Wondering on Wednesday 2/17/21

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Colorado City, TX Mayor Tim Boyd doesn't seem to like his constituents very much. Or, I should say, his former constituents. The mayor has resigned after directing quite the rant at residents of his city, some of whom have no power, water, or heat while the region is stuck in a major winter storm.

"No one owes you or your family anything," he said - "nor is it the local governments responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim, it's your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING!" Not only that, but

If you have no water you deal with out and think outside of the box to survive and supply water to your family. If you were sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising!

Am I sorry that you have been dealing without electricity and water; yes! But I'll be damned if I'm going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves! Bottom line, quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off your ass and take care of your own family! 

He clarified in his, um, 'apology,' that he meant "those folks that are too lazy to get up and fend for themselves"- they're the ones who shouldn't "be dealt a handout." I wonder, why did he ever get into public service in the first place? How many more Tim Boyds are out there? And how long before they're discovered?

President Biden said last night in a CNN Town Hall that he did not support cancelling $50,000 in student loan debt for everyone, doing that would wipe out the debt of around 80% of all borrowers, and nearly 70% of all federally-held debt. "I will not make that happen," he said, adding he thinks there's better ways to spend a trillion bucks on education. 

AOC, of course, chimed in. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren also entered the fray, saying in a joint statement that Biden had the power to do it, and adding

Cancelling $50,000 in federal student loan debt will help close the racial wealth gap, benefit the 40% of borrowers who don't have a college degree, and help stimulate the economy. It's time to act...

I wonder, will Papa Joe be able to stick to his guns?

A lot of attention was paid when President Biden spoke via video conference on Inauguration Day and advised his new team that they were to treat each other, and everyone they deal with, with respect - or else they'd be fired. It was a high - and welcomed - bar, after the low standards of the last four years. 

It didn't take long for that core principle to be challenged. Deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo was suspended for a week without pay for using "derogatory and abusive language" with a Politico reporter, while trying to get a story killed. Suspension was not enough, obviously, if the rule is that you're going to be fired. There were lots of complaints, both within the administration and from outside, and in the end, Ducklo resigned, preventing Press Secretary Jen Psaki or Chief of Staff Ron Klain from having to fire him. 

I think a lot of people wondered whether the Biden team would really stick to the 'respect or else' rule, and I don't think folks though it would be tested this quickly. I was a little disappointed to see that they sidestepped at the beginning, but I was happy that, in the end, they did what they said they would. 

What are you wondering about?

Wondering, on Wednesday (v14)

Yeah, so we got a little weather today in the Syracuse area.  We cannot complain, of course - that right is reserved for those who survived the 7-foot snowpocalypse that hit many of the towns near Buffalo last month.  It does, however, leave me wondering, on Wednesday about a few things. For example:

Yesterday in my news feed on Facebook there was a map of the CNY area, and you could drill down into it and find the quadrant that included your neighborhood and see your personalized projected snowfall.  Ours was 11.7 inches. Not 11.5 inches; 11.7.  A little square or two away in any direction and it was as much as a couple of inches different.  I'm wondering how the heck they do that? Or, maybe the question should be why the heck they do that?

My Sweet Baboo and I have a stone driveway, which means that we shovel, we don't snow blow or have it plowed -- we shovel. This morning we didn't have a chance to do that before work, so I knew coming home that the driveway would be a challenge if they were close on that 11.7 inch expectation. I anticipated we'd park in the street until we could get inside, change our clothes and then get the shoveling underway. My Sweet Baboo, however, had a different idea. One that got us good and stuck about 80% in the driveway, at what I'll call a jaunty angle.  I'm wondering when he's going to admit that a car that has as low clearance as our HHR really stands very little chance of plowing through snow that's three inches deeper than that low clearance?

As I was changing into shoveling clothes, I heard a snow blower outside, and lo and behold, someone was out there, clearing out the area around the car. I had no idea who it was, but was thanking my lucky stars for the help. Turns out it was our neighbor across the street, who had just spent $200 on the snow blower; he bought it from someone who was moving south.  He also noted that his wife is still yelling at him for spending the money. I would have paid ten times that much for the help he gave us tonight, but I'm wondering how long it'll take me to get the stones cleaned up next spring...

