First off, congrats to Web for finishing his book. I didn’t quite catch what you meant yesterday until OKat straightened things out (I think I thought you meant you finished reading a book, which is a much bigger deal in these days of Palin, Bachmann, and Walker than it used to be). Hope you don’t mind, but I converted it to .mobi format, and sent it off it to my Kindle to read (though I have a few things on the reading list ahead of, it, and I don’t really seem to get far on anything in any given night, since after a few pages it tends to be lights out). I’m not terribly confident that I’ll actually understand it, but I’ll give it a shot. Shame it’s so short, though. 😉

Speaking of the oil, they’re saying that gas will be up to $4-$5 a gallon this summer. The justification at the moment seems to be that the price of oil is no longer being driven by the law of supply and demand, but that it has now become a commodity (you mean, it wasn’t always a commodity?), with prices driven by greed and speculation. Funny, I thought that’s how it always worked. I guess I need to read The Oil ConunDRUM.

The question is, how much will the Smart Electric Drive cost, and how will it do in the snow? It’s supposed to be good for 63 miles on a charge, which would get me back and forth to work with plenty to spare, even if it it turns out to get a bit less than that in our cold, rain, and snow.

Speaking of OKat, yes, indeed, in so many ways, Syracuse is the center of civilization (oh, sure, it’s no Enid – let alone Norman, but for the godless Northeast, it’s right up there). The Alpha and the Omega, really. Of course, we’ve been forced to hide it, to both keep out the riff-raff and to ensure that we can manipulate events without becoming part of theM. We’re a bIt like the Second Foundation in that respect (sorry for that allusion; I realize nobody will get it, but I’ve been re-reading Asimov’s Foundation Series, and had forgotten how much I enjoyed them, and reading in general – having given it up when the Internet was invented, and could no longer read more than a paragraph without clicking something.

Andy Cuomo gave a snide, snotty, condescending press conference yesterday on his medicaid “commission.” The more I listen to this CSMF, the more I’ve come to despise him. His old man should be as ashamed of him as Mike Wallace should be ashamed of his greasy little spawn.

I hate to keep doing the boring weather report, but, well, it’s all part of perpetuating the weather myth so that people will stay away. I mean, it’s either this, or basketball (and I have to save the SU-Georgetown game for tomorrow).

Anyhow, the latest storm is slowly creeping its way into the area at the moment, promising to make the Friday commute a real pain in the ass. Not much of a storm, really. In isolation, it would be no big deal, but coming late in February when we’re just a teensy-weensy little bit tired of this stuff makes it a bit more than your typical workday annoyance. Looks like we’re on track to get 5-10″ (which translates to a foot, easy, at my house), which means by the drive home tonight, this winter will be in the top ten for snowfall (and a lot more winter to go). Oh boy.

Oh well, time for more coffee while I can still afford it.