It’s Monday. And I didn’t have the foresight to take the day off. Plus, I keep hitting the “o” key when I mean to hit the “i” key, and I keep hitting the “/” instead of the “.”. This is gonna be one long day.

Poor Rush. Here he goes and “apologizes” for his “poor choice of words” in spewing the same shit he’s always spewing, and people don’t think he’s sincere. I feel about as bad for him as I do for the dearly departed Andrew Dimbart. Hopefully the two of them will be getting together real soon to commiserate. Hurry up, Rush. Satan and Saddam are waiting for you.

Winter has returned today. Just a few minutes ago, in fact. This morning, everything was green and a flock of seagulls flew over while I was out in the back yard (which is pretty odd, because I’m not exactly near the sea. The nearest lake is about 5 miles away as the gull flies, and these guys were flying from the northeast, which is even farther from water). Now, it’s a winter wonderland out there.

I heard a story on NPR yesterday about Colorado Springs, where they turned down a tax increase, and they had to slash all kinds of budgets and services. One politician said that a taxpayer came up and thanked her for the “adopt a streetlight” campaign. He and his neighbors chipped in $300 each to turn on the light in their neighborhood. She reminded him that if they’d approved a tax increase of $200, they could have had the streetlights plus parks, roads, etc. But he said, “oh, no. No way I’d vote for a tax increase.”

People are dumb.

The also talked to another guy who worked for the parks department and got laid off. They turned his job over to a private company which hired him to do the same job he was doing before. He went from $42,000 to $36,000, and they figure that with benefits, he costs about $12,000 less now than he did before. But, of course, the company he works for doesn’t do the work for free. So they asked the city if they were actually saving any money. They couldn’t say, but they said they “might” save money in the future. Maybe. On the pensions or something. If costs go up (and, like, the private company doesn’t charge more).

In other news, I hate to mention this but, well, 30 and 1, what can I say? It could all turn to crap in one game, of course, but for now I reckon I’ll enjoy it.

I was up and out with the kids this morning at about 5:00, and Mars was in the western sky looking mighty red and impressive. Up above it and to the south a bit was Saturn – also looking impressive. I really need to pull my telescope out of the closet and play with it. It’s been a while and out here in the boonies, the stars are pretty awesome. It’s pretty cool to see the rings of Saturn and Jupiter’s “spot” – just like on the teevee. I used to know a lot about the night sky (was a big “Sky and Telescope” reader back in the day), but now I’ve pretty much forgotten it all. I’m lucky if I can remember what channel ESPN is on.

I realize nobody but me cares, but today is the final game of the regular season for SU basketball, and it’s even a home game, which is cool. A win would get them 30 wins in the regular season, which would be pretty amazing. If they lose, I will be miserable and unhappy (though there’s still the conference tournament, and then the big dance). The important thing is for us to get a #1 seed in the NCAAs, so they’ll keep us in the East and we can play games in Pittsburgh and, hopefully, Boston. I won’t burden my poor wife with the horror of basketball on the television, and will instead take Fritz over to play with his cousins while I watch the game with his aunt and uncle. It’s more fun for everybody.

Warm today, so I guess maybe I ought to see about accomplishing a few things.

Finally Friday. We suffered our first puppy-related act of destruction last night. The tip of the power supply for somebody’s laptop (I won’t say who, but it wasn’t me) got chewed off. Fortunately, the puppy in question was unharmed (either by choking, electrocution, or being beaten by the person whose laptop it was). Laptop power supplies are frequent casualties; the one I’m using now is a replacement for the original, which Fritz chewed through about four years ago. Puppies. Gotta love ’em.

Sorry. Just saw a report on the Thin Mint Maggot Scandal. As one woman who was interviewed said, “…and they were moving. I mean, it’s jus as bad if they aren’t moving, but when you see them moving around in there…”

I have to agree. While maggots in my cookies are pretty gross, moving maggots are much worse. Deep fried is the way to go.

One more reason to never buy Girl Scout cookies.

It’s a darn shame today isn’t Friday. I blame Leap Year. If it wasn’t for that whole Feb 29 thing, today would be March 2nd.

Since I know you want to see it, here’s a picture of Fritz and his puppies keeping an eye on that sneaky old Roomba.

Big news for the Mittster, as he stomped Sanatorium in AZ (as expected), and squeaked past poor little Ricky by about 3%. And so, yet another Republican hopeful is now being declared all but dead because of his pandering to the most radical parts of the GOP base. Of course, since they’re all running against Romney, expect somebody else to make some noise in the next round.

In other news, Apple has scheduled a big announcement on March 7th, to announce that a new iPad 3 will be released. It promises to be a revolutionary new device, ripe with features that have already been available on Android-based tablets. I predict that it will produce record sales.

Speaking of iPads, I’ve going back and forth with a company named Sungevity about installing solar panels on my house. Not to buy them (which is too expensive; it would actually cost me about $3,000 more over 20 years than I’d save in electricity costs), but to lease them.

