Well, I survived the Christmas party, and other than having it duly noted many, many times, that I was not eating the pizza and wings and having to declare a like number of times that, no, I didn’t even want to have “just one,” I had a very nice time. Of course, I was looking at the near white-out conditions outside the whole time I was there, and wondering how quickly I could extricate myself and get home. Turned out, it took me until almost quarter to four (and then when scraping my car, I knocked the wiper blade off). But I made it home before traffic got too bad, and with a little bit of what I will call “daylight” (though there wasn’t much light – except for the snow) left.

Right now, it seems the snow gods have given us a reprieve at my house, as the lake effect bands have shifted north and east. Hopefully I won’t have the foot (or more) of snow I had yesterday morning (way more than I estimated). Since I know you care, I’ll report that, officially, after 10 inches of snow yesterday by about 10PM, and with what we’ve gotten overnight, this is the second snowiest December in Syracuse history with about 67″ and counting. Another three and a half (give or take) and we’ll set a new record.

With half a month to go, I think we’ve got that one in the bag (the real question is, will we break it by the end of the day today; oh, I think so). They also say it’s a new “pre-winter” snowfall record. So, naturally, the Good Morning America weather dude will be broadcasting live from here this morning because, um, well, I dunno why exactly. For the same reason they send these idiots out in the hurricane so you can watch them get rained on and blown around, I guess.

But where’s Al Roker? He should be here. After all, he went to school at Oswego and was the lo-cal weather dude here for quite a while. He was “Big Al” Roker back then.

So the House passed a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (again), and now the Senate needs to pass it (and the new SALT, and a bunch of other things), except there’s no time because Harry Reid hates both Jesus and Christmas. Or something. He wants the Senate to go back to work after Christmas, but Jon Kyl and Jim Demint say that’s an attack on Christmas and Christians, and that Xmas is the most important holiday on the Christian calendar.

Apparently, they’ve never heard of Easter, and, by the way, I have to go to work the week after Christmas (in fact, I get screwed this year, ‘cuz Christmas – and New Year’s; funny how that works – is on a Saturday, so I’m off anyway – though I do earn a day to use later). So unless you’re proposing that nobody should have to work (which would be bad for the economy, as we all know), then shut up and do the people’s business. Hypocrite bastards.

Anyhow, as for DADT, it’s apparently one vote away from passage in the Senate, as Olympia Snowe (who is the Paris Hilton of the Senate – willing to do anything to get some attention, but, fercrissakes, please no three-way sex tapes with Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins) says she’ll vote for it. We’ll see.

Oh well, I reckon it’s getting to be about time to bundle up and see just how much snow we got last night.

Hey, seen a picture of Dick Cheney lately? He’s really starting to look like Mr. Burns (their personalities have always been a close match, except Burns is much more likable). Speaking of serial killers, I was sad to hear that Dexter and his sister/wife (Michael C Hall and Jennifer Carpenter) have filed for divorce. Why was I sad? I don’t know. I don’t even get Showtime anymore (pained me greatly to not be able to see the rest of this most recent season, but such is life). But I’ve always liked him, ever since Six Feet Under, and she just fascinates me; she looks the result of a breeding experiment between extraterrestrial life and an ironing board. You have to wonder why these showbiz types bother to get married in the first place (or, in his case at least, in the second place). Seems like a lot of trouble to go through if you’re not gonna stick to it.

Fun Fact. This day in history:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

— The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution, ratified by the Virginia General Assembly on December 15, 1791

Then they all sat around and said, “we hopeth that this shall not unleash upon our fair nation a war upon Christmas (nor the abolition of slavery).”

Speaking of slavery and Xmas, today’s the big office Christmas party. My inclination is to blow it off (not that hangin’ around talkin’ shop isn’t thrilling or anything), but that would be politically bad, so instead I’ll go and justify my reasons for not drinking beer and eating pizza (why, oh why, do some people care enough about what other people ingest that they not only keep track but feel obliged to inquire as to why you’re not meeting the dietary expectations they’ve set forth for you?), and then hopefully sneak out very quickly. Not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, of course, but I have snow to plow.

