A Snow Day?

I don't know if you heard about the weather we had in the Dallas area last week or not...
Anyway, I actually made to work everyday except Friday. I freely admit I can't drive on the bad roads. In my neck of the woods we had a nice 2-3 inch layer of ice on the road. Also, driving a standard makes it worse, so hard to accelerate without spinning out. I go to work Tues-Thurs though, but when the icy roads got a nice 6 inch later of snow on top of it. I decided I really didn't need to be out on the roads. The weather really is an abnormality for us here. The meterologists say it is some of the coldest weather in 30 years or so. I can never remember it being this cold for this long. Yes even in just a four day stretch.

Then of course by 2PM Saturday it was 90% melted away. The amazing thing is that at my boss' house there was still a lot of ice on his front porch as of yesterday afternoon.

I went to a Super Bowl part Sunday, but really reeled in my drinking. Having done it a million times before, but I decided I didn't want to be hungover at work on Monday. When are we going to move the Super Bowl to Saturday?

As I write this we got more sleet and snow today. After being told of a "light dusting" We need to define those terms I think. So not that mound of ice on boss' porch has some sleet sitting on top of it. Awesome

My Christmas Vacation

If you recall last week was Christmas. My original plan was to go to my dad's house Christmas Eve drive back home, and go back Christmas morning. Well it started snowing Christmas Eve, and it was pretty treacherous just driving to my dad's house. On one overpass a guy decided driving 15mph in the middle lane wasn;t good enough for me so he jumped into the left had lane and drive 15mph there. He almost got rear ended, and the truck swerved in front of me and ended up the right hand lane because of the ice. Everyone was okay though.

So, I did end up spending Christmas Eve at my dad's house, and I was worried where I would sleep. Well my dad got a new camping trailer and I ended up sleeping in it. The trailer has a gas trailer, and I ended up turning it down, because it got so hot in there. The main problem was the wind, it would blow so hard and shake the trailer until about 4AM.

It was pretty cool having a White Christmas. It was the first one in Dallas since 1926, and only the second one I have experienced in my life.

Christmas Day was uneventful for the most part. I spent a few hours at a neighbor's house from my old neighborhood. Such a big differnce between their house and my dad's. So many kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids there. Back at my dad's there were just four of us. After we ate Christmas dinner though, we were just sitting there, all four of us, literally staring at the wall. With the same music from like 10 hours earlier playing. The snow had cleared up by this time, so I got out of there. I can understand leaving the TV off when everyone is talking and visiting, but when no one is saying anything to each other lets turn the thing on.

A good Christmas though. I enjoyed it.

AEIOU and sometimes Y

Stormy Weather: Last night and most of today we have been having some hellacious weather. Tornado sirens going off early. Me and my roommate thought we saw a fire starting from some lightning, when we drove over there we discovered it wasn't. It was just a few optical illusions fooling us. On the drive back to the house the rain was so bad you couldn't see more than maybe 10 feet in front of you.
This morning we had rolling thunder for about three hours. I love the sound of rolling thunder. It cleared up for about an hour or two, but have since had more storms come through. Wow it was awesome.

The picture to the right is by Justin Terveen who took it yesterday.

Creee-peeee: So, Friday night I am at Kotta Sushi drinking a beer at the bar. At one point this couple gets there and we chat for a bit. After a while the dude's wife leaves to go to the restroom, and this happens.
"Yeah, we just got married in May," the dude.
"Congratulations," I reply.
"Hey, when my wife comes back, tell her how gorgeous she looks."
"Uh, that's okay. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that."
"No, no. It's fine," he says.
"No, no. It isn't."
It was just so weird, and creepy having some guy I just met telling me to tell his wife how good looking she is. Especially someone who is a newlywed. Ew.