The quote I got was for a no money down lease for the installation of a system that would do 40% of my current usage. They would guarantee at least 95% output for what they quote. Payments would start out at $45 a month, and increase by 2.9% per year (they predict a $41 per saving in the first year – in other words, I’d be down about $48 – and lease payments wouldn’t equal savings until year 8). Over 20 years, the payments would average $59 a month, and they predict a saving of $551 (total, over 20 years – which is, what, less than $28 a year average).

In order to achieve those rather paltry savings, they used an estimated 4% per year increase in electricity prices. I don’t think that’s got any basis in the historical record (but it’s hard to research. All I could find was that the company got a 12% increase over 4 years back in 2003, and that they hadn’t got an increase since 1993, but I don’t know if they have some sort of automatic increase based on production costs or something).

Anyhow, if I do all that, I get an iPad2 with their monitoring app.

As much as I’d like to go for it, I just can’t see getting locked into a 20 year lease for what amounts to no gains. If technology improves, prices drop and/or efficiency increases in, say, five or ten years, I’d be stuck with what I’ve got.

So, I think I’ll have to pass on it. Now, if they were offering a Transformer Prime TF-201 in champagne gold with the keyboard docking station….

I was reluctant to get up and get the party started at 4:45 this morning, but Fritz insisted. So we all went out. Then came in and had breakfast (well, the puppies did), and then went back out again. Now the puppies are both cuddled up on Fritzi’s couch, and he’s relegated to the floor. Things are much more at ease these days, as Fritz has learned that puppies are kinda fun after all. Especially his little buddy Bud, who takes a pounding and keeps coming back for more. My favorite move is the body slam into the tree stump.

Otherwise, not much going on. Lots of puppy poop (and pee). I heard Newt on NPR the other day, saying how Obama is a dangerous radical. If only. Looks like Santorum has a chance to screw Romney in Michigan. They say be careful what you wish for, but I have to believe that Santorum as the nominee would pretty much seal the deal for Obama. Though if he actually won….

Oh well, the monsters are stirring. Must be about time for another poop run.

Free pancakes at IHOP today. Woo-hoo.

I did something last night that I haven’t done in a long time. I stayed up and watched a basketball game that started at 9:00 (PM). Consequently, I’m kinda tired this morning. It was kinda funny, ‘cuz we were hanging out and I changed the channel and poof – my wife disappeared. In theory, I understand her lack of interest, but I don’t really understand her being incapable of even being in the same room with the game on. But, whatever. Her presence was definitely not required, and Fritzi, Peggy, Bud, and I all had a good time.

Busy day today. I have to drive into Pixley to do my weekly shopping, do laundry, and take Fritz over to a play date with his cousins. Probably have to plow the driveway, too. And then mentally prepare for work tomorrow.

That sucks.

At long last, we have reached Friday. It’s been a struggle, that’s for sure. Expensive, too, what with my having to buy an ignitor for one pellet stove, and a pump for my hot water heat. The pump didn’t ship until yesterday, but it’s on the truck for delivery this morning, which is pretty nifty. It left Uniondale on Long Island at 10:00 last night, got to Latham (which is basically Albany – not that anybody cares, I know) at 2:13, left Latham at 4:00, got to Syracuse at 6:30 and was out for delivery at 7:17. All for $18.
I gotta say, that UPS has quite a system going for it. This means I can put the pump in tomorrow. It’s not absolutely urgent, but just in case it gets down below zero or something for a few days, I want to be able to circulate the water. It’s a good thing I replaced the domestic HW heat exchanger with an electric water heater, though. Otherwise, we’d have had no hot water. I am not a happy camper without a shower.

So, was I just dreaming, or are those stupid GOP debates finally over now? While I certainly didn’t subject myself to watching (instead, I subjected myself to listening to SU muddle through another game where they won despite playing like crap; they had better get their act back together, or it will be another disappointing March), consensus has it that Rick Sanatorium blew it, and Mitt’s the Man, once again. A shame, really.

Speculation also has it that the whole “deny birth control to women to preserve religious freedom” thing isn’t helping Mitt and the boys with women. My question is, isn’t it hurting them with men, too? I mean, apart from a few nutjobs out there (male and female alike), I don’t know of too many guys who would want to deny women birth control. Mostly because we all know the men aren’t gonna take responsibility for it, and who the hell wants a kid (unless you want a kid, in which case I would have to remind you that they are nearly are tiring as puppies are – but the puppy pain only lasts a few months, while the baby pain lasts for years and then they start hating you and getting snotty and want to borrow the car)?

Oh, sure, it’s more important an issue to women, I grant you that. Dirtbag men can just walk away and never be seen again. And they’re gonna vote Republican anyway. Those of us who aren’t the scum of the earth, but actually hope to engage in a little sex every now and again are more than happy to let women make sure they aren’t gonna get pregnant as long as we don’t really have to do anything on our end of things.

So, anyway, I still think this is all a lose-lose for these dummies. Except, once they get nominated, they won’t mention this shit anymore, because they’ve already suckered the mouthbreathers, and the media will conveniently forget all about it, too.

As for the GOP convention, I hope nobody has enough delegates, and a hero swoops in to save the day in a brokered convention. I think a ticket of Sara Palin and Oily Taints would be a winner.

Caribou Taints 2012!