We’re in the midst of a straight up blizzard right now here, and I have to say, it is kind of awesome. I bet we have about 8-10 inches, and the way it is coming down, there ain’t no end in sight. I haven’t even bothered to check the forecasts or radar, because honest to goodness, they’ve been less reliable than Joe Manchin this year. The weather forecast tonight has no reflection on the reality of the weather tomorrow.
At any rate, all the students came back into town today, so they are streaming past my house on the way home from the bar, and there is this weird juxtaposition between the silence of the snow and the drunken revelers on their way to the frat house down the street to continue the idiocy.
I really kind of like it, even though my inner curmudgeon wants to yell at them to shut the hell up because they are making Lily and Rosie bark, as I sort of feel like I am experiencing the youthful exuberance via proximity. No one is causing trouble and they are just stumbling around in the snow, hootin’ and hollering and tackling each other and throwing snowballs, making awkward passes at girls, and just generally being drunk and silly on a snowy night, and you know what, good on ’em.
I should probably check the forecast, but it almost feels like there is a full moon. Gotta get up for the downstroke, I guess.
Oh, and I have been talking to some local activists and there might be some new front pagers here documenting the local atrocities (GLBT, Women’s issues, fracking, coal, local corruption), because I think it is time to start paying attention to local matters and start doing something where I can make a difference.
kdaug
A safe and gentle late night upon ya, Cole.
John Cole
@kdaug: Right back at you, bro. Skipping SXSW to go to Boulder. Any chance you’d swing on up? Email me and I will send you the dates.
Amir Khalid
Tsk, tsk. it’s there ain’t no end in sight.
/just testing.
John Cole
@Amir Khalid: I fixed it before you commented. SUCK ON THAT, FRIEDMAN.
piratedan
an unexpected day…. Mom went in to get some crunchy cat treats at PetSmart and we ended up with a new feline resident. One of these days I’ll learn how to upload a pic, but our latest arrival is Greta (Garbo) and as far as her humans are concerned, she doesn’t want to leave them alone… the 16 year old boy is already smitten and he’s a hard one to smit. Oh yeah, she’s a rescue.
Amir Khalid
@piratedan:
“… and he’s a hard one to smite.
/Somebody stop me!
jl
An energy blogger than knows about geology, economics, environmental and legal aspects of natural gas, fracking, tar sands, etc,. would be great.
That stuff is spreading. We are having to deal with in CA. I don’t understand the secrecy BS around the fracking solutions or whatever they are called. If these are such important trade secrets, why not just tell the companies to patent them and not give them these special environmental exemptions from disclosure?
So, this being a full service blog, I damn double dog demand a universal gas and fracking expert front pager. May sound like a tall order, but I believe Cole works at one o’ them egghead colleges, and those types infest them damn colleges.
piratedan
@Amir Khalid: feel free to auto-correct where you see fit, but I actually ment smit, not that it matters or has much deeper meaning other than a personal affectation…. just nice to have my comment read… or is that red?
jl
And, Cole should make some snow angels for the kids. Brighten their day.
Edit: And I am jealous of all the snow. I went out and larned me snow camping, x-country skiing and snowshoe over last few years. Now there is no damn snow out on the left coast. No water neither. Dammit.
? Martin
@jl: 2nd that. Particularly fracking and environmental issues – that’s clearly a local problem there.
kdaug
OK, Amir, I’m going to try to phrase this very carefully:
I scooched me doggy crate and kitty round slepy thing into my office cuz its warm an its nice haing the monsters sleeping behind me becase it’s chilly outside in Austin.
I’ll expect your corrections shortly. (May or may not be awake, that’s yet to be determined.)
Tripod
Our forecast low for Monday is -22°F, so we got that going for us.
jl
@? Martin: thanks. Richard Mayhew set a very high standard for special topic front pagers. So, poor Cole, he has his work cut out for himself.
Amir Khalid
From Malaysia, the land of dumb censorship, here are pigs’ faces blacked out in a newspaper photo.
Amir Khalid
@kdaug:
That sentence is perfection itself. Why would I ever want to correct it?
kdaug
@Amir Khalid: Damned straight.
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”
ruemara
Sounds like a plan, Cole. Keeping people abreast of what’s happening in their local area is very important. It seems like we can play armchair presidentin’ forever, but not really know wtf is going on right at our front doors. This has been another in a series of disappointing days, but the baking is all done for my snack bar at the local flea market and if there is some sort of deity who is not as capricious and cruel as I have considered them to be, maybe I’ll sell all the food items and half the toys. I wound up with a boatload of frosting, tho. And candied oranges. I’ll have to make something and get rid of them. Plus this orange syrup. I just can’t wait to hit the sack and dream of … better things?
