It’s snowing. Right now. And honestly, it’s beautiful, but I can’t enjoy it when I know that in a few hours it will change to freezing rain and sleet. I am so sick of winter.

This morning I moved my old stove and fridge to the house I am preparing to rent out. It is so nice to have a truck. It just is. Almost everyday something happens that makes me glad I bought this truck.

Friday night we went out. The kids were at my sister-in-law’s house and we could do anything we wanted. But we are not very exciting people. We opted for dinner and a movie. Dinner was good. We went to a Chili’s. The chicken and shrimp fajitas are awesome.

We got to theater a little early for the show so I killed a little time playing Pac Man on the original arcade console. Very little time. It’s much harder than the internet version, I’ve been playing.

We saw Ghost Rider. IT was pretty much what expected. The ghost rider comic book has always been… well… for the lack of batter word, stupid. Johnny Blaze is possessed by the devil, so he turns into a flaming skeleton at night, but somehow he used his demonic possession for good. Huh? But no one read that book for the depth of it’s plot. The appeal was always fire, skeletons, motorcycles and demons.

The movie was OK. Nicholas Cage had some funny moments, But the CGI Ghost Rider was very unconnected from Cage’s Johnny Blaze. The movie tried to work a struggle within aspect of this whole possession thing, but it was tedious. They would have been better served to forget explanation and had more fire, skeletons, demons and motorcycles.

Since we were without kids, we capped off the night by getting hopped up on Diet Red Bull and watching Mixed-Martial Arts fighting on HDNet.

Like I said, we aren’t very exciting people.

You would have thought that with a three day weekend, that I would have found the time and energy to update this site.

Shows what you know.

The sun came out today and the temperature rose about 50 glorious degrees Fahrenheit. It’s about time. Sometimes I lie to myself about the cold. It’s not that bad, I tell myself. But then it warms up and I remember how much I truly dislike the cold.

I’m buying a house. Did I tell you that? I didn’t think so.

Don’t worry, I won’t be asking you to help me move. I’m not going anywhere.

We, the wife and I and my parents, are going to buy a house as an investment property. Who am I kidding, we’re going to be slumlords. It’s nice little 2 unit house, that only needs a bit of cosmetic work. We’ll try this out and see how it goes. If it works out well, we will start building our slum empire.

As an added plus for me, this will give a chance to practice on some home improvement stuff, with out having to risk screwing up my house. One of the first things I’ll have to do is replace one of the windows. This is cool, because the windows in my house really need to be replaced also. And this will give me a very good idea of whether I want to try to do that myself.

The one apartment is lacking a refrigerator the other is short both a stove and refrigerator. As we discussed whether to buy new or used appliances to address this, I couldn’t help but think about my 15 year old, builder grade stove and refrigerator. Why would I buy new, if cheap, appliances for this property, when I really could use some new appliances myself.

Of course, this logic led my to Lowe’s and to know ones surprise we picked out a new stove and refrigerator for ourselves. And now we have a decent used stove and fridge for the one apartment.

The fancy new fridge came with a automatic ice maker. This requires a line to be tapped into my plumbing and run to the refrigerator. A simple do it your self kind of job. Except of course, when it comes to me and plumbing nothing is simple.

We got a saddle valve to ‘vampire’ into the cold water line under the sink. I drilled a hole in the cabinet, and ran the copper tube in. I fastened the copper to the valve on one end and the fridge on the other. I closed the valve, which pierced the the cold water line. I opened it back up and water flowed in to the copper line. Water was also slowly beading up where the copper line joined valve and where it was connected to fridge. I tightened the shit out of them and figured I was good to go.

I pushed the fridge back in to the wall. At this point, I should mention that I live in a townhouse and even though I bought the smallest Side by Side refrigerator they had to offer, it is very big in my kitchen. It just fits between the wall and the cabinet. When I pushed it back, it crimped the copper line. I didn’t drill the hole far enough back. I tried to pull the line out, but it was crimped to hard. It snapped.

I closed the valve and pulled it out. I drilled a new hole. But the tube had been flattened where it was crimped. I couldn’t fit the tubing into the fittings to fasten it. I won’t tell you how much time I spent trying to bend that copper tube back into shape, but I will tell you I didn’t get enough sleep last night.

