It’s Christmas, which is a very special time indeed. Sort of. I’m off, and my on-call stint ends at 8:00 AM, so that’s nice. The wife worked all weekend, but is off today (except for being on call), and although it’s a little to dark to see at the moment, it’s definitely a white Christmas (which isn’t exactly unusual – let alone “special”). What doubts anybody might have had about that ended with the 9 or so inches of snow we got on Friday and Saturday, though it did warm up just enough to rain for a while Saturday before it got cold and we got another few inches. Things are calm now, but the snow is supposed to start up again later on today (plus, as an added bonus, they say we’ll have 50+ mph winds). By tonight, we’re supposed to get something like another 8 inches or so, unless the wind shifts south and then we could get the two or three feet the folks up north are supposed to get. I only hope we can make it to the in-laws later today, because I can’t think of a better way to spend a day off.
To get myself into the holiday spirit, I just finished watching the four-part documentary Cold Blooded about the Clutter family murders (and of course, Truman Capote’s final novel, In Cold Blood).
You’ve probably seen “Capote” but if you haven’t, you missed a really amazing performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman. I guess you have to be a certain age to appreciate the job he did. A kid today really wouldn’t get it, but those of who grew up watching Truman Capote on Dick Cavett or trading insults with Gore Vidal.
Most folks my age are probably familiar with the book, at least, and probably the 1967 movie. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie, so I was surprised when they mentioned that one of the murderers – Dick Hickock – was played by Scott Wilson, who went on to play Herschel in “The Walking Dead” (though I did remember that the other murderer – Perry Smith – was played by Robert Blake, which may or may not have been typecasting, depending on what you believe).
So now I need to find myself a copy of the movie and watch it again. Maybe tomorrow if we (fingers crossed) get snowed in. Nothing like a quadruple homicide to get you in the Xmas mood.
Anyhow, Happy Christmas if you’re into that sorta thing. And if you’re not, well, I hope you at least have the day off.
That sounds like some big weather, pj. I’m envious of the snow. We’ve dipped in to the cold weather but little precipitation. We’ll head to the mountains soon and I can’t wait to go snowshoeing. Skiing is probably not in the cards. It’s so expensive unless you live there and get a deal on a season’s pass. Plus I had yet another neck surgery recently and am still not fully fused. So snowshoes it is! Pj, do you cross-country ski around your property? My brother does in Ithaca.
I’m wishing for a very BLUE and multiple-indictment 2018! Need to get these bastids out. What a difference a year makes…..
Anyway, hope everyone has a beautiful day today!!!
Pretty standard weather for here, really. We’ll see what we get hit with tonight.
My sister and her husband have XC skis and about 70 acres to play around on. I don’t, though I have snowshoes that I use occasionally, but I have Raynaud’s disease, and the blood gets cut off to my hands and feet (I look like a cadaver), and lately some of my toes are kind of permanently an angry puprly red. So it’s all I can do to sit on the tractor to get the driveway plowed. Seems to get worse every year – just getting stuff out of the freezer turns my fingers into this nasty shade of waxy, yellowish dead man walking fingers.
Kinda sucks.
Happy Festivus.
Okat has a good idea for a Christmas present for he country
Well, we didn’t get the snow Erie, PA got (or what they got to the north of us, east of Lake Ontario, which was even more than Erie), but it’s a bit nippy. Yesterday only got up into the teens, while it was down to about -7° or so this morning. And this isn’t even suppposed to be th coldest day of the week.
We’re up to -2° now, though, on our way to a projected balmy high of 9°. And I suppose I should plow the driveway. Not that I intend to go anywhere, but I wouldn’t want UPS to have any trouble getting through. Plus I need to go and fetch the garbage cans at some point. Thank goodness I took the rest of this year off – standing on the corner waiting for the bus doesn’t sound like a lot of fun right about now.
I learned a new word from Norm Ornstein: Kakistocracy, government of the worst people possible. It sums up the present very succinctly.
Oh, I like that. Except in our case, maybe it should be Cacastocracy.
It f you didn’t isten to Al Franken on AAR,
Norm was a frequent, I dare say he had a weekly slot.They were very goog friends and Ornstein has told that Al was a signifant help whn Norm’s son passed.
Al used to crash at Norm’s when in DC.
Local kid.