Normally, I’d be happy that it’s finally Friday, but since today is the last day of the holiday (not that I have to work over the weekend, but that doesn’t count), I kind of wish it was Thursday again. For the amount of work that gets done over the next 5 weeks or so, they really ought to just give everybody time off until after New Year’s.

At least anybody who doesn’t work at Wal-Mart, gas stations, or grocery stores. And maybe keep a skeleton crew of people working at the hospitals. Oh, and snow plow drivers, firefighters, and police officers. We’ll be needing the post office to stay open, of course, and UPS and FedEx and those poor people who bust their asses picking orders at the Amazon work camps (good god, without those folks, I might actually have to go out and shop in person, amongst “the people.” Now there’s a disturbing thought). And then there’s the people who keep the Internet and DirecTV running….

I guess what I mean is they should just give me time off – until after Martin Luther King day. Oh but then you’ve got the Super Bowl and President’s Day, and then you’re getting in to St. Patrick’s Day and March Madness…. So, I should get paid time off until April, and then I can be fresh and productive right up until Memorial Day. Then I’ll be needing the summer off.

According to the 4,853 e-mails in my inbox this morning, today is something called “Black Friday.” I’m not sure what it is (I think it’s got something to do with Obama and the war on Christmas), but it seems kind of anticlimactic since it’s been “pre-Black Friday” for about six months now. Whatever it is, it appears that there are some great deals out there (assuming there’s anything left over from the crowds fighting over cheap shit at Wal-Mart on what used to be known as Thanksgiving).

Whether you went shopping or just sat around the house watching Detroit finally win a football game on the fourth Thursday of November (or, god forbid, spend time enjoying friends and family forgetting for a day about all the things that suck in the world and remembering all the things there are to be grateful for), I hope your holiday went well. We didn’t actually do much of anything here. I mostly finished binge watching season 2 of Homeland while I cleaned my office, though I also did get out on the tractor to plow the driveway. According to the radar, it looks like it’s snowing out there again, but it’s too dark for me to tell how much, if anything, is accumulating.

They say we’re in store for a few cold days around here, which kinda sucks because the heat is only on for a couple hours on weekday mornings, and then it’s off until the afternoon. So it gets a little nippy in the house. Yesterday it was about 57-58 most of the day, though if I keep my office door closed, the computers keep things in there a bit warmer (also has the benefit of keeping the cats from coming in to claw the upholstery on my chairs and puke on everything; yes, I cleaned up a lot of cat puke yesterday, though it was kind of old and fossilized, and therefore easier to deal with). I’ll have to try one of those tea light and flower pot heaters from OKat’s video the other day.

Ah, here comes e-mail 4,854. Lowe’s Home Improvement wants me to know that “Black Friday Is Here!” 20% off on Char-Broil infrared gas grills. I bet I could heat up my office with one of those suckers. Guess I better get out there and start shopping. Either that, or start on season 3 of Homeland (which I hear sucks, but, hey I’m hooked now).

Yeah, I know, people are have already coined the term “Thanksgivukkah” but I like mine better. The real question is, why are there two Ks in Hanukkah, but only one K in Chanukah? Anyhow, as you no doubt have already heard, today is both the first day of Chanukah, and Thanksgiving – a coincidence that shall not happen again until something like the year 79881. My prediction is that this means this will actually never happen again, ‘cuz if humans haven’t managed to wipe themselves out of existence by then, things will be a lot different and they’ll have other made up holidays to celebrate.

Anyhow, for those of you who don’t work at Wal-Mart, have a happy holiday today. And stay out of the department stores.

Phase one of the big scary storm has slid slightly to the east of us (though it looks like there’s lots of precipitating going on all up the East Coast). At some point, the snow turned into a cold drizzle (based on how wet the dogs were when they came back in this morning), but it’s supposed to get cold and start snowing again at some point later today. There’s still no telling how much snow we’ll get here – as usual, it all depends on which way the wind blows. If it comes out of the north/northwest (that would be from across Lake Ontario), then we’ll get dumped on. If it comes from due west, then our friends on the Tug Hill will get buried (as they generally do – it’s OK, they’re used to it). Normally, it kind of comes and goes, so we’ll see.’

The bad news is that the commute home tonight could be a real pain in the ass. The good news is that my boss said I can work from home today, as long as I cover support from 3-5. The bad news is that the wife doesn’t have that option. So, being the magnanimous kinda guy I am, I’ve offered to bring her to work and pick her up (because a: I have my snow tires one and b: driving in shitty weather doesn’t generally bother me – it’s in my DNA, like being an SU fan).

