Welcome to the shortest day of the year. Up here the winter solstice officially happened at about 11:50 last night, and the day today will be slightly shorter than yesterday (less than a second, in fact). And the warm weather (Santa’s gonna have to wear shorts and a t-shirt Thursday, with temperatures expected to hit 70 around here) has so far taken the sting out of the lack of daylight. Tomorrow we get 4 seconds more daylight than today. Not much, but we’ll take it.

I seem to have contracted some sort of disease. It hit me Saturday, and by Sunday I was feeling pretty awful. Even worse yesterday (which I had already luckily scheduled a vacation day for), as I spent the whole day in bed. Not sleeping, really, but just trying not to move my head. I’ve been blowing blood out of my head, and I have a nasty, painful, dry cough (also bringing up some rusty stuff). Oh, and a sore throat, of course. I feel better today, but not really all that great. At least I was able to drag myself into work.

I’m fairly used to not feeling good, but it’s pretty unusual for me to actually get sick. I really don’t like it and I hope it goes away soon, though this feels like it’s gonna be a lingerer.

Holy crap, it’s mid-December already! It feels more like mid-October to me, especially with the weather around here (and lots of other places) lately. I mean, it was 66° here yesterday, which is most decidedly not December-like. And it’s not as though yesterday was a fluke – thanks to El Niño it’s been way warmer than normal, and out current snow total stands at eight-tenths of an inch (which is close to two feet below average for this time of year). They say we may turn a bit more seasonable this weekend, but that’s not supposed to last long and they’re predicting a warm (and green) Christmas. I, for one, am definitely not complaining.

I thought it was stupid a few months ago when the Oxford Dictionaries declared this: to be the “word” of the year. That is quite simply not a “word.” It’s a picture (so I suppose it ought to be worth 1,000 words).

Now, Merriam-Webster has declared their word of the year to be “ism.” I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a word, either. From Merriam-Webster itself, the definition of “word” is:

…a speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use.

While it is a sound, and it isn’t really “divisible into smaller units capable of independent use,” I don’t think you can say that it communicates a meaning on it’s own. Plus I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t count in Scrabble®. Back in my olde tyme English class days, we used to call that a “suffix.”

But at least it isn’t a picture, so there’s that.

10 years ago today, the first post went up here. When you’re a kid, you the old people talk about how fast time passes as you get older, but you don’t really get it until you get older yourself. Then one day turns into another, seasons fly by, and all of a sudden a decade is gone. Back in 2005, MySpace was the big thing (“The Facebook” wasn’t even open to the public yet), YouTube had only been founded in February (hadn’t been bought by Google yet), and there was no such thing as Twitter.

So blogs were a place where people could share their thoughts and like-minded people (and their trolls) could form communities. You wouldn’t know it now, but this was a pretty active place for quite a few years. But eventually people migrated to places like Facebook (the ones that didn’t die or forget their passwords and insist they’d been “banned”) and only the most stubborn people are left. I know I’ve had a hard time thinking of shit to say (I just don’t have the energy to express my righteous indignation anymore).

I used to try and put something up every day (I used to write shit the night before and set it to post at 5:00 AM Eastern), but now it’s not unusual to go a couple of weeks or more. All part of that whole time flying by thing, I guess.

And now Thanksgiving’s over and Christmas will be here before you know it. I wonder ho fast the next 10 years will go.

Happy T-Day everybody. Whether you’re heading out to visit friends and family, out at the mall being crushed by bargain-seeking good little American consumer-citizens, or just having a quite day at home watching shitty football games, I hope you have a nice day. I just hope in a year from now, we’re not talking about President-Elect Trump. Or Carson. Or Rubio. Or Cruz. Or….

Like most of you, and all good Republicans, I was both saddened and outraged to hear that Paris Hilton was attacked last weekend thanks to President Wimpypants’ woefully inadequate protection of American broads. So I was greatly relieved when I realized that it was not Paris Hilton, but Paris, France that was attacked, and while it was actually Americans abroad that were in danger, only one of them (and Donald Trump’s deportation storm trooper force would have probably sent her back to Mexico anyway) was killed.

