January, 2008

Warm temps earlier in the week — it was nearly 40 went I went to work on Monday — not so much today. 14°F below zero as I write this, with a windchill of 35 below, and projected high near zero. Chilly!

A lot of things have been like that lately: up one day, down the next. About the only constant has been my complete lack of motivation to make any new photographs. My energy during the week has been directed at work, and on the weekends, either sleep or other obligations have been on my mind.

But that’s mid-winter for you. This is the time of year when the biggest thing to look forward to is the fact that the days are getting visibly longer each week, and you can tell yourself that spring’s not that far away. Meanwhile, try and get a little ahead with the work so when the nice weather does roll around a guy can play hooky.

As much as I’ve been trying to avoid it, it’s become impossible to ignore the 2008 election cycle. Minnesota’s primary is just two weeks (and a day) away, and while I’m pretty sure who I’m voting for, it seemed like time to hold my nose and look at the other candidates.

For me, the question isn’t so much which candidate I want to have “help” me, it’s which one I think will most leave me alone. I don’t think any of the candidates are qualified to decide how the government should make my life easier or how they should make me better. That way, even (or perhaps especially) when well-intentioned, leads to a soul-crushing Brave New World. The Progressives Clinton, Obama and Huckabee want to make me a better person. The managers Giuliani, McCain and Romney want to make us a better country, which involves keeping a darned close eye on me so I’ll be a better person (or else!) And I do not hold to that. And while Fred Thompson is interesting, I still think he’s a little too eager to help me. Only Ron Paul seems willing to leave me alone as long as I don’t bother anyone else.

Is Dr. No perfect? Nope. But neither am I, and when I looked at the Electoral Compass USA [via papascott], I wasn’t surprised at all to find that it put a marker for me right on top of Ron Paul. That may make me a wing-nut, and it certainly does Dr. Paul, since that sort of thinking just doesn’t make sense in the fever-swamps of the Potomac, but there you have it. If you want to be left alone, he’s your guy. As an added bonus, he’s the only candidate for president who voted against USA-PATRIOT, and I've been bitching about that for over six years.

And since I’m apparently off in wing-nut-land this morning, Happy John Moses Browning’s birthday.

Sporty Exterior

One of my cow-orkers has been saying Grr. Brr. lately whenever we’re heading out to lunch and it’s cold. It strikes me as funny. And with what’s likely to be some of the coldest weather of the winter hitting us this weekend (highs tomorrow aren’t expected to get above zero, so you probably won’t see me at the Pond Hockey Championships), it seemed like a pretty appropriate title.

Not a whole lot going on lately. Eat. Work. Eat. Sleep. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. But when I stopped by the Sporty on Tuesday for some dinner, I saw that Joe had most of the windows in. The remodelling is certainly changing the look of the place. Even Joe admits he might have to change his slogan, since calling it a dive bar might not be appropriate anymore. I guess we’ll see. I think it’ll be a good thing when he’s open for lunch again.

It’s not every day that a guy wakes up at 2pm and wonders if he should sleep longer, but that’s what happened to me today. I was feeling kinda slow and stupid all week, and yesterday had had enough so I came home early from work to sleep for a couple extra hours. Today I woke up at the normal time, emailed in sick to work and went back to bed. I’m pretty sure my sleep schedule is completely messed up at this point, but I’m feeling a bit better, and hoping that a easy afternoon will get me back on track for tomorrow. I don’t much like being sick, I think.

At least on the way home yesterday, I had enough presence of mind to stop for some groceries. Today would not have been a good day to be out of chicken noodle soup.

Yep. Today’s the day when I head back to work. It’s been nice having a week and a half off, but now that’s done. I’ve got a lot of work to do in the next month or two, so things might be quiet around here. As for the break, the only thing I really regret is missing the New Year’s Eve party, but that didn’t even start until 8pm (a reasonable time), and due to my screwy schedule, I was already thinking of going to bed when it was time to start getting ready for the party. Sigh.

As I mentioned in passing last time, I’ve had trouble getting email through to my friend Bob. Doesn’t surprise me. There are plenty of other times when my email has been caught by overly-aggressive spam-filters out there. The latest numbers say that about 90% of all email is spam. I’m seeing closer to 95% that actually gets through to my Mac, plus however much spam is getting filtered at the server that I don’t even see. It’s pretty absurd. I don’t know what the solution is, but I sure hope someone comes up with one relatively soon.