Yoda058
JoCo, Greetings from Guangzhou, China, where is sunny and 72 degree right now. It’s absolutely fucking beyond me that a rational, sensible, understanding, nurturing, compassionate… person like you could have been a republican?!
Yoda058
JoCo, Greetings from Guangzhou, China, where is sunny and 72 degree right now. It’s absolutely fucking beyond me that a rational, sensible, understanding, nurturing, compassionate… person like you could have been a republican?!
Yatsuno
@Yoda058:
I might just stoled this.
@Amir Khalid: @Mnemosyne: Saw “Frozen” tonight finally. I find it possible a Disney film might just take Best Animated Feature from a Miyazaki picture. “The Wind Rises” (ye gawds does that title translation suck) is ultimately boring as hell. Even with the slight pacing issues, “Frozen” is magnificent.
Suzanne
@Yatsuno: Wasn’t it great? I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Wonderful music.
Arclite
That is, until you wake up in the morning with a frozen dead one on the lawn.
Just sayin’
Arclite
@Yatsuno: My daughter (11) saw Frozen last week, and can’t stop singing the songs. I heard that it has good female role models, and she said it rocked. She’s always complaining about how all the good stories have male leads (Harry Potter, LotR, Star Wars, etc.) so she was stoked to see this. The same team that did Frozen did Tangled, which was also pretty excellent with good songs.
Fair Economist
@Arclite:
Yeah, the thought of drunk folks out in a blizzard flipped on my paternal concern mode.
Frozen is a great movie. And the fact that a movie in which the *two* lead roles are female is going to be the most successful animated movie of all time bodes well for less outrageously male-slanted animation in the future. Up, for example, is an awesome movie but it doesn’t even pass the Bechdel test, and that’s sad.
Amir Khalid
@Fair Economist:
As I’ve said before, it was a great day for Disney when they ditched the old princess-movie formula. It was all about getting a 16-year-old princess to the wedding with her prince, and it meant that for the best part of 70 years all they really did in that genre was variations on Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.
wasabi gasp
Darko Rundek & Cargo Orkestar – Sensimilija
NotMax
Vivaldi – The Four Seasons – Winter.
Honus
@jl: not many of those types at Bethany. It’s a small private liberal arts college. And it’s worth your job at WVU to criticize the “energy” industries.
Hate to say it but West Virginia is hopeless. It’s older, whiter, poorer and stupider than the place where I grew up. Pretty much all that’s left are aging racist guns and Jesus nuts living on Medicare and transfer payments. In other words, tea party heaven. In another 5 years there won’t be a democrat left in the congressional delegation. The good news is the population will be so depleted that there will probably only be one congressional district. In just the last 20 years it’s gone from 5 reliably democratic seats and Rockefeller and Byrd in the senate to 3 republican/blue dog seats and senators joe manchin and a republican next year. If you’d have told me in 1984 that virginia would elect a black governor and a black democrat presidential candidate would carry virginia twice while West Virginia would re-elect Cecil underwood and overwhelmingly vote for GW Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney I would have wondered what planet you were on.
raven
Well, if I post something a new thread will pop up.
Punchy
You better hope none of those revelers commits suicide via snowballs, because then this post becomes insensitive and dickish.
JPL
@raven: Not yet. Maybe by the time you get back from your walk.
Tommy
Well that sucks. I think my laptop just died on me. Keyboard just stopped working. Not even sure how or if you can replace that :).
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@JPL: Nope not yet. I thought the Sunday Morning Garden Chat would be up by now.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Tommy: It’s one of the easier things to replace on a laptop, actually. First step is to see if you can get a replacement. They can be a PITA to find for older models.
Tommy
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes): I could talk gardens :). Doubling the size of mine this year to four raised beds. I had some epic failures the first two years, but my gosh I found you can learn from your mistakes.
Tommy
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I’ll have to look into that, cause I got no problem opening the thing up. I put in more RAM and a different DVD drive to keep it working a little longer.
JPL
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes): We had so much rain last summer, most of the garden was a bust. The fall garden was okay though.
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@JPL: @Tommy: We’re currently renting an apt with a pretty but dark back yard. Haven’t figured out how to grow anything fun here.
Do tell about your spring plans so I can live vicariously.
Tommy
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes): One thing I am going to try is wildflowers. My town just built a new highschool and they are letting the front of it grow “wild.” I find it pretty beautiful (not everybody does BTW).