Well, excuse me: One thing that bothers me the most is when customers who owe the company I work for get mad. Well, this morning I one of those customers called me directly and irate that I had told one of his employees they were on credit hold. All I told him in response was, "What am I supposed to tell them, then?"
That seemed to piss him off even more, he said I had a bad attitude and wated to talk to my boss. When I told him that my boss would call him back in a few minutes he complains again, and again I told him, "What should I tell them?" The he said I had a real non-chalant attitude. I said the same thing again, but I wanted to say,"Well, this attitude is a defensive mechanism to keep me from telling you, To go fuck yourself." Which, it really, really is. I have been known to go off on customers before, so I was trying ahrd to keep myself in check.
My boss did smooth things over later, of course everyone's opinion here is if he paid in a timely matter it wouldn't ever have to come up.

Now Listening to "Sing" by Glen Campbell

In a way a kind of feel ripped off. We were told we are going to get this great storm over the weekend, and by the time it reached us late Saturday afternoon. It was kind of windy and it rained for about an hour or so. It was weaker than a normal spring thunderstorm. After all the effort the gas stations made by raising their prices by 30 cents in about a 5 hour period to gouge the consumer. It wasn’t even bad enough to lose satellite reception. We had a much worse rainstorm about a month ago. Of course that didn’t stop the weatherman from coming on during EVERY commercial break during the OSU-USC game to tell us about it. I was prepared though with my bottled water just in case. Of course you would know it more commonly as a twelve pack of beer.

Speaking of the Ohio State-USC game it was so delicious seeing Ohio State get creamed. My roommate is a huge fan of the Buckeyes. As I told him at half time, ”This isn’t even a national championship game.” What the heck were the Buckeyes doing with their quarterbacks? Sometimes alternating plays, and getting no continuity. Must be hard for the lineman to have to adjust from a pocket passer and then a pure running QB between plays.

In local radio news: I’ve been hearing commercials on the station I listen to for a company called Ashley Madison. The first couple of times I heard the commercial I thought it was joke by the station, but I kept hearing the ad. Apparently it is an on-line dating service for people looking to have affairs. That is right a website that directly endorses infidelity.

Discuss this title amonst yourselves

Batten down the hatches!: After checking in with the Travis weather center it seems like Hurricane Ike will still be Tropical Storm Ike when it hits here early Sunday morning. This could all change by tomorrow of course. This is the first hurricane I can remember that will still be pretty strong once it reaches here since Hurricane Alicia back in 1983.


I am so glad I don't live in Dallas proper any more: I read this story earlier today. Essentially $500,000 and 2 years was spent on a scale model for the Trinity River Project, and they didn't even finish the models of the most important parts: what the bridges will look like. The models they used look like a diving board that just ends mid-air. This is a model for a project that the Army Corps of Engineers has said can't be done without flooding downtown Dallas.

I constantly read articles of what is going on in Dallas politics and items like the one above and it always just pisses me off at what goes on down there.

UPDATE: If Ike continues on its current track and hit the Dallas-area as suspected it will either be a Tropical Storm or maybe even a category 1 hurricane. The biggest tropical storm to reach Dallas since Hurricane Carla in 1961.

Lonely Planet Images

My Labor Day weekend: Well it was a weekend of hedonism. Friday night I went and ate sushi at Kotta Sushi Bar. Saturday I went to a friend's house, that night we played poker and I spent the night at his house. Sunday, I went to the comic book shop, and then went straight to my boss' house as he was having a party there. I got smashed there and just spent the night there. (No way I was driving home in my condition). Monday, I slept. Besides drinking to much the night before, I had gotten little sleep Friday and Saturday night. Around 5 hours each night. I took and extra day off, and Tuesday I just hung aroudnd the house and relaxed.

The weather: Oh man has it been great around here. Right now it is around 73 degrees, it would normally be in the upper 80s or lower 90s by now. With the sunshine and wind blowing it feels like Fall.

Me and my bike: Last week I went and rode my bike for the first time in over a month. I was riding for about 5 minutes, and I was just like, "Man, I am just worn out. What is the deal?" I looked down and my front tire was halfway flat. It took me a while to get back home. I am not that smart.

