Yet another ridiculously short weekend is behind us. Here, as you might have guessed, it was basically wintry. Saturday was very cold, but Sunday wasn’t too bad – cold start, but sunny and actually above freezing. That’s about as good as it seems to get. Sorry to the folks in town for the NCAAs for the chilly weather. I guess there were quite a few “Syracuse sucks” tweets and whatnot. Less about the weather and more about how they just plain hate us (though Magic Johnson seemed to enjoy himself). Sorry, I guess. Wasn’t my idea to have all you fuckers here. In fact, if it was up to me, I’d have to the NCAA to go Cheney themselves and have their little tournament someplace else. Like Munnsville.

Sorry we can live up to such stellar venues as Jacksonville, Dayton, Columbus, and Omaha. Or of course the place for next weekend’s big show, Indianapolis, where they respect your right to discriminate – as long as you’re doing it for religious reasons. So if I’m an atheist, does that mean I don’t have the right to discriminate against anybody? I saw somebody on what passes for the news this morning saying it aint about the gays. He runs a t-shirt or sign shop or something, and was saying he shouldn’t have to print something that says “Satan is Great” ‘cuz it goes against his religion.

I’d have asked him if he’d have a problem printing “Allahu Akbar” on something, and if so what the “religious” objection would be.

Actually, I probably wouldn’t have asked him anything, because the handful of times I’ve been to Indiana is was only because I was on my way to somewhere else. And Notre Dame is in Indiana, so fuck them (though the KOA outside South Bend is pretty nice and so is the guy that runs it – at least, 15 years ago they were).

Well, back to work I guess.

Our little cat Trixie left the world last night to join her brother Eddie on the other side. She’s been with us since before she even born. We’ll miss her.

It’s currently about 14° here this morning, and after a night of relatively heavy snow (nothing too impressive for January, but rather depressing for the last week or so of March), it appears to be clearing up. We got, oh, I dunno, maybe 4-6 inches of snow by the time I went out with the dogs this morning. The place where I live was under one of those dreaded Lake Effect snow bands, so I reckon we got more than the official tally (which as of yesterday was up to 118.5″, just in case you’re keeping score). It’s supposed to remain “unseasonably” cold (highs around 20’ish, windchills in the single-digits at best) until Wednesday or so, when it will get to the mid-forties (I wish I could go back to my mid forties) and be windy and rainy for a couple of days and then get cold again. Welcome to Central New York all you NCAA Regional attendees!

You’re fortunate that it’s so cold out, though, because it’s too cold for me to keep my gloves off long enough to take dog pictures. OK, well, I managed to snap a few, but I’ll spare you. The other thing I’ve discovered is that my the tip of my index finger is more numb than I thought it was – I have to actually look at my hand to see what camera button I’m about to press, which would be a really easy thing to figure out if I could feel my finger. But I can’t. I’m just hoping it keeps itself to my right “trigger finger” and doesn’t spread.

Ever hear of “BlockBot?” Me neither, but apparently it’s something started by a bunch of self-righteous pricks who have developed a database to block people on social media (god, how I despise the term “social media”) that they and their “blockers” (those who submit names to them) have deemed to be offensive in some way or another.

For example, they have labelled Richard Dawkins as:

‘racist’, ‘gross’, ‘rapeapologist’, ‘childabuseapologism’, ‘transphobia’, ‘youradick’

You know, if you find somebody annoying and don’t want to hear what they have to say, then feel free to ignore, not follow, block from your “feed,” or whatever, but don’t lie about them and libel them and stick them in some database where a bunch of mindless sheep will associate them with spammers and doxers and harassers. I mean, feel free to call me a douchebag if you want, or pout, or better yet just ignore me. But don’t try and take away my ability to talk to other people.

Ah, I spoke too soon. More snow. I don’t think summer will ever get here.

Yesterday, I registered for this year’s Google IO that’s happening at the end of May. Why? I don’t know. Probably because I know there’s very little chance that I’ll get “selected” to attend, so I won’t have to shell out the $300 Academic Rate conference fee ($900 or something for regular attendees) let alone the $300-400 airfare (or maybe when I don’t go, I’ll no drive instead of not fly – it will take me longer to not fly, but it’ll be more enjoyable) or the $750+ for a hotel room (that for 2 or 3 night stay – it would seem a shame to go all that way and only stay for a couple nights). So maybe when I don’t drive out I can skip the hotel and not camp instead. Last time I was out that way (well, OK, the only time I’ve ever been out that way) I camped at Mount Tamalpais State Park (at least, I think that’s where I was – somewhere in the vicinity or Muir Woods) one night and then hiked for a few days at Point Reyes National Seashore. I think I was about 28 years old at the time (ah, to be young again).

When I looked out the window this morning at about 3:00, I thought, “damn, it sure is foggy out there.” HA! The joke was on me – it was a total white-out (the kind that the Ferguson Police Department would truly appreciate, I’m sure). And it hadn’t let up by the time I took the dogs out at 5:00. Cold and windy and snowing like a bastid. The snow plow didn’t get my mailbox, but it did manage to knock over my garbage can and dump out a couple bags. My first inclination was to ignore it. In fact, I got up the corner before I did a 360 and came back to pick up the can and toss the bags back in. I mean, it was snowing and cold and I really didn’t want the poor garbage guys to have to deal with it – after all, it wasn’t their fault (it was clearly my wife’s fault for putting the cans too close to the road).

