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The weekly Diary of a PC Geek |
Monday, February 19, 2001
Time To End The Experiment?
In the late eighteenth century, nearly the entire globe that was the "known world" was ruled by hereditary leaders - Kings, emperors, warlords, and others who had ascended to the position of power through careful selection of their parents.
Some countries, notably England, flirted with democratic reforms. In England, this went back almost four centuries to the Magna Carta, capping and limiting the power of a sovereign to do as he (or she) would to the populace. This power was instead transferred to a bicameral legislative body which, it was hoped, would have the best interests of both the nobles and the rest of the population, the "commoners", at heart. Of course, for a period of time, England actually experimented with not having a "King" but instead had a dictator of sorts in Cromwell - who was later replaced by a king.
But for a group of fiercely independent men who had been pushed so far past the breaking point, the hereditary component of "rulership" was completely anathema. These men sat down and began with the premise that each and every person was born with equivalent skills, and thus it was unfair for one to be elevated to king while another might become a pig farmer.
They attempted to set forth, to the very best of their abilities, a framework that would put the best and brightest people forward to rule the country. The people of that country could select those rulers every so often, and to make sure that the rulers were responsive and responsible to the people, they established two other pieces of government to make sure that the ruler was. The first part of the restriction was to make sure the ruler did not rule by decree, but instead created the rules that the people needed to live by. They were given the power to create the basic rules, which the ruler would then approve.
These rule creators were separated into two groups. One group was selected by geographic area. Each area, regardless of size, got equal representation, and these people were set up to server longer terms to make sure that their decisions were more thoughtful and forward-looking than those of their compatriots. The other group had shorter terms, to make them more responsible to their constituents. This second group was given more power than the first, in that only they could initiate methods to raise funds for the government. This group was also set up to represent a certain number of people, so that states with larger populations would be appropriately heard.
Along with this group of representatives, the men who were building this new form decided that they needed a group of people to make sure that the rules were being followed. They set up a group of judges who were in many cases appointed by the ruler, approved by the representatives of the people, and sat in judgment of both the people and the rules. They provided a mechanism whereby the people could challenge a rule they found unfair, unreasonable, or wrong, and they allowed the judges the power to overturn these rules if there was sufficient reason to do so.
To make sure this was neither easy to do nor lightly done, they also provided for a process whereby the loser could request another hearing by another level of judge, to make sure that this was properly done. So as to prevent an endless round of this process, they established a top-level group of judges who would sit in final review, and be the final arbitrator of the decisions made. To make sure these people were not easily swayed by public opinion, but only by the rightness or wrongness of the issue at hand, they were given appointment for life, or until they chose to retire.
They were expected to remain impartial and look at only the legal merits of the case, and in deciding, decide only on the basis of whether or not the question before them was what had been intended by the founding fathers; this was because it was hoped that the government they were crafting would far outlast them, and perhaps even serve their children well.
What I am sure they never imagined was that the founding fathers of the United States Of America became the basic blueprint for an epidemic of democratic revolutions which swept the globe for the next two hundred years. And while the Constitution they formed has certainly served us well, it might be time to move on.
We've got individuals who have moved into government lock, stock, and barrel. Some, such as Strom Thurmond, may already be dead, but still manage to show up for role call votes. Others, such as Ted Kennedy, are the product of a long line of governmentally-involved families who continue to place people in government. We have leaders who, at present, are arguing over the amount of money they wish to give back to us. Money that has not yet been collected, assumes facts that no sane individual would expect (for example, that the ten year economic expansion we've just experienced is going to continue for a further ten years).
We have a country that concentrates a significant portion of their monetary wealth in a very insignificant number of people. These people are further revered as role models, and yet their personal behavior occasionally reveals them to be the pigs they are.
In some parts of this country people struggle to survive on very little, while in other areas, our government willingly supports people who have not worked in years, and chose not to work. Some of this is understandable, as in many cases, daycare costs more than a person can make, and that daycare expense is because the other parent chose to abdicate their parental responsibilities altogether.
There are many things that are right with America today, but there are also many things that are wrong. Our elected representatives sometimes seem to forget they work for us, and not the businesses and other lobbyist interests who infest the capitol. Our government has agencies which are responsible for spying on us, and yet there are plenty of groups in this country which, frankly, should be spied upon and monitored as a danger to others.
