wednesday

My mention of a roof rake brought 'em out of the woodwork. We've had so many requests to borrow that dang thing we might start charging rent. (Holding up the joke sign.) I am going to make people sign a contract that says they will not climb onto the roof or climb a ladder while using the roof rake. I don't want to be responsible for the results of that!

Two funny weather-related things this morning. One from The Onion.

And one from the New York Times. (Added note: This article is hilarious. Apparently, sports writers who don't take this all too seriously (and who poke fun of the athletes...) write some very funny crap about sports. I might start reading more just because it's funny. See the reference in this article to LeBron James.)

From an article in the New York Times: "It is a rare moment when a snowstorm-prompted game postponement turns into a referendum on the nation’s level of “wussiness,” but such is the occasion when someone slips a radio microphone near the mouth of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. He unleashed his own unique kind of storm on the N.F.L. for moving his beloved Eagles’ game to Tuesday instead of playing it Sunday in a blizzard. Whether you agree with Rendell’s contention that we’ve become a “nation of wusses,” you do have to admire his rhetorical touches. “If this was in China, do you think the Chinese would have called off the game?” he railed. “People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down.”

Doing calculus on the way down? Is this a smack at schools here? If not, what does calculus have to do with canceling a football game or being a wuss? What am I missing? (Regis says he can tell a few good stories about Pennsylvania politicians but I won't repeat them here. You know the reasons.)

I have mounted the NASCAR flag on my car. So far no taunts, no offers of a Bud Light, no sudden appearance of a mullet hair cut on either of us. Good thing. It's a safety feature, friends, not an endorsement of a sport!

I'm reading Anthony Bourdain's new book called Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. I like it a lot but it's irreverent (to say the least) so don't buy it
for your Lutheran aunts who like to make cookies. It isn't that kind of cooking book. He swears a lot, talks about his checkered past, and is very critical of the food network. None of that bothers me and I enjoy his writing style.

I've spent some time looking at blogs the last few days. Many of them have themes like healthy cooking, zen habits, weight loss, gardening. I have no theme and have no plans to get a theme. Writing here is just my mental exercise and a way to reflect on the things we do and think. That's it. Spellbound by our own imperfect lives.

Happy mid-week. If you have places to go, you better go there today. The weather looks bleak the next few days with freezing rain, ice pellets, snow. Hunker down and be safe.