Halfway through Winter

According to whom you read, either Thursday, February 2nd or Friday, February 3rd was the halfway point through winter.  Of course, knowing that, I shouldn't have been surprised.

When I checked the forecast midday on Thursday, it said that we should expect a 20% chance of showers during the day and a 10% chance of showers overnight.  I didn't think much about it.

I got up Friday morning and looked out the kitchen window.  At first, it looked normal.  For no particular reason, a few minutes later, I looked out the window again.  Flipped the curtain back into place.  Then stopped and looked again.  I thought, the bushes don't look normal, so I took a closer look and discovered they didn't look normal because they were covered in snow.

I looked out the front door and sure enough, we'd gotten about half an inch of snow overnight.

Fortunately, although it wasn't a light, dry snow, it wasn't wet and heavy either.  Fairly easy to clear off my sidewalk, car and driveway.  The roads out of the subdivision were slushy but not icy.  Hooray!

It was actually rather picturesque.  I do like picturesque, especially when it doesn't interfere with my getting to work in a timely fashion.

It was warm enough that the snow was 99.9% melted when I got home.  So, other than the brief cleanup in the morning, I didn't have to do any really hard work to get rid of it.  I love when a plan comes together.

Papillon

Problem Solving

Over the years I've noticed that people at work can generally be divided into three groups when it comes to solving maintenance problems at work.

Group One - People who consciously or unconsciously never actually notice a problem.  I can't prove whether the cluelessness is deliberate or not.  But if you point out the problem to these people, they will say - wow, yes, there is a problem, but I did not notice it.

Group Two - People who notice the problem but choose to do absolutely nothing.  Sometimes it's because of ignorance - yes, there's a problem, but I don't know who to contact about it.  Sometimes, I attribute it to laziness - why should they do anything?  If they ignore it long enough someone else will take care of it.

Group Three - People who see a problem and actually take action to correct said problem.

Me, I tend to fall into Group Three.  It may not be my property, but there's no reason to let things deteriorate.  If I let something get to a point that it takes a LOT of money to fix, the company may decide to pay the money to fix it and then cut back in another area which could possibly cause me some annoyance.  Why chance it?

Example:  one day I'm walking to the break room shortly after getting to work to put something in the refrigerator.  No problems.  After lunch I walk to the break room to get my item out of the fridge.  On my way there, I have to walk by the soft drink machine.  On the first trip, no problems.  Second trip, there's a big damp spot in front of said vending machine.  Not good.  I get a piece of paper and a pen and write down the number of the company that owns the vending machine.  I give them a call.  They immediately know what is causing the damp spot.  They come out promptly, fix the problem and use a water-extracting machine on the carpet.

Note:  when I called the vending machine company, they reacted as though I was the first person to call.  It was never mentioned - oh, yes, that has already been reported.  Nope.

Now, I do not know the exact number of people working in the building.  But, between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM, I was NOT the only person to walk past that machine.  Yet, nobody else called.  The number of the vending company was prominently displayed on the front of the machine.  Yet, nobody else called.  Writing down the number, walking to my desk and calling the company took less than five minutes.  Yet, nobody else made the effort. 

Sheesh!

Papillon

Champagne on New Year's Eve

A bit of history (historical history, not my history):  In 1772 Philippe Clicquot-Muiron founded the company that would eventually become Veuve Clicquot (pronounced vuv klee-KOH).  In 1798, Philippe's son, Francois Clicquot, married Barb-Nicole Ponsardin.  Francois died in 1805.  His widow (veuve is French for widow) was left in control of a company that handled banking, wool trading and Champagne production.  Barbe-Nicole decided to concentrate on the Champagne production.  As part of that, she is credited with the breakthrough allowing for the mass production of wine.  When Barbe-Nicole died in 1866, Veuve Clicquot was a substantial Champagne house and respected brand enjoyed by, among others, many of the royal houses of Europe, including Imperial Russia and England.

I had heard of Veuve Clicquot and had read a biography of Barbe-Nicole a couple of years ago.  So, when I found Veuve Clicquot Champagne for sale at, of all places, Costco at a reasonable price, I bought a bottle planning on having it on New Year's Eve.  Although it is a very pleasant wine to drink, sadly it did not blow me away.  I was expecting WOW!  Or even wow!  Instead, I got an OK.  Sigh. 

Oh, well.  I celebrated New Year's Eve as I like to - quietly and at home.  I definitely don't like going to New Year's Eve parties.  I went once (with friends) during grad school and hated it.  I don't like crowds.  I especially don't like noisy crowds.  I even more especially don't like drunk, noisy crowds.  So, staying home is just what I like.  No noise.  No crowds.  No standing in line to use a public restroom.

I just wish the Champagne had lived up to my hopes and had blown my socks off.  I guess if that's the worse thing that happens in 2012, I should have a pretty good year.

Bonne Annee,

Papillon

Winter Solstice

Today is the Winter Solstice and already I am so very tired of winter.  Or at least with its byproducts.  All we've been hearing is that La Nina will be giving us a very dry winter.  So far we've had three winter storms in two weeks with the latest one hitting today.

In a theoretical sense, I like snow.  I like to stay indoors and watch it snow.  I don't particularly like to be out in it. 

What's most annoying is the timing of this latest storm.  It was originally forecast to hit us starting late yesterday and continue on into today with it clearing out tomorrow.  Instead it started tonight and is continuing on into tomorrow.  I'm hoping we don't get a lot of snow or I may not be able to make it to the airport on Saturday so I can visit with my family on Christmas.  Sigh.

