5100 The "Blizzard"?

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

A lethal dose is also a lifetime supply.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- 

We were supposed to have a huge blizzard today, 12 to 18 inches of snow.   I don't know how much we actually got, because by the time I got up this morning, the snowfall had turned to sleet, which soaked into the foot or so that was already on the ground, and turned it all into something like 6 inches of ice.  

It's miserable.  Very difficult to break up, let alone shovel.

I have to see the radiation oncologist tomorrow, so it's now 9:15 pm, and my lawn/snow guy and his helper buddy are out there now working on it.

I felt so sorry for them I paid double.

I hope I can get down the driveway tomorrow without sliding.

------------------------------

Apparently the country house is getting it much worse.
.

5094 Strange weather.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Why do we say “hair” when we mean lots of it,
but “hairs” when we mean a few?

==============================================

It got to 60 F this morning.  Now the temperature is dropping, it's 43 F at 3 pm, and we are supposed to get several inches of  snow this evening and tomorrow.

I don't understand.
.

5060 It could be worse

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Nescience is not understanding something you have no way of understanding; 

ignorance is not understanding something you should understand; 

stupidity is not having the ability or desire to understand.

------------------------------------------------------

It has been raining here for days.  Yesterday was a downpour most of the day, and last night Mother Nature got nasty.  We had thunder and lightning and heavy rain with wind that blew it sideways and brought down branches. The power went out for three brief periods arond 7:30 pm, and then went out for about a half hour or more at about 7:50-ish.  I'm not sure how long it was out, because I gave up and went to bed.  It's raining today.

Can you imagine what we'd be dealing with if it had been cold enough to snow?

It's been a very strange winter....

--------------------------------------------------

Oh, by the way, lots of people are remarking that they'd never heard of lightning in February.  Bull.  I've often experienced thunder and lightning during snowstorms.  It's really not that unusual.
.

5054 Retreat

Sunday, February 7, 2016

"Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find

outside an advertising agency."

-- Raymond Chandler --

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I saw the first robin in the front yard this morning.

-------------------------------------

As I mentioned, I've been reading my blog posts from 2006,7,8, and I think I am finally cured of wanting to move back up there to the old house  The winters were BRUTAL!  I don't think I would be capable of handling that driveway any more.  I do think it's time to let go, and be glad of it.
.

5053 Got the blahs

Friday, February 5, 2016

First you have to figure out who you are.
Then you have to like who you are.
Then you have to be who you are.
That's where strength comes from, and all else follows.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday it was very warm, close to 50 F.  Nugget came to visit, and we went to the town hall (pay taxes), the bank (deposit some checks), post office (buy stamps), and a sub shop (feed Nugget).  She was wearing a light jacket, I wore no jacket or sweater at all.  She tried to get me to put the top down, and I might have, except that I'm still full of phlegm and don't want to tempt fate.

The snow from the previous storm had been steadily melting, and yesterday the last little bits disappeared, even in the shade.  It was a nice feeling.

So this morning I was surprised to wake to the sound of a snowplow going down the street.  There's a manhole cover near my driveway, and when the plows hit it, they make a loud bang.  That's what woke me.  I got up and went to the window and found about three inches of snow on the ground.  What?  Oh, come ON!

But it's near 50 again, and it's melting fast.  That means ice overnight, but it should all be gone tomorrow.

-------------------------------------------------

I've been reading this blog, and adding tags.  I started near the end of 2006, I think, and I'm now into late 2008.  I can't believe how much has changed.  

Before I moved to New Jersey, I was going out for lunch or dinner with friends three or four times a week, sometimes more.  I went to performances, fairs, shows, movies, auctions.  I read a lot.  I walked a lot.  I was, in short, very active and social.  I was involved with Mensa, and Meetup, volunteer groups, and the dance stuff.  I had a lot of opinions, some even passionate opinions, which became blog posts.  And, of course, there was The Man.  I really really miss the fun we had, back when it was fun.  I miss that version of him.