We've got so many laws that even the specialists in that field, who used to be well-respected people, are reduced to arguing about the finer points of the issues at great expense to all of us. So many of these so-called experts exist that they've managed to make the entire field look not only foolish, but on occasion, evil. We've got twenty thousand laws on the books about firearms, and yet people are still killed regularly by illegal weapons and violent, known criminals, without violating any of the firearm laws. In this particular state of Minnesota, we're finally getting around to restricting drunk drivers - it used to be that every drunk-driving offense was a misdemeanor (lower class offense). Now we're finally getting around to saying four strikes and you're in a different league - fourth DWI (Driving While Intoxicated, pronounced "Dee-wee" here) and you're a felony criminal - prison, and that sort of thing.
America has lots of oddball rules like that. We've got so many contradictions that it's getting beyond ridiculous. We can't get agreement on simple things, and the complicated stuff? Heck, that's the stuff we'd rather fight over. Balancing the budget and reducing the debt to near-zero levels should be our priority. However, we'd much rather run the "Bread And Circuses" route and get back what we can before the house breaks. But that's the little problems, not the big ones.
We're not at a crossroads. Not by a long shot. But it occurs to me that here, nearing the two-hundred-twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of this country, we should take a good long look at what we've wrought. And look, even more closely, at where we want to go. Our founding fathers, were they available today for consultation, would likely be flabbergasted by the size and robustness of the country, sickened and disgusted by the bureaucracy in the Federal Government they wanted to create, and stunned into incomprehension by the technology we've managed to create.
Let's spend some time to take a look at that technology, and let's see what we can do. Let's consider even unpopular options - elimination of business taxes, for example, for all businesses who operate at a level of little to no profit - encouraging these businesses to distribute the "profit" of the work back to the people who did the work, rather than people who purchased some paper or electronic documentation saying they "own stock." How about a third house of congress - one to eliminate laws? Or another proposal - every single law on the books now expires within the next twenty-five years; all laws passed henceforth have an automatic sunset provision for twenty-five years at most.
Some others - all elected officials are limited to no more than twenty-four years of service in all elected capacities. All elected positions are designated "unpaid" as are all "staff" positions, and the elected officials can survive on contributions by their constituency. Said contributions to be publically announced daily by the elected official on the nightly news. All constituents are limited to contributing no more than $1,000 per year, $2,000 per company, $4,000 per combination (company of five hundred workers can give $2000, up to two employees or persons associated to the company can give up to $1000 each (larger numbers of smaller contributors are also possible), excess to be put directly into the federal coffers).
Still others - Government cannot tax without the tax bill being voted on by the population. Said population will also be responsible for the results if said tax bill fails - if a community decides that their tax bills are too high, and veto the taxes, the population will then have to either put up with the deterioration of roads, schools, or public facilities - residents of Lower East Podunk, for example, who veto an attempt to raise money for a new firehouse cannot then expect help from their neighbors in Lower West Podunk when there's a house fire. Lower West Podunk and Upper East Podunk will patrol their borders for grassfires crossing from Lower East, but if they're not going to take care of their own, then why should the rest of us? If you don't like the way they do it in LEP, then move. If you don't want to move, how about getting you and a couple neighbors together, running from your house to the nearest border, and secede from Lower East Podunk. Border too far? How about Lower East Inner Podunk. Or Bartsville. Whatever.
We've done a lot of good in this country, but we need to keep an eye on the ball, and our own communities. We need to keep in mind that our children are going to inherit an even larger, even more entrenched, even more confused, and confusing, federal conglomerate which is going to be even harder to control. Perhaps we need a Jeffersonian revolution here, within our very borders, which is supported by the population, and is legal, binding, and sweeping.
Perhaps. It would be nice to get it all done "within" the system, but I don't think the system's going to like that much. Washington and Jefferson might, but there not here right now to drive the bus (or crack the buggy whip, as may be). It's up to us to decide what we want from this country, and if it's capable of doing it.
Yup, more changes in looks and thinking. More later, if I survive the day - Me and Jack are gonna goof off until 2 pm, when we pick up his sister, and she does homework. That's gonna be fun (not).
Oh well, behave.