Oh, well, will deal with things as they happen.

On a related note, things were VERY foggy in the way to work on Wednesday.  Normally when you look at this tree, you can see buildings behind it.  I thought it looked cool with standing there all alone.

Papillon

It Takes All Kinds

I like to read the etiquette column written by Miss Manners.  I may not always agree, but I find it to be an interesting read.

Sometime back, a reader wrote in saying they like to read obituaries.  (Not my cup of tea, but it takes all kinds to make the world go around.)  The reader said they had noticed the beginning of an annoying trend.  In most obits, it says something to the effect of "in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the charity of your choice".  Or something similar.

However, the annoying trend spotted by the reader involved relatives of the deceased asking for cash contributions to be made to them instead.  (The relatives, not the deceased.)  The reader thought this was just another cash-grab on the par of people asking for cash instead of wedding gifts, birthday presents, etc. and thought it was tacky.

Miss Manners agreed, although in a much more refined fashion.

Since then, I've taken to occasionally scanning the obit section of the local paper.  It doesn't happen often, but I spotted an example in today's (12/10/11) paper.  Specifically for an 85-year-old named Marian W. Payden.  She's described as beloved wife of (her husband), loving stepmother of Scott and Kristin Payden.

The obit goes on to say, "In lieu of flowers, donations can be mailed to Scott and Kristin Payden, (street address), Medina, Ohio...."

In the past I've seen verbiage that asked for cash to help with funeral expenses.  I can sort of understand that.  In these tough economic times, not everyone has insurance or savings to help pay for funeral costs.  But today's example left me with a dropped jaw.  For all we know, good old Scott and Kristin are going to take the 'donations' and head for a Caribbean cruise.  Or Las Vegas.  So much for honoring their 'loving stepmother'. 

Sheesh!

Papillon

Snowed In

In yesterday's post, I spent a fair amount of time kvetching about the small amount of snow we had gotten.  I should be careful about what I kvetch about.

The forecasters all said we would be getting more snow.  Maybe 1-2 inches overnight with the possibility of more snow today.  Sure enough, it started to snow last night.  I was hoping it would blow through  leaving a minimum of snow behind.

No such luck.  I got up this morning and found a good 4-6 inches on the ground and more falling.  Work's start time was delayed by 2 hours.


















One problem - I drive a PT Cruiser.  The front end only clears the ground by about 4 inches.  (I've confirmed this the hard way by scraping the curb if I pull too far forward in a parking space.)  With 4 to 6 inches of snow on the ground, I'm no longer driving a car, instead I'm driving a cute red snow plow.

So I called work and said that I'm taking a vacation day since I'm not able to get out of the subdivision.  Fortunately, I didn't have anything critical work-wise on my plate.  I did miss a holiday luncheon that sounded as though it was going to be yummy.  (Rats!)

I really didn't want to see the snow.  I'm saving up my vacation time for some stuff I'm planning on doing next year.  The snow just shot 9 hours of that.  Sigh.  Plus, since I took the above pictures, I've been shoveling snow.  Apparently I overdid it with my right arm because it's feeling really tight.  Oh, well.  After I get done here, I get to go out and move more snow.  I may spread some sand as well.  No point in walking out tomorrow morning and hitting ice.  I've never been fond of falling down.  Nope, no thanks.

Papillon

P.S.  I actually measured the snow on top of my car.  I officially got 6 1/4 inches.  Sheesh.  One of the forecasters said there are parts of the metro area that only got a few flakes.  Salt in the wound.
P.S.2  The forecasters are saying we will be getting down into double digits over night.  Oh, really.  If I wanted winter time temps in the single digits I'd move to some place like Minnesota or North Dakota.  (And yes, I do realize their single digits are usually negative numbers.)
P.S.3  I am SO glad I had my house re-piped earlier this year.  Now my pipes are all properly insulated (unlike those installed by the builder) and much less likely to be affected by really cold temperatures.

Not Everyone Dislikes the Snow

Yesterday I ranted about how I'm not the world's biggest fan of snow.  This feeling obviously does not apply to everyone and that includes some of the area's critters.

I have a large fir tree in my front yard.  Several years ago I noticed that one or more of the local rabbits likes to hang out at the base of the trunk of said tree.  To a certain extent, it makes sense.  With its butt up against the trunk, the rabbit is fairly safe from larger predators sneaking up on it from behind.  This is bolstered by the branches around the base of the tree.  The possibility of being stabbed in the face by a branch deters coyotes, et. al. from just rushing in.  On the other hand, the branches aren't packed too close so as to hinder the rabbit's field of vision.  (Note:  I don't know if it's always the same rabbit I see or if a number of rabbits have figured out the niceness of napping under my tree.)

After all my anti-snow rantings, I was surprised to walk out around mid-morning and see the rabbit snuggled under the tree.  Here's a wide shot of the rabbit - he's the small mound of brown fur at the base of the trunk.

Here's more of a close-up. 

I was hoping to get a shot from an angle that didn't have a branch across him/her.  But Rabbit was camera-shy (or people-shy) and hopped off after just a couple of shots.

I'm not sure why Rabbit wasn't freezing its butt off sitting directly on the snow.  But it seems to like where it's at because its been there for several hours.

To each, their own.

Papillon (who's staying inside and out of the snow)