Yes, it snowed yesterday and last night and is snowing right now. Not as much as last week, but I’d guess I had, oh maybe six to eight inches in the driveway last night when I got home, and it looks like at least another eight to ten out there since then. More on the way – last I heard, tonight is supposed to be the heaviest stuff. Since I know you care (come on, admit it, you do), for the record, Syracuse gets an average of about 120 inches of snow a year (the average at this time of December is about 20 inches). So far, in about half a month, it’s gotten, like, 55 inches (and that was as of last night). I say “it” because I now live where it snows a lot more than that. We’re supposed to get another 9 inches today, and a foot or more tonight. Anyhow, at this rate, if my math is right, Syracuse is on pace for 238 inches of snow, which would be a record. But no doubt this will peter out and slow down. At least, I hope so. We’re all looking a little haggard around here (we’re not supposed to feel like this ’til late January or so).

Of course, we have our basketball team to keep us warm on the inside (I feel the need to hurry up and mention them while they’re still undefeated and ranked #5 in the country – that aint gonna last), as well as the unexpected bonus of the Pinstripe Bowl (not exactly the Rose Bowl, but, hey, we’ve got over four feet of snow and 10% unemployment, so don’t begrudge us a little fun, OK?).

Speaking of fun, time for another cup of coffee and then out to plow. Can anybody recommend a good brand of heated socks?

So, if you’re like me, yesterday you asked yourself, “do I have an account on any of the Gawker media websites,” and then you asked yourself, “what they hell are the Gawker media sites?” Turns out, Gizmodo is one, and, yes, I apparently did have an account on it. I have no idea what the password was, but I went in and reset it this morning. And then I found that I’d been banned and had 41 comments in the past 48 hours or something. So I guess mine was one that they grabbed and shared with the world. Oh well. Hopefully it wasn’t one I used anywhere else. However, when I was looking around their website, I found a story about the judge who ruled the HC law is unconstitutional, and I know you’ll be as shocked as I was to hear this:

Henry E. Hudson, the federal judge in Virginia who just ruled health care reform unconstitutional, owns between $15,000 and $50,000 in a GOP political consulting firm that worked against health care reform. You don’t say!

Now, I’m no lawyer, but I’ve watched an awful lot of teevee in my half century, and I thought there was some sort of “conflict of interest” or even an appearance thereof that was supposed to get judges to recuse themselves from making rulings on shit where their impartiality might be (or might appear to be) in question.

I guess that’s just one of those teevee things (like moms always wear dresses and jewelry to clean the house, and female NYC police detectives – except maybe the Lieutenants – and assistant DAs are gorgeous).

Dick Holbrooke died. It was clearly murder, and a conspiracy of the highest order.

It was 11 degrees when I got up this morning (10 degrees and falling out there at the moment). Wind chill at or below zero. But I don’t think we’ve gotten the 8 inches they predicted over night (I’ll know more when I hit the tractor seat). That reminds me of a lady (and I use the term loosely – she was great) I used to work with back when I was a move guy. I was a manager/projectionist and in my mid to late twenties, she was old (in fact, she was the age I am right now), and working there a few nights a week to supplement her income.

I inherited her, and she was kind of intimidating at first (I mean, here I was, a kid, telling this grownup what to do).

To make things more interesting, there was a girl who worked also worked there, who was really a pretty annoying kid (but she was reliable, so whattya gonna do), and also happened to be the daughter of the woman that this lady’s ex-husband was currently married to (they’d been fooling around before the divorce – the guy and the woman, not the kid, as far as I know), and they despised each other. Well, the older lady despised the kid. I don’t know as the kid really cared. Oh, hilarity often ensued when they were scheduled together (which I tried not to do if at all possible).

