ET Phone Home
2007-01-15, 8:31 p.m.

Day 876 ET Phone Home

So we all survive the weekend to wake up to THIS? What a mess this morning. Had to scrape maybe an 1/8� of ice off the van this morning just to get going. That seriously damaged my chances of getting to the gym on time. Still � at 5:15 there isn�t a ton of traffic, so a couple of minutes lost to scraping isn�t that bad.

As it was, made it to the gym on time. The regular spinning instructor didn�t (make it, that is), so we had a substitute instead. Managed to remember a towel too, so the floor under my bike wasn�t a sea of sweat at the end of the class. I kinda liked this instructors mix of speeds & climbs. He seemed biased more towards the climbs, then added some uphill sprints in there too. Sick bastard. It was kinda fun. Still haven�t run into the regular instructor for this class � the �Energizer Bunny� as I�ve been told. Sounds like maybe a good speed workout coming Wednesday.

Still thinking about those smoked peppers from Sunday. I�ve got to write down what the heck it was I put in them before I forget. Simple recipes, no more than 4 ingredients (plus the peppers). Hardest part was coring out the peppers without blowing a hole through the sides. A boning knife seemed to work pretty well.

Seems that CirceCirce, besides being beset with some truly lousy weather for Texas, is having some frustrating problems with her truck�s battery. In person, realtime, battery/alternator issues aren�t generally that difficult to resolve. But when you�re trying to help via emails and swapping website comments, well, it ain�t good. So we tried to do a little troubleshooting by phone. Well, there was shooting going on, but more of the shooting the breeze than shooting any trouble. Does sound like the battery is kaflooey though. I also forgot that Circe isn�t originally from Texas, so the lack of a Texas accent kinda threw me for a bit. (Wonder how my accent sounded to her?) She had a plan, and an opportunity to get it all together this afternoon. With a bit of good fortune and a little bit of work, she�ll be rarin� to go. It was neat to get a chance to talk live. Maybe another chance will pop up when algebra homework starts coming along.

Next will be OKC. We�ll have to spend some time shooting the breeze too. Maybe discuss what to buy Circe when they go out for cocktails after work later this week? No drunk dialing afterwards � ok?

Maybe, if I can accumulate enough bubble wrap, I�ll air drop some Guinness. Then the two of you can share a 4 pack (that�s all it comes in around here) of some really nice beer. Brilliant!! Doubt it�ll get there in time for Friday, but there�s always next week, eh? I�m thinking a 4 pack of Guinness Draft cans. Ought to ship well being in cans & not glass, might just need a little settling time before they�re enjoyed.

Lunch over. Off to a meeting . . .

Just got out of a meeting with a power supply vendor. It seemed to have sucked the energy right out of me. It was all I could do to stifle the yawns. Good thing it was a tele-conference with only the (well known) local rep at our facility. Now I�m trying to wrap up the day, maybe finish off a design spec I�ve been working on FOREVER. Once I get that finished I can move on to other things, like a power nap. Musta got to bed too late last night. Is 11pm too late to be crawling in bed to get up at 5am? You bet it is.

Zach had redone the closet in the room he�s using, which is our old spare room. Jill is in his bedroom, at least for as long as she�s going to MCC. Anyhow. He came across an old lock box full of pictures. Actual pictures, on film, printed out on real photographic paper � the old fashioned way. The packs I looked at covered the first 5 or 6 years worth of Zach & Eric�s birthday parties, xmas�s, etc. Jill got hold of them and was having a real good time looking back through Zach�s past. How blond he was, how he wore glasses for a bit, all the embarrassing things your parents take pictures of as you grow up. You know, potential blackmail material. Going through those pictures contributed to my tardiness in getting to bed.

Ok, home now. Roads were almost dry. Had to scrape more ice off all the windows again. Obviously cooled down some from the afternoons 34 degree heat wave. Actually snowing out right now. We were promised a healthy dose of lake effect snow following the passage of this front. For the un-initiated, lake effect snow happens when (relatively) cold air passes over a large, (relatively) warm body of water. Like Lake Ontario. Go google it. Anyhow. The air absorbs moisture over the lake. As the air then moves back over land, it�s forced upward, which effectively squeezes the excess moisture out in the form of snow. If you get stuck in a persistent lake band, you can literally get buried. Areas around Buffalo got over 2 feet in October. A few years ago, Buffalo (again) got 7 feet on Christmas day. Last year (or the year before, I forget), Oswego got up to 10 feet out of one very persistent lake band. Here in Rochester, we�re not so bad off. The lake is mostly directly north of us, and the wind rarely blows from due north. Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown � they can get really buried.

So that�s your weather lesson for today. Stay upwind of the Great Lakes and you won�t get buried.

Uh-oh. I hear cookies. Time to go eat an orange or something.

No spinning in the morning. Plain old treadmill and weight work instead. Love it. Then I get to taxi my mom to her ortho appointment in the afternoon. I have 1:15 to get from work, out the 20 miles to her house, then 25 miles back into the city to her doctor. Probably cruising through those fun lake bands I described. Yee-hah. Better gas up the beast, it�s going to be a long afternoon. Good thing I like to drive.

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