Then I moved down here (late 2010, early 2011), and almost immediately had the kidney thing, which put the skids to so much for so long.  The local Mensa bunch, the folks within travel distance of my current location, anyway, isn't to my taste.  Local meetup groups seem to emphasize booze and bars, which doesn't interest me, plus I don't understand most of the people I'd met at the few functions I'd attended.  They seem so, uh, New Jersey shallow.  And racist.  (Becs, resist the urge, I have enough negativity of my own right now...)  There are no auction houses.  I checked into volunteer organizations, and they don't do anything much around here. There doesn't seem to be any easy way to find out about activities, lectures, happenings, and the few public events I have discovered --- the crowds and traffic were discouraging.

So my world has been getting smaller and smaller.  I go nowhere, talk to no one.  I'm turning into a hermit.  As to opinions, I almost never turn the TV on, except for a very few shows I watch and then immediately off again, and I never watch the news.  I resist exposure to the news because a.) they never cover important stuff, and b.) what they do cover tends to just anger me.  And there's no point in saying anything about it, because nothing will change.  Nothing will ever change.  It's about to where I don't care anymore.  What will be will be.

So, reading old posts is reminding me that once life was fun.  

 But the elements that contributed to the fun don't seem to be here.

----------------------------------------------------

The Aberdeen township sent out an email saying that ALERT! a pit bull who had bitten three people has been diagnosed with rabies, so they need to know of anyone who had contact with the dog.  If you or anyone else blah blah contact blah blah immediately.  A very long email, detailing what rabies is, mentions of past animals in the township with rabies, what animals to avoid (raccoons, stray cats, skunks, etc.), blah, blah, blah.  

Nowhere in that whole screed do they describe the dog other than that it was a pit bull, nowhere do they mention what neighborhood, and this is a long narrow township.  They also don't advise anyone to check their cats for damage, most of which run loose and are not taken in at night.  (That's where some indication of neighborhood might come in handy.)

Around here, about every fourth dog is a pit bull.  Nobody trains their dogs.  They might try, but they don't know how.  People seem to think that their dogs speak English, so yelling "Hey, you, get over here!" should have meaning to the dog, and they get mad when the dog doesn't obey  I suspect few people get the immunizations.  I know just by looking that almost nobody neuters male dogs, especially the pits.

What does surprise me is that you almost never see dogs running loose.  Too many guns around, I guess.
.

5049 Snow Spider Queen

Sunday, January 25, 2016

The Nugget tried to make a snowman in my front yard, but the snow, although heavy, wasn't sticky and wouldn't roll.  So she pushed some together into a mound, and her Daddy got a solid chunk from the side of the street for on top, and she made a spider. 

It has the proper number of legs.  Note the crown.  It's a queen spider.
.

5048-b So far so good, I guess

Saturday, January 23, 2016, 8:30 pm

From an email just received:

Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) has restored service to more than 71,000 customers who lost power as a result of the massive snow storm and high winds moving through the state. Currently, 16,000 customers are without power, the majority of which are in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

I'm in Monmouth county, but haven't lost power.  Yet.  Ocean county is the next county south.

I am a tiny bit worried, though, because back after Hurricane Sandy we were without power for like 10 days, even though all areas around us had power, because it turns out our substation is just off the beach, in just about the lowest spot in the neighborhood, and it flooded.  According to the email, low lying areas are flooding now (in a snowstorm?  Yeah, wind on the bay).  

The beach is a particularly unprotected area.

Mother is not happy.

But at least the snow seems to have tapered off.  Now it's just blowing around.

--------------------------------------------------

I watched a truck on our street a few hours ago.  It was an unmarked white large pickup, with a flashing yellow light on top, and a plow on the front.  He was coming down the street and slid, and spun around until the truck was at a right angle to the street.  Now, this street is a narrow, dead end street.  It's so narrow that if there's a car parked at the curb (given that most houses don't have driveways or garages, the street is usually lined with cars -- during snowstorms cars aren't allowed to park on the street, so most people park on their lawns), anyway, it's so narrow that two cars can't pass a parked car, one has to pull over and let the other by.  No way you can make a K turn on this street.  This truck was so big, it was sitting there stretching from curb to curb across the street -- and the street hadn't been plowed yet.  

