When you think about it, the phrase “New Year’s Eve” is fairly hopeful. I mean, they could call today, “Old Year’s Death” or something. The last day of 2012 is starting out with blue skies and sunshine here (though they say it’ll end with snow). Looking out my window, I can see the snow in my front lawn is more than half way up the 4 foot dog fence, and the pile where I push the snow by the garage is taller than I am (not that that’s much of a feat). In fact, it’s almost as high as the garage roof. I’m starting have trouble figuring out where to put it, and I’m thinking I might not see the inside of my poor, buried van until spring. Still, it’s all quite pretty.

The big story of the morning seems to be whether or not there’ll be some agreement on this whole pecuniary precipice thing (or, as the Crappington Post headline reads, “WHITE HOUSE READY TO CAVE?“). It looks like if there really is, a deal, it won’t actually reduce the deficit at all, which kinda makes you wonder what the hell all this nonsense was about, except it’ll mean my taxes will only go up 2% instead of about 5%. As a state worker in these times when being a public employee is considered about one step above child molester, it’s not likely I’ll be seeing a raise anytime soon, so that 2% jump is going to be gone for a long time. Could be worse, of course, so I won’t complain (much).

Not that I actually expect there to be a deal today, but I guess you never know.

Anyhow, I hope everyone has a safe and happy old year’s death tonight, and, as always, we’ll hope that 2013 is a better year than this one was. The world didn’t end in 2012 (not yet anyway), so that could be a hard one to beat. But there are supposed to be two visits by comets this year, including one toward the end of the year that may be brighter than the moon. Unless it melts going around the sun. So that should be pretty cool. And, hey, maybe the economy will get better and there’ll be more jobs by this time next year. And the way climate change is going, we should have some really neat hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, monsoons, and blizzards to talk about.

Should be fun.

Oh well, back to the Twilight Zone Marathon.

Happy New Year! :alc:

Another day, another 6-10″ of snow. So far, we’ve gotten about 29″, which is nine inches shy of our average at this point, but well above last year’s wonderful winter amount of 2.2″. Ah, 2011. Those were the days. As we approach the pecuniary precipice, there is some good news. If you’re a federal employee, anyway.

Their two-year pay freeze is coming to an end, thanks to an executive order signed by President Obama. That means Congress gets a pay raise, and by golly they deserve it for all the work they do (despite being the least productive Congress since the 1940s).

So good for them.

I’m not looking forward to my taxes going up next week, so it would be nice if they’d earn their raises and actually, you know, do something. It’d be kind of nice if they’d restore that payroll tax cut, too. It’s going to cut into the dog food money, and we don’t have enough cats to supplement their diet. They’ll have to start eating pine cones or something.

Oh well, time to go see how much snow’s in the driveway.

As expected, we got a little snow last night (and this morning – it’s starting to peter out, but it’s still coming down). I don’t know what the official totals are, but out in the sticks where I live, I’d guess something in the neighborhood of 15-18″.

Not the biggest storm I’ve ever seen, but on top of the foot or so we got Saturday, the snow piles are starting to get pretty high. I spent about an hour plowing my driveway (more work to do there, but at least we were able to get out – once the snowplow finally came through; it was about knee deep in the road), and the roads on the way in were pretty messy.

They say we’ll get a few more inches today, and then a few more tonight. And a possible east coast storm on Saturday, too. Actually, the “5-Day” forecast is snow, snow, snow, snow, and snow. Oh boy. I liked it better last year.

I’ve been trying to figure out just how screwed I’m gonna get on this whole Pecuniary Precipice thing. First there’s the 2% increase in payroll taxes (and that looks like a done deal no matter what, from what I hear). Then there’s about a 3% increase in federal income tax. Plus, it appears that the “marriage penalty” is coming back. So that’s good.

Oh well, as long as Mitt Romney’s taxes don’t go up, I guess it’s all worth it.

Well, that’s over. And it’s back to work (for me, anyway – I’m hoping lots of people have the whole week off so I don’t have to deal with them on the roads). I hope Santa was kind to you, and that you got to hang out with people you like. We have a real treat in store for us later on tonight, as it’s supposed to start snowing pretty heavily. They’re saying upwards of 18″ and strong winds, so that’ll be fun (on top of the foot of snow we just got the other day). Fortunately it’s no supposed to get bad until nine o’clock tonight, so I won’t have to drive home in it. But it’ll mean getting out there and plowing the driveway early Thursday morning, which is kind of a pain. And I have to decide whether or not to bother with the garbage tonight. If it’s gonna get buried in snow and plowed under, it may not be worth the hassle. But that’s tomorrow. First, I need to get today over with.