And actually, I did the above this morning, it never did post, so now I'm schlepping it up there tonight.
Nice, pleasant day with monkey boy, and later his sister. We started off by goofing around here a bit, then ran up to St. Paul. Some, well, MANY months ago I fired off an entry to a local contest - a beauty-makeover opportunity for my lovely wife. Not that she requires a makeover, mind you - she is prettier now than when I married her (and those of you think that the preceding is just simple sucking up, trust me, simple sucking up doesn't involve computers in this house, it requires CHOCOLATE). Anyway, I was hoping the contest would come through for our tenth anniversary - no joy, but they came through last month.
So today, Jack and I stopped by to pick up her certificate ($200 worth of services - wow!), and did some other running. Seems I've a large "Screw-me" target on my back, which works for both good and bad things. For example - I went to Barnes & Nobles near me today for a read. I had a $25 gift certificate, and that meant "fun reading" rather than "work-related". So I went through the magazine section (very slim pickings there, though I did grab an Analog), then started wandering up and down the aisles of the sci-fi/fantasy section. Terry Brooks has yet another attempt to bottle lightening, something about the "Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" - I remember the very first book of his - Sword of Shannara - his description of the battles had me reading one night for six straight hours - didn't move, get a drink, or anything - and I'm a fast reader (read the five-hundred-plus pages in something like two nights, but I re-read lots of it because I really liked it, and yes, Ma, I still keep the comprehension up). Then I saw Mr. Turtledove is once again going to extort money from me. Well, what would you call it - the fellow writes addicting books, regularly publishes them, and I have no choice but to buy. He's evil, I tell you. Damned lizards.
But then... I was minding my business, working my way down the alphabet, and William R Forstchen went and did it again. Down to the Sea. Picked up that, a book for jack, and a half-off box of chocolates for the wife. Went to pay, and the half-off box got charged full-price. Got screwed.
Oh, well. I'm off to dinner and reading... Back to work (and cold) tomorrow. We're headed, this week, for fifteen below, which is pretty unusual for February. Brrrr.
Tuesday, February 20, 2001
Today
was a very good day, of a sort. As you can see from the picture, I
actually made it home before sunset. Which is not quite as surprising as
the sunshine in the mornings. Wow. This is getting to be like,
nearly spring here. Cool.
First off, I got back to work after a nice, long, three-day weekend, and for the first time since I've been there, I wasn't paranoid to see my boss come in. In fact, I was pretty-well oblivious to his actual presence until about 2 pm.
I was working on "the client" yet again. The poor fellow popped a gasket over the weekend, and removed the hardware firewall AND the software firewall he had (now I'm beginning to understand a small portion of the difficulties I've faced aren't actually a gap in my understanding, but more a gap in my questioning skills. It's pretty clear to me that Jeff Dahmer might have gone free had I been a Milwaukee policeman.... er, oops), and still couldn't get the damned thing to work.
I struggled with it for most of the day, and one of the other fellows came into my cube after some discussions, pointed to a field, and said "did you try that yet?" And I swore that I'd tried "that" on step 13, 22, 78, 381, 690, and 11,228. Given the history of my testing, I said "hey, why not?"
Damn me if it didn't just work. Sort of like walking right in front of Mark McGuire as a nice steady fastball went right across the middle of the plate. One of those "Doh!" moments, once again.
So the good news is that I did get that chunk of pain worked out. Bad news is that tomorrow we go out and demonstrate. Those three of you who regularly stop by and read this (Hi mom, dad, and either one of the Bobs) - okay, just kidding - anyway, you regulars know that when I go out there it's the junior-high equivalent of leaving the men's room in the morning after checking everything, only to find out on the bus ride home that your fly was indeed down, and had been all day long. A long, painful day, ended with a brief embarrassing moment where you look at the client and say "I have no idea why it did that, it's never done that before, but we'll figure it out."
Sort of like "don't worry, honey, that sort of thing happens to guys all the time."
Oh well. It could be worse. Now I've got to try to figure out what I need to know in order to write the white paper "replication through firewalls". Gee, about eighty-eleven different configurations there, so this should be fun. Give me another month, maybe.
At least there's good news of a wonderful sort...
Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Yes, again. Went to the customer site. Everything was working when I left my office. Sat down at the customer site, and, yes, you know it. Not a $%#$*&& thing worked. I'm getting too fed up with this shit to deal with it calmly any more. I've been doing an awful lot of on-site work over the years. I've been in an awful lot of situations working on Novell, NT, AS/400, UNIX, DOS, AIX, and with far, far more complex networks than I've got here.
And I've never ever seen a more consistently contrary situation. Every single time I go out there with a carefully executed, limited, simple plan, the whole damn thing balls up. I'm beginning to think I'm not paranoid, that everything out there IS out to get me.
Enough. I'm fed up with the situation, and under more than a little pressure, as the customer has indicated that if we don't have an answer for them by Friday, forget it. We're out. And everyone's looking at me for answers, which I haven't got.
Frankly, the whole manner in which Microsoft communicates via TCP/IP has driven me more than a little insane. I'm not sure yet I've got it right, but it appears to me that Microsoft will, when the need arises, grab just any old port available above 1024. And if you're not through with the port yet, then we'll just grab whatever else is available. I'm more old-school, I guess. I like the UNIX approach - "I'm using this port, and if you don't like it, bugger the bleep off."
Oh well. I can tell you that the whole upcoming Whistler/DotNet/Office ten mess isn't going to attract any of my dollars. And, God willing, very little of my labor. Whistler is a great big pain, no matter what it's called. The "XP" designation, as I remember from childhood, was usually for "eXPerimental" stuff that wasn't safe enough for the rest of us to play with. Perhaps that's what Microsoft wants to remind us of. I can guarantee you the "XPerience" I've had with this current batch of products has me loath to venture forth into the next bunch.
Maybe I'm getting too old for this crap. I want things to work. Once they work, I want them to keep working. If I want to add functionality, I don't want to have to replace the whole house, for example, to add a bathroom. Especially since I was told when I bought the house that a bathroom was certainly available, and did not require me removing garage, laundry room, and the entire basement in order to add one.
Microsoft's unbelievable arrogance in indicating that the open source movement is going to kill off innovation, in my book, puts them right up there next to IBM in the F.U.D. Hall of Fame. Certainly, there are questions (as JHR has raised) about the whole process of releasing your work, but let's be blunt here - Microsoft's not worried about the "little I" (innovation), they're worried about the "big I" (income). And if you're a software company that focuses on that first, you've got incredible problems.
Why do I say that? Let's step back a bit. You're in a band, with a record contract. Which do you focus on - the picture for the album cover or the music itself? Remember, that even if Napster is truly dead (yeah, right), there's still a significant portion of your attention that's going to come from radio airplay, internet download, and even TV-video play. If you worry about the color of your freaking jacket on the album cover, and just toss off a few songs, you'd better be bloody talented, or you're not getting album number two.
Same with software. Yes, after the demise of the dot-comunauts, you've got to watch the bottom line, but if you're spending your time looking at income, rather than the quality (or lack thereof) in your software, well, then good freaking luck.
Argh! I've got to calm down and watch my blood pressure. This is driving me nuts.
On to more pleasant topics - we "suffered" through some cold here today; not as bad as expected, and, if I might be so bold, probably the last serious below-zero blow we can expect. Once we get into March, below zero nights will be surprises (nasty ones, to be sure), but certainly not the rule. Tonight, it was still light outside at 6:15 pm. Between the length of the sunlight, and the height of the sun in the sky, which makes the difference. Yesterday, despite the fact that we barely made it into double-digits, we had melting snow, and running water, outside.
Soon, very soon, the snow will start to melt, the ground will reappear, and we'll be able to eat out on the deck again. Finally.
In the mean time, at least the Naval academy is doing something I thought they should have done long ago.
Thursday, February 22, 2001
Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it just getting out of bed in the mornings. This morning I got up, got to the office, and sat down behind the computers, ready to do battle with the blasted problems that were still annoying me. And I got an e-mail from the boss. Another employee had struggled with the issue for a couple of hours and thought he had a solution. I shrugged and went back to my testing. Frankly, my experience at the customer from hell's site has taught me that "thinking" you have the solution isn't worth the mileage money.
So I sat down and did some more testing. Verified that all the settings were the way I thought they should be, and fired up replication. It worked. I dialed in to my ISP and tried replication. It worked. Tried a couple more computers. They worked. Talked to the fellow who by now was on site. It didn't work. Kept testing.