So he started going back and forth, in the foot or so he had available between curbs, turning a tiny bit each time, trying to turn the truck back straight, which was working for a little while (wheels spinning like mad each time), until, funniest thing, his right front wheel and left rear wheel were both up against the curb and he couldn't move at all (the diagonal being longer than the front-to-back length of the truck).  

That was weird.

It was beginning to look like it would take a crane to get it out of there.

Then, as he was spinning wheels trying to climb a curb a little or something, the rear happened slip to to the side, spinning a wheel onto the grate of the storm drain, which was especially slippery, and that spun him around so fast he almost ended up across the road again, facing the other direction.

He pulled out of there fast, and headed back up the street, and never looked back.

Wherever he was headed with that plow (maybe to the township access road down to the storm wall, and the substation) never did get plowed.  

------------------------------------

It's 9:30 Sunday morning.  We didn't lose power, and Tim has cleared my driveway.  Total was about 15 inches (for me, anyway.  Due to drifting, some people got more or less). 

My back is still biting me.
.
.

5048 Doldrums, with wind.

Saturday, January 23, 2016, 4:30 pm

"Doctors do it for a living, patients do it for life. There's a difference. 

Bother the doctors as much as you need to."

-- Cathy, in "Lessons From Lou" --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The original estimates for today's snow were 8 to 12 inches, ending by evening.  There's already more than a foot out there; latest estimates from the township are 24 inches, ending tomorrow morning.  Sigh.  We were supposed to get lots of wind, which, with luck, would clear the driveway and drift it all into the front yard, but so far it's relatively still, although I can hear the water whipping out on the bay, so I don't know what's going on, really.

I'm very blah, and still being careful about my back.  I've done nothing all day except watch YouTube videos.  First a bunch of MinuteEarth science clips, then 12 clips of The Red Dwarf, and I'm now on the 10th of 13 clips of Blackadder.  Next I guess I'll see what movies are available for free on Amazon Prime.

Even with the heat on as usual, I'm freezing.  My body seems to be more dependent on what's outside the window than what it's like in the house. I don't get that at the country house - always just right - I think it's the difference between a full basement (there) and a slab (here).  **

Even so, I suppose I should be glad I didn't go to the country house.  Original weather reports (yesterday) said no snow up there.  Now they're getting a few inches.  A lot less than here, but still enough to make that long uphill driveway possibly impassible.

I hate snow. 

----------------------------------------------

Later update, 2/25/16:
Not true.  It appears I view the old house with rose-colored glasses.  I've been reading old posts, and was surprised to find that I was often cold in the country house in the winter.  Hands, feet, nose freezing.  It seems that once the sun goes down, I get cold, regardless of the air temperature, floor temperature, or tightness of the house.
. 

5047-b Snow

Thursday, January 21, 2016

We're supposed to get 8 to 12 inches of snow on Saturday, with winds at 36 mph, and lots of ice.  There's a full moon tide on Saturday night, so with all that wind the township is warning about flooding close to the bay.  "Be prepared to evacuate."  They warn that ice and accidents may take out electricity.

Oh, Joy.

The country house has a 20% chance of ... rain? ... on Saturday.

Maybe I'll head north for the weekend, tomorrow.  Problem is I probably wouldn't be able to get back before Monday, and I hate to leave Jasper for that long.  And my back is very iffy.

I dunno.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.  At least it is an option.
.

5043 Snow

Sunday, January 17, 2016

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. 

When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, 

you will understand why I dismiss yours."

--Stephen Roberts--

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Snow is falling, lightly.  Just started.  Our first snow of the winter.  

I should have moved "buy sand" up higher on the "to do" list....
.

4027 Winter returns

Friday, March 20, 2015

We had a string of beautiful days in the high 40s and low 50s, and today we got a shock. Heavy snow, big flakes, all day. Several inches out there now.

For most of this week there was a small rabbit eating what little green still showed in the front lawn. He was kind of cute because my coming out the front door and standing on the porch eight feet away didn't faze him at all, but if a car drove past on the street, he dove for cover under the van.

There was also a male robin who spent every day scouring the front lawn for munchies. I don't know what he was finding, but every so often he stabbed with his beak, picked something up, and swallowed it.

It felt like Spring.