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate that kind of thing. A bit of a sad one, what with the news of Jack Klugman’s death. Hopefully I can catch all four of his Twilight Zone episodes on the marathon this year. Otherwise, I hope Santa was good to you this year.

In his Christmas Eve speech mass last night, the Pope said we should make room for God. Well, He can use our spare bedroom if He wants, but it’d be nice if he could chip in a little something for wood pellets. We’re running a little low, here, and with the Town and County property taxes coming up in January (on top of the end of the payroll tax holiday, which is going to have a very noticeable affect on my take home pay), it’s gonna be tough to find the money for a few more tons. And now that I’m entering my golden years, I’m kinda partial to being somewhat warm.

Anyhow, have a good day today, whether you care about Christmas or not, and I hope that Winter Storm “Euclid” (as the Weather Channel is calling it) isn’t too bad for you folks in the Midwest (and I also hope you’ll be kind enough to keep it to yourselves). Happy Christmas everybody – and stay healthy.

Just in case they were off a day or two on the whole end of the world thing, I spent most of the weekend in my bunker, wearing my level 4 biohazard suit and cradling my AR-15 assault rifle (complete with a 100 round drum). Except for when I had to go out and plow the driveway. It appears that the coast is clear, however, and we’ve avoided yet another untimely end. I guess we should probably thank Pat Robertson – he no doubt prayed his ass off (which, given the size of his ass, is a lot pf praying). So there was no alternative but to get up and go to work.

The bad news is it’s Monday. The good news is tomorrow’s Christmas, so I don’t have to go to work, and I hear they may let me go at like 2:00, once the clinics close. Unfortunately, I have to come right back in to work on Wednesday, which also happens to be stupid meeting day. I’m hoping we aren’t actually gonna meet, ‘cuz at least a couple of us aren’t going to be here. Although I don’t think I’ll actually do anything for Christmas (and will barely notice it, other that to be happy to have the day off), there’s still something really depressing about having to come to work the day after. They really ought to make it a Thursday/Friday holiday or something.

Oh well, I guess I’ll try and be really, really good today, so maybe Santa will give me a pass on the other 364 days this year and bring me a present. Though how he’ll get down the chimney is beyond me. I mean, there was barely enough room to shove a 4″ flex pipe down there for my pellet stove, I don’t know how a fat guy’s getting down there (not even naked and greased up, let alone wearing a suit).

Well, it’s been nice knowing you all, but this is it – the end of the world. I’m not sure if there’s a set time for it to happen (like, midnight or something), or if it’s going to happen all at once, or be kind of a rolling thing across the Earth. I guess it kind of depends on whether we get hit by Planet X (which those incompetent fools at NASA have still failed to see) or there’s a pole shift or a violent solar storm or, I dunno, maybe a plague that kills everybody who doesn’t smear lamb’s blood on their front door. Either way, I guess this will be our last day together. Or not.

The day certainly started out the way you’d expect an apocalypse type of day to start. At least up here. Very heavy rain came through, and the temperature is such that it was a mix of rain and wet snow, so the roads were pretty slushy. And very, very dark. Then I got stuck behind some putz going 40 mph the whole way in. Once I got to work, I found that my computer had been updated over night, which means I had to log in again, and, ever since they installed a Zenworks upgrade a while back that means it takes, literally, about 30 minutes before I can start using my computer. Very annoying.

Good thing I didn’t have any Xmas shopping to do.

One person who probably wishes this really was Armageddon is John Boehner, who couldn’t even get his House Republicans to back his “Plan B” (told ya you shoulda called it Plan 9). So now they’re doing what responsible public servants do in the face of the devastation to the US (and world) economy should we plunge into the pecuniary precipice: they’re going on break until after Christmas.

I really hope Obama isn’t going to take this opportunity to cave in on more cuts to Social Security or something.

Oh well, I suppose I’d better get some work done, just in case the world doesn’t end today.

Stay safe out there, and let us know if you see any signs of the Rapture or something.

I saw a story on the Crappington Post (which, in true CP fashion, was actually referencing a story on TMZ) that said Sam Donaldson had been arrested for DUI. So, when I saw the accompanying headline on the page that read, “White House Reporters Hammered During Obama Press Conference,” I naturally assumed they broke out the eggnog a little early.

Sadly, it turned out to be a story on how they were “hammered” for asking Pecuniary Precipice questions during his press conference on gun control (I mean, it’d be like somebody going to a Jim Boeheim presser and asking basketball questions). And of course “hammered” meant there were several somewhat irate “tweets” about it. Oh, Huffington Post, your headlines always get me. This is mostly because, from what I understand, they run their headlines through SEO software (that’s Search Engine Optimization) in order to ensure as many clicks as possible.

