So, like, it aint Friday, but it’s Thursday, which I suppose is the next best thing. Just got done spending some more money at Amazon, this time buying a new low flow shower head that was fairly cheap with a decent rating (1.5 GPM down from my current 2.5, and it promised better velocity, so we’ll see), and a couple of water saving lever thingies to attach to my bathroom faucets (that are low flow themselves). I’m on a mission to prevent water from going down the drain. When (if) warmer weather ever arrives, I plan on installing a graywater system so that my bathroom sinks, showers, and tubs (plus the laundry) will bypass the septic tank and drain into their own separate leach field. I thought about setting something up to reuse the water, but, as we don’t really live where there’s a lack of precipitation and I don’t water the lawn, it’s really not worth the expense of installing a tank and a pump and all that. We can get more than enough plant-watering water from the rain barrels. I’m also looking at buying a urinal. I figure I can mount it in the kitchen next to the frig, and kill two birds with one stone. Or at least on one trip.

I also have plans (I lack a lot of things – money, skills, brains, and ambition to name just a few – but one of the two things I’m full of is plans) to create a homemade solar water heater for domestic hot water at a minimum, and to supplement the heating hot water if I can figure out a place to build and install a big enough storage tank. My domestic hot water is heated by the heating hot water, and not only is it killing me moneywise right now, the thought of having to run the heat in the summer is pretty repugnant to me. I looked at buying a tankless heater, but that would be a hassle logistically, and I think I can build my solar system for about the same price, give or take.

Snow today. Not much here, but flights to or through NYC, Newark, Boston, etc., are all delayed or cancelled this morning. If it’ll help, I’m willing to stay home today.

Today, Janet Napolitano will announce today the end of an era – no more color-coded terror alert system. Apparently we’re moving to a point system. How will I dress myself in the morning w/o knowing what terror color we’re at? I wonder at what point level we’re advised to stay home and sit in the basement waiting for the end times?

Oh well, time to see what it costs to rent a mini-excavator, and then get ready for work. Glad to hear Mister is back home, Kat. Tell him we all say hey (and next time, how about a postcard from Siberia?).

No, I didn’t watch the SOTU address last night. No reason to, really, as I’ll be forced to endure endless recaps any time I get near the news. I gather it went “well,” which means it was filled with typically meaningless bullshit, and the only thing that has a prayer of actually happening is a “compromise” – and by that, I mean cuts to both social programs and taxes for rich people. Perhaps I missed it, but I didn’t catch anything about cutting the military or not engaging in war and “nation building” or whatever it is we’re up to these days.

To give you an idea of where we’re headed, you only need look at Republican Rex Paul Ryan’s “rebuttal.”

Basically, increase the national debt to upwards of 190% of GDP while raising taxes on 90% of taxpayers in order lo lower taxes for the top 10% (especially the top 1%, whose taxes will decrease by over 15%). Oh, and of course repeal even the crappy health care reform so that there are even more uninsured Americans (‘cuz, hey, if these slackers could somehow manage to afford a luxury like health insurance before, that 12% tax increase on people making an average of $13,000 a year should put an end to it).

Bootstraps, folks. Bootstraps.

Hey, it’s good to be rich. You knew that.

The only people who don’t know how good it is to be rich are the poor, downtrodden, persecuted rich people. Thank goodness they have the Republicans and the President of Wall St. to look out for them.

On the bright side, at least you’re not this guy, who found his car more or less a frozen block of ice, due, apparently to the combination of the cold and big ass pothole filled with water.

Speaking of the cold rain and snow, another winter storm is headed this way, and, once again, it looks like it’ll miss us and hit NYC with another 6″ or so of snow. Which is a bummer for them, but now that Mayor Bloomers seems to understand that when it snows you need to plow the streets, everything should be OK.

Crap, it’s a meeting day. Has it been two weeks already?