Oh well, the forecast for tomorrow is 50 degrees.

I hope the robin can manage one day without dinner. Tomorrow should be better.
.

4018 More snowy mess

Sunday, March 1, 2015

It snowed again this morning, fast and hard, but only 2 inches worth.  Not so bad ...  except that it immediately turned to drizzle, which has formed a thick icy crust on top.

It's below freezing out there.  How can it be drizzling?

I don't understand.
.

4017 Bad winter?

Friday, February 27, 2015

I don't understand why everyone around here is grousing about what a bad winter this has been.  I absolutely understand why people to the north and east of central NJ would feel that way --- they've been slammed.  But it hasn't been that way here.

Yeah, we've had some snow fall almost every week since early January, but we've measured it in single digit inches, usually 2 or 3, 5 or 6 at the most.  And in between, we've had enough sun to mostly melt it, so there's not more than maybe six inches remaining on the ground.

Yeah, the temperatures are lower than usual, but I don't think we've gone negative yet, the few teens have been only during the night.  We've had little wind, and lots of sun.

So yeah, it's winter, but I don't think it has been that bad around here.

I don't understand.

Maybe people see on TV  that it's so bad in other areas, so they feel they should have the right to complain, too?
.

3994 Already?

Thursday, November 13, 2014

"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance." 

--Laurence J. Peter--

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to my outdoor thermometer, it's 47 F outside.

It's raining.  It's 10:45 pm.

I was just out on the front porch, and I noticed that some of those raindrops looked rather large. 
And white. 
And shiny.

The grass and driveway showed just wetness, so I stuck the black velvet sleeve of my jacket out into the "rain" and caught a few of the "raindrops",
and several of them were flat,
and six-pointed.

I feel sick.  I'm not ready for this.
.

3983 Dread, confusion

Monday, October 6, 2014

I have long been of the opinion that if work were such a splendid thing

the rich would have kept more of it for themselves.

 --Bruce Grocott

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lately I've been coming across photos, pictures, videos with snow in them, and every time I see them I literally feel sick to my stomach.  Nausea.

I've never before had such a strong reaction to the coming of winter.

I hate cold.  I hate snow.  I've always hated cold and snow.  I especially hate snow when it's falling, or blowing.  The only good snow is melting snow.

I guess I have a bad feeling about this winter.

--------------------------------------------

I've already said I don't understand how the moon moves in relation to the Earth and sun.  (Why do we capitalize "Earth", but not moon or sun?) This Wednesday morning at 6:25 am we are supposed to be able to see a full lunar eclipse (although I have little hope of seeing anything here - the sky is always either cloudy or full of pollution, can't ever see more than a few stars at night even on the clearest and darkest of nights).

Anyway, that got me wondering where the sun would be in relation to the moon and Earth at that time.  So I looked up sunrise and sunset times.  Sunrise here today was 06:59:00 and sunset was 18:30:08.  Tomorrow it's at 07:00:02 and 18:28:32.  On Tuesday into Wednesday the moon will be full full, and I assume sunrise will be at something like 07:01:04..  

So 35 minutes before Wednesday sunrise here, the moon will be in full sunshine.  Then as the Earth and my house turn toward sunrise, the moon will move toward the west and into the Earth's shadow, that's the eclipse, and then the moon sets here as the sun is "coming up", and the moon will remain in the Earth's shadow for about half of its next circuit.

I guess.

But, but, but, 

the moon "sets" at some point every night/morning/day, so howcome it isn't in the Earth's shadow more often?  Like almost once per circuit (per month-ish)?  Somewhere on the globe, anyway.

I don't understand.

I think my problem is that I don't understand the moon's path.  And I suspect it isn't a regular path, like man-made satellites are designed to follow, same path, over the same points on the Earth every circuit.   I suspect it "progresses".

But, but, but

does that imply that there are places on the Earth that don't see the moon AT ALL during some period of that progression?  Or is it large enough and far enough away that it is always visible to the entire half of the world it's "on the side of" at all times?  I suspect that's true.  Daytime moons aren't unusual.

But, but, but

when I look at the moon from my porch, it seems to "rise" from about the same spot every time.  Which, uh, doesn't support a path progression.