Anyhow, what was the point here? Oh, yeah, when there was snow in the forecast, the old broad would say things like, “all the women are gonna be happy tonight. We’re supposed to get eight inches.” Arh. Well, maybe that doesn’t seem too hilarious right now, but it was pretty funny coming from what I thought was an old lady, back when I was 27.

It was an interesting ride home for a lot of folks yesterday (not me, as I saw the news and opted for a different route home). Somebody decided it would be funny to duct tape a “suitcase-sized package” to a guardrail on the median of a highway. One report I read said a “military-style” package, so I’m thinking a good-sized ammo can or something. Anyhow, while the odds of a terrorist attack on a highway up here in the Great White North aren’t real high, what are they gonna do? Everything was shut down for hours as they got the bomb squad out there and x-rayed the thing, and found that it was apparently a prank. They aren’t saying what was inside, but they say it was “inert.”

Well, time to steal another half-cup of coffee and then maybe get out there and see what shape the driveway is in.

Is it Friday yet?

Well, it was mighty interesting watching the Metrodome in Minneapolis collapse. Good thing nobody was on the 20 yard line when it happened. We have the same design here, and when we we get snow, they pump super hot air between the two layers and open up the drains. In a few rare instances of extreme snow, they’ve deflated it so that it’s down to the support cables and let them support it while the snow melts and drains. Of course, we’re offering them our help – including inflation/deflation expertise and spare roof panels. According to wikipepedia, the Twin Cities only average about 45 inches of snow a year, so I guess it’s understandable that they don’t know how to deal with it. Hopefully everybody out there is OK.

Here, it rained yesterday. Not constantly, though, which was good. As the snow receded, some poor guy’s body popped up. He was only wearing pants and shoes (I highly recommend at least a shirt from about November ’til June). There remains enough snow to leave footprints, though, which was bad news for a freshman on the SU Football team. Well, formerly on the team. I guess he was doing some sort of reverse Santa thing, liberating flat screen TVs and whatnot from other students’ apartments. Unfortunately for him, he left footprints in the snow tracing back to his abode, where he was found with the purloined products.

So, now he’s in jail, charged with a string of burglaries, and is no longer on the team (totally expunged from the SU Athletics website in a matter of hours – very efficient; they must have that O’Brien guy from 1984 working for them). Goodbye, free education (not to mention no Pinstripe Bowl). That’s the problem when they recruit kids from Long Island – they just don’t take into account the whole snow factor.

And it was warm enough to work on the van and get it running (thanks once again to my friend John, who was willing to stick a screwdriver in the coil wire to check for spark while I turned it over; ever since I accidentally shorted a wrench across a pair of battery terminals, I’ve been a little gun shy when it comes to automotive electrical shit; not enough space to work and too much metal – especially when you’re standing in the snow, but to get to the distributor in the van, you have to break in through the inside), although the “service engine soon” light is still on, and the belt – while totally unrelated to anything we did – is pretty squeaky now). So I have a way to get plywood and lumber and pipe and whatnot again, so, for that reason alone, it was a happy and productive weekend.

I also got the garage very cleared out, and should have plenty of room for 4 tons of pellets. I took my existing stock and piled it in front of the front door that we covered with plastic last week (kind of a wood pellet snadbag system, designed to hold back the flood of heat to the outside), and built a platform for my tractor carryall, which I used to haul all kinds of shit out to the sheds.

Congratulations to the Akron Zips on their first-ever National Championship. Seems awfully late in the year for soccer, and I’m glad they weren’t playing the match in the Metrodome.

It’s still pretty warm out this morning, and it looks like there’s a little bit of drizzle. They’re promising us that that will change for the ride home from work tonight, though. Temperatures will fall throughout the day today (should make everything nice and icy), and then the snow starts up again. Oh boy. They can’t say how much we’ll get (or exactly who will get it), so we wait.