Ah, remember the days when the SOTU address was exciting, and we’d all huddle around the chat room and talk about what an idiot Bush was? Now, I couldn’t even tell you what time it’s on, though I do know that all the straight Republican guys (both of them) are falling all over each other to get to sit next to our Kirsten Gillibrand in this new age of civility. I mean, she’s no Olympia Snowe, but at least she presumably doesn’t growl and drool like that Bachmann chick. Of course, if you’re into that sort of thing, Michele will be giving the teabagger response to the address (hopefully while wearing a spiked dog collar). As for me, I’ll just be putting out the garbage and then going to bed, I think.

Breaking news this morning. It seems that yesterday’s airport bombing in Russia is being called an “act of terrorism.” Gee, ya think? And here I thought maybe it was a gas leak or something.

Today is yet another dental day. Now that all my old fillings have been drilled out and refilled, it’s time to move on to more exciting work. In this case, scaling and root planing. That’s probably just about as bad as it sounds. Seems that, if you blow off the dentist long enough (and, presumably if you’re predisposed to this sort of thing), you get plaque built up below the gum line, causing bone irreversible bone loss. So down they need to go to scrape the shit off. In looking at the photos on the Internet, I must say that my teeth look nowhere as bad as what’s out there, but I suppose this is necessary to keep them from getting worse. Plus, there’s that whole boat payment thing. Anyhow, my guess is that this will really suck, and I can only hope he numbs the shit out of my mouth and then gives me some drugs for later on.

Well, it’s not as cold out there this morning, but I reckon I better go see if it snowed enough to plow the driveway.

As promised, it’s cold out this morning. Like, -11° and dropping. But, since our friends up in Saranac Lake are at -34°, I won’t complain. They are, of course, making a big deal of it on the news, and about how the poor children have to wait for the bus out in the cold. Oh boo frickin’ hoo. Are these kids, or a bunch of old f*cking ladies? I don’t remember them caring about us being cold when I was a kid. Hell, we had to walk to school, and if we didn’t all bring a pocket full of coal, we didn’t have heat. OK, I may not be remembering that coal thing exactly right. But I also don’t remember feeling – let alone caring about – the cold when I was a kid. They used to have to forcibly drag me back in the house, no matter what the weather. You can bet I feel it now, though. Not just cold, either. Shit hurts.

Jack LaLanne finally croaked. And only 96, too. I always knew that whole exercise and eat right thing was just a scam. Give me the 110 year old lady who smokes cigars and does a few shots of booze every day.

Turns out, God hates Ozzy Osbourne. At least, according to the Westboro Baptist Church, whose opinions I value, and typically consult before leaving the house in morning. And they’re promising to protest him. Gosh, I didn’t even know he was gay (though he does look kinda deceased these days). I guess they’re just old school Sabbath fans who couldn’t accept Ozzy’s solo career.

If you ask me, they ought to spend their time more productively – like protesting Sammy Hagar or something.

Today is Mary Lou Retton’s birthday. I’m sure she’s a very nice person, but, for those of you old enough to actually remember who she is, haven’t you always just had the urge to smack her upside the head?

It’a also Neil Diamond’s birthday. He’s 70. And so is Aaron Neville. You ever get a look at Aaron Neville’s arms? They’re bigger around than my thighs. Yakov Smirnoff is 60, and Ernest Borgnine is 94. Now there’s a guy whose fitness routine I’m way more interested in following than Jack LaLanne’s (except for the being married to Ethel Merman part – even for a mere 32 days. You’re a tougher man than I am, Ernie. Though he did admit it was a wee lapse of judgement on his part: “Biggest mistake of my life. I thought I was marrying Rosemary Clooney”).

Oh, I know, Ernie has a bit of the old Archie Bunker in him (he wasn’t too crazy about Brokeback Mountain – “If John Wayne were alive, he’d be rolling over in his grave!” – and was a little less than kind towards the women’s rights movement: “Too many ugly broads telling me that they don’t want to sleep with me. Who wanted you anyway?”), but, well, sometimes you just have to cut people who were born during WWI a little bit of slack.

I mean, there’s a reason he’s been married 5 times (so far).

Oh well time to see about seeing about heading out into the cold.