Oh another thing. I was at an outdoor store this time last year and got a 88 gallon (I think) rain barrel for half price. I never in my wildest imagination would think it would catch that much. I physically couldn’t use all the water it collected. My next door neighbor pays somebody to water their lawn. I told her, hey free water here if you want it :).
Debbie(aussie)
@Yatsuno: How goes the physio? More importantly, how are you?
Looks like I will be having major spinal surgery. Have to lose some weight so just after Easter I think. I am going to see surgeon again on Friday to ask a few more questions. Even though we have Medicare &private health insurance this will cost us about $14000.00.scary
Glocksman
@Tommy:
Ebay is a good place to look, especially if you own a Dell as Dell wholesales off old parts stocks all of the time and guys who do ebay as a business pick them up for resale.
I wouldn’t buy batteries from ebay (old batteries, even NIB unused are risky), but I did buy a keyboard for a Dell Latitude once for $20 that was still sealed in Dell packaging.
As far as replacing a keyboard goes it can either be really simple or require the near complete teardown of the entire unit, depending upon the model.
Good Luck.
Tommy
@Glocksman: eBay is my go to place for stuff like that. I am always stunned by how low the price is and the quality of refurbished product. I think most times I pay about half of what I’d pay if I walked into Best Buy and I’ve never had a single problem.
Oh one other thing about eBay for people that might not know it. I find people I talk to think it is only a site where you bid on a product. A lot of individuals have actual stores and I just use the buy now button. Everything from high end coffee beans, tech books, you name it.
Glocksman
@Tommy:
Heh..my uncle Jerry runs an ebay store dealing in exotic hardwoods.
It’s mostly hobbyist and small scale stuff but he does have the connections in Belize, Honduras, and SE Asia to get large quantities if needed.
I might as well pimp his store here. :)
Central American Hardwoods
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@Tommy: Nice! I love wildflowers. See y’all later. Going to feed ferals in the snow. I think we need a reality show on Animal Plant: Feral Cats: Brooklyn.
Tommy
@Glocksman: Wonderful. From your comment I knew you knew this, but so many people I know think of eBay like a garage sale online. And it is that. I’d say of the 200+ things I’ve bought on eBay 95% are new, in package products.
PurpleGirl
@raven: It’s 8:38, almost two hours later, and a new thread hasn’t popped up. The FPers are falling down on the job of providing us with reading material.
PurpleGirl
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes): A question, if I may… What happens to the Brooklyn Navy Yard community cats during this kind of cold weather?
Tommy
@Glocksman: Wow your uncle has a lot of product.
I’ve been trying to get my parents to set up a store and start selling stuff. They have three houses of stuff, and much if it isn’t anywhere close to junk. Just the art work, crystal, and flatware is staggering. They often joke to my brother and myself when they die (which I hope is far off) don’t just sell off our stuff in an auction, some of it is worth more money then you think.
I am like dad I wouldn’t even know where to start. You either need to (1) inventory everything or (2) start selling it.
Alas, mom is all in with that, dad not so much.
Chris T.
@Mnemosyne: “… I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way. I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I’d have to make bones about it, since I was travelling cognito. …”
Glocksman
@Tommy:
After he retired, Jerry originally started out trying to import and sell exotic flooring and other woods direct to builders.
That didn’t work out and he kind of just stumbled into ebay as a means of paying the bills.
Though it did mean that he already had all of the necessary CITES and other permits needed to legally import exotic woods.
Until he explained it all to me, I didn’t realize just how much was involved in legally importing exotic woods into the US.
Tommy
@Glocksman: I’d think that would be a hard market to break into.
My grandfather was what I’d call a master wood worker. I mean he had the equipment to plane his own wood and then do amazing stuff with it (he made me and his other 11 grandkids, well grandfather clocks). I don’t know where he might get this red maple or this or that, but he was giddy when he got it. I am sure there is a joke here but good wood is good wood :).
Hard for me to imagine all the rules, regulations, and permits you’d need to import.
GregB
I have become involved locally in what is known internationally as a Transition Town Network.
Many people are making the effort to re-localize their economies and especially their food growth and production.
We have started a community supper, a community garden and are working on a time bank to. We also have some pretty ass-kickingly good pot-luck dinners.
See if there is one in your area and if not, start one up.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Glocksman:
I recently got a keyboard for a 10-year-old Dell laptop directly from Dell for about $20. Was mildly surprised.
Poopyman
I always figured there’d be no danger of fracking here in Southern Maryland. Apparently I’m wrong.