The obligatory Christmas stories are making the rounds on the news. Right now, the “don’t get all sloppy drunk at the office holiday party” one is running. Our party is on Wednesday, in fact, and if I can figure out how to avoid it entirely, I will. Not that it isn’t enjoyable (last year, I watched the “Jawhorse” infomercial, which led me to decide that I absolutely needed one – and it was one of my better tool purchases. Yes, I am willing to make the Jawhorse the official sponsor of this blog. Are the folks at Rockwell listening?), but, well, I’m not drinking (have to drive home, so even if I was drinking, I wouldn’t be drinking – managed to escape death during my misbegotten youth, and have long since learned my lesson), I’m not eating pizza and wings these days (a miserable existence, I admit), and I don’t really want to talk about work. Personally, if I’m not gonna be working, I’d just as soon go home.

I guess I’m just not festive.

Whether due to spite, corruption, ignorance, or just plain assholiness, Governor Blinky yesterday vetoed a 5-month moratorium on hydrofracking that had been passed by both houses of the NY State Legislature (which, I suppose, it would have had to be, otherwise it wouldn’t have been up for his signature). Trying to have it both ways, Blinky issued an executive order prohibiting horizontal drilling until July. No word on how much Blinky was paid by the oil and gas industry, but I reckon since he’ll be out of a job in a little over two weeks, he needs the money.

“Unlike the moratorium bill, the executive order does not protect against the dangers of all fracking wells, but allows so-called vertical wells — exactly the kind of wells that were responsible for ruining nine square miles of aquifer and poisoning the drinking water of more than a dozen families in Dimock, Pennsylvania, along with many other pollution incidents in Pennsylvania — to move forward,” said a joint statement from several environmental groups, which was released by Environmental Advocates of New York.

“This loophole still leaves New Yorkers at risk and gas corporations are already threatening to exploit it.”

Hopefully this will be the last thing this idiot has a chance to f*ck up (at least as Governor). I’d be quite happy if his water winds up poisoned (and flammable) so that Haliburton can make a profit.

In other news, it was a big day for the Orange yesterday. No, not the mens basketball team, which kicked the crap out of Colgate, 100-43, but for the Orange women, who beat #6 Ohio State to remain undefeated on the season. Next up is #2 Baylor, led by 6’8″ center Brittney Griner (who, excuse me for noticing, has an Adam’s Apple and no lady lumps – and throws a less-than-impressive right hook).

I saw that 17″ of snow fell in Minneapolis yesterday and last night, and they’re all shook up over it. If they get another 2-3 feet, then I’ll be impressed. Fortunately, it’s supposed to be another warm day for us here today. So warm that the morning sleet and freezing rain is expected to turn to all rain later on. Things cool off a bit tomorrow, and then get really friggin’ cold after that (the only question is just how much new snow we get). By Tuesday night, it’s supposed to be down into the single digits.

Might have to ignite our tap water to keep warm.

Thanks to OKat for sharing that Nightline report. Since I am pretty doggedly avoiding the news (never mind that I’m in hibernation mode and rarely stay awake late enough to watch anything I don’t record), I’d have never seen it. And thanks of course to Mike and Carlos for going over there and bringing these stories back for us to see. I still think you’re both f*cking nuts, though. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be known as a “Gaylord” either, but I think I’d prefer teaching there to running around at 9,000 feet getting shot at.

To tell you the truth, after about two minutes of running up the side of that damn mountain, I’d probably hope somebody would just go ahead and shoot me before my heart exploded. I’m not quite as – how shall I put it? – mature as Mike, but he puts me to shame (not that I set a particularly high bar when it comes to physical fitness). Of course, if Mike wasn’t the kind of nut willing to go to places like El Salvador, Beirut, Iraq, and Afghanistan, then nobody would want to take a class from him. Still, I think he ought to come back here and teach at Newhouse. He’d be a fine addition, and we could use a liberal lawyer who knows her way around a tractor up here. As long as y’all don’t mind a little snow.

