Tag: winter

I’m Pretty Smart, I think

I’m pretty smart… I think.  At least I always thought I was.  My grades in school were always good.  In college I blew a curve on a test in Calculus II, and I got an A- for the semester in Calculus III.  I’m not saying I’m some kind of rocket scientist or anything.  Don’t expect me to do anything Earth shattering like building the better mouse trap, okay?  I’m not dumb though.  I have a decent brain and it usually gets the job done.

Taking that as truth… why the hell do I still live in a place where it snows?  I mean… I thought I would be smart enough to know better.  My wife, now she’s super smart.  She’s gotta be the smartest person any of us have ever met and yet she still lives here too.  My step kids?  Smarter still!  If anyone is going to build that better mouse trap it’s absolutely going to be one of them.  Yet… the four of us all still live in a place where it snows.

I just think that maybe after all this time we would have done something to fix this little snow falling problem.  Something like… move to Southern California.  You know, something like that.

Snatch Monkey

Two members of my band, me and Mike the bass player, were once in a band called Stormbringer. Fitting that we now play in a band that has a gig on a day when we are going to get a Spring Nor’easter.

April 1st… snow… figures. It’s not going to be so bad here, or in Plaistow where we’ll be playing, but we have to go see my step daughter in a chorus concert during the afternoon and that’s happening up around the foot of snow zone.

Crap.

To cheer us all up, let’s all watch this video that compiles all of the utterances of the words Harry and Potter from the eight Harry Potter movies.

Know What I Hate?

Do you know what I hate about this time of year?

Everything.  Absolutely everything.  That’s not what I am talking about though.  I mean something specific.

I’m working from home today.  I’m taking my lunch break, eating a sandwich and sipping some soda, checking my work email so that I don’t find myself 50 messages behind when I finish my lunch.  I look out the window and the sky is blue and the sun is out and the reflection of the sun off of the snow that kicked our ass two days ago blinds me.  That’s what I hate about this time of year.  Snow blindness.  Looking out the window at the sunny almost-Spring day should not hurt, but it does.  Now my eyes hurt and reading those work emails is painful.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:  Screw you, Mother Nature.

Why did I start this blog?  Can anyone tell me?  I can’t remember exactly when it happened.  It was either Monday night just at the moment when I was dropping off to sleep, or Tuesday morning just at the moment when I was coming out of sleep.  The thought popped into my head, I should go back to wordpress.com.  By the time I was up and about on Tuesday the idea was solidly in place and would not go away.  Damn it.

I posted on myspace and then myspace went away.  I posted on blogger for years and then suddenly switched to wordpress.com for no apparent reason.  I posted there for years and then switched to medium.com, again for no apparent reason.  I think I lasted about a year or so on medium and now I’m back to wordpress.  Why?  What’s wrong with me?  Why do I have this need to start over?  Why can’t I just start an account and stick with it?  I drive myself nuts sometimes.  I feel like such a tool, bloggily speaking.

I will get this page up to speed, it just might take me a while.  Last time I did this I was full on psyched about a new blog account and I was throwing widgets and crap onto the screen like they were goin’ out of style.  I was a madman.  Now?  I’m just gonna take my time.  I’ll have a set of links that might include the old blogs, and Flickr, and Alonetone.com and all that stuff.  Maybe a list of podcasts that I have been listening to.  I’m all about podcasts right now, because how can some one who is an insufferable nerd start doing things that could make him even nerdier?  Right now I have a hockey podcast playing and they are ripping the NBC hockey broadcast team with a ferocity that is almost but not quite frightening.  I agree with every word.  In other words, podcasts are good.  I’ve been thinking… if I start a podcast, what would I talk about?  Nothing work related, obviously.  Cover band behind the scenes stuff?  That topic would dry up in seconds for me.  Guitar gear?  Only if I could get free stuff to review.  Yeah, I’ll be a shill if it gets me new fuzz pedals.  Oh yeah.

Back on topic.  New blog.  Do I want to do anything different this time?  Based on the last couple of paragraphs, maybe I should go all stream of consciousness and just throw out disjointed word associations…

Naw, I’ll just post pictures of my cat.

Holy Shiznits!

This post will cross post onto twitter and my step son is now following me on twitter… so I need to cut down on the swearing. I need to try to stop saying shit, you know? Oh…. whoops.

So twice in less than a week we have been given the wintry gift* of a snow fall that piled up over a foot deep. I shoveled the first storm on Thursday night in about an hour. It was deep but very light. It was also super cold and superer windy.

Tonight, after work, I went outside to shovel storm #2 which finished early this morning. The second time… well, there was more of it… it is significantly heavier… it’s not as cold, but it’s almost as windy and the wind chill is downright oppressive.

I had to stop part way through to give my back a rest. I just took 1231246 extra strength Tylenols** so hopefully I will have some degree of movement when I go back out in a couple of minutes.

I think I read today that it’s 48 days until Major League Baseball’s opening day. It can’t get here fast enough.

*When I say “gift” what I really mean is “kick in the balls”.

**When I say 1231246 I really mean three. I’m 6’5″ tall and way (REDACTED) pounds. I once had a doctor tell me that it was safe for me to go a tad above the average over the counter medication’s recommended dose. I usually don’t, but when my back hurts like this I will hold that doctor’s statement in front of me like a shield, and I will also wield it like a sword.

Two Years Ago Today

I was thinking about how it was a crappy day even before 9:00 am today. Then Google Photos sent me a notification suggesting I relive this day in my photographic history.

Two years ago today, this happened:


The Blizzard of 2015. Never forget, friends. Never forget and hope that it never happens again.

3.67 Years

It was April 27, 2012. That was my last full day in San Diego, CA. Three years and slightly less than eight months. That is way too long. I’ve been there three times. On my honeymoon in June of 2009, then with the kids in August of 2011, then with the kids and Jen’s folks in April of 2012. We haven’t been back since. No wonder it feels like it’s been an eternity since last I dipped my toes into the Pacific… it has been an eternity!

2012-04-27 - Cove and Sunset 215

See the dude with the guitar? Just make him a lot taller, a lot heavier, give him a mop of glow in the dark red hair, and give him a much, much cooler guitar. That is what I’ll look like when I’m living on the beach, busking for change, and playing music to the largest swimming pool on the Earth.

Make it so!

Too Soon for Cabin Fever?

Is it too soon to start showing signs of cabin fever, or seasonal affected disorder or whatever it’s called?

I’m getting that time-to-move-to-California-and-spend-my-days-busking-on-the-beach frame of minds. The traffic, the weather, the feeling run down, the cold and flu, and general blah are all conspiring against my sanity right now.

And it’s not even officially Winter yet.

2012-04-27 - Cove and Sunset 401

Just photoshop a picture of me sitting on the sand strumming my 12-string.

Please?

Winter Officially Returns

It was cold and rainy last night. Then suddenly it was cold and icy. This morning the winter wonderland fun continues. The yard is completely covered in snow as the snow continues to fall lightly.

This is punishment for me having said something about Spring finally arriving. As if mother nature (that bitch) would ever do something nice for me.

2015: The Year Winter Never Ended

Winter Bites Back

Winter is not going away without a fight.

I walked out my front door this morning at about 7:30.

My car was covered in ice.  The temperature was 31 degrees.  The forecast for today has a high temp of 41.  It’s April 8th and we can barely get to the 40’s.  So what if the Red Sox are 1-0 on the season.  Spring is never coming.  Never.  NEVER.