Today on my lunch break, I picked the tool that is designed to cut copper tubes and went home. I trimmed the tube and fastened it. And now we have ice.

It never fails to amaze me how much easier it is to do this kind of thing, when you have the right tools.

I got a snow day today. Three or four inches of snow topped with a layer of ice have effectively shut down this town.

My wife did, however, have to go to work. I drove her in.

It’s ugly out there. The sleet has changed to rain. The rain combined with the snow melt results in lots of standing water that has nowhere to drain. And its still pretty cold so it’s trying to freeze as it sits. Tonight as the temperatures drop a lot of it will probably freeze up.

Some parts of the world seem to get these winter wonderland kinds of storms.

Here, we get mixed precipitation. Sleet, freezing rain. Slop. It’s ugly. The kids can’t go out and play in it.

And the roads are far more treacherous than the would ever be with just snow. Deep water, unexpected patches of ice, snow. And Mid-Atlantic drivers. Any thing that resembles weather puts these people in a panic. They brake going down icy hills. The don’t get enough speed to make it up slippery slopes. The can’t drive in this stuff. (This shouldn’t be surprising, it’s not like they drive great in good conditions.)

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy having an excuse to drive today. The truck did great. The Four wheel drive on it, is automatic. I don’t have to turn it on. It is front wheel drive anyway. So it drives with just the front wheels engaged, if it senses that either of those wheels is spinning or slipping, it will kick in the four wheel drive. It works like a champ. Besides that, it was nice just to have that extra height to the vehicle as I had to drive over spots where they had plowed side roads closed or through twelve to eighteen inches of running water.

I like my truck.

And I should, it cost me enough. (I would put a picture of it up, but would you believe I haven’t gotten around to shooting one.)

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that all of this slop is probably appropriate for Valentines Day. It’s a stupid holiday. Just an excuse for the Chocolate, Flower and Greeting Card industries to get more of our money.

The last few years I have helped the boys make a Valentine’s Cake for their mom. But that may not happen this year. Unless I decide to make a trip to the store. Besides It makes one huge cake. That would be a diet buster for sure.

Since at least one person cares about the back packing, I will see if I have it in me to write about it.

Oh! I did something nice again today, I may need to go see a doctor or something about this.

To the disappointment of many, I did not freeze to death in the woods.

I might write about the trip, but who knows, I may not. I don’t actually think anyone cares about the details.

While I was out there, I did lot a of thinking. It’s easy to think when you have nothing to do but walk.

I remember thinking to myself; these are good thoughts, I should write about them in the blog. Would you believe that I can’t remember any of it?

It’s true. I suck like that.

I’ve been back two days and already I feel as stressed and miserable as I did before I left, or worse.

I think that there is something wrong with me.

And I have no idea what to do about it.

I feel like I need a new job, or a second one. I suddenly feel like I need to be making more money.

I was going to write about the nice thing that I did today, but I no longer feel like it.
Nice went out the window a few hours ago.

Yes. I’m going backpacking this weekend.
Yes. I realize that I’ll be lucky if it gets much over freezing while we are out there.
Yes. I remember that I said that I wouldn’t go backpacking in February again.

No. I don’t care about any of that.

I need this.

You won’t understand that, but trust me. It’s true.

So excuse me while I go get my fix.

now nimble fingers that dance on numbers
will eat your children and steal your thunder,
while heavy torsos that heave and hurl
who crunch like nuts in the mouths of squirrels.

I have a head ache.

I don’t know if it is lack of coffee or that extra peice of pizza I ate last night. Maybe I didn’t sleep well. It doesn’t matter, but it is killing me.

I don’t know if my current lack of motivation is caused by the headache or if they are both symptoms of the same problem.

Six days till backpacking…
Six days till backpacking…
Six days till backpacking…

So to avoid to the real world, I’ve spent my energy on the Internet. I’ve added an anti-spam mod to my stupid forum and made some tweaks to the SBC and SBR domains. I’ve uploaded the radio show from Thursday.