So, anybody got a remedy for a dog who’s gone insane? My older fella used to love his squeaky toys, but somewhere along the line has become afraid of stuff that squeaks. Our new pellet insert has an agitator that turns and, since it just kinda sits there, metal on metal, it squeaks when it turns more often than not. I finally tried some Never Seez on it last night (even ordered some copper-based stuff that’s supposed to be good for up to 1,800 degrees) – which works pretty good, though how long it’ll last, I dunno – but he’s now gotten so freaked out, he’s terrified at any high pitched noise (which there seem to be an awful lot of, when you start to pay attention, especially on the teevee – doors squeak, tea kettles whine, birds chirp). I not only feel bad for him, but it’s gotten pretty annoying. He gets all worked up and shakes like a leaf, to the point where I have to go lock him in another room with the radio on to calm him down. I can’t holler at him, ‘cuz yelling at a dog who’s already terrified is pretty unproductive.

So, anyway, I need drugs. And then I need something for the dog. I’d love to try something homeopathic and natural and organic and all that. But that shit never works. I just want some doggy happy pills. Or some pot to put in his food. Something I don’t need to go to a vet for would be good.

So, my original plan for today (before the week-o-snow) was to redo my laundry drain. But the death of my van has changed things, so I reckon I’ll see if I can’t get that to start today (with the help of my friend John). First step, try and get it into the garage. And then hopefully get it back out again; I need to play musical garage bays. Who’d have thought a 3-car garage would be too small? Especially with four tons of wood pellets coming in nine days.

Oh well, I guess I better go and drink up all the coffee before granny gets up.

I’m gonna try not to talk about the weather this morning (OK, Iied; it’s cold. But that’s all I’ll say). So, what else does that leave? Something alliterative would be nice. Ah, how’s this? Many Marauding Monkeys Make Mayhem, Maul Man.

Dozens of monkeys went berserk on an Indonesian plantation, injuring one man as they made off with crops and chicken eggs.

The Antara news agency reports a rubber tapper had to receive 60 inches to an arm injured after about 10 of the monkeys set upon him.

A total of 40 to 60 unspecified wild monkeys were involved in the attack, which occurred about 100 miles west of Singapore, in the village of Teluk Mesjid, located in Sumatra’s Siak River basin.

The rubber tapper, Juju, told the agency that this is not the first time monkeys have raided the village or injured its residents.

Wow, he received 60 inches to his arm? Damn, Juju’s gonna be dragging that damn thing around something fierce. He can probably tap those rubber trees way up high now, though.

So, I’m wondering if it isn’t time for all of us to change our voter registration and become Republicans (those of us who live in states that require a party affiliation to vote in the primaries, anyway). Because, let’s face it, short of a Bobby Kennedy coming out and running, Obama will be the Democratic candidate, and, setting aside the question of whether he sucks or not, he’s looking like a certain loser. So maybe it’s time to try and affect the Republican primary and see if we can’t get the least objectionable Republican nominated. Now, who, exactly, that would be, I dunno. I hate to say it, but of the names I’m familiar with, I think I’d have to go with good old Huckleberry Huckabee. Not that he’s exactly a perfect candidate, but, well, we’re a bit limited in our choices here.

And he doesn’t have a prayer (so to speak) anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter. If I had to guess, I’d guess they’d go with Mannequin Mitt (though he’s got some hurdles to overcome with “the base”). Sir Newt is making noises about running (as usual), but he’s a proven loser. Sister Sarah? Nah. Running is too much work. Who else is there? I don’t know, I don’t like to think about Republicans for too long. It kinda makes me throw up in my mouth.

Speaking of Republicans, let’s hear it for the newly elected Governors of Ohio and Wisconsin, who are too principled (or whatever) to accept hundreds of millions of dollars for high speed rail. The big winners? California and Florida.

California’s high-speed rail plan will receive up to $624 million in additional federal funds, Transportation Department officials announced Thursday.

