I’ve been blogging for over six years now and the process still amazes me. Such as I never quite anticipated that something I wrote would anger the people behind the BBVA Compass Bowl. For those wondering and who didn’t read the comment on the last post: BBVA is the second largest bank in Spain, a nation that will most likely have to declare bankruptcy in, oh, the next five minutes. So I will have to admit that a) BBVA is a real company, b) Compass is the name of the US bank they acquired and is not a reference to a deep seated, almost erotic, love of directional devices, c) I still question whether sponsoring a bowl game in Birmingham featuring Pitt and Kentucky is a good use of their marketing dollars and d) no one is questioning my statement that Dave Waanstadt is the worst coach who ever lived. As long as we all agree on the last point I am satisfied.
(Oh well, still not as bad as the comment from the person who disliked one of my music reviews. A review that I began by stating “As someone who attended a Weird Al show this year I cannot claim to have any taste in music whatsoever.”)
Well, it snowed in Philly on Thursday, which resulted in the end of the world. I am not kidding on this one. We received a dusting of snow (I don’t even think we had an inch total) and absolutely no one could drive anywhere. I know that this was the first snow of the year and that usually causes people to freak out but this was absolutely insane. It took me two hours to complete a drive that should take me at most forty five minutes. I spent about thirty minutes at a dead stop. Now if I lived somewhere that it didn’t typically snow I can understand it but we had three blizzards last year. Driving in snow is a rather common occurrence. I just wanted to lean out my car window and scream “Learn how to drive you morons!”
I did however finally deal with the fact that my car was telling me that I had low tire pressure. It did this through what is possibly the most useless sensor ever. Now while I am very happy to own a car that will tell me when one of my tires is low (especially as I think I had seven flat tires over the life of my old Grand Am) it does not bother to specify which tire. This makes things rather challenging as the light makes you freak out and then you get out of the car and have no idea which tire is low and then you are forced to search for a tire pressure gauge which could be avoided because obviously the car knows what my tire pressure is otherwise it wouldn’t be telling me I had low tire pressure. Still not as bad as the rental car I recently had that gave me a low fuel warning light because I went under a quarter of a tank. That is not technically being low on fuel; it is more like “you should probably gas up in the next couple of days.”
Best of 120 Minutes: I was trying to think of Christmas themed alternative rock songs and immediately my mind turned to A Very Special Christmas, probably the one holiday charity album that people owned because they actually liked the music. I’m going to go with two of my favorites from the album. Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis” and U2’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. Enjoy the awesomeness of Run DMC and the fun Rattle and Hum “everything is earnest” period of U2.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Luscious Jackson “Fever In Fever Out”
2) Terrance Simien “Zydeco on the Bayou”
3) Fleet Foxes “Fleet Foxes”
4) The New Pornographers “Together”
5) Jeff Buckley “Grace”
Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Sunday, December 21, 2008
It's never darker than...right now, actually
No one celebrates the shortest day of the year. Even the pagans don’t bother to hold a party for it. For Summer Solstice they’ll rent out Stonehenge and break out the Phish concert bootlegs but for the Winter Solstice the universal reaction is “Screw this, it is too freaking cold outside to do anything.” So while my idol Fitzgerald was correct in Gatsby in saying that we all look forward to the longest day of the year but do nothing to celebrate it he neglected to mention that we all dread the shortest day of the year but avoid any actions to fix it either. I mean, shouldn’t we all be out lighting candles or something in a plea to have the large yellow ball returned to our sky?
(Apologies to my Australian readership, which I apparently actually have now, as this is the complete opposite of what you are experiencing at the moment. I’d suggest pulling up one of my June 20th posts where I mention Daisy Buchanan and rue wistfully over what it means to catch a clock in one’s hands.)
What is strange is that I don’t really dislike winter. The short days do bother me and I hate driving home in the dark (though my laziness does allow me to drive to work in the sunlight). But I actually enjoy a good snowfall blanketing the world in a pure white sheen. Right now, my readers are having three reactions to this statement. 1) The people who are experiencing blizzards at the moment are raising their shovels in anger and threatening to inflict bodily harm on me once they can get their car out of the driveway. 2) The people whose only knowledge of a blizzard comes from Dairy Queen are wondering why in the world would anyone want to live in a land that requires wearing long sleeves. 3) And the three people who actually live in Delaware are going, “What do you mean, winter? There is no snow on the ground.”
Yes, even though the entire country is apparently blanketed by one of the worst storms in memory there is no snow on the ground where I live. Woke up this morning to a little bit of ice that was melting off the trees but that is it. People are complaining about a biting wind but it is forty degrees out. I’m still wearing my fall jacket. Apparently there is no winter in Delaware. Just a fall that forgot to pay its electricity bill.
Anyway, like most people this is going to be one of those weeks that exist solely for vacation purposes only. Even when I am in the office it is going to be such a sparse crowd that it won’t actually feel like work. It is a bit disconcerting that so many people have to take vacation because otherwise they would lose it (which reminds me to book my trips now) but at least it shows that people get time off. But really this is going to be a quiet week. Not sure what I’ll do on the blog though I might try to get in one more random toy post. Just all of the other odds and ends of my childhood memories as well as some Christmas thoughts near the end of the week. And who knows, if all else fails I’ll tell more dating stories. Those are always good for a laugh.
Best of 120 Minutes: We’re going to kick it old school with a video that technically wasn’t in the 120 Minutes rotation but probably should have been: Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis”. Yes, this song is more than 20 years old. Dear lord, do I feel old now.
(Apologies to my Australian readership, which I apparently actually have now, as this is the complete opposite of what you are experiencing at the moment. I’d suggest pulling up one of my June 20th posts where I mention Daisy Buchanan and rue wistfully over what it means to catch a clock in one’s hands.)
What is strange is that I don’t really dislike winter. The short days do bother me and I hate driving home in the dark (though my laziness does allow me to drive to work in the sunlight). But I actually enjoy a good snowfall blanketing the world in a pure white sheen. Right now, my readers are having three reactions to this statement. 1) The people who are experiencing blizzards at the moment are raising their shovels in anger and threatening to inflict bodily harm on me once they can get their car out of the driveway. 2) The people whose only knowledge of a blizzard comes from Dairy Queen are wondering why in the world would anyone want to live in a land that requires wearing long sleeves. 3) And the three people who actually live in Delaware are going, “What do you mean, winter? There is no snow on the ground.”
Yes, even though the entire country is apparently blanketed by one of the worst storms in memory there is no snow on the ground where I live. Woke up this morning to a little bit of ice that was melting off the trees but that is it. People are complaining about a biting wind but it is forty degrees out. I’m still wearing my fall jacket. Apparently there is no winter in Delaware. Just a fall that forgot to pay its electricity bill.
Anyway, like most people this is going to be one of those weeks that exist solely for vacation purposes only. Even when I am in the office it is going to be such a sparse crowd that it won’t actually feel like work. It is a bit disconcerting that so many people have to take vacation because otherwise they would lose it (which reminds me to book my trips now) but at least it shows that people get time off. But really this is going to be a quiet week. Not sure what I’ll do on the blog though I might try to get in one more random toy post. Just all of the other odds and ends of my childhood memories as well as some Christmas thoughts near the end of the week. And who knows, if all else fails I’ll tell more dating stories. Those are always good for a laugh.
Best of 120 Minutes: We’re going to kick it old school with a video that technically wasn’t in the 120 Minutes rotation but probably should have been: Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis”. Yes, this song is more than 20 years old. Dear lord, do I feel old now.
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