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60°
16°
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Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 34%
Wind: W at 14 mph
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We are back to normal. Well as normal as we get. After being without heat or electricity for 60 hours, everything finally came back on Sunday afternoon. YAY!
The northeast ice storm really hit our community hard. The estimates I heard were that 250,000 homes and businesses were without power in just the capital area of NY. It was a little nuts. There are still a lot of people that don't have power (sorry Dave) but hopefully they will be getting theirs back soon.
Of course I snapped a few pictures of the ice in the trees, but these few pictures really just don't do it justice.
 
 
We ventured out Friday night for dinner, and again during the day Saturday, and the damage from the storm was amazing. As beautiful as the ice in the trees looked, the extra weight snap branches, and sometimes whole trees like toothpicks.
We managed to survive at home through the whole event. We kept a fire going to stay warm, played cards, and luckily our hot water heater functions without electricity, so we were able to take hot showers. But I have come to the realization that we are technology junkies. We had a battery operated radio, but we were really going stir crazy by Sunday afternoon with no tv, computer, etc. We made popcorn Sunday over the fire, and just before the power came back on we reheated our leftover Chinese food over the fire.
I think once everyone starts to forget about this weekend a little, I will shop around for a small generator. At least enough to power the furnace so we have heat if this ever happens again. And we are going to get some more games to keep in the house. There has to be some non electronic entertainment other than rummy.
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For Sale: Illinois Senate Seat. Low mileage. Well maintained. Motivated seller must sell, lost job, moving to state prison. No reasonable offer refused. Call (soon to be former) Gov Blagojevich for details. |
Can you believe this guy? Did he really think that he would get away with trying to sell the vacant IL senate seat to the highest bidder? And I thought Elliot Spitzer was the dumbest Governor in the country... This guy makes good old client #9 look like a saint. The New York Daily News had a great editorial cartoon by Bill Bramhall yesterday. I'll link it here.
 This is just another great example of how the people we elect to represent us in Gov't forget what they were really elected to do, and start thinking only of themselves. I hope you rot in prison Blagojevich! I wonder who else you are going to bring down with you?
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Road Trip! I have been on some crazy road trips. I have gone back and forth to Florida several times, to NYC for day trips or overnight, to Niagara Falls and back in an afternoon because we were bored. I even drove from Reno to Albany in a '75 Bronco pulling a 24' U-haul with my brother. But today the heads of the big 3 automakers took a road trip to Washington D.C. begging congress for a $34 billion bailout. I can't even fathom the magnitude of $34 billion, but these guys are there to make their case that with the money they will emerge as strong, growing, profitable companies.
That's a hell of a request, and a hell of a Christmas present for our kid's and grandkid's generations. Merry Christmas, here is a huge debt that will probably never be repaid, and only postponed the inevitable.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think the domestic automakers couldn't survive. but this crisis is not new, and none of the ideas that I have heard from them are going to get them through it. In my completely non-expert under-informed opinion they need complete restructuring, and streamlining. No amount of cash is going to turn them around without major changes. Just look at the auto market over the past 10 years. Ford, GM and Chrysler continue to lose market share, layoff employees in the US, move more and more manufacturing out of the US, and close plants all while Honda, Toyota, and even Hyundai are gaining market share, building plants in the US and hiring Americans to build these "foreign cars" in American plants. So if they can manage to make a profit building and selling cars in America, so could GM, Ford and Chrysler.
And again in my completely non-expert under-informed opinion, even if one or all of the American auto manufactures were to disappear (and I neither hope nor believe that this will happen), Americans will still be buying cars. So either an existing manufacturers, or new ones would have to pick up the slack to manufacture all the cars that used to be bought from the Detroit 3, and those existing manufacturers, or new ones would need additional workforce to meet those needs. Ultimately there will be fewer people working in the auto manufacturing industry, but with the Detroit 3 continuing on their current path, there will be anyway.
Lets let the free market decide what the automotive sector should look like. Lets not let congress throw good money after bad just because these companies have been around forever. They can survive, it's going to be up to them to make it happen... with or without the bailout. With the bailout they may survive a year or 2 longer without major changes, but without those changes the end result will be the same... in my non-expert opinion.
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Ah the spirit of Christmas, giving of yourself, helping your fellow man, and altogether being charitable and generous. Maybe the people who trampled a Walmart employee to death need a little refresher course on what Christmas really means.
How could anyone be so caught up in getting a bargain that they not only don't stop to help someone who has been knocked down by their fellow bargain hunters, but they themselves step on the fallen man to get to the deals? I think a few of us need to sit down and watch It's a Wonderful Life or something to remind us what this holiday season is really all about. I mean did these people really believe that there was going to be such a good deal that it was worth throwing away common courtesy, and compassion for others just to make sure they had a chance to save a few dollars?
I guess it's just a reminder for myself of why I do as much shopping online as possible. I like to see the best in people, and frankly there isn't a lot of good to be seen in the rush of holiday shoppers.
I think Dr Suess may have said it best...
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"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."
"Welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer. Cheer to all Whos far and near. Christmas Day is in our grasp so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be just as long as we have we. Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart and hand in hand." |
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