Since no self-respecting conservative Republican gives two whits for those cheese-eating surrender monkeys over there, I guess Obama is off the hook once again, because….

Wait, what’s this? Republicans are outraged over this? I don’t understand. I mean, I know they’re good at being outraged, but I had no idea they cared so deeply about France. You’d almost think they were politicizing a tragic event. How unusual. Maybe they’ll even go back to serving “French” fries at the House cafeteria again.

As the week went on, of course, we found that not only are Republicans suddenly now Francophiles (except, presumably, for their healthcare system, their 35-hour work week – which, by the way, they can volunteer to work up to 39-hour weeks to earn up to 22 days off above and beyond the 5 weeks they get by law, and their ridiculous coddling of women with newborn babies), but they seem to be terrified of Syrian refugees (or, as President Obama refers to them – “women and orphans”).

I guess it’s no surprise they don’t like women, and any child past the fetal stage is on his or her own. Let them pull themselves up by their own bootstraps the way Donald Trump and Mitt Romney did.

The best argument for keeping out Syrian refugees came from Texas (no surprise) state legislator Tony Dale (R – also no surprise): it’s just too goddamn easy to buy guns in his state.

This flap over allowing refugees into the country is a prime example of the hypocrisy of modern day Christian-America. Especially when you consider they’re trying to prevent folks from Jesus’ neck of the woods from moving into their neighborhoods.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Just kidding.

I overcame sever apathy this morning and stopped by the good old firehouse to do my civic duty (really seems more like civic masturbation) and cast my ballot – which promptly caused a paper jam. I hope that’s not a sign of things to come.

It actually took me longer to vote this year than it normally does, because of the 16 offices up for grabs, more than half (nine, to be exact) had no opposition. As I refuse to vote for anybody running unopposed, I had to spend time writing people in (mostly my wife, though I did put myself in for Highway Superintendent, ‘cuz I think it’d be cool to be able to borrow a plow to do my driveway – not to mention being able to stop by and fill up my diesel cans anytime I want).

I have to profess ignorance even when it comes to the people I actually did wind up voting for. I knew nothing about them, so I voted for anybody that wasn’t an incumbent. Fuck ’em – what have they ever done for me, anyway? The fact that they’re all Republicans only made voting against them that much more satisfying.

Of course, they’re all gonna win anyway.

I hate to complain about our Russian-style elections (Candidate A or Candidate A – choose either one, Comrade) when I’m not exactly out there running myself, so who am I to talk? I really have no idea why people run for these things anyway. I suppose there’s the odd duck who actually wants to server the public, but my guess is that the vast majority are in it for themselves.

No necessarily for graft or to get personal use of DPW equipment. Maybe they wanted a stop sign on their corner or they want me to pay for a field turf football stadium or something. I don’t know – I’m just guessing what with people being humans and all, their intentions aren’t entirely pure or altruistic.

And if they are, I’m confident all that will be purged from them fairly quickly.

But, whatever. I’ve done both my duties this week – cast my ballot and returned my juror questionnaire. Now I await my reward.

Assuming they ever un-jam my ballot from the machine.

It’s not supposed to totally suck this weekend, so I really need to get a couple of things done. First off is to cut the grass one last time and maybe put the cab on (but maybe not – we’ll have to see). I also need to finish up some fencing. There’s plenty more to do, too, but if I just get those things done, I’ll be satisfied.

Yesterday I took the car in for its 10,000 mile checkup, which was relatively painless. They have a good system at the dealer and their waiting room is comfortable and has WiFi (though I guess pretty much everybody does these days). They of course also have a teevee and it unfortunately was tuned to CNN (I suppose it could have been worse), and other than a couple minutes of Hurricane Patricia talk, it was all about Hillary at the Benghazi committee.

