Snow Omen

Our first real Winter storm is approaching and I can't get my blasted snowblower to start.  The snow is due to arrive this evening and finally end sometime later tomorrow afternoon.  I had the snowblower serviced the Summer before last, and we only used it once or twice last year, so I don't know what is wrong with it except for maybe lack of use.  I tried all the usual fixes and troubleshooting to no avail.  Oh well, I have to keep trying or risk throwing out my back shovelling.  If it didn't have an electric starter then I may have thrown my back out by now.

Otherwise, I have been spending my half day off wrapping presents and backing up our computer onto a new hard drive.  We had to get a new one because the old one was full with the current backup and all my music and videos.  Now, I will use the new drive, 2TB, for the backup, because that seems to get bigger and bigger, and use the old one, 1TB, for my rather extensive audio and video library.  That should set us for a while.

As the holiday approaches stress becomes visible in many people I know.  I'm actually not that bad, yet.  When the day comes that we have to travel and see family I will be in my usual holiday way, though, and that is not good.  I hate to travel for holidays.  I hate the expectation that you should be somewhere, you should spend money, you should enjoy family, and you should shut up and like it. 

Goddammit.  I guess it has started already.

12 12 12 12 12 12

I had meant to post at 12:12:12 here on 12/12/12 however I had forgotten and when I remembered I was at Brothers Three having a sloppy joe and fries for lunch.  Happy belated 12 12 12 12 12 12.

The End Is Near

Eff Christmas.  Why didn't anyone remind me that the world is going to end in 9 days?  Here I've been stressing about gifts and dreading the holiday travel, all for naught.  Instead I should be taking off work and doing anything and everything I want to do before judgment day, or the apocalypse, or whatever you want to call the end of the world...  But there are just a few things wrong with that thought.

Work is too busy to take off, I don't believe in a 'judgment day' and I don't think the Mayans ever meant to imply the end of the world.  They carved a calendar into a rock, probably the biggest they felt they needed to use.  They probably figured that by the time their calendar was up that someone else should have figured out how to do the same thing to continue tracking the years.  Do we really think that an old calendar coming to an end is the end of the world?  Pshaw.  These days you can just run to the shops and get a new one.  I would like to think that they would have figured we'd come up with something like that by now.  This is my impression.  If I got some 'facts' wrong it is only because it is not worth my time to research it further.

Some people are just idiots, some just people are idiots, some idiot people are just, and all idiots are just people.

PTFO

First Snow Of The Season, 2012

I managed to sleep until 9:30 this morning, still less than 8 hours sleep, and I awoke to the inevitable slap in the face that is called snow.  An event that I seem to post every year, and always seems to be right about this date, plus or minus a week, the last four years.  At least it is pretty wet and just above freezing so hopefully the accumulation is minimal, though the roads may be a bit 'crunchy' on my way to work at stupid o'clock tomorrow morning.  I'll have to clean my car off before everything freezes up this evening.

Last night we had a wonderful time with a household full of friends that came over.  Again, my wife put out an amazing array of foods and snacks as always.  Her favorite hobby spoils me rotten.  Everyone seemed to have a great time and the cats received lots of attention even though they were kept in the basement most of the evening.  It was much fun but today is ours and tonight is the Packers!

PTFO

Reluctantly, I'll Go In Peace... And More

As much as I hate to travel for the holidays, instead preferring to use the time off work as down time at home, it looks as though we shall have to travel to Iowa this year.  The nieces and nephews are the reason, we just don't see them enough.  My wife's family is local while mine seems to be moving farther away all the time.  I hate this time of year.  Well, I haven't written much of anything in quite a while so it is time to start typing and see what happens:

• We have had overtime at work recently, and more to come I'm sure, so finding time and energy to write and things to write about have been difficult for me yet I have never posted less than seven times a month and don't want that to become even less so post I must.
• Still no snow on the ground.  Temperatures have ranged from average to above average so far this season.  If this keeps up I find myself wondering about our plants.  Next Spring's garlic has started growing already.  That reminds me, I guess I could do another post over at the old garden blog sometime soon.
• The kitties are almost 8 months old and still growing.  They are a joy to have despite some of their evil shenanigans.
• I have to start Christmas shopping very soon.  Mostly just for the kids, the adults can have my holiday cheer.  I would appreciate any ideas my family would like to send my way!
• A recent post by Delcatto got me thinking of the various animals I have spotted in my yard since we've moved in to our house - in the middle of the city.  Not counting birds (even woodpeckers and hummingbirds), there are tons of squirrels of course, and several little chipmunks.  But there have also been opossum, raccoons, rabbits and even a skunk.  We saw the skunk a couple weeks ago passing around the back of our house then a day or two later you could smell it outside, so there may have been an unfortunate dog or cat outside that day.
• I haven't had a 'Latest Listening Pleasure' post for a while now.  I am still listening mostly to the band PAIN, and have been since I found out about them more than a year ago.  They've just come out with a new live DVD/2CD set that has finally shipped...  weeks after the CDs have been on the internet and one of the shows has been posted on YouTube.  Doesn't matter, really, I like to support the bands I enjoy by purchasing their releases.

That sounds like a good note to go out on.  Here is Pain's official 'We Come In Peace' trailer.


Sorry there's not much substance in this post, there has been nothing extraordinary to write about.  Oh, I could pontificate on Bret Bielema leaving the Badgers or Packer injuries, even politics if I wanted, but that is not what I do here and I think I'll keep it that way.  If rants are what you're looking for, check out TJ (or TAA), who I stole my closing below from.

