Tired dog is tired.

My roommate's Dane, snoozing on his bed.  She's been under the covers like that for at least an hour.



Last summer I bought this hose-guard to prevent the hose from rubbing against the concrete steps (there's a wheel underneath the squirrel).  It's only recently been uncovered by the melting snow.

I was in my roomate's car the other day and he had the radio on to a talk station which was broadcasting some tech program.  An older-sounding woman called in complaining that she was having trouble with her e-mail and I immediately knew this was going to end in lulz.

Host:  "Are you using Outlook?"

Caller:  "No, it comes up as Windows"

I was shopping at Costco today and noticed they now carry Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback.  Both versions are made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup like the regular versions.

The difference in flavor between Pepsi and Pepsi Throwback is fairly subtle.  The latter is a bit smoother and slightly sweeter.  The Mountain Dew Throwback, on the other hand, tastes significantly bettert.  The sugar-sweetened version is much crisper and the flavor bolder than its HFCS counterpart.

The packaging says that it's for a limited time only, however they are priced only slightly higher than the regular versions.  Costco was selling the 18 count cases for $4.99, while a 36 count case of regular Pepsi or Mt. Dew usually goes for around $9.

Poll #1511828 The Oxford Comma
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

When writing a list of items in a sentence, which style do you use?

I just missed the guy with the giant snowblower, so I didn't get any pictures of it in action.  It was probably quite a sight.

Here's an idea of what it had to contend with:

That stick in the middle of the picture is a yard stick (0.914 meters)



My roommate's black Labrador retriever frolicking on top of the snow drift.  He likes to play King of the Hill.

I haven't really been outside since the last snow storm, which allegedly dropped just 4 inches.  This morning, I was woken up by my roommate who needed my help opening the gate because someone was here with a snow blower-equipped tractor.

I had no idea the snow drifts had gotten this bad.  The massive drift across the driveway has evolved into a glacier, about 4 feet deep at it's worst, extending completely across the driveway from the house to the barn, and from beyond the gate to the garage.  Fortunately the area around the gate was a mere 1-1/2 to 2 feet deep.

The gate was stuck closed tight as a drum, so I started digging out the side I could reach and digging out the path where the sliding gate slides.  The biggest problem is that the guide wheels were set at ground level; the holes underneath had become packed solid with ice.  Without the guide wheels turning, you have to shove the entire weight of the gate across the metal wheels.  We cleaned up under the wheels as best we could, then it took myself, my SO and our roommate all throwing our weight into the gate to get it open.

That was the first half of the gate, which is enough to get most cars or pickups through, but a big tractor like that needs both halves of the gate opened.  Because the ground slopes upwards on that side, the other half of the gate is a swinging gate.  That meant clearing everything in front of it.  The top foot or so was snow, easy enough to move, but underneath were thick layers of very hard ice which took a lot of work to break up.

Unfortunately, it took so long for us to get the gate open that the guy with the tractor left.  Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow.

The forecast last night called for temperatures as low as -23°F (-30.6°C), but it only got down to -5°F (-20.6°C).  Starting tomorrow the temperatures should return to a more normal winter level, with highs in the 20's instead of below zero.  There's a very slight chance of snow Monday morning, but it shouldn't amount to anything at all.  Hopefully this will be the last of the snow for the year.

Poll #1508068 Christmas decorating poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

When do you usually start decorating for Christmas?

When do you usually start taking down the Christmas decorations?

-17.9°F (-27.7°C) this morning.

-13.9°F (-25.5°C) this morning.  Just a few degrees warmer than the coldest temperature I've ever recorded, which was -15.5°F (-26.4°C)  in January 2007.  We had an inch or so of snow this evening.

The forecast for the next week doesn't get above 11°F (-12°C), and we're looking at another chance at a record low Friday morning.  There's a chance of snow every single day through Wednesday.  The snow drift down the middle of the driveway isn't getting any smaller and probably won't for several weeks at least.

This little field mouse was hiding underneath the truck my roommate had parked down at the end of the driveway before the recent blizzard.  She nearly got run over when we moved the truck and she was none too happy about her shelter suddenly driving off.  It was freaking cold, I was half-blinded by the glare from the snow and I was using my #3 camera, so I'm surprised it came out as well as it did.

Finally got around to buying new shoes.  I've been wearing my old boots for at least 7 or 8 years and the soles were almost completely smooth.  It was getting dangerous to walk on ice, snow or mud because I had no traction at all.  They're also terribly scuffed, there's a rather large gash across the toe of one, and the lining is starting to wear out.  I'm a hard person to buy shoes for, so I just kept putting it off.

I'm a firm believer in steel safety shoes.  They saved my grandfather's feet when a 50 gallon drum fell on his foot, and they saved my foot from a poorly aimed axe.  But that requirement severely limits my choices.  I also prefer leather; no other material can hold up to abrasion and sharp objects.  I prefer black, but a dark, dark brown is acceptable.  I also need shoes that provide electrical protection.  Steel-toe + leather + black + EH = damn few options.