How anybody could try and spin that charade as anything but Hillary looking intelligent and competent (I mean, seriously – if I was conspiracy minded, I’d suggest that the whole thing was designed by Republicans to make Hillary look good, presumably because the thought of President Trump or Carson scares them almost as much as President Sanders) and the Republicans looking like idiots, I don’t know.

But that conservative twit I’ve seen on Bill Maher (a prime example of why I just can’t stomach watching Bill anymore) – “C” Cupps or whatever her name is – sure did try. I’ve never seen her out in the wild before (not being a CNN kinda guy), but goddamn she’s just as irritating on CNN as she is on HBO. And of course the rest of the gang did their best to be “fair and balanced”

“Democrats on the committee said is was bullshit. But Republicans said ‘nu-uh.”

Thank goodness I was in and out in about an hour – any longer, and I’d have screamed.

As much as the whole Trumpmentum thing confounds me, I find the rise of Ben Carson (whose slogan should be “Ben Carson – He’s One of the Good Ones”) even more astounding. I mean, at least Trump has name recognition). But I guess Republicans just like what Carson has to say.

According to the survey of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers, 81 percent approved of Carson’s comment that Obamacare is the “worst thing that’s happened in this nation since slavery;” 77 percent said they liked his statement that Hitler’s rise could have been stopped if German citizens had had guns; and 73 percent liked his concerns about a Muslim becoming president.

Among the respondents, 96 percent said they find Carson’s “common sense” attractive, and 89 percent said they like that he is guided by his faith, according to the poll. Only 32 percent of those surveyed believe Trump is a committed Christian.

Maybe I’m biased, but when I think of Ben Carson, “common sense” is about the last thing that comes to mind.

Speaking of Hitler, I bet a lot of “moderate” Germans never thought somebody like him could possibly come to power. Here’s hoping we don’t wake up on November 9th 2016 thinking, “damn – never saw that one coming.”

Every year, some buffoon trots out the idea of doing away with today’s holiday (which is probably only a holiday for state and federal workers, but, hey, since I’m one of those I aint gonna complain). I have no real affection for Columbus (other than I kind of get a kick out of celebrating somebody who thought he was in India and gets credited for discovering a place where people were already living and where the Vikings were already playing football some 500 years before him), but we need more holidays around here, not fewer. So if you want to rename it “Native American Day” or something (think of the irony in that one – not to mention the holiday sales event on cigarettes and a free spin at the slots) that’s fine – just don’t take my day off away.

Personally, I like to think of this as the kickoff to the end of year non-productivity season, which really doesn’t start to ramp up until we approach Thanksgiving (yet another day of irony for those of native descent). Usually about a week out from T-Day, people (especially those with kids) start taking days off making it blessedly impossible to schedule meetings. After Thanksgiving, there are seemingly daily holiday parties, more vacation time, and of course people trying to hawk their kids’ boy scout popcorn or pawning off raffle tickets for some do-gooder event or other.

Basically, the only thing that really goes on between Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl is that people sit around and think of things the DBA and Server guys need to do. URGENTLY (and at the last minute)! Typically things they’ve twiddled their thumbs over for months and then it’s “oh, by the way, we a serve set up and a database installed on it by tomorrow.”

This is what you get when you have non-IT people running IT projects. They seem to think that it’s better to hire people with clinical experience for IT jobs (because you can teach any moron how to do IT type things) than to get people who have at least some technical background. You know, the people whose résumés typically include “proficient in Microsoft Office” (and even that is usually a lie).

Oh well, today is “close the pool” day (always a sad moment). I usually do this a bit earlier in the year (like, mid to late September), but this year I wanted to let the water get nice and cold (under 60) first, so hopefully we’ll have less to do when we open it back up again. Guess I better get another cup of coffee and then get busy.