And I’m listening to the show. It’s funny, a year and a half ago I cringed every time I heard a recording of my voice. Now, I’m very used to hearing it. Isn’t it sad that I enjoy listening to my own podcast. I’m such a dork.

I keep thinking that I will update you guys, both of you, on my progress with the ole home network. Then I remember that no one cares about that but me.

I bought a new cook kit for camping trip. It’s small, titanium and very light. Less than half a pound light. I also purchased a Buff. What’s a buff you are asking yourself. Check it here. Click on the link on that page to watch the demo movie. It’s cool as shit. It makes me happy.

I guess I need to get off the computer and do something… get dressed, take a shower… something.
But first, I think I’ll play one more game of Pac Man.

I come home for lunch each day. I only live a few miles from work and I find it to be the easiest way to go.

I am counting my calories these days. With great success, I might add. I have lost 15 or so pounds in the last month. I have twenty some odd to go to reach my goal. I have a ham and turkey on rye with cheese, every day. Heated the toaster oven. I prefer hot meals, for some reason. It is about a 400 calorie meal and it is quite filling.

It must be annoying to people around me when I start talking about calorie this and gym that, but when you are focused on that stuff you think about it a lot. You have to. It is too easy for me to start rationalizing why I can eat this or that. So I stay focused. I eat (give or take) 1000 calories a day. They tell me that I need to eat more. They tell me that my metabolism will slow down to much. I think that they are full of shit and more interested in selling me stuff than they are in me just losing the weight.

My metabolism is fine, thank you very much. I go to the gym nearly every weekday. I get on the treadmill, walk for five minutes to warm up, run for thirty minutes and then walk for five more to cool down. Then I go work some of the weigh machines. I doubt I’ll ever build any muscle worth noting, but I’m told that building muscle burns fat. So I do what I can.

I think about this stuff at lunchtime, because it is the best defense I know against just breaking down and eating out. I have a goal, and I am focused.

Next weekend will be the first big payoff for my efforts. By bringing my weight down, I should have a lot my more energy and stamina when hiking. And since my robot like friend will be coming, I’ll need all the energy I can get.

Other thoughts:

I don’t hate my job today, nearly as much as I did yesterday. But I still don’t like it. If anyone knows of a company hiring Network Engineers in Florida, let me know. Thanks.

I truly hate blogging. Why I do keep doing it? I can’t find a better system for expressing myself. I used to think that blogging would be a truly free and open way to express yourself. It isn’t. People react to what you post. Those reactions influence how you post in the future, whether or not you want them to. And don’t think it’s just me. We wouldn’t get this infighting among bloggers (I’m sure you’ve seen it somewhere) if people weren’t sensitive to how people react.

If you want to get a real feel for the news, turn the volume off and the closed captioning on. You’ll be able to see how they repeat certain concepts over and over again. I never watch the news if I can avoid it, but when I’m on the treadmill I watch whatever is in front of me, often it is Fox News. Last night I saw them report on one guys theory about Sandy Berger destroying National Archive documents. I know nothing about this and I really don’t care, but in read the closed captioning it became clear that what was on the TV wasn’t exactly news.

To paraphrase, the segement went a little like this:

FoxNews: Did Sandy Berger steal documents from the National Archives to hide handwritten notes written by Bill Clinton and high level cabinet members? That’s what one expert believes. Tell us, did Berger steal and destroy these notes?
Expert: I believe he did. If there were handwritten notes and he destroyed them, there may be a cover up.
FN: So Berger could have been destroying handwritten notes, written in the margins.
Expert: Yes, the copies at the national archinves have no notes so he must have destroyed the originals to cover them up.
FN: Has the National Archives seen these notes.
Expert: They are unaware of any notes

Meanwhile, there is a graphic that says “Sandy Burglar” in the background the entire time. I don’t know or care about this, maybe the dude stole and covered up a loads of stuff. But that interview provided no proof of it. What it did do is repeat the accusation over and over again.

I used to worry about the government lying to us. Now they don’t have to. The cable news networks are there to confuse the issues for them.

Lunchtime is over. Maybe we’ll do this again sometime.