So how was your day? Of course, I think mine might have been better had I not known it was old "Happy" Schopenhauer's birthday... Rather than bore you with a partially-completed Philosophy Minor's incomplete philosophical understanding of yet another grumpy old man, we'll entertain you a wee bit with a chunk of Phython...
The Philosopher's Song (Monty Python)
Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume
Both Schopenhauer and Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.
There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates himself was permanently pissed.
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could pack it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
Hobbes was fond of his dram,
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:
"I drink, therefore I am"
Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed!
Though my favorite version of this is here - talk about too much free time. And a short but true story. For a few years I was forced to attend weddings conducted by many of my friends and acquaintences. While many used the age-old "clink to kiss" method, a few people (foolish mortals) started the reception dinner by announcing that if you wanted the newly-married couple to kiss, you were going to have to sing. Specifically, a song with the word "love" somewhere in it.
So, many of us considered it more than a straightforward challenge. We went to work. "Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band was a favorite, as was "The Barney Theme". The Brady Bunch Theme. Love Is A Battlefield. And many others. Many, many others. Though the above was a particularly fun one - you had to get to the last bloody line before "Love" showed up.
Thank God tomorrow's Friday. This is one of those weeks that just kept beating me up, and I'm ready for the weekend.
But before I go... Let me get my Don Quixote helmet firmly in place, and we'll be off... There.
I realize that Mr.
Zeldman is a bit of a personality and all, but as for his
campaign to upgrade browsers, Just Say Screw It. While I'm sure that
non-flash-enabled, non-XML-supporting browsers are driving him nuts, it's time
to say "good enough, damnit."
While I appreciate the difficulty that such a wide range of browsers creates for cutting-edge designers, bottom line is that they are asking us to again place our faith and our hard drives at the mercy of companies such as Microsoft and AOL. Microsoft, as we all know, would be quite happy charging us for this software, and I predict that within the next three years, you and I will be given the opportunity to get Microsoft's nearly-all-there Internet Explorer for free. To get the super-duper version we'll be needing to get to the web sites we want to go to, it'll cost us $24.95 a month. And I'm not going to put up with it.
There is no good reason that you need to download and apply umpteen billion new little niggles from Microsoft, Nutscrape, Opera, or anyone else. If your current browser is running fine, and you can see all the sites you want without glitches, don't even bother. There isn't a blessed thing on the web that is worth that kind of aggravation. While I sympathize with Mr. Zeldman regarding his difficulties in coding for various different browser platforms, sorry buddy, that's your job, you've chosen it, and now it's time to deal with it.
As a network administrator, I've got to deal with multiple different operating systems, different configurations, and a billion other oddball things. I'd love it if they'd standardize on four different basic configurations. But my world doesn't have that kind of ease or certainty. And until the browser upgrades abate, neither will the browsers we use to look at the web.
Enough. I'm not going to go on ad naseum on this track - there's no good reason to upgrade other than for someone else's convenience. And frankly, when they insist on jamming down flash-bloated sites which require all the latest gadgets and you're barely able to handle it at 56K, fergetaboudit.
We were talking this morning, the wife and I, about camping. Her concept of it involves extension cords and microwave ovens. Mine's a little rougher than that. We've got some friends who've got a trailer, but are a lot more outdoor-savvy than the trailer would tend to indicate. And we might end up camping with them! I'm not sure yet that where we're talking about counts as camping, but we'll have to see.
Yippie Skippie it's...Friday!, February 23, 2001
Today was a pretty good day, all things considered. Nine days ago we got our taxes done. Today, we got our federal refund. Gotta like that. Of course, we've already planned what to do with it four times over, now, so I guess it's time to get it done. What's the old saying? Easy come, easy go? Yeah, right. I wish.
Although I got two very big laughs today. Between Brian's link to the RTFM instructions, and Mr. Hassell's revelation of the true story behind the "any" key, I got a good start to the day. Though, to borrow and mangle a quote from Groucho, I'm a bit worried about anyone who would quote me - he needs help, and soon, before they come after him with the rubber coat. Trust me on this one, I've seen too many people hauled off like that. Only three of them have been me. Just kidding - anyway.... too bad every day can't start like that.
