Multi-Tasking

I opened both eyes this morning. Since there are two of them, that counts, right? Right?

The day hasn't dawned yet, but began with a rain/freezing rain mix. The out-of-doors was covered in a layer of snow-cone ice pellets when I drove to work at 5:50, but the roads weren't slick.

Yet.

That's to come later, as the freezing mix turns to all snow. There's not a lot of snow in the forecast, but at this point we'll take anything white. It's too dark otherwise, without white ground cover to reflect what little light we have before/after the sun.

I'm in a bit of a holding pattern at work, awaiting quotes from a couple of vendors for the next stages in some ongoing projects.  Patience is a virtue, we're told (and so the Bible says), but I'm not always successful at it.

* * * * *

In a beautiful case of "if you cheat, you'll get caught", two cast members of the Alaskan Bush People show have been sentenced to 30 days in jail for filing falsified applications for, and collecting, Alaska Permanent Fund dividend checks.

* * * * *

The liberal powers-that-be in Anchorage, and our recently-elected Democrat mayor (surprise!) are racing at full speed toward the Progressive utopia they envision to take the place of the city where Anchorage used to be.

Alaska has already legalized marijuana, although rules and regulations aren't yet finalized. That's to come in May, we're told, and - believe it or not - local economists promise a hiring boom.

Well, sort of.

When pressed, they admit that no one has any idea at all how many businesses might be established, nor how many employees they might eventually hire.  But it'll be an economic boost to the city, they insist.

Now a local State senator has proposed raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, because ... reasons. And the State is debating a proposal to adopt "right to die" legislation. Because apparently Alaska doesn't have enough suicides already.


We really need to move out of Anchorage. Sigh ...

Thursday Morning

All y'all who left such nice comments on my previous post have convinced me that my blogging days aren't over. At least, not yet.

There may be a change in focus, but who knows? No guarantees of frequent posting, either.

Until then, I need some coffee.

That's One Way To Wake Up: 5.8 @ 6:16

6:16 a.m. ... 5.78 magnitude 'quake ... bed shakes ... house creaks ... time to put the coffee on.

Just another day in Alaska.

At Last

We've finally returned to normal winter temps, with it being only 9° F. at my house this morning.
But the warm spell wreaked its own damage.

A month ago, we had 24" of packed snow on the ground, and now that's down to 5" or less ... where there's any snow at all. Areas that got sun are now bare.

There's very little of import in the local news, and the national news is already familiar to you, so my commentary this morning is limited to "Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by."

Saturday Morning

The light streaming in the bedroom window woke me up at 3:40 this a.m. Ah, well, that doesn't happen too often.

It was 44 degrees with clear skies when we got up, and they're still mostly clear. AccuHunch is predicting 70 or 72 for the high today; it hit 76 again yesterday, which should be pretty close to the record high for the date. That's about as warm as it typically gets, here, even in July and August.

We're about to head out to our favorite cafe for breakfast. Younger Daughter is working today, and Older Daughter will be line boss at the Appleseed shoot today & tomorrow.

Our plans include a bit o' grocery shopping, and then barbequing some pork steaks for lunch. I can taste that baked-on BBQ sauce now ... mmm.

But enough - the day is young, and the morning beckons!

Mmrmph...

47 and damp this morning. Now the sun is sort of halfway out, but the winds are kicking up. Had some coffee, but I'll bet we make more before the morning is over.

June the Oneth

Happy Friday!

It was 43 & cloudy when I got up this morning, but of course the sun was up before I was. As the summer solstice approaches, we're at the beginning of a roughly six-week period where it doesn't get dark at night. Dusky at 2 a.m., yes, but never dark.

I got a call at 6:45 in the blessed a.m. from some HR person in Michigan, checking references on a former employee of mine. The kid must be new, because during my years as a recruiter, I never dialed an unfamiliar area code without checking to see what time zone it was in.

Preserve us from newbies in any profession ... sigh.

* * * * *

I've been maintaining a large valise full of patch cords, connectors, splitters, speaker wire, automotive dashboard switches and other miscellany for more than 30 years. When I began, it was almost entirely audio cables & plugs, but has morphed through the years to include AC adapters in various voltages, PC connectors, USB cables, CAT 5 cable, A/V coax, and ... the list goes on.

Whenever a need arises, I can usually find something in there to make dissimilar connections talk to each other. The collection has long since been unwieldy, so this morning I emptied the contents on a large table at work, and began sorting through what was in there.

I threw out all the 1/4" phone plugs/jacks, since almost nothing uses those any more (except professional sound boards/guitar amps/etc, but I keep all of that stuff elsewhere).  It seems I've done this at least once previously, because there weren't as many items of that size as I remembered. As a result, the discard pile wasn't as large as expected, and the valise still has a lot of things in it. Oh, well.

* * * * *

Not much else to report this morning, so I'll stop with this. Have a great day, folks.

And This Just In:

I'd enjoy mornings a lot more if they didn't come so early in the day.

Before-Action Report

Shootin' Buddy Jenny S. and I are headed to the range at Wet Bunny Crick this a.m.  She recently completed the "Rifleman" course at an Appleseed Shoot, among other things, and has been passing along forms for a rifleman's journal. Interesting & potentially very useful stuff.

August was a very wet month; while traditionally our wettest, the month just concluded went well above and beyond the call of duty. There's a 50 percent chance of rain today, too, but what the heck. It's not like we could expect fair weather in a random TEOTWAWKI scenario, either.

It's 43 at my place this morning, but AccuHunch predicts low 60s today. I'm thinking that's not likely unless the skies clear so that our feeble sun can warm the place up. Even then, the warmest part of the day isn't until around 5 p.m. So it will be in the mid-40s and damp down by the crick ... pretty reasonable approximation of "normal" for this part of Alaska, this time of year.

Unless I embarrass myself completely, I'll post a range report later today. So all y'all either be good, or don't get caught while I'm gone.

Ya hear?

Morning Skies

can be interesting, no? Although my cell phone's camera clearly isn't up to the challenge, it's all I had with which to capture this:

6:50 a.m.

What Day Is It?

It's one of "those" mornings ...

When I staggered into the kitchen at 0500, I couldn't remember if it was Saturday or Monday. Thinking hard, I finally figured out it's Wednesday; the sense of disconnect was tangible, and exacerbated by the sudden awareness that I'd also failed to put the coffee pot on automatic last night. The arrival of the rich, dark elixir of life would be delayed by another six or seven minutes.

It's not Saturday?

The coffee's not ready??

How much can one man take???  NOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ...

Whaddya mean, "there's no coffee"?!?