Out west, there is snow. And a lot of it. Truckers are snowed in at highway rest stops. Plows are running day and night. Over a foot of the nasty white death has fallen in some areas. I'm searching for a set of rims for my car so that I can put some snow tires on the back end. The car is rear wheel drive so it would be nice to have the extra bite. I want to put them on an extra set of rims so that I don't have to remount and balance the tires in the spring. The search turned out to be harder than it looked. No one carries steel rims for this car in stock and I don't want to pay for aluminum rims just to use in the winter. I did find a junk yard up North of here with some dead Beamers. They said that they had the steel rims and would send a guy out to yank them off the hulk. Goody, goody.

We had a big company meeting this morning in which we learned about our new benefits. When we got taken over, we got to keep the rather nice package that we had under our old company - for a year. Since the company grew so quickly, they wanted to consolidate all employees under one big nationwide plan and keep it attractive and affordable. I think they succeeded. It does mean some out of pocket increases for me, but the for the most part, it is still good value.

I went out for lunch today with a friend. I had a bass ale and a taco salad. We were talking politics with the bartender, Jason (a very cool guy), when we caught the interest of another chap at the bar. He is a shop lead for a local teamsters union that is supporting Gore. But he isn't. We all also talked about local bands when Jason and I learned that we both play. We had never heard each other's old bands actually play out, but had heard of each other. I also realized that I had no plans for the weekend. Wow! When does this happen! Such bliss! In fact, I have nothing planned for tonight, either, save for throwing out the pumpkins.

This month's picture is a scene from a commerical for a video camera that can record in the dark. Absolutely priceless!

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Actually a nice day outside today. A little bit of wind, but it's almost warm. I went out for pizza at lunchtime and picked up a Metroland. Tonight is church night, of course, so I'll peek through it again later, and work the crossword as much as I can. If I remember, I'll look at the answers to last weeks puzzle. I almost got the whole thing done last week, but I think they made up some words or at least spelled them wrong.

Last night on the news I saw the most incredible thing and I still can't get my mind around it. The damaged U.S. warship, the USS Cole, was sitting on top of the back of a larger transport ship, awaiting the journey back to the U.S. for repair. This is simply incredible that we can develop a ship that can just go out there and swoop underneath a freaking destroyer and pick it up. There is a full motion video on CNN's website if you want to watch it.

A coworker lent me his Sister Hazel Fortress CD today. I am listening to it right now. Very nicely produced. Good tunes. The best one is the radio single "Change Your Mind." The CD is one of those enhanced jobs with a few videos and interviews if you load it in your computer. I wish they would ask me if I want to use the enhanced part before launching it. Sometimes these darn things start installing their custom players without even asking. All I want to do is listen to it, thank you. Give us a choice!

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It's Election Day today. I won't attempt to make any predictions here as to the outcome. Normally, I go vote at lunchtime with my housemate, but he had other plans today. We decided that we will go after work. I took a short lunch so I can leave early. Work has been very interesting these last few days. There's a lot going on and it all has to happen fairly quickly. Of course, as usual, it's all thankless and unplanned.

Finally had lunch at the deli again. You know what that means. Yep, 2 more pop cans. The desktop pop can count is up by 2 to 209.

I thought that I had a pretty quiet/laid back weekend. Looking back, I did quite a bit. I had lunch at the Troy Brew Pub and enjoyed an Oatmeal Stout on Friday. Had dinner out at a very busy local restaurant and rented Toy Story 2 that night. Enjoyed it. Spent some time on Saturday morning hitting some garage sales and a couple antique stores. Had lunch in Glens Falls at a great brewery, Davidson Brothers, and had another fine Oatmeal Stout. Did some visiting. Spent Sunday inside watching football and Ben Hur on television and Sunday night visiting with friends. As a part of the deal for free chinese food, I installed a phone line and set up an internet connection on a computer for them. Capped the day with the series premier of the X-Files (I also taped some other shows that night, some I haven't seen yet.) I did manage to miss last week's Just Shoot Me - the one where Eliot's brother Donnie returns. My fault. Forgot to program the VCR. D'oh!

My volleyball team will be playing shorthanded tonight. Two people are busy with other doin's. I guess we play with 4.

Hey - a friend of mine posted pictures from my halloween party on his website. I hope to get mine up soon.