However this afternoon was one of the longest weeks I've ever suffered through. I've got three major projects, plus resolving customer issues, on my plate. Two of the three are awaiting hardware; one of them is waiting for the results of one of the projects I'm working on. Since the fellow went out yesterday to the customer from hell's site and resolved most of their issues, I've got to wait and meet with him. He's out of the office next week, so there's nothing I can do but wait on that front.
I did get word today that the extra sets of drive carriers we ordered are on their way. We've got five drives now for one computer - which wouldn't be quite so painful but for the fact that if we put all five 20-gig drives in the computer (if we could, mind you), we'd be looking at adding almost 50% to our total networked storage capacity. Talk about ouch.
But that didn't have me quite as excited as word that the firewall products I'm going to "evaluate" shipped yesterday, and will arrive at our office Monday. Finally, a chance to start testing some of this stuff in a REAL environment.
If Marcia hadn't taken time out of her busy afternoon to pick on my choice of camp sites, etc., my afternoon might have been pretty miserable. But it passed, and that's the important thing.
And tomorrow morning, my wife gets to go for her "makeover" ($200 free from the fine folks at KSTP, thank you very much), and we'll see how that works. I think she's excited to get it done. Good timing, too, as it's a week before her birthday. Which means yup, I gotta go shopping. Time to put the little spies to work... "Mommy, what do YOU want for your birthday?" Works every time.
However, that's enough for today. I'm sure I'll be able to bring more than two brain cells to bear tomorrow on the significant issues of the day. Then again, it's Saturday and we're getting a snowstorm. If I had a fireplace, I'd hunker down and enjoy the weather. That's another reason to buy an existing house instead of build new... Some morons here in the state realized that if they sold the legislature on an upgraded building code, they could easily force people building new homes to forgo that energy-stretching renewable-resource-using wood-burning fireplace for the more profitable (for someone) gas heat. Never mind the fact that you can later refit the house, at great cost, for this feature; you can't build one in new. It's not because of the various hazards that a wood-burning fireplace could introduce - it's because the next-generation homes here in this state need to be so air-tight that they control the ventilation - most new houses here have a three-inch PVC pipe which brings air into the home. Personally, I'd rather have a home with higher internal air pressure than outside; yes, it means heat will leak out, but the exchange of air will also force smells and germs and dust and all the rest OUT when a door or window opens, rather than the other way 'round.
Ach, well. Nuff about my theories on building houses. I'd rail at politicians tonight, but I'm just so sick and tired of all of it. Even Goofy, the governor of our fair state, has gone even further past the deep end than one would expect of a fellow who spent a number of years getting bounded on his head. Due to "security concerns" they've issues press-pass credentials to the local reporters following this wing-nut. Of course, in typical Venture fashion, he had to work in a book plug, so the media credentials have the reporter's name, followed by the title "Official Jackal". That's his favorite nickname for the press up here.
So, anyway, Gov. Goofy is upset that only a few reporters are willing to be called an official jackal. I wonder if I made the fellow a nametag which said "Governor Goofy, Official State Id10t" whether he'd wear it with pride, or get upset.
Oh, hush. Time for me to take my medication and head to bed. Tomorrow morning should be fun. We've got powdered sugar donuts, chocolate coated donuts, and chocolate milk - between that and typical Saturday morning TV, I think we're heading at a hell-bent-for-leather pace for a Calvin and Hobbes type of morning. If only I could find Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs in the grocery store. I've been tempted to get the Oreo-ohs and the Reeses peanut butter cup cereal and mix them together. Put some chocolate milk over them and that should be just about enough sugar to put Jack in orbit. Think of the possibilities... G'nite.
Saturday, February 24, 2001
Well, that didn't last too long. We picked up a new television (the old one was about twenty-five years old and out of focus), and while we were at it, we sunk another couple of bucks into a basic DVD player. And then, another couple of bucks for a couple DVDs. Then a lunch out. Then, because it was snowy, rainy, icy, and we had a leaky tire, we got four new tires, too. Well, new-to-us new.