And the winner is: For those of you who read the Texas State Fair food post, the chicken fried bacon won the first place prize. The person who won last year estimates a 20% bump in sales to whoever won, so that should be a pretty big boost in revenue.

Beating---Well---Avoiding the Heat

Another day and another day over 100° day. I don't watch the news much, but I did last week and since around the middle of July we have not been at 100 or higher one day. 107 Sunday, 105 Yesterday, it is just brutal out there. Less than a minute outside and you get a sweat going. We had rain last week so that gives us a bonus of adding a bunch of humidity to the mix. Which as my mom used to say, makes it feel like you are breathing through a wet rag. What I did find amusing was reading the weather for the next few days and we are getting relief from the weather soon thanks to Tropical Storm Edouard. Yeah that relief are highs of 97 instead of 105.

This weather has temporarily put the kibosh on my bike riding. I rode a few times when it was only 101, and that just about did me in. Night time is out as Sunday for instance it was 97 at 10PM. Hopefully, I can get used to getting up earlier and be able to put a ride in the morning.

Next summer I will, if possible, take a vacation to see my family up north. I've done it a few times and it is nice to see my family in Iowa were their high temps are our lows.It may seem like I am bitching about the weather, but I'm really not. I just take it, because bitching about it isn't gonna make it any cooler. I'll just grin and bear it while wiping my brow.

Take cover...

For the second time in less than two weeks last night we had really bad weather here and the tornado sirens were going off.

The first time it happened there was light out, and that was actually kind of scary. As I was leaving work I looked to the west and saw the clouds I knew were tornadic in nature. It was either the remnants of one or the beginnings of one. Once I got home I turned on the TV and learned it was actually the beginnings of a tornado that didn't come together. The sirens were wailing. 10 minutes later the sirens stopped, and it was bright and sunny. That is one of the funny things about tornado producing weather is that it usually blows over pretty quick.

Early this morning (around 4AM) I heard the sirens going off again. I woke up for a bit, and just decided that if a tornado was going to get me, I would be asleep when it happened. When I did get up, a local radio station had one of their antennas knocked out, and power was out to over 160,000 people. The city just a few miles north got winds of over 80MPH. Luckily nothing much really happened here. This storm was also gone in about 10 minutes.

Snow Day

Last week we had snow here not once, but twice in one week. This was the first time I can ever remember that happening. I later heard that it was the first time we have had snow twice in the same month in 62 years around here. Wow. When it came Monday, I knew it wouldn't stick to the roads as it ad been too warm for it to. Yards and such it stayed.

Thursday though was really up in the air as to how bad it would get. First it was raining here, then sleet, then snow, and it just kept changing. It was sleet for half an hour or so, and then snow for like 45 minutes. It was weird.

My boss sent us home early, because as he said the roads can get bad quick around here in that weather. To me, there are two main type of drivers in that weather. 1. Idiot (like me) who were raised here and know they can't drive on the slick roads, and prove it. 2. Yankees who think they know how to drive on the icy roads, but have forgotten. So I was glad to get out of there early.

Once I got home, I realized I had nothing to drink, so I decided to drive the almost one mile to 7-11 to pick some up. I get there, and I saw some guys had a table outside setup to sell some sort of product. I felt bad for them, they probably picked the worst day to setup.

Once I got back home and got settled in for the night it was pretty relaxing. It was funny to see one the dogs, Juno, outside trying to catch as many snowflakes as he could. Running around like a maniac in the backyard. The next morning the street were clear yet again. Almost no ice anywhere around me. On the way to work as I went over one hill I actually got a very cool view of all of these houses below me and their snow-capped roofs. A rare visual treat to be sure.

Well...

In retrospect, I think I may have made a mistake by wearing shorts to work today. It barely got out of the 50s, which wouldn't have been bad, if I didn't spend a bunch of time out in our little shoe warehouse.

Somehow I made it though...

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