SAD NEWS! I was just informed that Pets.Com is shutting down! See the Press Release here. There goes my chance to be a star!

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I just spent the evening watching history happen. The Presidential election is now officially too close to call. It all hangs on Florida now. At the time of this writing, Al Gore has the popular vote thanks to late California returns. The electoral college vote is unclear. The race in Florida is so close (about 200 votes) that every single vote is going to count in that state. And they have 10 days to count absentee ballots. This one is going to take awhile, even after the planned recounts today. Everyone has gone to bed, including the seemingly never ending supply of talking heads that our country has standing at the ready. It's time for me to go to bed, too.

America still has no President-elect. It's not our fault, really. On Tuesday, voters stepped up and basically shouted "We don't care!" Now we are stuck with nothing but TV News punduits and talking heads messing up prime time for the next week and a half. Those crazy Floridians sure know how to mess up a perfectly good dead heat...

I've been pretty busy this week. Between constant change at work, I have had the pleasure of dealing with constant change at home. The least of which is a brand new health plan that I'm lucky enough to get to now pay for. I've been trying to get my finances and paperwork all in order. For as little as I have, it's quite daunting. For now, though, all the bills are paid and the checks are in the mail.

Band practice got moved again to Saturday, so now a free day is suddenly ripped in two. I was sorta glad to be home last night, as the 4th season of South Park began. Pretty funny episode. I'm heading out of work early today so that I can check out some steel rims for my car at a junk yard. I hope that they will fit, since they are only 50 bucks.

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It's my own damned fault. I must be on another planet. I totally zoned and forgot that today is a national holiday. As I usually do, I slept in a bit and skipped breakfast so I was feeling pretty hungry by the time I got to get out of the building for lunch. I didn't want to go far. All I wanted to do was sit and quietly read my Metroland. I drove around the front parking lot. Then I drove around the back parking lot. Found a parking space. Walked in to romper room central. What a mad house. I stood in line and ordered food. Got food, and walked around looking for a table. Found a table where a woman and her child were leaving. Stood by it. Just as the woman and child got up to go, another woman with a stroller swooped in right in front of me and took the table. I just kinda stood there, open mouthed, feeling stupid. How can you say anything? The polite thing to do is of course, give up the table to a lady, but shouldn't I be given the chance to be gracious? After all, I'm starving here. Two gay gentlemen saw it happen, called to me and offered me their table. They were just finishing up. One of them did his best to clean the table top as they picked up and apologized as to the state of the table. He made a joke and asked me if my food was cold. I said that it probably was by then. I settled in and found a puddle on my tray. The soda cup had a hole in the bottom of it. The food wrappers were damp, but the food was fine, and the napkins were soaked. Nice. I forgot about reading my magazine. I just ate and left. It's the little things in life that get to you fastest.

We had some newcomers to the round table at church last night. There were two guys named Bill, and a hammered dulcimer player named Jem Moore. He gave one of my friends his current CD. I checked his web site and took a listen to some of the samples. Imagine, Vivaldi played on a hammered dulicmer. Good discussions all around last night thanks to this mess of things Florida has made.

I had a nice "talk" with my daughter today. I say "talk" because we just chatted on instant messenger. I find that I am not very good at talking to more than one person at a time. Is this a sign of old age?

It's going to be a bust weekend. Tonight I plan to hit a happy hour, and then help a friend out with her computer. She just bought a digital camera and needs some pointers on photo editing. In fact, she took the picture of me that appears in yesterday's entry. I have band practice tomorrow afternoon, and then I think I'll take a trip out to Connecticutt on Sunday. Um, no particular reason.

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Well, I finally did it. I got the Hallowe'en pictures online. Enjoy!

Something interesting happened at band practice today. We wrote a song. They made me write some words up on the spot and we jammed over them until we had some semblance of verse/verse/chorus/break/verse/chorus/solo/chorus/tag. We played it for some people who showed up at the tail end of band practice and they liked it. We didn't tell them it was an original till we were done playing it. So, interesting!

Happy Veteran's Day.