This is why headlines like “Reid Slams Boehner” (which I think is actually a chapter in 50 shades of gray) turns out to be something like Harry Reid says Speaker Boehner “is mistaken if he believes the Senate will pass ‘Plan B’.”

He should have called it “Plan 9.”

Speaking of gun control, whattya think? Will they pass anything? Or will it all just fade away with the holiday season (until the next time some nut gets hold of mom’s assault weapons). I kind of think if they do pass something, it will be some watered down piece of shit littered with loopholes and exceptions.

In fact, everybody’s second-favorite assault weapons poster girl (behind Patty Hearst) Diane Feinstein was proud to announce that her new bill “…includes exemptions for more than 900 specific weapons.”

So, that should work, right?

Today is the last day of Autumn, and the weather around here is expected to follow the plan and turn cold. It seems we’ll have a white Christmas this year after all. This isn’t exactly something I’ve been dreaming of, though I will admit that everything looks a lot nicer when there’s snow covering the dormant grass and leafless trees.

Speaking of Christmas (or, at least, the holidays) my little work group is having it’s celebration today (we’re thinking of it as the Pre-Apocalypse Luncheon). We somehow lucked out this year and don’t have to deal with the full, multi-group, awkward get together that we’ve had to suffer through in years past. So today it’ll be just the five of us, which will be much better because I actually like the people I work with and don’t mind spending time with them.

Unfortunately, it looks like we have to come back to work afterwards, which kinda sucks. Even worse, we have to come to work tomorrow.

That’s a piss-poor way to spend our last day on Earth.

On the way home last night, I couldn’t remember if it was Monday or Tuesday. I had myself pretty much convinced that it was Monday, until I saw my neighbors had their garbage out (which meant it was Tuesday). Some day, I’ll be able to look back on this and think, “there. That’s when the Alzheimer’s started.” Of course, at that point I won’t remember my name, let alone that I couldn’t remember what day it was back in oh-twelve.

So the good news is that two days of the week are over instead of just one. The bad news it that today is my late day (not stupid meeting day this week, thankfully, though I’m wondering if we’re going to have a stupid meeting on the day after Christmas. There’s something depressing about going to work on the day after Christmas to begin with – having to go to a stupid meeting would make it that much worse).

I was listening to NPR the other day, and the theme of the show was something like “why are Americans a bunch of ruthless, gun nut killers,” with the main topic of discussion being, of course, the shootings in Newtown CT. One twit who called in (from Branson Missouri) said that it was because the penalties for that sort of thing weren’t harsh enough (and that in some places they cut your hands off for stealing, you know). I thought for sure that the host would point out the fact that the fucking kid killed himself, so I kinda doubt he was worried about the penalty. But, sadly, he didn’t.

Speaking of great minds from south of the Mason-Dixon line, the good folks in Tennessee are considering arming teachers. I’m not so sure this is a good idea. For one thing, if my teachers had had weapons, I don’t think I’d have made it past ninth grade. I think they’d be better off putting in a moat with alligators and those pointy stick things, and maybe a mine field.

Well, time to get ready to seize the day. It’s gonna be a long one.

All signs are currently pointing to seniors (and future seniors – not to mention poor folks on food stamps and veterans) getting fucked over by our man Barry. This is because he’s apparently ready to agree on changes to the way inflation is calculated, which will in turn reduce already small increases in SS benefits based on the cost of living. The farther away you are from retirement, the more you’re getting screwed. It’s kind of like compound interest in reverse. So, good job there, Mr. President. Once again, I admire your negotiating skills, and I’m sure the Republicans will accept your gracious offer as it, and not demand more, ‘cuz we know how reasonable they are. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll refuse to pass anything.

Holy crap, Christmas is a week from today. That always seems to sneak up on me every year, even though I’m well aware that it’s coming. The more important thing for me is the Winter solstice on Friday. Assuming we all make it through end of the world type stuff (I might have to pull the battery out of my Armageddon Clock), we’ll get an extra 3 seconds of daylight come Saturday (at least, here where I live). Sadly, it won’t be until St Patrick’s Day that we get more daylight than whatever it is you call it after the sun sets.

And the sun will start getting a little higher in the sky, too. On Friday, the sun will only get 23.5 degrees above the horizon here. Not a lot of warming going on at that rate.

I’m looking forward to more daylight and warmer weather. Seems a shame we have to get through the worst part of the winter first.