Yeah, the weather's at it again. First thing I should mention is that we're heading into the season of hich school tournaments right now. From late February through the end of March, every single weekend has tournaments, and we almost always have blizzards on these weekends. This weekend, for example, is the Girl's State Hockey Tournament. We also have Boys Wrestling, Girls Gymnastics, Boy's Hockey (the largest high-school tournament in the United States - even bigger than Texas Football, believe it or not), and then the big two - Girls and Boys basketball. We start the tournament season with average highs in the twenties (above), and end it with averages in the forties. Doesn't mean that we aren't going to suffer.
March around here is usually the deadliest month in terms of snow and blizzards. I think the deadly part comes from two different angles. The first is fatigue. Simple snow-fatigue. We're sick and tired of snow by this time, and we know how to drive, we think. We carefully approach corners, and inch out around the four-and-five foot high piles that have by now accumulated on each corner. We slow down at intersections, but never reach a complete stop at some because we know that if we stop at certain intersections, we're going to need five minutes or more to get going again.
But by this time in the winter, we occasionally see wet pavement with lots of running water on it - and we get a little giddy. Half of the water running down the street may well be the blue windshield wash you don't dare run out of this time of year, but we're still giddy with the expectation that snow might soon disappear completely.
The second reason March blizzards are deadly are the ferocity with which they strike. Some years ago, we made it through the entire winter with only about six inches of snow, until March. We had two blizzards roar through in mid-March and one dropped almost fourteen inches of snow in less than six hours. Combined with winds of forty-to-fifty mph, and you're looking at a very nasty winter storm. The odd part was that the day before this storm struck, we were in the forties.
Most of you in the cooler climes understand what I'm talking about when I mention the concept of relative thermal comfort. It's really a simple concept which states that in the fall, after two to three months of eighty to ninety degree temps, fifty feels downright cold. Meanwhile, in the spring, after several months of below-freezing or near-freezing weather, fifty is shorts and sandals weather around here. So going from twenty to fifty to twenty is pretty cruel. People will ditch their heavy winter coats, gloves, hats, and winter survival kits. And then they'll catch themselves in desperate situations.
Almost four years ago now, I remember sitting in the living room, watching the news story about the pregnant woman with the two-year-old daughter. She got confused on the way home in a blizzard, lost her way, and ended up with her vehicle in a flooded field. She managed to get out of the vehicle, and get her daughter out of the back seat. She made it about half-way across the field before collapsing, and later dying, Her daughter died as well.
So we're especially careful up here to watch the weather and such, and remain careful through April. After all, the "possible snow season" here in the state runs from August to June (yes, the only month of the year we've not yet managed to get snow in is July; I'm sure in the next few years we'll correct that oversight). Never can be too careful.
Crap - It wouldn't be a complete bother if my ISP was still working, but there's apparently some problem I'm going to have to address tomorrow when they get a warm-body type in the office. I get connected, but then immediately disconnected. I think there's a problem with my password, which would figure.
Well, anyway. We got things connected and sorted and fixed, and now I'm going to watch TV - something I rarely do. Since it's focused now and all, it's much better.
Sunday, February 25, 2001
After yesterday's dissertation on weather, I suppose I should be painfully blunt about our experience today - yesterday it was foggy, misting, and right around freezing all day. Last night, as we were coming home, we had a bit of rain coming down, and it was starting to freeze. When I looked out the back door, we had bare wood and no snow on our deck. This morning, we had four inches of new snow. Ugh.
So we did a little more running around, and a little more shopping, and in the end, we're beat, tired, run ragged, and mostly done-in. The streets this morning were completely snow-covered and icy. Yuck.
Oh, heck. Still can't get on-line. Here's a couple of shots from the trip around - each image links to a larger (size-wise) image (most are 200K or less).
To the left above is our road, and on the right is another street. This is pretty typical of Burnsville street maintenance, but not of the metro area as a whole. It usually takes twelve inches or more of snow and twenty-to-thirty miles an hour winds, in a short period of time (six hours or so) to shut stuff down here. Not bragging, just fact. We've got big dump trucks we fill with sand, with large (20 foot) wings on the front. That's what we use for plows. If you get in front of one and stop, you'd better hope you're in a semi-tractor, because most anything smaller gets flattened.
On the left, a good look at the trees - they look frosted. On the right, this is a very unusual shot - this is a major county road, at nearly 1 pm, snow and ice-covered. Just doesn't happen here.
I like this house. Nice valley, with a creek running through it.
See you Tomorrow... I hope.
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