The new funding adds to the $715 million in federal funds previously awarded to California. It arrives courtesy of Ohio and Wisconsin, two states where recently elected Republican governors decided not to accept their own allotment of high-speed rail dollars.

“I am pleased that so many other states are enthusiastic about the additional support they are receiving to help bring America’s high-speed rail network to life,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood declared in a written statement.

LaHood’s redistribution of an additional $1.195 billion in high-speed rail funding provoked cheers among lawmakers who had been lobbying for a bigger slice, but regret among some Midwesterners who saw their own money slip away.

California is one of 12 states that will receive a piece of the redirected funds. Florida, the next biggest beneficiary will get $300 million.

Hey, all due respect to CA and FL, but what about us? We want your money – and not just so folks can go from NYC to DC or Philly or Boston fast, either. How ’bout some high speed rain up here in the provinces, too? Just make sure ours have snow plows on the front.

Good morning. How y’all doing? Sorry if this is turning into the local weather report every day, but all I’ve really had time to pay attention to the past few days is moving snow, white-knuckle driving, and sleep (hell, I didn’t even mention that SU kicked Michigan State’s ass down in The Garden the other night). Around here, everybody looks pretty tired (more from the stress of trying to get back and forth to work than anything else, I think. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. We don’t get hurricanes or earthquakes or tornadoes, and sooner or later the snow melts, spring comes, and it gets too goddamn hot, and the snow is really quite beautiful if you don’t have to go to work). Anyhow, I know I’m pretty tired, so I’m taking today (and tomorrow) off. What with there supposed to be a break in the snow (only a couple of inches predicted for today), I decided I needed to take some time to catch my breath a little bit.

Driving in to work was a royal pain in the ass yesterday (for a change). It started out as it has all week, with me out on the tractor plowing the driveway. Unfortunately, the tractor started to sound kinda crappy, and eventually it was all I could do to get it to limp back into the garage. On the bright side, I’d gotten enough cleared to get out of the driveway, and we decided that we’d both go in to work together – with me driving my in-law’s Jeep Cherokee (very nice vehicle, that thing; 4WD, rear wiper, 9 years old with 21,500 miles on it). It would have been truly unbearable w/o it.

So, I got granny to work, made it to the dentist with 2 minutes to spare, and then to work. I went out and got some Cetane boost for the tractor (I’m hoping it was just crappy diesel) at lunch time, and then things were actually not too crappy for the ride home (I actually saw some bare pavement on the road, and the crescent moon and stars in the sky), and, thanks to the Jeep, I was able to get in to the driveway and blast through the very impressive snow drifts that seem to build up out here when you don’t plow for a few hours.

I put the booster in the tank and ran the tractor for 15 minutes or so, but, as we’re both off today, I didn’t bother taking it out and doing any work with it. Figured there was no point in getting myself aggravated. I also checked the air filter, just to make sure it hadn’t gotten full of snow and turned into a giant ice ball or something (which it didn’t). Everything seemed to run fine (a bit of white smoke for a while; maybe water in the diesel? See if I ever buy it from that place again), so we’ll see. I’ll run it for a while again today before I get out on it. It really needs to work, ‘cuz we were supposed to get another 8-16 inches overnight (too dark to see what the damage was right now), and another storm is coming (plus it’s gonna get really cold next week; something to look forward to).

So, officially, since Saturday, Syracuse had gotten over 43″ as of midnight last night. That’s not the most snow we’ve ever gotten around here, but it’s plenty. We typically average about 17″ to this point in the season, and we’ve got over 2½ times that.

I’m really hoping this is one of those years where it starts out like this and then peters out.

Oh well, in keeping with the weather theme, I saw this on the Intertubes. It’s an example of what a ‘high-tech’ weather report was like 36 years ago. Note the magnetic numbers and what looks like a paper version of the satellite photo (you can see the wrinkly paper), on which they apparently had to outline Europe with a magic marker. And they didn’t have a US Satellite image, ‘cuz the NOAA satellite didn’t pass over the US that day. Oh, we’ve come a long way. Not necessarily to a better place, but it’s been a long journey.