While we were out in the driveway getting things cleaned up, there were a couple of nice gusts of wind, which made the visibility about as poor as that in the transparent city of Washington DC. Seems that there was some wheeling and dealing in a booth in the corner in the dark in the back of some closet or something, and there's a budget deal that will get us off the precipice of another fiscal cliff and fund the government for the next year or something.  Except that it includes things like giving a piddly 1% raise to most of those serving in the military, and cuts the Environmental Protection Agency and the IRS. And, oh yeah -- it increased the amount an individual can contribute during an election cycle to as much as $1.5 million or so, depending on who's reading the bill.

John McCain had suggested that the bill would be jammed full of shit, and he was right.

Not for nothing, but I'm wondering if this Congress in particular is so hellbent on showing how much they support our military, why don't they give our soldiers all $1.5 million, instead of effectively giving themselves that extra money?

Or, maybe, like Jonathan Gruber said, they're relying on their own lack of transparency and the stupidity of the American voter to get their budget bill passed.

We're Talking Porn This Morning. Fair Warning.

I'm one of the bazillion Americans in the past of Winter Storm Hercules (yes, apparently winter storms get names just like tropical storms and hurricanes), and for the past few days we've been hearing about the cold, the wind, the snow, the cold, the wind, the snow, the cold, the wind, the snow...

We haven't had all that much snow, really - I'd guess two or three inches yesterday morning, another three or four during the day, and another two or three over night.  It's just enough that you want to clean it up before more falls, if that makes sense. I mean, I'd rather shovel less snow more often, then waiting and having to do it all at once. Besides, it was awfully pretty out there.

Dried monarda in my garden

That being said, I shoveled for about 45 minutes yesterday morning, a little over an hour yesterday afternoon, and about 45 minutes this morning, with most of the heavy lifting needed to clear the plow snow out of the driveway and the sidewalk.  The Syracuse DPW does an awesome job on our street, which makes it a little harder for me, but I'd rather have a little extra work to do than the alternative.

Before going out this morning, I checked my wireless weather station thingy (a scientific term, honest) for the temp, to find it was four degrees below zero.  I put on an extra layer top and bottom, and out I went, My Sweet Baboo not far behind me.  I figured I would need the extra layers, since it was a lot colder than yesterday - about an 18 degree swing.

We made pretty quick work of things, including our 'adopted sidewalk' -- our next-door neighbors moved out around Christmas. Not sure what happened there, we weren't close, but with a school three houses down from us, I can't leave a stretch of the sidewalk unshoveled.  And other than a couple of fingers that got exposed yesterday when I was out taking pictures, I wasn't all that cold. The worst thing about being out there, truth be told, was my resemblance to the guy in Jethro Tull's Aqualung (you know what I mean).

And then I got back inside. And turned on the TV. And saw the weather porn.

Pulsing numbers. Menage-a-trois radars. Huge fronts (size does matter), with their leading edges nipping at my county, snow bands and temperature bands rolling across my screen, and lurking on the side, a man in a suit, talking dirty to me: wind chills...snowfalls... temperatures... Bare skin, and exposure, and the need to take frequent breaks from strenuous activity Videos... Live action shots... Pretty people in cute little outfits...It almost took my breath away.

One of my garden wreaths

And instead of feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, I was cold. Colder than I was outside. Because there was no wind when I was out shoveling, it was a still, beautiful morning. Because it wasn't -12 where I was, it was much warmer than that. But the more they talked about how horrible it was out there, in Syracuse where I live, the colder I got, even though I had been outside for 45 minutes. But by the time the weather segment was over, I was freezing, wrapped in a blanket, wearing a hat and scarf... well, OK, not quite that bad.

It's Syracuse, folks. A little colder than usual, but nothing we can't handle. Take normal weather precautions, don't be stupid. Drive carefully, roads will be slippery. Check on your neighbors (the ones that haven't moved out), especially the elderly. Clear your sidewalks. If you live near a fire hydrant, make sure it's not buried in snow. Dress appropriately. Don't let your pets outside. If you must, pick up some bread and milk. You know, the normal stuff we do.

Oh - one more thing. Just once, I'd love to see us devote as much attention, facts and figures to actual news stories as we do to the weather -- that would be porn worth watching.

The Dirty Snowpile Awards for 2013

All the big Hollywood award shows are over, Ben Affleck has shaved off his beard, and the good, bad, and ugly of fashion have been all been identified. And now, as the temperature here in Syracuse heads north of 60 degrees, it's time for the Dirty Snowpile Awards. I'm sure this year's winners will be just as proud as those from  2010 and 2011  to receive this prestigious honor.

