This day is not shaping up very well. First off, I’m supposed to be working from home today. But our Internet crapped out at about 5:00 or so yesterday afternoon, and it still isn’t back, as far as I know. They are “working on it,” but have no “ETR”. So I had to get dressed and come in. A bummer, but not the worst thing in the world, right?

Then about half way in, my car radio died. The ABS, TCS, and a couple other idiot lights came on. Then the speedometer stayed stuck at 42, the tach stuck where it was, and the care started shifting very, very roughly.

Eventually, the turn signals stopped working (I have no doubt that the brake light quit, too). As I got closer to work, it became apparent that the car wasn’t gonna keep running, so I pulled into a nearby mall parking lot and stopped – at which point, the car died completely, and that was pretty much that.

So I had it towed to a nearby dealer, who gave me a ride in to the office, and here I sit (brokenhearted). This really blows, and I blame it all on Obama.

Yes, our brush with royalty occurred last night as the President came to town and gave a speech at a high school. We watched a lot of it, but then the satellite receiver overheated and that was that for that. No TV, no Internet. Nothing to do but drink beer (thank goodness I had enough – some might even say, “too much” – of that).

Of course, if you listen to NPR, you’d never know the big ‘O’ was here. Coverage I heard said he gave a speech at UB (one of my alma maters – assuming a place I went to for two years before dropping out can be called an alma mater), then stopped off for lunch in Rochester at a place Chuck Schumer, on his way to Binghamton and Scranton.

They blew us right the fuck off.

OK, so we’re no NYC (or even Buffalo, for that matter), but hell we’ve got more people than Binghamton and Scranton combined. Plus he was here to tout the “Say Yes to Education” program (started here, and now branching out to other cities in NY), where kids graduating from the Syracuse City School District are guaranteed free tuition at one of over 100 private and public colleges.

I guess that’s not important enough to report on, though.

Oh well, I guess I’d better get back to work and see if I get a call about my car. Left my goddamn glasses in it, too.