Look out, it’s Friday the 13th!

It’s already not a very good day in Western NY with last night’s plane crash in Clarence Center, near Buffalo, killing all on board and one on the ground. The house is still burning right now (and I get to see it live on the teevee). Having gone to school in Buffalo for a couple of years, I’m pretty familiar with the area. It’s maybe two or three miles off the NYS Thruway, so it must have been quite a site from there. Hopefully nobody I know was on the flight.

Of course, everything has to relate to either 9/11 or (especially if it’s Buffalo) Tim Russert, and in this crash we get a two-fer: one woman on the flight was returning to Buffalo for a scholarship being set up at Canisius high school in memory of her husband (who was killed in the twin towers on September 11th). Tim Russert went to the same high school.

Speaking of planes, Smithsonian Institution scientists have confirmed that the birds that brought down flight whatever the hell it was that landed in the Hudson River (you may have heard about that) were Canadian geese. The lo-cal news twit just told me that “they still don’t know if the geese lived in the area or migrated there.” Does that really freakin’ matter? Is it better, or worse, if these were “out of town” geese? Or is it that we must attempt to eradicate all manner of flying creatures within a 100 mile radius of every airport? Hey, let’s face it people, going up in the air in a big aluminum can carries some inherent risks. Deal with it. I just thank goodness these weren’t illegal Mexican geese, or we’d have the Palin family flying around the area in helicopters, blasting away with their shotguns.

It’s also shaping up to be a crappy day for my sister and her husband. Their 12-yr old German Shepherd is apparently in pretty tough shape, and they may need to make “the decision” today. When it comes to critters, my sister and I very much alike (I think we get it from our dad), and I know how she’s feeling. It tears me up just thinking about it. Why can’t dogs live as long as friggin’ parrots? It’s not fair, and it’s even worse that you almost always have to intervene and decide to let them go. I just want mine to be healthy as long as they’re around, and wake up dead one day. That would be hard enough to deal with.

Granny will be working on a crappy unit today, so who knows when she’ll get home. The other night, it wasn’t until 9:30. Don’t worry, taxpayers (or Governor Blinky), she didn’t get paid past 4:30.

Speaking of our esteemed Governor, he’s quite upset about Saturday Night Live’s parody of him. Apparently, making fun of him is responsible for the 37% unemployment rate among the disabled. I suppose his draconian cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Education, Healthcare, and Social Services will be good for the disabled, though. After all, the only real way to put them to work is to preserve the Bush/Pataki tax cuts for the wealthy while the Feds keep funding their “retention incentives” (thanks, Sue), which they hopefully won’t have to pay taxes on, because that would somehow be bad.

There must be some good news out there somewhere today. About all I can think of is that the Mega-Millions jackpot is up to $85 million. Of course, that’s really only good news if I win.

Maybe something good will happen during the day.