Based on what happened to SU yesterday, it’s not looking good for the Jets in today’s AFC Championship game. It’s not unusual for the sports god to be in cahoots to make my weekend suck and send me back to work miserable and dejected (more so than a typical Monday). The East-West Shrine game was a bright spot (not that I could watch it, as we don’t get the NFL Network, and I was kinda busy anyway), as SU running back Delone Carter was named MVP. So, good for him.

Back during her campaign, our newly elected teabagger congresscritter eschewed the topic of abortion, merely stating that it “was not the issue that would define her, nor would it be a priority of her campaign.” Whoopsie! All that’s changed now as the Registered Nurse (and female, I might add, only because I so often hear that it’s the evil men of the world who want to keep women down by taking ownership of their bodies and whatnot) Anne Marie Buerkle is now a crusader.

–At 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, without prior notice, Buerkle delivered a passionate speech on the House floor about federal laws that should be changed to restrict abortions. It was among a series of speeches that evening, to a mostly empty chamber, organized by the bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus in Congress.
— On Thursday, Buerkle signed as a co-sponsor of H.R. 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” The bill would permanently ban federal subsidies for abortion services, and also cut off federal subsidies and tax credits for any health insurance plans that include coverage of abortions. On the same day, she co-sponsored another bill that would rewrite President Barack Obama’s health care reform law to prohibit federal subsidies for abortion services.
— Buerkle plans to speak Monday to a crowd of 200,000 expected on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life rally. The annual event commemorates the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

This should, of course, come as no surprise to anybody, since Buerkle was an anti-abortion activist, and spokesbitch for Operation Rescue, whose activities in its devotion to the right to life have of course never included encouraging the murder of physicians like Bernard Slepian and George Tiller.

Well, don’t blame me. I didn’t vote for her.

I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished yesterday, but I did manage to spend a lot of money in preparation for accomplishing things. And I plowed so I could get in and out. We didn’t get a whole helluvalotta new snow, but the wind blew some pretty impressive drifts across the tundra that is my driveway, and I took the time to scrape it down and widen it out a bit (though it was a bit nippy, the wind wasn’t blowing, and the sun was shining, so it wasn’t too bad – not as bad as watching the SU game, anyway).

Today should be even colder (and really, really cold tonight), but I need to hitch up the wagon and take a trip into town for supplies at some point. And then of course there’s always laundry to do.

Well, even if the Jets lose, at least Big Love is on tonight.

Well, shit. You go to bed one night with the world a certain way, and then you wake up the next morning (assuming you consider 3:45 AM the next morning, and not the same night), and everything’s changed. I have to admit, I haven’t actually been watching Olbermann these days, but it was always nice to know he was still out there, being a barnacle in the backside of wingnuts, Fux News, and, especially, Bill O’Reilly. Now, poof. All gone (or, as the NY Post puts it: “MSNBC pulls plug on gasbag Olbermann“). Replaced by Larry O’Donnell (a nice enough fella, but considered a “player” which to me means the sort of establishment Democrat – cough-O-cough, cough-bama – that got us shitty health care reform, shitty financial reform, shitty… well, just plain shitty shit). MSNBC, if you weren’t already dead to me, you’d be dead to me now. Now, let’s hope Keith gets an uncensored show on HBO.

I’ve always liked Tom Watson (except for when he was beating Jack Nicklaus), but who knew he’d go from winning British Open Championships to winning a seat in the British Parliament? And here’s what Labor MP Watson (West Bromwich East) had to say about Rupert Murdoch and Glenn Beck:

“Glenn Beck, you are a bigot. You bring shame to your country, not because you lack balance, but because you are an unthinking buffoon. Rupert Murdoch tolerates you because you are his useful idiot. He uses you to get a foothold in the doors of the powerful. Like his phone-hacking journalists and his pugnacious leader-writers in Australia, you are expendable. Let us hope he disposes of your nasty brand of intolerance sooner rather than later.”

“It is Rupert and James Murdoch who should answer for bigots such as Glenn Beck and phone hackers such as Clive Goodman and Glen Mulcaire. They employ them. They promote them. They are responsible for them. It is time for thinking citizens in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia to unite against the Murdochs’ vicious brand of politics that masquerades as publishing.”

Eagle for Watson, I’d say.

