Sad day yesterday with the news of the death of Elizabeth Edwards. I hope her passing was peaceful, and I’m glad she could afford the best of health care (and serious drugs, when the time came). Whenever I see somebody “famous” going through something like this, I of course feel sad for them, but, even more sadly, lots of other people suffer through the same types of illness every day (many of them totally alone), and when they finally pass on, they often leave families devastated and bankrupt. Maybe, had her ex-husband gotten elected (and not turned out to be a schmuck), Elizabeth would have brought a human face to the death panel debate. But the president we did wind up with knows how to compromise (he’s so good at it, he knows how to pre-compromise), so we have socialized medicine tax cuts for rich people are protected.

Speaking of sad, it was 30 years ago today that John Lennon was murdered by an idiot who had the right to bear arms. It would have been nice to hear all the music that went un-made over the past 30 years (especially if every other track wasn’t from Yoko; I guess I am classless and clueless, but I just can’t appreciate her, um, whatever it is she does). I’d like to have heard his opinion on George Dubya.

Have I mentioned that it’s been snowing here? In fact, it hasn’t stopped snowing for something like 90 hours now. Syracuse has gotten three feet of snow since Saturday, and I don’t know what we’ve gotten out where I live, but I’ll bet it’s close to double that. And it’s not going to stop today, either. Maybe a little break tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday, they say (not that it won’t snow; just not as much). Then Sunday a N’oreaster is coming, which should suck (the weather geek says it will be a “more significant event” than what we’re having now), and as that passes through, there will be more lake effect snow as the wind swirls across Lake Ontario.

I must admit I’m getting just a wee bit tired of this. I don’t mind having a big storm come through every now and again, but when it snows 8 or 10 (or 12 or more) inches a day every day, it kinda sucks. I’m glad I have a tractor, but it still gets a little cold out there (it’s in the teens at the moment, and hasn’t been warmer than about 25 with the wind as relentless as the snow). Last night I made some trails around the back yard for the dogs to have some room to run around (and take a crap). Too dark to see, but they’re probably all filled in by now.

When I went to start my van yesterday, it wouldn’t. So, I had to take my car, which, of course, had no snow tires (and the regular tires are pretty sucky, too, with 3 out of 4 being the crummy stock ones). I decided to take the afternoon off, got a portable jump starter (been meaning to get one for a while) and a battery for the van, and then decided to go ahead and wait for snow tires on the car (as you might suspect, they’re selling a lot of snow tires this week).

As I was waiting, it occurred to me that the ‘Service Engine Soon’ light was on as I struggled to get home on Monday night (which I dutifully ignored, figuring it was something stupid I could deal with in the spring). So who knows? Maybe I don’t need a battery after all. We’ll see. Too damn cold and too much snow to mess with it at the moment.

On the bright side, snow tires turned out to make a huge difference. Who knew? I don’t think I’ve had snow tires since I had my Chevette, and they were studded. But that was about 30 years ago.

Oh well, another cup of coffee and then, you guessed it, time to plow the driveway before a trip in to the dentist.

I just got up, and already I need a nap.