I give up.  Again.

-------------------------------------------

A FEW HOURS LATER!  

The moon stuff gets weird.  It's no damn wonder I'm confused.  Want to blow your mind?  Read this: Wednesday's Lunar Eclipse Is Technically Impossible

To quote a line from the article, "And indeed, during a lunar eclipse, the sun and moon are exactly 180 degrees apart in the sky."  

Duh?  That's what I thought, and one reason (of several) why I couldn't figure it out.
.

3824 Confused

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

"Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man

who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own."

 --Sidney J. Harris--

------------------------------------------------------------------

Confusing snow.  All the weather sites said "light flurries", and "total accumulation 1 inch or less."  A half hour ago, there was (were?) already three inches, and it was coming down fast and  heavy, big clumpy blobs, and I was rapidly losing the will to live.  Now, precipitation has stopped, the sun is out, the road has melted clear, and there's maybe an inch of new stuff left on the ground in shaded spots.

I don't understand.

----------------------------------------

PeaPod is wonderful!  It keeps track of my prior orders, including stuff I bought on trips to the Stop & Shop, so all I have to do is check off stuff I want more of.  Delivery is slightly less than $7 (except that as a new customer, I get several weeks of free delivery) plus an optional tip for the driver, and I consider it worth that.  Daughter wondered if the items cost more, but I compared some old register strips to the PeaPod online prices, and they are pretty much the same.  Pistachios are cheaper, canned soup seems to run a few cents more, and so on.  In the aggregate it looks like no real difference in cost.

The only problem is that they don't have everything I would buy in the store.  Like they don't have the Quaker granola cereal, or Stacy's pita chips in the flavors I like.  I suspect they "PeaPod" only the most popular of the brands and flavors.

-----------------------------------------

I just noticed that my minivan is blue!  I've had it for 13 years.  When I bought it, it was a strange color mid-way between dark green and blue.  Half the people asked described it as green, half as blue.  I described it as blue-green.  But now, "suddenly", it's definitely dark blue.  Not even a hint of green.  Weird.
.

3821 Show Snovels and Checks

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Rules for snow shovels:
- Store the shovel outside for the winter, so it's at air temperature when you use it.  You can't shovel snow with a warm shovel.
- Occasionally (like every other use) spritz it with Pam, so snow will slide off easily.
- NEVER chop ice with it.  That will cause the sides of the blade to curl.

I can use the same shovel for years, as long as I'm the only one using it.  The one I have now is about three years old, and I love it.  It has that bent handle that's easy to lift, and the blade is plastic with a curl at the top and raised sides, which makes it perfect for using like a plow.  Because the blade is plastic, it's lightweight, and it has a metal strip on the underside to keep the edge flat.

Well, Daughter and Hercules (Wow!  The first time he's ever done anything resembling work for me without being asked/shamed into it!) used it after the last two storms, and now the blade is cupped.   It doesn't run flat anymore.

I am unhappy.

------------------------------------------

The real estate taxes on the city house are due quarterly.  I have it stuck in my head that "quarterly" is March, June, September, and December.  This being New Jersey, naturally they want it February 1st, May 1st, and so on.  So I didn't realize that I was late until Tuesday evening, the 11th - one day past the 10-day grace period.

Wednesday I hurried off to the town hall to pay, but they were closed for Lincoln's Birthday.  Thursday they were closed for snow.  Friday I couldn't get out of my driveway.  Saturday and Sunday they were closed.  Monday they were closed for President's Day (yeah, in addition to Thursday.  Nice job).  I finally got in today, and had to pay more than a week's penalty.  I think I got burned.

-------------------------------------------

I have a 35-year-old checking and savings account (and a pre-approved emergency loan account) with my old credit union at the country house.  The credit union started life as the IBM Employees' Credit Union.  My account numbers were my employee serial number, with "001" suffix on the savings account, and "009" suffix on the checking, which made the account numbers easy to remember.  When IBM left that area it, the credit union, went pubic. 

For the past 8 years (8 because I'm a widow getting benefits on Jay's account) Social Security has been depositing my monthly check into the checking account, let's call it "123456009" (where 123456 was my employee number) on the second Wednesday of the month, with no difficulty.