PTFO

A Tour Of The International Space Station

In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on Nov. 18, just hours before she, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency departed in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

It's 25 minutes long but doesn't seem like it.  Worth a go, I'd say.  Sure beats trying to come up with a real post when I just don't feel like it.


Reposted from Bits & Pieces and YouTube.

A Late Flower

In the corner between the house, porch, stairs and air conditioner, among the leaf litter and mulch, a day lily flower opened today.  All the others are gone except this one stem, and it even has a couple more buds on it that may open.  Here it is, late November, there have been several frosts and cold stretches.  But there it is.  Have a good upcoming holiday, everyone.

Highest Resolution Machu Picchu Picture

See the pic here.

The Last Nice Day?

Yesterday was beautiful for this time of year, sunny and in the mid-sixties.  Probably the last time we will see anything that good until Spring, and unfortunately that also meant that this was to be a workday.  So, after an inauspicious start to the day, I got to work outside, took a break to watch the Badger game, then was joined by my wife outside for even more work.  Gutters, leaves, mulch, house washing, stairs scrubbing, garden cleanup and more.  But now the yard looks good and ready for Winter, I just hope we are, too.
The garden has not been done yet in this pic, there will be more pictures and discussion of the garden and compost bin shortly over at my garden blog.  I'll try to do it soon, but I'm not really in a writing mood right now, it just takes too long to get it juuuust right.  OCD, y'know.






I'm already eyeing up a possible Spring project for next year, cleaning up along the side of the garage.  This past year I pretty well poisoned with Round-Up every weed that tried to grow over there.  My first thoughts are to remove and wash the rock that is there, even out the dirt, and put down a good landscape cloth.  Then I think we will get several stepping stones and use the same rock around them.  Then, hopefully, it will stay neat with little maintenance for years to come.

We have not decided what we are doing for some of the holidays yet, but no one should hold their breath.  I've always hated to travel and if you expect that to change then you're nuts.

PTFO

Blogs and Writers

I got started reading blogs long ago, shortly after we got the internet.  Over time I have read many blogs that either ran out of steam or I grew bored with and moved on, but there are some that I still read to this day or was referred to from one of those first ones I read.  Most of it started with the old blog 'Random Acts of Reality' by Brian Kellet, aka Tom Reynolds.  That blog is no longer, but I do have a link to his current page on the right.  From there I moved out to Diamond Geezer and Bill Sticker, all of these from across the pond, and looking at their blogrolls I picked up on Tears Before Pearls and others that are no longer on my radar.  Thus, most of what I read originated from the UK, and most just happened to have something to do with healthcare, since most started from an ambulance driver's blog.

What I have come to realize, however, is that many bloggers are actual writers.  At least the ones I read, and that may not be coincidence.  Writers should be able to put together a pretty well written post normally and that is what makes it enjoyable to read and keep coming back.  Even my newest blog on my reading list turns out to be a writer in Georgia, Mike Firesmith.

I'm no writer.  Oh, I write here, and I enjoy it, but I am no storyteller or wordsmith.  I know my limitations and am comfortable with them.  My place may not be much and it may not be very interesting to too many other people, but I like it.  Thank you to all who I read and have read in the past.  You may have inspired me to start this little page, but believe me, I know I am not a writer and I have no aspirations to be one.  But, please, continue what you do, I enjoy all of you!

These blogs and more listed in the right column.

Election Day

If one more person tells me to vote I'm going to pop a friggin blood vessel.  I am so sick of the flyers, phone calls, mailings and door knockers I want to scream (sound familiar?).  I should refuse to vote anymore until we have more realistic campaign periods, like a reasonable six weeks instead of two-plus god damn years.

I will be off to cast my ballot soon tonight.

If there are any higher powers then they better help whoever knocks on my door or calls my phone tonight.  I am almost enraged.  Here's what I don't get:

Why the hell isn't everybody?

Leaves and Candy

Today seems almost like a weekday and I'm playing hooky from work.  My wife was required to work today so she got up and left early, also there is no Badger game today, this is their bye week.  Nonetheless, it is Saturday and I had stuff to do.  I finally left for the grocery store late this morning, and when I got back it was time to tackle leaves.

Most of the leaves have fallen in the neighborhood, our tree in back is still holding on to a bunch for some reason.  Today is cool, dry and overcast, good leaf raking and mulching weather.  I started by raking all the leaves in front into one big pile that I then attacked with the mulcher.  Then I moved on to the back alternately using the rake, blower and mulcher.  By the time I was done I had barely enough leaf mulch for our flower beds, but I'll probably have to do it once more with fewer leaves in a couple weeks when I do the gutters.  I don't think I'll ever put leaves by the street again, in fact, I think I only put some out there the first year we were here.  It's so easy to mulch the leaves, like I did or with the mower exclusively like my neighbor Dave, and not have to put anything out for collection.  Of course, if I had 2 or 3 more trees I might feel differently.

On Wednesday night we had somewhere between 30 and 50 trick or treaters, not as many as we expected, but there were many cute costumes and even some parents were dressed up in nice costumes.  They came in several small groups and when it got fully dark there was nothing, not even teenage stragglers.  Now we have tons of leftover candy that I don't need and my wife doesn't want.  Problems, sweet problems, eh?

Now the rest of the day is mine.  Later on, my wife will be coming home from work and a couple hours later a friend is coming over for movies and pizza.  Happy Saturday to you!