Otherwise, it’s frickin’ cold and windy here – with even colder weather yet to come. It’s supposed to be down to -15° by the end of the weekend, and depending on where you live around here, the cold and wind are supposed to be accompanied by a foot or two of snow (not that you’ll see anybody making a big huge deal out of it, of course – we’re just thrilled to be adding on to our 37″ lead over Rochester in the Golden Snowball contest – not to mention our lead in the national Golden Snow Globe contest). In other words, it’s gonna be a bit nippy in the old tractor saddle.

There’s much I’d like to do this weekend, all of which starts with a trip to buy a shitload of plywood, lumber, and other stuff. This is most likely not going to happen. I do, however, have a dual flush adapter to install on my big monster water-guzzling toilet. The other two are water-efficient, but this one’s old-school.

It shouldn’t be a big deal (have to take the tank off), but I’ve been reluctant to start it, because, from past experience, I know that whenever you start with the happy homeowner plumbing, everything tends to turn to shit (so to speak).

But, seeing as I have the parts on hand, that project may actually get done.

There are of course a lot of other important things going on (besides tracking the official snowfall and windchill numbers). First, at noon, we’ll see if the SU-Villanova hoops game sets the NCAA on-campus record for attendance (34,616 – which was set at last year’s SU-Villanova game, which, as I recall, broke the record from the 2006 SU-Villanova game of 33,633).

This, as you might expect, is big news around here. Or, as my wife put it, “oh, is there a home game tomorrow?” 🙄

On the bright side, she’s learned the phrase “home game,” and I believe she knows that basketball is the one with the round ball, so the past 15 or so years haven’t been a total waste.

After the round ball, we move on to the pointy ball, with the East-West Shrine Game at 4:00. Normally I wouldn’t care, but we actually have 3 SU players in the game this year – a testament to the resurgence of the program, and of course our mighty win in the all-important inaugural Pinstripe Bowl.

More pointy balls (which sounds painful, depending on which way they point) tomorrow, as the Jets (whose coach, Rex Ryan, and his wife really put the “foot” in football) take on the Steelers to see who represents the AFC in the Super Bowl. As a long-suffering Jets fan, I’m not allowing my hopes to get too high here.

Oh well, time to get another cup of coffee and fire off a useless e-mail to MSNBC, and maybe sign a useless online petition.

Stay warm out there.

It’s been a pretty devastating start to the year, money wise, and the hits just keep on coming. Taxes, water bill, garbage pickup bill, wood pellets, the ongoing funding of my dentist’s kids’ college education and/or new yacht – all sandwiched around a pair of mortgage payments and of course winter utility bills. Oy. Nothing everybody else doesn’t have to deal with, of course. Well, people of my ilk, anyway. Plenty of people have much bigger problems than I do, and then of course there are the few, the proud – the wealthy. You know, those who have little to worry about, except how the government is taking all their money (and by “all” I mean a few million out of their hundreds of millions) and redistributing it to “those people” so they can’t go out and create jobs with it.

Yesterday, I noticed a post by Jill, wondering what the deal was with Obama (Buddha bless her, she still manages to crank out the outrage; I’ve just been too darned tired, myself).

Has Barack Obama just had enough of his thankless job and is essentially saying “Take this job and shove it”, or is he really living in so much of a bubble that he can’t hear anyone but Republicans and Washington pundits?
[…]
Because unless we are all being misled somehow, it’s very likely that in his upcoming State of the Union address, the President Of All Wall Street is going to talk about “tough choices” and “having an adult conversation” and “belt tightening” — all in the context of cutting Social Security.

Personally, I think it’s just that Obama is a politically (not personally; I’m sure he’s a very moral fella) soulless corporatist, and always has been. Sure, he’s a lot more intelligent and a bit more benevolent than the last idiot we had, but he’s a friend to Wall St and a believer in giving working people the invisible finger of the market while willing to compromise on, well, anything and everything (whether he needs to or not). In fact, I would say that, while Dubya was a believer in preventative war (you know, attacking another country just in case it may, some day, attack you – or at least might have some shit you want), Obama is a big believer in preventative compromise.