Yesterday I got a letter from the bank saying that the SS check had arrived and they were unable to process it as written.  They processed it by hand, but would not process it next month unless it was fixed.

Duh?

They said that the check was sent for deposit to account 12356009, and they manually deposited it to 1234560001 CHK.

Ok, I see what SS did - they skipped a digit (the "4"), but I don't understand why the bank deposited the check into the savings account, and why did they call it the "CHK" account if it has the savings suffix?  I don't understand.  I called the credit union.

Turns out that they changed the account numbers last fall.  (I don't recall getting any kind of notification!)  Now the checking account ends in 0001.

I asked, "So what's the sufffix for the savings?"
She said, "Savings is 0001, too."
Me, very confused, "So how do you tell them apart?"
She, "The savings account number now starts with 2."
Me, "So my savings account number is now 21234560001?"
She, "Yes."

I don't understand.

I told her I've been writing checks with the 009 suffix printed on them.  She said that's ok, they'll still go through.  When I order new checks I'll see the new number on them.

Sheesh.  I write maybe 8 checks a year on that account.  I have a 15 year supply.  I wonder how long they'll tolerate that 009 suffix, and whether I'll get any notice when they update their system, or will they just start bouncing checks.

-------------------------------------------

As if that wasn't enough aggravation, I got a call from the fuel supplier for the country house.  The house with the 300 foot uphill curved driveway.  The driver tried to deliver, and says the driveway is too narrow, it needs to be plowed wider.  (I do ensure that the trucks can turn around at the top, but I guess I can understand their fear that they may be forced to back down that slalom run.)

The plow piles on either side are about five feet high now.  They've had a LOT of snow this winter - 24 additional inches last week alone - and no thaws.  The Hairless Hunk has done a hero's job keeping it plowed.  I really really appreciate his being there.  But he's plowing with a pickup truck.  I don't know if he CAN widen it at this point.

So, I wrote him an email this morning, asking what can be done, and if he has to bring in reinforcements, I can overnight him the cost.  But I've got to get oil.  The last delivery was in early December.  The thermostat is set at 50 degrees, but the temperatures up there have been ranging between 23 and -10 since then.  The water is turned off, but still, the pressure tank from the well could freeze.  I don't remember whether I threw the breaker for the pump.

I'm SO ready for spring.
.

3820 Snow

Thursday, February 13, 2014

My quarterly real estate tax was due on February 1st.  I missed it, didn't notice it was due until I was paying some other bills on the 11th, last Tuesday.  (Somehow I have it set in my mind that quarterly stuff is due in March, June, etc.)  By the time I realized the payment was late, it was 2 pm, and the town offices close at like 2:30, so I figured I'd pay it yesterday.

I went to the town offices yesterday and found everything closed.  Lincoln's birthday.  Duh?

Today we woke up to 8" of heavy wet snow, followed by ice pellets, followed by rain, and a "code red" call from the township saying that all town offices and functions were closed.

I probably won't get out to pay tomorrow, either, since we are supposed to get more snow overnight and all day tomorrow.

In the meantime, penalties accrue.

I hate snow.

The neighbor up the street says the Garden State Parkway and the Throughway, and many of the major local roads, are closed because of jackknifed  trailers all over the roads.  I got a code red email from the country house township saying that the highways are closed to commercial traffic for the same reason.

I really hate snow.  At least plain cold one can dress for, but snow can leave us defenseless.

At least we still have power.  Maybe that's one good thing Sandy did for us - all the weak trees and branches are already down.

-------------------------------------

I am worried about my neighbor George.  He's got to be in at least his mid-eighties.  He gets out there shoveling.  He throws five shovelfuls, then stops and rests on the shovel handle for a while, kind of bent over the handle, then throws five more.

His late-teen great-grandson mows my lawn.  His granddaughter lives on the next street over, and some sons and daughters live in the area.  I can't help wondering why no one shows up to help him.  They all come for holiday dinners, so it's not like they're estranged.