If I was a real fan (or at least a wealthy one), I’d be in Maui right now, preparing to watch the basketball team play in the Maui Invitational championship game, and then I wouldn’t have to worry about snow. But wealthy, I am not. Also, I really don’t like flying. I’m good for maybe a two-hour flight, but after that I find it intolerable (though I’ve never flown first class, so maybe that wouldn’t be so bad). My knees, back, neck, shoulders (pretty much all of me) just can’t take being crammed into economy class for that long. Sucks to be old.

Well, I hope nobody who has to travel today or tomorrow gets stuck in any bad weather (in less you need a good excuse to just stay home, in which case, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow).

We awoke this morning under the threat of the dreaded “Winter Storm Warning.” Actually, I was awake when it was still just a “watch,” but that’s only ‘cuz I get up so goddamn early. Fortunately, this storm is looking like it’ll be pretty wimpy. They say a couple inches of snow this afternoon, then turning to rain, sleet and freezing rain, and then back into snow (snow on top of ice makes for my favorite driving conditions). Supposedly an extra 6 – 12 inches by Thursday morning. Not exactly a monster storm – just enough to be a pain in the ass. Though they say the farther west you are, the more snow it will be, and what with us being about 20 miles west of Syracuse and in what the refer to as the “higher elevations” you never know.

Mostly, I’m hoping my wife can get back and forth to work (actually forth and then back) and then there’s enough snow that we cancel Thanksgiving and we get to hang out at home alone (seeing as I preemptively stocked up on beer – and the little store in the Village actually has one of my preferred brands on sale this week, so I can snowshoe down the hill to get more if need be, though coming back up the hill might be problematic). I’m not especially worried, though, ‘cuz mostly they tend to make a big deal out of these things and scare the shit out of people and then it turns out to be no big deal.

But enough about boring topics like the weather. Let’s talk sports! No, just kidding, though I will say that yesterday evening there was the happy convergence of two sports-related items – an SU game on TV early enough after work that I could stay awake for the whole game (namely because they were playing in Maui and tipped off at 5:45 or so, which means I didn’t have two or three hours of beer drinking before it started), and an SU game where they actually won (not that a win in hoops – unlike football – is all that rare, but it was still nice).

It has just occurred to me that if I don’t take three vacation days between now and 12/31, I’m going to lose them, since I’ll be over the max of 40 days. That is pathetic – when did I become such a company man?

Always nice to start the morning off with a plow job, so I guess today was my lucky day. The snow was supposed to taper off yesterday afternoon, and when there was a break in the action, I went out and plowed the driveway. It was pretty damn cold, too. About 20 degrees (up from 11 when I got up), but there was a fierce wind, and since nobody bought me a cab for my tractor, it was pretty damn cold.

Not long after that, it started to snow again, and I guess it finally stopped at some point, but not until it was too dark out to see what was going on. So I had get out there and plow again. I’d say we got about 4 or 5 inches after the first wave, and at least another 5 after the second. They even delayed school for a couple hours in my little town (nowhere else, though – lucky us). Little wimps.

Now they’re telling us we may get hit by a nor’easter on Wednesday. Hopefully it’ll wait until after I get home (and stop for beer).

Of course, there’s also been quite a bit of snow down there in the southwest (at least by their standards), with ice and snow cancelling flights and just generally making people’s lives miserable. Hopefully the mess will all be cleared up in time for T-Day.

Thank goodness this is a short work week. I’m tired already. We’re apparently supposed to have the in-laws over on Thursday, but they don’t like to leave the house if there are snowflakes in the air (or rain – hell, even clouds), and since it’s supposed to snow at least a little, it’s doubtful they’ll come. So Plan B is to have us bring dinner over to them. Unless this nor’easter leaves us buried and/or doesn’t come through until late night Wednesday into Thursday morning. Then nobody will be going anywhere.

Naturally, I’m rooting for the storm.

Yesterday, of course, was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. I had just turned three, so I don’t really remember where I was when it happened. Probably playing with my blocks or asleep in my crib. It’s Bobby that I remember quite vividly (and MLK – tough years to have a last initial of ‘K’ I guess). Of course even if you don’t really remember 1963, you feel like you were there, what with all the conspiracy stuff that’s been out there year after year. I used to be really into it, but at some point I realized it was all pretty pointless. Whatever actually happened, anybody who really knows is either dead or aint talkin’. And even if somebody did come forward, how could you tell if they were legit or not?

It’s supposed to be cold and windy today, and then things are gonna get worse. There’s a dreaded “Lake Effect Snow Advisory” in effect beginning at seven o’clock tonight, and lasting until tomorrow afternoon. They’re currently saying three to ten inches, depending on which way the wind blows. Fortunately, it looks like most of this will be to the south of me. Unless the wind shifts, that is – we seem to be right on the edge. So I reckon I’d better get off my ass and finish up my tractor PM and get the chains on.

