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.