In a lot of ways, he’s kind of like America’s first black Bill Clinton.

I think we all saw what we wanted to see in Obama. Some saw a radical liberal socialist Nigerian Candidate. Part of a vast Communist conspiracy that began with planting fake birth notices in Hawaiian newspapers 50 years ago (crafty bastards; it’s no wonder they control the world).

Some saw the second coming of the Black Panthers, determined to rid the world of the scourge of the White Devil (especially evil, given that it would make Obama a traitor to his white mother and grandparents and whatnot).

There are those convinced that Obama is an undercover Mooslam bent on destroying the Christianity he professes to espouse, by allowing Mosques to be built wherever them people (and by “them people,” I of course refer to the damn dirty A-rabs) want to build them.

Then of course there are those of us who saw an intelligent, articulate (dare I say, “clean”) person who was perhaps not the progressive candidate we desired, but at least somebody who would undo most (or at least much) of the really bad shit that the last bunch inflicted upon the world.

Sadly, we got, well, we got what we got. And most of us godless librul types probably figure it’s the best we can possibly (realistically) do in this day and age (I mean, it’s pretty easy to say you saw it all coming ahead of time, but what was the alternative? Hillary? Maybe. She would probably have been much tougher – but not a whole lot more progressive – and I think she at least would have tossed a few more scraps to the progressive base than Obama has, but you never really know how these people will turn out until they’re in office. Hell, I still contend that John Edwards would have been the pick of the litter – the hell with his private peccadilloes).

Obama’s not all bad, of course.

At the very least, I don’t squirm with embarrassment when he speaks, and I have yet to see him attempt to exit stage left via a locked door. But, in his own way, Obama may just do more damage than Bush – dismantling the New Deal all by himself, while (thanks to the relentless drumming of the rightwing noise machine) ensuring Right Wing control of the Executive and Legislative branches of government for at least a decade (the Judicial is pretty much locked up at this point; Dubya’s youngish wingnuts will be there for as long as I live, I think, and the best we can hope for from Obama are nominees that reflect his style of governance – tepid, if not timid, “moderates.” Just like his choice for the “beer summit” – I mean, Bud Light? Really? At the very least, he should have gone for a Colt 45 40 in a paper bag; now that woulda gotten Rush Limbaugh going).

But, for me, I find it hard to get all worked up these days. I’m just layin’ low, waitin’ to go here. Just let me keep my job that I don’t really care for anymore so I can be a good little consumer taxpayer, getting all excited by the prospect of two whole days off every week (where I can try and catch up on my chores, if not sleep).

Speaking of which, it’s Friday, ya bastids! :boobs:

I’m not much of a Joan Rivers fan. Although she’s kind of a pioneer in terms of comedic women (not exactly Lucy, but she’s been out there doing her thing for an awfully long time), I’ve always found her to be kind of annoying, her voice grates on me, and looking at her these days kind of creeps me out. Still, if she’s been banned from Fux News for saying Sarah Palin “is just stupid and a threat,” and that “FOX can “go f**k themselves” (not sure what the *s stand for – “o” an “r” maybe?), then I’m on board. I guess. I mean, it’s kind of stating the obvious (as Rivers put it, “Wait till I REALLY shock them with Aretha Franklin is a bit chubby!”). And wears big dumb hats, I might add. Poor Sarah: a victim yet again. I just don’t see how anybody could suggest that an eternal victim could ever be Preznit. I mean, when Vladimir Putin pokes his head over the Bering Strait, we want somebody strong in office to give him the stink eye. Not some whiny bitch. That’s why Joe Lieberman never won.

Speaking of victims, everyone’s favorite action hero and Shriver-in-law, Arnold “Ziffel” Schwarzenegger, is lamenting the fact that being Governor of California cost him $200 million (no word on how much it cost the State of California). Never mind the money, though. The hard part was “Sunday nights when his wife and children broke out in tears because he had to fly back to Sacramento the next morning.”

Thank goodness Maria’s face didn’t shatter.

I can relate, because pretty much every Sunday night, I break down and sob at the thought that I have to go to work on Monday morning, too.