If I get my work done early enough, I may even get to watch some of the SU football game. In spite a few games that shall not be mentioned, we can get “bowl eligible” with a win today. Bowl eligibility isn’t really a high bar these days – all it takes is six wins, and there are so many bowls everybody with six wins get one. Still, we’ll take it if we can get it.

Well, I reckon I’d better head out to Tractor Supply and get my shit.

Have a good one.

Yesterday, I figured I’d sleep in a bit – maybe even as late at 7:00. Fritzi, however, had other ideas so I got up at 5:00 instead. Oh well, more time to play with the new TV in my office. So that was good, until approximately 6:29 AM, when the power went out (and it got very dark). It seemed odd, since the weather was fine (no wind or any kind of precipitation). I found out later the cause was an apparently drunk 24-yr old woman had crashed into a utility pole in a Dodge Neon at 2:30. The road curves and goes up a steep hill, and she apparently went straight (but not for long). She needed to be airlifted to the hospital but they apparently expect her to live, which is a good trick. I don’t know how fast you need to be going in a Neon to break a utility pole, but I’m thinking it’s pretty fast. I saw no skid marks in the road (just her tire tracks in the wet grass she plowed trough), so I guess she was definitely going for it. Anyhow, I guess 6:30 is when they had to shut everything down to replace the pole.

So I waited around in the dark for a while to see what was gonna happen and then checked the power company’s website on my iPhone and found out it wasn’t just me, and they were estimating they’d have the power back on at 10:00. Well, I figured his would give me the opportunity to run my generator, which I’d never had the opportunity to run – other than testing. The good news is that I’d just had it running the day before to make sure it still worked and the gas was good. The bad news is that it seemed to be pretty low on gas. So, off the gas station it was.

Unfortunately, I got stuck behind a guy driving an enormous dump trunk filled to the top (and more) with mulch. A very cautious driver, he was. We have lots of hills around here, and as slow as he was going uphill, he was even slower going down. I suppose this is prudent when driving a dump truck full of mulch, but it’s a pretty annoying thing to be stuck behind. To make matters worse, the road through the village was closed (thanks to the aforementioned drunken pole whacker), so both I and my friend in the truck had to take the long (and quite hilly) way around, and after an interminable amount of time, I was finally able to wave him goodbye (with one finger) and get to the gas station.

So I got to run the genny for a couple of hours and get the Internet and teevee back, and the power came back on a little before 10:00 (much to the credit of the folks at NYSEG), so it was finally time to start my top priority weekend project – installing the dishwasher.

I won’t bore you with all the gory details (yes, there was blood spilled), but suffice it to say I expected it to be a pain in the ass and it most certainly was. After 3 trips to 3 different hardware stores and spending more on fittings than I did on the damn dishwasher (well, not really, but it seemed like it), it was finally up and running at about 6:30. I kind of wasted a warm sunny day stuck inside, but at least it’s done.

Unfortunately, now all my shit hurts – especially my neck and shoulder (and back, and I got the foot thing going on again, probably from going up and down the stairs 500 times). Oh, and my hand, too. So I was up at about 4:30 this morning, ‘cuz there was no position I could find where I wasn’t lying on something that hurt.

What remains to be seen is if I’ll get around to project #2 this weekend – tractor PM. I’m supposed to do my 500 hour maintenance, which means replacing the fuel filters and changing the oil. I have the filters, but I need to go get a gallon of diesel oil. It would also be a good time to put the chains on and maybe stick the plow on the bucket, just to make sure I remember how to do it (though we’re not supposed to get any appreciable snow this week).

Or maybe I’ll just sit on my ass all day and watch NFL Sunday Ticket. If the power stays on.

I just finished listening to the latest WTF podcast with Barry Crimmins. I highly recommend you download and listen to this one (and not just because Barry is from the next town over from me – though that doesn’t hurt, either). He wrote all the best stuff that Randi Rhodes ever said on her show back in the AAR days (I know, because we had the chance to go and see him at the Unitarian Church near where we used to live, and I recognized a lot of what he said). Definitely an interesting guy – and a good lefty.

It’s a big day here today, as the DirecTV guy is here right now. Yes, I decided to switch from Dish (thanks for all your input on that), so tonight I should be able to record Haven, Bill Maher AND Dracula all at once. Assuming I can figure out all the new channel numbers, anyway. I also ordered a new TV for my office – nothing fancy. Just something a little bigger than the decidedly non-HD 15″ one I have now. That way, when I hide in my office and watch football, I won’t have to sit four inches away from the teevee. Though tomorrow’s football game will probably be painful to watch no matter how far away I sit.