I hope everybody got a chance to take a peek at last night’s Super Moon Lunar Eclipse. I wasn’t certain whether or not I’d be staying up to look at it, but the weather here was warm, the clouds (mostly) stayed away, and the moon got high enough above the trees just before 9:00 PM to light up the yard like it was daytime, so I figured why not (plus I took today off just so I could stay up late). A full-moon lunar eclipse when the moon is at perigee isn’t going to happen again until 2033, so this was quite possibly the last one I’ll ever get to see. It reminded my that I really ought to sit outside and look at the stars more often. And maybe even play with the telescope that’s mostly been gathering dust in a closet for the past few years. I’ll have to put it on my list of things to do.

I’m at the point where, when I do something, I often figure I’m probably doing it for the last time in my life. I think I mentioned a while back that I bought a case of LED light bulbs because Home Depot had them for pretty cheap. I have CF bulbs in all my lighting fixtures at home (those that aren’t LED lamps, anyway), plus a pretty good supply of CF bulbs squirreled away in various places, so – assuming nobody breaks into the house and steals them – I’m pretty sure I’ll never have to buy another light bulb again.

I bought a case of 500 envelopes a couple months back too, and 100 “forever” stamps. The only thing I use stamps and envelopes for these days is mailing my property taxes in. Maybe the odd rebate form. At most, I mail maybe 5 things a year. So I’ve got 100 years worth of envelopes and 20 years worth of stamps. Maybe I’ll have to buy stamps again, but I doubt it (hopefully over the next 20 years they’ll come up with a way for me to print my own postage without have to subscribe to a service for $16 a month).

I guess if you do a lot of mailing, then something like stamps.com is worth it, but as cool as it seems, it just doesn’t make much sense to me (makes about as much sense as audible.com). My computer, my printer, my envelopes – and I have to pay close to $200 a year? Shit, the USPS only charged me $1.20 shipping for 100 stamps. At that rate, I could get over 1,300 stamps for $16.

And I’m definitely going to the grave with a surplus of envelopes. And checks. I got a couple hundred of those a year or two ago, so if I don’t move or change banks, they can bury me with those, too (though I did just join the credit union recently – if it weren’t for the pain in switching all my payments, I’d jump over completely).

I also may or may not be on my last set of dogs. Fritzi’s more or less at the half-way point in his life, and the other two kids probably have 10 years max. On the one hand, I really can’t imagine a life that doesn’t involve tripping over critters. On the other, well, I think three more deaths is really more than I can handle. Every time one of them dies (and of course they don’t have the decency to just wake up dead – you have to decide for them), it damn near kills me. Of course, that’s assuming I’ll outlive them – which, the way I feel these days isn’t exactly a sure thing.

One thing that definitely won’t outlive me is the skunk I found in the back yard a few days ago. At some point after I got up and let the dogs out, I detected the unmistakable aroma of Eau de Skunk wafting in through the open windows. Nothing major, mind you – and not terribly unusual, what with living out in the sticks and all. When it didn’t go away, though, and it finally got light enough out there to see a bit, I decided to go investigate. Two of the three dogs were inside and not too stinky (no stinkier than usual), but as I mad my way from the front to the back, I saw Peggy sitting by herself, looking rather proud.

Of course, when I got close I found that she was guarding the body of a poor dead skunk. So I got her and the other two inside (thankfully, while I could smell skunk it didn’t appear that she’d taken a direct hit), and headed back outside, snow shovel in hand. Aside from being dead, Pepé looked to be in pretty good shape (it was still darkish out, and I didn’t exactly perform a postmortem examination, but I didn’t see blood and guts) and relatively fresh. And pretty heavy as I rolled him onto my shovel (being careful to stay away from the business end – I wasn’t sure what might happen if I inadvertently pressed down on the wrong spot) and then flung him over the fence into the woods (in retrospect, I probably should have made an effort get him farther away).

Since then, we’ve been living under a cloud of stink. The dogs didn’t get a full blast, but 2/3 of them have a good stink going on.

Good thing winter’s coming.