Then again, I’m not too crazy about the fact that I have to there today, either.

I saw a bit of the interview with Gabby Gifford’s husband (pretty hard to avoid, even if you wanted to), and he talked about hearing how his wife had been killed while en-route to Tucson with his kids. Used to be they’d, like, check their facts before they’d report shit like that, but of course those days are long gone. Be first – don’t worry about being correct.

Sarah Palin says she won’t shut up. That’s good. As an insignificant and unpopular (not to mention annoying) fringe element whose 15 minutes have long since passed, she really shouldn’t have to. There’s no reason for “the media” to give her all the attention she gets (and craves), and it would be nice if they’d just ignore her. To quote The Who – “…let’s forget you, better still.”

Speaking of people who should be quickly forgotten, as everybody knows by now, it appears that our Pal Joey from CT has seen the handwriting on the wall, and won’t be running again. Part of me would prefer to see him run and lose, rather than be allowed to ride triumphantly off into the sunset as a legend in his own mind. And no doubt walk right into a lucrative job where he can keep screwing the public – but with a much higher profit margin. But then I suppose there’s a better chance for a Democrat to win with him not mucking things up (for whatever a Democrat in the Senate is worth these days, which, frankly – other than Al Franken, maybe – doesn’t seem to be much).

Today is Jean Stapleton’s 88th birthday. Hopefully she’ll celebrate with a few cans of cling peaches.

I didn’t get to see much of it, but yesterday was a nice, warm day here. It had kind of an annoying start, as I was part of what looked like a twenty mile long procession of cars following a salt truck for about three-quarters of my ride in. Our top speed was about 40, but mostly we were in the 25-30 range. Kind of annoying, but what the hell. It’s not like I have to punch a clock.

Things are supposed to get really cold here as the day goes on – and down below zero for the weekend. Oh boy. I really need to go and get a bunch of lumber to do some projects around here (not that I can really afford it; just paid the taxes, mortgage is coming up in a few days, a couple hundred for the utilities, cable, Internet…).

I guess I’ll just have to watch football and basketball all weekend instead.

Hey, did you know that, in addition to Al Capone’s birthday, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Gulf War? Yeah, 20 years ago. Imagine that. I think we were still the “good guys” back then – and of course George Bush was our coalition-building Hero in Chief. I even remember where I was when it started. I think. I seem to recall being at work, and hearing it on the radio. Back in those days, I was a grease monkey – an Apprentice Refrigeration Mechanic, about a year in towards getting my Journeyman’s card – and was in the midst of doing the annual PM on our old Carrier water chillers (used to make chilled water for air conditioning; not that you’d care, but I wish I could remember the model number so I could find a picture; 19C’s or something) with my mentor Al. So that means we were down in the subbasement (about as low as you can get, being a ‘Morlock’ as Granny used to call me, though it would be another five or so years before we’d meet). Though we were the equivalent of three or four stories below ground, there was an exhaust plenum that rose up to the outside (you know, one of those grate thingies that blow your skirt up), I’d hooked a hunk of wire from the radio antenna to one of the pipes that ran out that way, and we were able to tune in a few stations.

It was a good job because, since I was only one of two people who had the slightest clue I could take as long as I wanted to do it, and everybody left me alone. It was a good way to kill a couple of weeks. I believe Al even wrote something about “the bombs falling” in the Chiller Log. Ah, those were the days.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to doing that kind of work. Except it didn’t really pay as well as what I’m doing now, and it was starting to take its toll on my body parts. And having to work up on the roof when it was as cold as it was yesterday kind of sucked. Not to mention doing it when it was 90 degrees out (I think that sucked worse). Come to think of it, maybe I don’t miss it all that much after all.

Not that I’m all that thrilled with having to go back to work today, either. I’m getting awfully tired of this nonsense. Never satisfied, I guess. It doesn’t help that I woke up having somehow done something to my neck between the time I went to bed last night, and the time I got up this morning. Hurts like hell – mostly when I turn my head to the left. Or to the right. Or up. Or down.

Should make for an even better day than usual.

Well, maybe Obama will invade somebody for old time’s sake.