I've tried several places.  I bought a pair of shoes at WalMart, but they ended up hurting my feet and I couldn't take them back.  None of the other shoes or boots at WalMart seemed to fit any better.  I found a single pair that fit well and looked nice at a local boot shop, but it fell apart within a day of purchase.  Payless, Target, Sears and most other stores don't carry steel-toed boots at all.  I'd just about resigned myself to never finding a decent pair of boots and had considered trying to have my old boots resoled.

Someone suggested I try Tractor Supply Co., so I went there today.  I found two shoes that interested me, a pair of low-ankle shoes with a very aggressive sole pattern which would be great on ice and snow and a pair of Georgia Boot Renegade work boots with a 6" ankle.  I tried on the shoes first and they fit adequately, but low cut shoes just feel weird after at least a decade of wearing boots.  Then I tried on the boots.  It was like sliding my feet into butter.  I've never felt a pair of boots that fit so well right off the bat.

Those were the absolute last pair they had, in any size, and it fit me perfectly.  And just as I finished trying them on, they started closing the store early for New Years Eve.

They cost a bit more than I'd like, and they're "tumbled chocolate" instead of black, but I'm just glad to have a decent pair of shoes again.

Steam was having a sale on a bunch of stuff, including Knights of the Old Republic for just $5.  The KotOR engine is the basis for Mass Effect, a game I really enjoyed, so I grabbed it right away.

Bug City.

I don't know if it's Steam's implementation or if it's the game itself, but I had to do so many hacks and tweaks to make it work.  If the game had been more than $5, I'd have been fuming.  To make it work mostly correctly, you have to run it in XP compatibility mode, run as Administrator, disable visual themes, desktop composition and display scaling, edit the ini file to run the game in windowed mode, you have to disable some of the graphics elements in the game, and you have to change resolutions twice after starting the game, just to make it run without crashing.  And I'm far from being the only person having these problems, the Steam forums are FULL of complaint threads.

I finally managed to get the game to work, only to discover it's not anything like I expected.  I thought it would be a first person shooter, like Mass Effect, but it's not, it's a graphical RPG.  You use FPS-like movement (except it's third person) to get around in the game, but when you enter combat, everything becomes automated.  Just like a paper RPG, the action pauses, you issue your instructions and the computer acts as GM, rolling dice and determining what happens.

You ever laugh at the line, "only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise"?  That's exactly how this game is.  The majority of the characters (including my own) can't hit a target even at point blank range!  If you've got your blaster pointed square at someone's chest, how can you possibly miss?  REPEATEDLY?!  Fortunately healing is very easy (especially once you have a Jedi with the Cure power), and as long as at least one of your party is still standing at the end of a fight, everyone else gets up again with 1 HP.

It does have a lot of the game elements later used in Mass Effect, like zillions of side quests, upgradable weapons and armor, having to pick just two teammates out of a pool of several, running around in a city/space station just talking to people, even the good/neutral/evil dialog options.

Once you get the game to work, it's very engrossing (I played it for nearly 12 hours straight yesterday).  And at $5, it was an absolute bargain.

It finally stopped snowing this morning.  Can't really tell how much snow we got because it drifted so badly.  There are patches where you can still see the grass peeking out, and other areas deep enough to drown a Great Dane.  Nearest NWS spotter reported 15 inches.

The mysterious stranger with the plow came around again, but although our front gate was wide open, he didn't continue inside; he just plowed up to the gate and stopped.

I went out briefly today to measure the depth of the snow drifts.  There's a massive drift running more or less down the length of the driveway, about 30 feet wide and nearly 200 feet long.  When I started climbing into it, it only measured about 24 inches deep and the snow was pretty firm about half way down, so it was fairly easy to cross.  But I forgot the ground slopes downwards on the other side of the drive, so about half way across it started getting deeper and softer.  When the snow swallowed my yardstick, I knew I was in trouble.  I had to lay down in the snow and scoot my way across.  By the time I managed to make it back into the house, I was soaking wet and exhausted.

Looks like the Ratmobile will stay in drydock for a few more weeks, at least.

I hope the whole winter isn't like this.

It's been snowing since the evening of the 23rd.

I didn't set this up.  I walked into my bedroom and found one of my plush bunnies at the foot of the bed, peeking out the window.  I took a few photos.


Dark version


Light version


I think I prefer the dark version better (it's more moody) but my SO prefers the light version (it's clearer).

I read this morning that the Nebraska corn harvest is only 93% complete as of Sunday.  December 20th, and 7% of the corn is still in the fields!  And with more snow on the way, it's probably going to be well into January before harvest is complete.  This is the latest corn harvest in 37 years!

The NWS is forecasting 8 to 12 inches of snow and winds of 25 to 35 MPH, with higher gusts, so we're gonna have huge snow drifts again.  The drifts from the LAST snow storm two weeks ago are still nearly a foot deep.

The sheep & goats are locked in the barn so they'll stay nice and warm and the front gate is wide open, just in case the guy who plowed our driveway last time comes around again.

My SO made my favorite dish for dinner tonight, Beef Stroganoff.  Mmmmmm.

I was expecting a package from UPS today.  They didn't deliver until 6:15, well after dark, and the driver left the package all the way down at the end of the driveway.  So I had to walk a half mile in the dark to go get it.  Thanks a lot.  At least it wasn't too horrifically cold (just below freezing) or windy and the snow and sleet won't start until tomorrow.