I've got a delicate back and currently something wrong with my shoulder (rotator cuff?) so my daughter shovels for me if my little electric thrower can't handle it (note that's Daughter, not SIL Hercules), or scares up a kid to do it.  If I were capable, I'd help George.

Maybe I should review CPR procedures.

--------------------------------------

I doubt that mankind in general is any smarter now than, say, 200 years ago.  200 years isn't much in evolutionary terms, but I do believe that on average we are already demonstrably more stupid.  We know more "stuff", but we are in general, overall,  less logical, less understanding, less interested in understanding, and less capable than we used to be.  It's like thinking is evolving out of us.  Like we don't need it any more.

Science fiction illustrators often depict humans of the far future as having huge heads, enormous brains.  I don't know why they think brains would get larger.  I think it's more likely we'll have tiny braincases.  As computers do the work of remembering for us, we won't need to remember anything much.  We won't need to calculate anything - the machine will tell us.

We already see evidence of brain atrophy....
.

3697 Eh.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds."

-- Malaclypse the Younger --

------------------------------------------------------------

Well, the "blizzard" left me underwhelmed.  At the country house a normal "biggish" snowstorm would leave a foot of snow or so with a layer or two of ice to make the shoveling or throwing interesting.  (More than once I'd had to go down the 300+ foot driveway with a coal shovel chopping the layer of ice on top of the snow into squares and removing the squares before I could use the snow thrower.)

Here, there was about 9 inches on the roof of the van, but by the time I got outside it was heavy and wet.  I got about 1/3 cleared from the 2-car-length driveway when my little electric thrower couldn't handle it any more (sticky heavy snow kept clogging up the chute).  Daughter cleared the town plow plug across the end of the driveway, neighbor George used his big thrower on the lower half, and I still have to clear around the van with a shovel.

Daughter and Nugget did return from DC yesterday morning.  I had called her to say that if she wanted to stay at a hotel, I'd reimburse her, but as it turned out it was mostly rain and the roads weren't bad.

I was amused by the following comments on a Yahoo e-news storm report:

Big Momma  •  16 hrs ago
I 'm watching, as the snow reaches 3 feet in depth, my husband staring at the window. If this keeps up I may have to let him inside.

critters_r_me  •  6 hrs ago
There are hundreds of cars stranded on the Long Island Expressway. Gee, I bet they wish someone had told them a storm was coming.

WilliamH  •  19 hrs ago
First you were finding NEMO, now you're tracking NEMO.
You're going to make that poor little fish paranoid.

I know that some areas really did get slammed, and the constant break-ins on the TV with officials warning of doom were justified there (but those areas are used to winter extremes!), but around here fear-mongering crap like that is just going to cause people to wave warnings off, even when it really is serious.

P.S. What's with the current trend for naming storms?  Like, we don't know what to call it without a name?
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3696 Crap.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Absence makes the heart grow fungus.

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I have a very sore throat.  I called the doctor (strep?), and they called in an antibiotic prescription (which involved three screw-ups and six phone calls, and took six hours).  I have an appointment with the doctor on Monday.

I wanted to get ahead of my throat because we're expecting a major storm starting tomorrow morning.  Rain, snow, torrential rain, ice, sleet, plunging temperature and more snow, possible loss of power, possibly up to a foot or more of snow tomorrow overnight after it gets colder.  (I love that "up to xxx or more".  Like, "up to" no longer has any meaning, I guess.)

What's upsetting me the most is that yesterday Daughter and the Nugget drove to the DC area to visit a friend, and plan to drive back tomorrow.  I suggested to Daughter that she might want to delay her return a day or two, and she refused to even consider it.  "If it's bad I'll just drive slower."

Yeah.  A normally five hour drive under the best of conditions, on a Friday, with a 21-month-old in the back seat.

I can't seem to get through to her that you can have loads of confidence in yourself, but can you have confidence in EVERYONE else on the road with you? All of them?

She will be furious with me if I call her tomorrow morning and offer to pay (reimburse her) for a hotel room, but I think I'll risk it.

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When the sky is cloudy at night here, it's not black or gray, like at the country house.  It's pink.  Light pink.  Faded flamingo pink.  On all sides.  I find that disturbing.  Ominous. 

I don't like it at all.
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