The weather dude in this clip, by the way, is Steve Newman, who you may know from Earthweek (which premiered as a column in the SF Chronicle in 1988 and is widely syndicated today), as well as from the Discovery Channel and GMA. All the good ones make their way through Syracuse. Sports and weather – that’s our thing.

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.

So, it was 69 years ago today that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Some pretty tough days were ahead for the good old USA. It makes me wish we had somebody like FDR as President right about now. It’s also my father-in-law’s birthday (he’s 89 today). Yesterday, I wasn’t sure he’d be here for it. Apparently he went out at 6AM to shovel the snow (yeah, I think maybe they ought to get somebody to plow the driveway for ’em), then came back in and fell asleep in the chair, and my mother-in-law couldn’t wake him up. To make a long story short, I guess he went to the ER and had all the usual tests, and he seemed to be OK, though they kept him overnight for observation (much to his protestation, from what I hear). He should get out today, so that’s a good thing.

We got the news yesterday that SU’s punter (who was voted team captain, and is one of the best punters in the country – lots of practice, that’s for sure – won’t be playing in the Pinstripe Bowl. Turns out, he’s been having headaches, and has a brain tumor that has to be removed immediately. So, no more practice, no bowl game, and, since he’s a senior, his Syracuse career is over. They say it’s a benign tumor, though, so hopefully he’ll be OK.

Also a tough day for Elizabeth Edwards. It sounds like the clock is running out on her battle with breast cancer. It’s a shame. The older I get, the more tuned in I seem to be on all the ways your shit can get fucked up and kill you. One day you’re OK (as far as you know), and the next, bam. Brain hemorrhage, cancer, brain tumor…. When Granny was a hospice nurse, she’d come home and share tales of all sorts of ways that people die (some pretty horrible; exsanguination while all alone and trying to call 911 sounds particularly nasty – especially if you’re the person who has to clean it up). I’d just as soon go a pit more peacefully when it’s time (and find out I’ve been wrong all this time about the whole life after death thing – as long as there’s no hell or purgatory; not that I’m particularly evil, but I’m not exactly perfect, either, and if my Catholic upbringing turns out to not have been bullshit, I could go straight to hell forever on nothing but a technicality like not going to church or not confessing that I was mean to my mother or something).

In other news, it snowed all day yesterday, and it appears to have snowed all night last night, and it’s supposed to snow all day today. Tomorrow – snow, turning to snow tomorrow night. It’s cold, it’s windy, and it’s snowy. Up until Saturday, we hadn’t had as much as an inch of snow in a day since last February – 280 days in all, and the second longest such stretch (last year was a record 287 days).

Well, so much for that.

It was snowing so hard when I inched my way home last night (too dark to see with the regular headlight, and with the brights, it looked like I was on the bridge of the Enterprise traveling at about warp 8 with the stars whizzing by. At one point, it was so dark and the snow was going sideways so hard that I started to feel as if I was moving sideways – which is a pretty freaky feeling when you’re trying to make your way w/o driving in to a ditch (which you don’t wanna do, ‘cuz let me tell ya, the ditches out here are really frickin’ deep, and if you go in, you aint gettin’ back out again on your own).

Officially, as of about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon, the officially tally for Syracuse was about 14 1/2″. I have no idea how much we’ve gotten where I live. Let’s just say it’s a lot, and has to be measured in feet, rather than inches. Drifts are higher than the 4-foot fence I put up for the dogs, and I’m already running out of places to put the snow I’m plowing. And that’s all based on how things looked at 7:00 last night. I haven’t gotten out there yet this morning.

I sure picked a good year to move out to the snow belt.

Oh well, one more cuppa joe, and then it’s tractor time.