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Tomorrow, Geddy Lee's new solo CD hits the stores. A friend of mine emailed a link to a Rush Bulletin Board that had info on the CD, and an MP3 of the title track. I downloaded and listened to it on my crappy home computer. I liked the groove on the song. I gotta ask though, does Geddy think he's Neil Peart all of a sudden? How many guys can use the word 'nihilistic' in a song and get away with it? Come on, Geddy - just play your nice bass and leave the big words to Neil.

The trip to Connecticut yesterday went very smoothly. What a beautiful day to travel, and and even more beautiful day to take a peek at a boat. I couldn't have asked for better weather. I forgot my digital camera at home, so I picked up one of those disposable jobs at a small seaside store. I got the pictures developed last night at a one hour (and 25 minute) photo place. They came out fairly well. I haven't scanned any of them yet, of course.

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Welcome to the digital age. I finally bought a cell phone. I think it's a pretty good deal. Free weekends, and unlimited long distance within my "home/home roam" areas which include the whole state of New York and most of the eastern states. I also have a ridiculous number of free minutes built into the contract. I doubt that I will use them all every month.

I went to a job fair yesterday. Just sort of poking around. I'm thinking that the only way I am going to get a raise where I am is if I have a higher offer somewhere else. This fact is a tragedy, I think.

I did pick up Geddy Lee's new album, My Favorite Headache. I've been through many listens now and I like it. You can read an interview with Geddy here. It does sound very Rush-Like, but hey, Geddy Lee wrote most of the music for Rush. As he said himself, "you can't deny your roots."

I had my first complete sushi dinner last night. I've had sushi to taste before, and as a side dish, but never as the sole and complete entree. I went for tuna, salmon and california rolls with soy sause and wasabi. It was good. We drank Sapporo at the restaurant, and then went for cigars and Beamish stouts at an Irish pub.

I went to the Salvation Army today and bought an old suit for a themed Hash run that I am doing this weekend. We're supposed to wear "old clothes." I was originally thinking about ripped jeans and a sweatshirt I do car repair in. I learned that some people are thinking peasant clothing from middle england. I have no idea who's right. In either case, I'll show up looking like a bum on the street in old clothes. I plan to take the scissors to the suit and maybe roll around under my station wagon for awhile.

Recently, a friend mailed out some "I can't believe these are true" stories. I wanted to share the story and my rebuttal with you here. First the story.

"Last summer, down on Lake Isabella, located in the high desert, an hour East of Bakersfield, California, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get their brand new 22-ft. Bayliner to perform. It wouldn't get on a plane at all, and it was very sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much power was applied. After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted over to a nearby marina, thinking someone there could tell them what was wrong.

A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect order. The outdrive went up and down, the prop was the correct size and pitch. So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath. He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard.

Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer."

The friend asked me if this could actually happen. Here is my response:

To answer your question "Is this possible?" I highly doubt it. First, let's consider the fact that to disengage the trailer from the tow vehicle one would have to be fully underwater in order to work the hitch release so that you can lift it over the ball. The trailer isn't going to float off the ball unless they mistakingly undid the release before backing the rig in.

So, let's say they did, and that they actually got the car parked without realizing that something was missing from the picture. And that they ignored the winch and the top of the trailer jack sticking out of the water in front of the boat, since both of these are usually higher on than the waterline of the boat when it sits on the trailer.

I suppose that if the trailer doesn't obstruct the lower unit, it would be possible to actually float the boat with the trailer attached and run the motor. As you know, the trailers typically attach to boats of this size with two stern tie downs, and a single hook/eye connection in the bow. You wouldn't see a strap of any sort going over the sides and across the top of the vessel.

Steering would be almost impossible, and with that sort of cant, I wouldn't even attempt full throttle to plane the vessel. Of course, the added weight would make an obvious impression on the waterline of the vessel. Being only a 22 foot boat, I would suspect that the water would be dangerously close to the gunwale, especially in the stern, and the added weight of the passengers might cause the boat to swamp.

Good story, even better mental picture, but highly unlikely.

