I was pretty surprised to hear that Chris Lee resigned so fast. I thought only Democrats had to resign over sex scandals. Of course, this wasn’t really a sex scandal – it was more being a lame embarrassment scandal. Not that being a lame embarrassment is unique, either. Of course, Chris is over there in Western NY, and play by different rules.

Syracuse Street CornerHere in Central NY, it’s all about the snow. In my neck of the woods, we dodged the Lake Effect snow bullet (on the radar, it looks more like a snow torpedo). I guess I won’t complain about what we get here, as it started snowing about 3-4 inches an hour last night, and some folks in what we all call the “North Country” are waking up to two feet more snow than they went to bed with – and it’s still falling. Damn cold, too. Up in Redfield, NY, the 23″ they’ve gotten since midnight brings them up to 251″ so far this season, but they have some more work to do to beat their record of 420″ (that’s, what 35 FEET of snow?). Of course, they don’t have a whole lot of street corners to cross up there in Redfield, like the typical Syracuse street corner pictured over there on the right. Makes getting around a little bit of a challenge.

Syracuse is within striking distance of a record this year, though. So far, they’re up to something like 138.5″ of snow, and, in a typical winter, we’ve gotten about 62% or our seasonal snowfall at this point. At that rate, that would put us up around 190 inches which, sadly, would fall short of a record (it would be good for #3 on the list, though). Of course, what we really want to do is hit the 200″ mark, which we’ve never done, and which would surpass the 199″ record that Buffalo set years ago. Buffalo – which gets all the publicity, yet averages a pathetic 67.8″ (slightly more than half what Syracuse averages) – having the NYS record for cities over 100,000 people is something we find shameful here. Or, I find it shameful (not quite as shameful as taking shirtless photos of yourself to send to women on Craig’s List, but shameful none the less), at least.

The record pursuit is on hold for now, however as it looks like we’re not supposed to get any appreciable snow here until maybe Saturday, when temperatures are expected to hit the big three-oh. That should be nice (the warmth, not the snow). My big fear at this point (aside from a roof collapse) is that the snow will just pile up until we get a five-day stretch of monsoon rains and 42 degree temperatures. Then I can start worrying about the sump pumps. Ideally, we’ll get some stretches of sunny, breezy, 35 or so degree days. That would get rid of some of this stuff with a minimum of flooding.

Speaking of cold and winter and whatnot, if you happen to be old and poor, President Obama has a big “F*ck You” in store for ya, as his proposed budget appears to include cuts for energy assistance. This is right there in line with his Republican pals in the House, who also want to cut, well, pretty much everything (except for assistance to the wealthy, which they of course want to keep). Nice to know the President and John Boehner (and Andy Cuomo) are on the same page – as usual.

Oh, damn, I forgot I’m not supposed to look at the news. Now I’m all agitated. But I’ve used up the weather, and of course we shall not, under any circumstances, discuss last night’s basketball game.

So I guess I better just drink more coffee, and prepare for my trip to the dentist.