Looks like there’s a storm coming up the coast. We’re only getting the fringe of it here (they say), with some freezing rain and maybe up to 5 inches of snow. To the east of us, though, there are blizzard warnings. I could live with a blizzard here, I guess. If things are bad enough, nobody can go anywhere, and you can just hang out and shovel the driveway every hour or so. With this mess scheduled to hit at quittin’ time tonight, though, it could make for a nasty commute home. Maybe I’d better bring a sleeping bag and snowshoes with me.

It’s 54 degrees outside right now, but that’s not supposed to last long. Drizzle is supposed to turn to snow by 10:00, and it should be in the 20’s by the time I get home from work. In other news, the owner of Syracuse China (Libbey), is closing the plant. And they’ve got the audacity to keep the “Syracuse China” brand, though they won’t even be making it the United States, let alone Syracuse.

It’s yet another in a long line of successful local businesses (they’ve been around since 1871, and I’ve eaten off their dinnerware in places as far away as Ireland, and in ‘high class’ joints like the Mayflower Hotel in DC) to be bought out and closed, radically downsized, or moved away. Not because they weren’t making money, of course, but because they weren’t making enough money.

So, another 275 jobs will be gone from here in about four months. The way things are going, there’ll be nothing left here but shopping malls – and I don’t know who’s going to have enough money to do more than wander around zombie-like and look at all the empty stores. Not to worry. I’m sure our government officials will fix everything as soon as they’re done bailing out the financial services industry.

Only Tuesday? It’s been a long week already. Yesterday’s single-digit temperatures have turned to mid-twenties and freezing rain, on the way to a highs near fifty for a couple of days before getting cold again some time on Thursday. Personally, I’d prefer that it just settle down to winter and knock this roller coaster stuff of already. Oh well. It beats having a fighter jet crash into your house.

A little on the nippy side here this morning (3°). We got a fair amount of snow yesterday, too, so everything’s nice and clean and white out there. Otherwise, I’m debating on whether I ought to call in sick today or not. I’m better than I was, but still a little under the weather. I could definitely use another day to sleep and play some Dead Space (great game, by the way; very creepy) once in a while. We’ll see, I guess. I’m not much for calling in, but I’d just as soon not suffer a relapse. Have a good one.

Today on Press the Meat there’s only one guest: President-elect Barack Obama.

Faze the Nation has Chris Dodd, Alabama cracker Jeff Sessions, and Hot, Flat and Stupid Tom Friedman.

On Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace has the other Alabama cracker, Dick Shelby, plus Carl Levin, Lizard Queen Condi Rice, and the usual fuxheads.

Lizard woman makes another appearance at the Goebbels network. Also on with George Sufalufagus is Ron Gettelfinger, President of the United Automobile Workers. Plus, at the roundtable, it’s George :jerk: Will, Cokie “the hag” Roberts, Peggy “A Rose for ROnnie” Noonan, and E.J. Dionne.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl visits Saudi Arabia, Morley Safer profiles Julian Schnabel, and they’ll trot out an old Mike Wallace interview with David Frost, done shortly before the Frost/Nixon interviews aired in 1977.

Not one mention of Pearl Harbor. I guess with all the infamy we’ve seen in the last eight years, Pearl Harbor just doesn’t stack up these days.

For you folks in the NYC area, Marc Maron will be at Union Hall in Brooklyn tonight at 9:15 (for free, even).

Have a good Sunday.

It was a long week, but Saturday has come again so that we can enjoy the too short weekend. Usually there’s lots of work to do on the weekend, but it’s different work, so I guess that makes it better, although it is truly hard to enjoy doing the wash or, even worse, painting a room.

These next few weekends are going to be very low on the enjoyment factor because the Christmas holidays loom. While laundry and other sundry household jobs still need to be accomplished, there is also the Christmas to-do list, which, in spite of my best efforts, always requires shopping. And, while I can do most of it on line I have not learned to do all of it that way.

There is also the issue of the tree!

This year that little granddaughter will be here on Christmas and that means the whole Santa Claus bit. ( I think she knows there is no Santa, but she doesn’t want to disappoint us by letting on.) Thus, I’m going to have to find some spot in the living room, which was never designed as a arbor, to put a TREE. Said tree will then become the best jungle gym ever for the cats who think that installing a tree for them to climb is a stroke of genius on my part. Better yet, the tree will be filled with shiny little objects that just cry out to be stalked and smacked and thrown to the floor where they can be pushed and chased. The dogs, thankfully not designed for tree climbing, will satisfy themselves by brushing against that tree and trying their best to knock it down.

The tree will reside with us for a very short time.

I’d better get moving. PJ I hope you feed better. Fellow travelers on the MS blog, this Saturday open thread would be greatly improved by your contributions. Vernon did a great job a couple of weeks ago. ‘Tis time for greater participation.

Have a good one!

As I suspected, this was one very long week indeed. It’s good to get it the hell over with. I just need to push through one more day of feeling like crap, and then I’m gonna try like hell to sleep ’til Monday. In the meantime, you gotta love Barney Frank:

“At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, [Obama] says we only have one president at a time,” Frank said. “I’m afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He’s got to remedy that situation.”

Kinda warm this morning, but winter is supposed to return this afternoon. We might even get some snow, though I don’t know if there’ll be enough to break in the new snowshoes. Still not really feeling up to it anyway. Three weeks ’til X-Mas, which means in a month it’ll be 2009. Have to get ready for the big Twilight Zone Marathon. I think it’s time to start burning some vacation time.

So, as expected, Saxby Chambliss retains his Senate seat. Well, goodie for him and for the all the wonderful folks in Georgia. The media seem to be treating this as a “big comeback” by the GOP. Will these Bozos ever get it?

Oh, and why the hell are they still giving Sarah Palin coverage, as if she wasn’t a twit and a loser? Is she really the best the Republicans can do? And will the media install her as the next preznit after they declare the Obama presidency failed?

Well, if it’s what God wants, then that’s how it’ll be, I guess. As Roger Waters wrote, “what God wants, God gets. God help us all.”

Meanwhile, it kinda sounds like Hillary isn’t eligible to be Secretary of State. Wouldn’t that be interesting? Let the conspiracy theories begin.

The good news is my snowshoes came yesterday. The bad news is there’s no snow. The good news is I feel like crap, so I wouldn’t be going out to use them anyway. The bad news is that the dogs didn’t get out yesterday, and I don’t know if I’ll be up to getting them out today, either.