Fortunately, the O’Malley administration has a ban on fracking. For now.
Glocksman
Since Cole wants local news, here’s one from the gun owners acting stupid department.
An error of fact in the story is the bit about the gun being registered.
Indiana does not have firearms registration.
That said, state law prohibits the possession of firearms and ammunition on school property or at school events.
I actually feel kind of sorry for the guy, but the smart thing to do would have simply been to run out to his car and put it away.
Still illegal, but who would have known?
This probably happens in Indiana more than a lot of people realize, as over 10% of our adult population has a carry permit.
Amir Khalid
@Glocksman:
@Tommy:
I remember that a few years ago, a world famous guitar-maker (not Fender, the other one) got in trouble for illegally importing exotic woods into the US. So if a decent-sized manufacturing company can get in a legal fix over this, my hat’s off to any small-scale specialty wood importer who can keep track of the paperwork.
chopper
@GregB:
Great! The transition and permaculture groups out here are pretty nice but don’t meet too often. Then again it’s not an urban area.
Great way to get started.
Cole, I fourth new policy-based FPers. Tho I’ve always been asking for an enviro/climate person.
Glocksman
@Amir Khalid:
Gibson, IIRC.
It helps that my uncle has an MBA from Cornell and that his entire working career was spent dealing with logistics.
He knew what he was getting into WRT legalities from the beginning.
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Dell used to be my ‘go to’ source for laptops, as their online tech support resources (service manuals, etc) and parts availability were first rate.
These days, I don’t know as I sold off my laptop and rely on an old Acer Netbook for my portable computing needs.
Cheap yet functional enough for my purposes.
Tommy
@GregB: That sounds pretty cool reading their site. Let me see if I can explain myself here. I am all in for what they are trying to do. Heck I’ve lived where I live for 8 years. I know a few of the people that live around me well. Others we just smile and wave to each other. Maybe the “head nod.”
Well as I noted above my garden has started to work. I had so much food last year I couldn’t eat it all. I don’t know if this is strange, maybe my desire not to waste food, but I went like door to door giving away food. Worked out well. People even brought back the food I took them cooked. Seemed a good “community” building thing.
The lady behind me and I are close. There is an old fence between our yards, there before either of us bought these houses. We plan this year to tear it down and merge our gardens. Maybe a little thing, but reading the site you linked to, made me think about this more!~
Botsplainer
Good guy with gun kills two for entering a shed they had a right to enter.
He’s just standing his ground.
http://www.wowktv.com/story/24547105/man-charged-with-murdering-two-people-in-barboursville-wv
RAM
You need to get to the Weather Underground site. Their predictions are based on local data, not regional averages, and are, in general, a LOT more accurate than the Weather Channel. Of course, the Weather Channel has bought Weather Underground, so I expect them to be neutered sometime in the near future. Because that’s what Big Business does when they buy other companies.
GregB
@Tommy:
There really is an incredible renaissance of farming and agriculture here in NH. New farms, farm stands and restaurants that are focusing on using locally produced produce, meat, eggs and products manufactured from said items(jams, syrups, cheeses, wine, etc.)
It is really neat to watch it occurring here,it seems to be sweeping in from the west where Vermont has a leg up. You should see how many solar panels are in Vermont now.
Anyhow, good on you and your neighbor, sounds like a great plan and if you can get others involved, even better.
Keep it up.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
We’re set to get at least another six inches here, and then will have a high of -9 tomorrow.
On the up side, a regional development job is opening up on the west coast. Two big guns (one of them her potential direct supervisor) are pushing for my wife to fill the slot. She would be covering eight western states (as opposed to the bottom fourth of Minnesota) and would be making $25K more than she currently makes. Also, we’d get to move from this godforsaken wasteland.
OzarkHillbilly
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes): Ordering seeds as we type.
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid: It was Gibson guitars.
Poopyman
@GregB: Not to mention what rising transportation costs and drought in California are going to do with grocery store prices. I’ve been trying to put more emphasis in growing the higher-priced non-staple foods, but I’m beginning to think a good crop of potatoes might come in handy. (Can’t do rice and I don’t want to start on grains.)
Tommy
@GregB: There is a 5,000 acre farm field in front of my house. I mean where I am sitting right now I could throw my mouse and hit it. I am seeing what you are seeing, cause we have good land and some of it.
I am now getting free range eggs for $3.57 a dozen. My mom was over for Christmas and she didn’t compute. My eggs were not “white.” I say this cause when the price of better foods start to come down to what I buy at a “big box” store, well things are changing.