Oh well, another hour or so of work, and then I can venture out into the great white north once again.

I’ve definitely been slacking off lately. I was going to put something up about having two Fridays the 13th in a row (which only happens when Feb 13 is on a Friday and even then only when it’s not a leap year), but I never got around to it (it also happened to be exactly 8 weeks – 56 long, long, LONG days without a beer). So then I was going to pre-write something to post on 3/14/15 at 9:26 for Super Pi Day, but I never got around to that, either. So I figured I’d get something up here for St Patrick’s Day Eve to celebrate my final dentist appointment (for six months). Yay.

One reason for not posting much was that we had a rather pleasant week last week – warm(ish) and devoid of precipitation. The snow pack has declined greatly, and we’re down to probably just a couple of feet on the ground at my house. Sadly, we now seem to have resumed our regular March weather pattern – which means sunny and warm one day, and a return to winter the next. Saturday was rather pleasant (in a cool and drizzly kinda way) and I awoke to a white-out on Sunday morning with nasty-ass wind and blowing snow.

This burst of snow allowed the plow to get one more crack at my mailbox, and it took advantage of the opportunity, slamming my mailbox to the ground and turning a good chunk of the post to kindling. Good thing I was gonna have to replace it in the spring anyway. I cobbled together a repair that I hope will last a few weeks.

On the “bright” side, Syracuse is once again atop the Golden Snow Globe standings at 116″ and counting. Of course everybody’s crowing over Boston’s “record” snow year with something like 108″ which wouldn’t even be a top 25 year here, but they have a lot more people (and cars), so it must have been a real pain in the ass year for them.

It always amazes me when I look at the average annual snowfall for places you think of as getting a lot of snow. Anchorage Alaska, for instance. Sounds like a place that would get some snow, right? I mean, it’s fucking Alaska, after all. You can see Russia from there. But Anchorage only averages about 75″ a year. Fairbanks? Even less at 65″.

Minneapolis must get a lot, though, right? Nah, a mere 54″ a year, on average – which is still more than they get in Green Bay Wisconsin (about 51″). Maine? They must get a lot, right? Nah. Fargo, ND? 50 inches. Montana? Butte, Billings, Bozeman, Helena? None of them even cracks 100″. Hell, we got more snow just in February than most of these places get in a year.

Which is basically all just my way of saying I really want this fucking winter to end. It’s like 45° today, but it’s supposed to get cold again for the rest of the week.

In other words, it’s March.

Anyhow, have a good SPD tomorrow. And have a couple of cold ones for me.

Something very strange happened yesterday. It was sunny and we had a high temperature of 42°. That might not sound like much to you folks who live where it’s warm most of the time, but here it was truly amazing (and the first time it hit 40 degrees in something like 32 days). Much to my surprise, it turns out my driveway is actually made of some kind of black stuff that I think I remember seeing a long time ago. Blacktop or something, I think they call it.

Add to that the fact that it was the first Monday of the wrongfully maligned Daylight Saving Time and it made for some quality after work time. While the snow level has dropped significantly (some sun and a warm-ish breeze will do that), it’s still way too high around the dog containment fence, so they aren’t allowed out alone. Actually, it’s mostly just one of them that isn’t allowed out alone, because he has no qualms about hopping the fence, and he’s taught his little sister how to be his little accomplice.

So, out I have to go to stand there and follow them around while they bark at the deer. It would be an awful lot more enjoyable if I could drink beer (or, better yet, take a toke or two). But none of that’s allowed these days.

It appears we’ve set another record (one that proves that weather people have way too much time on their hands). This one is for – I kid you not – “stubborn” snow depth. Apparently we (or, rather, Syracuse, since out where I live we’re way beyond that) set a record for consecutive days with at least two feet of snow on the ground. As of yesterday, it was at 18 days (and counting).

Oh well, I guess I’d better get back to work.

On behalf of everybody in the Northeast, I would like to bid a not so fond farewell the month of February, 2015 – for many of us the coldest month ever. Not that things are shaping up especially great so far for the month of March. We began ours with a low of -6° here yesterday morning, and of course it snowed. Only a couple of inches, I guess, and there was more snow for the ride to work this morning (I’ll probably have to plow the driveway when I get home) but we’re supposed to reach what passes for a summer-like high of 27 this afternoon – which is double-digits below what it’s supposed to be this time of year. On the bright side, they’re currently calling for a high of 37 on Wednesday which, if it holds true, will be the first time above freezing since January 29th and the warmest it’s been around here since January 18th. And then down to 0 with a high of 18 on Thursday.

I spent most of the day Saturday (cold, but sunny) watching our herd of deer hand out in my front yard. We have several little groups that like to hang out, but a herd of 8 or so seem to have decided they like the taste of the trees in our front yard, so I sat and watched them while they watched me.

If somebody would buy me a better camera, I’d have some much better photos.

On Sunday, our little (not so little, really) troublemaker Bud managed to find a new way to escape his containment area. Basically, he went over the fence. While the snow’s gone down considerably lately, it’s still about 2 1/2 – 3 feet deep and packed nice and hard. So I had to go out and dig a trench along the fence line (I felt like I was on the front lines in WWI for a while there).

Not that it stopped the little bastard from trying to jump over.

Oh well, time to get back to work.