This is from The Onion, taken during an Aimee Mann interview. I got a smile out her comments about Neil Peart.
O: Speaking of popping up in weird places, what are you doing on that Rush album? [Mann sings on "Time Stand Still" from Hold Your Fire. --ed.]
AM: They called me up and asked me if I would sing. And I thought, Rush? That's not my kind of thing. So I listened to the song, and the part was this little falsetto thing. It was cute.
O: It's a fine enough song.
AM: Yeah. I don't mind the song.
O: Do you still get royalty checks from that?
AM: Oh, I don't think so. I doubt it. They gave me $2,000. That's a lot of dough.
O: Canadian or American?
AM: [Laughs.] That's the question! I think American. They flew me up to Toronto, and they were really funny. Well, except for Neil [Peart]. He wasn't very funny.
O: Well, he's a serious drummer. He's got to write all those lyrics.
AM: Yeah. But the other two guys are very, very funny. Canadians are funny. People are finding that out.
O: Neil Young isn't funny.
AM: Okay, how about this? They're either funny or crazy.

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It's Monday afternoon now. The working day is over and the building has emptied out for the day. Some folks leave so early nowadays that I am coming back from lunch when they are making a break for the parking lot. Must be nice. It's crunch time for us in the systems department (What's left of us, anyway. Two of the three of us are going to other departments, leaving just one - me) as we prepare a large shipment of equipment, documentation and software. The truck arrives tomorrow and we load it up and send it west. As for the rest, we have been filling dumpsters and recyclable containers with it. Bon chance, stuff. I am sitting in the wreckage of my workplace. A home of sorts for the past 5 years that no longer feels warm and comfortable. I know that it's just a job, just a paycheck. Somehow it no longer seems like a good fit. Ach. Could get better. Could get worse. I guess we'll see what we see.

Looking back over the last week of fun and frivolity, I see many things. I didn't wear the polyester suit that I bought at Salvation Army to the hash. Turned out my holy jeans (they have holes, you see), grease covered jacket, thermals, and a t-shirt were enough to look pauperish. It was my second hash with the club and the first I wore the correct footwear for. I did get some ribbing for not having the right shoes the first time, but avoided any serious infractions. I also kept most of my clothing on during the course of the run (this is another good thing), which is more than I can say for others.

Did dinner and a movie with a group of friends last weekend. We saw "Meet the parents." Robert DeNiro plays the papa that Ben Stiller's character, Gaylord Focher (say it out loud), is trying to impress. He wants to marry DeNiro's daughter, of course. How wonderfully old fashioned. The movie, luckily, was very funny. Even though we could see the next gag coming down the road a mile away waving a flag, they were all worth watching.

Been having a little trouble with my knee this week. It's getting better. I got stepped on by a teammate during volleyball last week, and when I went down my leg turned, but the foot didn't (he was still standing on it, you see). I got a nice batch of skin taken off and, of course, limited lateral movement. Bacatracin and bandaids for me. Now if only my back was that easy to fix. I think it needs popping back into shape.

Did everyone have a good Turkey day? I had a very nice time at my holiday parties. Great food, lots of people. Really, a lot to be thankful for. Pity the football games sucked.

I took a road trip (more like a hell ride in a mini-van) up to Burlington, Vermont this weekend for an Away-Hash. They ran a "dead-hare" trail (meaning that the whole trail was laid ahead of time) through some trails in the woods at a state park next to Lake Champlain. There wa sno point in getting too far apart at this run, as they introduced a checkpoint called "hash halt." Everyone had to stay at the checkpoint until all the hashers had caught up. This could have been a terrible thing, but since the trail was dead-hare, the hares brought along a bottle of Wild Turkey to keep us in good spirit and song. We got some ideas for our own naming ceremonies. They had an inflatable pool for the to-be-named (in this case, "Fanny-Packer"). This made for an easier cleanup after he was doused in beer and ice. We were able to sucessfully complete our intended mission to steal their hashit when they weren't looking. We planto hold it hostage until they attend one of our runs. According to their website, they plan to come down to the next run.

Rented Mel Gibson's "The Patriot." I liked how it put a lot of the Civil War history in perspective. All of the personal revenge/love story crap was meaningless and contrived.

Sunday was a down day. I didn't do anything. Literally. Well, except watch a lot of football, movies and news. I watched the live feed from florida when the Secretary General certified Bush as the winner in that state. Gore won't back down, and I feel that he should. This entire process in hurting the country as a whole. In my opinion, it's now up to the Florida Supreme Court to make some good decisions now and hold the line or the US supreme court will reverse Florida's earlier ruling to extend the deadlines and the recounts.

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