Not that I’ll have time for football tomorrow, as I have to install the new dishwasher. Aside from trying to figure out how to tear out one cabinet without totally destroying the one next to it, it looks like I’ll have to re-plumb the sink drain lines. That’ll be a pain. If I manage to get that done, I also need to change the oil and the fuel filters on my tractor.

Hopefully I’ll have time to watch a little teevee.

I looked out the window at about 4:00 this morning, and my first thought was “must be a full moon” ‘cuz the grass looked all white. Then I thought “funny, we should only be a little past a quarter moon, and it should have set at like one or two o’clock this morning.” My final thought (at that moment – hopefully for the rest of the day) was, “oh, shit. That’s snow.” Yep. A nice little blanket of snow on everything. It wasn’t unexpected, but you still kind of hate to see it start, ‘cuz it’s a long, dark stretch ’til spring. On the bright side, now that we’ve had enough snow to track small animals, we can have Indian Summer (and it does appear that it’s gonna be sunny and about 50 this weekend – maybe not summer, but we’ll take it).

Somebody called “Macklemore” was in town for a concert last night. He’s apparently famous – the latest generation of “white rapper.” The review says he appeared with “his” DJ (this is what concerts have come to, I guess – why pay a bunch of musicians when you can twerk around to a record?). It also said he had to play the same song twice – once as his closer – because he apparently doesn’t have enough songs to fill a whole show. Or something. Used to be you could go to a Dead show four nights in a row and not hear the same song twice.

Kids these days.

In other news, it appears that “Wall Street” is all agog at the thought of Elizabeth Warren running for President. This is all because of a story at The New Republic that quotes an “unnamed former staffer” as saying:

“Yeah, Hillary is running. And she’ll probably win,” says the former aide. “But Elizabeth doesn’t care about winning. She doesn’t care whose turn it is.”

So, clearly, Warren is running, despite the fact that she says she isn’t running, she endorses Hillary, and that Hillary should run.

A shame she isn’t, since I’d be much happier voting for her than I would for Hillary. But, jumpin’ Jehoshaphat! Can we start worrying about 2016 when it gets a little closer to 2016? Like maybe after the Super Bowl in 2015?

BTW, I’ve been trying to talk myself into switching from Dish to DirecTV. Anybody out there have a setup with the “Genie” whole home DVR (five tuners – no more recording conflicts, ‘cuz I can’t see there ever being more than three decent things on at the same time, let alone five)? If so, let me know (either here or privately, if you’re bashful). There’s the older HR34 that I’ve read there have been some problems with, and then the HR44. DTV tells me that they are officially shipping the HR34 to new customers, so that’s holding me back That and the whole overcoming inertia to switch. And having to clean the house before I can let the installer dude or dudette in.

Oh well, time to go do my volunteer work for Porn for the Blind and then get to work.

Way back in 1918, the first war to end all wars ended. Mostly. The news didn’t travel as fast back then as it does today. It was also the beginning of the end of the Ottoman empire (which I don’t recall learning about in high school history, but then I may not have been paying attention). Being American, I don’t think I was taught much world history as a kid. American history, of course. And the history of the area where I live before the white folks came and fucked everything up, yeah. But an ottoman was just something Dick Van Dyke tripped over every week.

Of course today is now known as Veteran’s Day here in the US. A day where there’s no mail and the banks are closed (don’t worry – the malls are open!), and, while I’m not off today, I do earn a day to use later, so that’s good. It’s also a day when the hypocrites in Congress will no doubt do a lot of speechifying about how they support the troops and whatnot. And Obama is probably scheduled to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier (or else face the wrath of Fux News and Rush Limbaugh, who will then have to find something else to bitch about, like that his flag lapel pin isn’t big enough of something).

Anyway, Happy VD to all you vets and future vets out there. I hope wherever you’re at, you get back home to your families soon.

We’re supposed to get a bit of a turn to cold weather here. Not surprising, what with it being a third of the way through November. Hopefully we won’t get too much snow, but I guess I better make sure Granny knows where the shovel is, just in case. My main goal this weekend was to get my snow tires on, and I managed to accomplish that fairly early on Saturday morning. Also got the tractor all greased up, but didn’t put the chains on just yet. That was about it.

Next weekend should be a busy one, though. I ordered a dishwasher as an X-mas present for the house, and it’s supposed to get delivered tomorrow. So next weekend I’ll have to install it, which will no doubt be a much bigger pain in the ass than it ought to be – especially since I have to rip out a cabinet. But I get to use my favorite carpentry tool. :jason:

Oh well, back to work.