a small amount of degrees of knee bend again this week, despite all my exercises and miles on the recumbent exercise bike downstairs.  Yet it is progress, no matter how slow.  I have gained strength in my damaged quad muscle yet I'm still hobbling around on my cane.  Shovelling snow now would be difficult for me, and perhaps not smart, but not impossible. 

This morning we received a couple inches of snow, starting with my morning commute and ending sometime before lunch.  Both my wife and I went to work all day and did not get home until this evening, yet when we arrived home we found the entire sidewalk, steps and the whole driveway shovelled.  Now, neighbor Dave would have used his snow blower, my wife's dad says he didn't come over and do it and neighbor Jane's sidewalk wasn't touched.  We can't think of any friends who, first, had the day off or, second, would be thoughtful enough to do something like this for us.  No offense to any, just saying that this isn't something most people would drive over to do, at least not for these few inches, but I may be mistaken. 
 
So, it seems we owe somebody a huge thanks for clearing all that snow for us, and actually doing a great job of it, too!  I'll let you know when/if the mystery gets solved!

The Boy Least Likely To

It was a normal day today, during a normal week at work.  I listened to a few podcasts straight through in the morning, then after lunch I usually rock out anywhere from AC/DC to Megadeth to Zodiac Mindwarp, but today I felt different.  Not sad, just maybe a little melancholy.  Why?  Well, I think maybe I've learned to care a little less at work.  Go along to get along.  Sigh.  So, anyway, this afternoon I listened to The Boy Least Likely To's two albums.  They have an innocent, soothing sound.


And I can't forget this fun little ditty!

Happy Day

Happy Birthday to my brother, I hope you get a great present in 12 days!

This would be even better if your name was Brian!!

A Brand New Car!

Well, brand new to me, anyway.  I traded in the truck this evening and bought a smaller used car, an SUV, actually, which is still technically a car, legally.  Got it?  I don't.  (Not the car pictured.  No real details will be posted here, I'm still keeping some semblance of anonymity.)  Way back when I bought my old truck (a bigger SUV) I really wanted this small SUV but just couldn't afford it.  I just liked the way it looked and the reputation of the company.  I've never really wanted a certain make/model when car shopping before.  Money was the number one factor in my mind most times.  I'm really not a car person, usually.  Anyway, Mrs. Scoakat has driven another model of this make for several years and we have had no major trouble, only maintenance.  Now, several years later I can afford a nice used one so I finally got what I originally wanted!  Yea Me!  And thanks to Mrs. S, without whom none of this would be possible!

NFC Champions!

Packers Win!

Da' Bears Still Suck!

If the Packers had happened to lose...