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: Any heirloom via Seed Savers Exchange, or maybe Baker Creek Seeds?
Elmo
@Poopyman:
Holy crap. Holy CRAP. I just bought a house in Waldorf.
raven
Wow!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Amir Khalid: Meh. Gibson would have been able to keep track of the paperwork if they had wanted to.
Their problem was that export of the rosewood seized in that raid was illegal in Madagascar, and the DOJ could demonstrate that they knew of the issue. They weren’t the actual importer, but they didn’t have the necessary paperwork that should have accompanied the wood when they took possession. Had they been able to say, “We inquired about that, here’s what the importer gave us in answer,” they might have gotten a pass like they did for the Indian wood seized in the other raid.
The CEO of Gibson is a wingnut. I suspected from the start that it had been a deliberate challenge to the Lacey Act. I’m still not convinced otherwise.
Glocksman
@Poopyman:
Try tomatoes.
I can’t garden (urban apartment dweller), but my Dad grows corn, tomatoes, and onions at his house.
He gave me a big bag of produce and they were wonderful.
The grocery store tomatoes around here tend to be tasteless, but these were bursting with flavor.
Along with the onions and corn, I wound up making a Crock-Pot of beef vegetable soup that was great.
Tommy
@Poopyman: Wow that Seed Savers Exchange is an amazing resource. Bookmarked.
I am not sure I am to the seed thing, but I am stunned by the quality of the plants I buy. The first year or so of my garden I got my plants from Lowes. Then a two years in I got some from Lowes and the feed store in my rural town (yes I have a feed store). They were half the price and I kept a journal and they produced like at a 5 to 1 level.
Poopyman
@Elmo: Well congratulations! I think if we just make sure we keep electing Democratic governors we’ll be OK.
Tommy
@Glocksman: My favorite event each year, and gosh maybe why I am single, is “Corn Day.” The town my parents live in has “Corn Day.” You pay $5.50 and you get some chicken, tea, and all the corn you can eat. It is at the 4H Center and there might be around 300 people there at any given time. Folks walk around with buckets of corn. I mean literally buckets of corn. You can eat corn until you can’t stand, and that is the point.
Glocksman
More local news:
Anyone need some corn? :)
If I had to guess it’s either seed corn or feed corn.
@Tommy:
Locally, even the cheapest grocery store corn is decent but tomatoes are just tasteless for most of the year.
Elmo
@Poopyman: thanks. Moved here from NoVa and doubled my commute (I work near Dulles) so I could marry my partner.
First time I’ve ever lived in a majority African-American area, and I have to say I’m enjoying it very much. (I’m white).
Tommy
@Elmo: Out of college I moved into SE DC in the early 90s. Not far from Eastern Market. It was strange to me as a white male to be, well a minority. Later I moved over to NE by Union Station (late 90s) and even more African America. In both places as you noted I quickly enjoyed it.
I can’t speak to what it is like to be a person of color moving into a “white” place, but I always felt very welcome. Even embraced.
tybee
there’s a forecast for SNOW here on tuesday nite/wednesday.
an event that last occurred 19 years ago.
the chirrens are fired up. possible school snow day on wednesday.
Steeplejack
@Glocksman:
I had Dells for years, and then about a year ago I acquired a Lenovo X130e. Very small (11.6" screen) but very nice. Excellent keyboard, very peppy. My only complaint is that the 16:9 aspect ratio is oppressively wide, especially at the small screen size. None of my work, and little of my leisure, involves watching wide-screen movies. I know I’ll never see 4:3 again, but it seems to be getting harder to find even 16:10 screens, which feel a little better visually.
Steeplejack
@Tommy:
Five thousand acres? Is that a typo? Because it’s like 8 square miles.
JoyfulA
@Amir Khalid: Interesting. They black out the only part of a hog we don’t eat. Well, most of us don’t eat, at least intentionally.
I wonder how the phrase “lipstick on a pig” translates.
jharp
@Yoda058:
“Greetings from Guangzhou, China”
Used to visit Guangzhou myself. Loved the train trip to get there. Once there I did not care for the town.
Anoniminous
@GregB:
Check out Dwolla. They charge a flat 25 cents for charges over $10, anything under is free. The wiki article focuses on on-line transactions but they are also developing retail credit card business.
JR
@Amir Khalid: no, no, that was a humorous coloquialism , not a correctable error.
WaterGirl
@Chris T.: You’re probably long gone, but that link was really cool. You should post that again on another thread sometime when there are more people around.
Paul in KY
@Honus: Excellent recap on West Virginia.