So where do we start?  We had a lot of material to choose from, no question about that -- and we have a repeat winner or two this time around, some 'defending champions', if you will.  Here goes:

The 'Put an Idiot Bumper Sticker on your Own Forehead' Dirty Snowpile goes to John Sununu, for his engaging and idiotic appearance with Soledad O'Brien on CNN.  Sununu, who suggested O'Brien put an Obama bumper sticker on her forehead, was trying to make a point by referencing an actual document - the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assessment on the costs of repealing the
Affordable Care Act - and pretending it said the ACA cut Medicare benefits by over $700 billion.  This was not the case, but it didn't matter to Sununu - say something loud enough and often enough and people will believe you.  Unless it's Soledad O'Brien, who actually read the CBO letter and called Sununu on the lie- er, misstatement.

The 'Groucho Marx' Dirty Snowpile goes to National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Director Wayne LaPierre, for embodying the oft-cited Groucho quote about belonging to a club that would have him as a member. LaPierre, by his comments after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, his statements after other mass shootings that it was 'too soon' to talk about them, and his inflammatory statements since then, has done more to fan the flames of gun control advocates than the horrific shootings themselves.  The NRA would do themselves a favor if they found another mouthpiece.


The 'Talk Less, Do More' Dirty Snowpile goes to jointly to Congress and President Obama. All of them need to get to work.  Recent attempts at playing nice (Obama taking Senate Republicans to dinner, or having lunch with House Republicans) are fine but we don't need any more photo ops. We know what you all look like, we know what you think is important -- but we don't need photo opportunities, we need real opportunities.  Remember what they say: "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." Now's the time to try.

On a related note, the 'Who the (Heck) are You' Dirty Snowpile goes to the handful of people who still approve of Congress.  Approval rates have fluctuated a bit over the past several months, but I don't remember when it was even as high as 20%. I'm reminded of when we were kids, not excited about eating our vegetables.  Dad would tell us there were starving kids in other countries who would love to have our food, one day, my brother challenged him to name one. Can anyone name one of these 'approvers'?

And then we have the 'Wading Through Roe v. Wade' Dirty Snowpile to, well, to everyone - male or female, Democrat or Republican - who said anything about rape and abortion in the last election cycle.  We had Akin  and women's bodies 'shutting that thing down' and Mourdock with 'God's intent' and jokes about aspirin being a contraceptive and Louise Slaughter with her Nazi references -- it's all nonsense.  If people want to try and legislate abortion away, so be it -- it will be up to the courts, ultimately, to decide whether any new law are legal. In the meantime, can we please just stop letting the stupid people talk about it?


The thing about dirty snowpiles is, the dirtier they are, the longer they stick around. Sometimes it feels like that with our elected officials, doesn't it? It's a pretty good thing that you can control the budget of the agency you formed to investigate your own allegedly bad behavior, isn't it? Kind of makes it hard for that agency to do a good job, when with the stroke of a pen the funding can be cut. But that's the way it works for the Congressional Ethics Office, under the House Ethics Committee.  And speaking of ethics, say goodbye to Jesse Jackson Jr. (and his wife) who agreed to fess up to stealing money from campaign contributors. Let's give these folks the 'House (of Cards) Ethics' Dirty Snowpile; this one looks ready to tumble over any minute.

And what about the Presidential contest last year? Lots of Republicans, fighting each other, and in the end they all lost. Not because they were bad, but because of which one of them won. And so, the 47% Dirty Snowpile goes to none other than Mitt Romney. We all remember the 47% comment, right? That, and all those gifts that Obama gave to voters. Yeah, that's what it was, the 47% and those stinking gifts.

Albany has its own set of issues, apart from the fun that everyone has in Washington.  Here in New York, we have Andrew Cuomo, that Sonova Governor, who was elected fairly easily.  Now, apparently, he thinks he's the Supreme Commander of the Empire (State -- you're the Governor of the Empire State, Andrew). It doesn't, but apparently no one's told him that yet.

Cuomo earned One Man in a Room Dirty Snowpile. Cuomo blew a perfectly good opportunity to craft legitimate gun legislation; he shot it all to hell, actually, by pushing an emergency bill, and by not focusing on the things that people generally agree on. Instead, the NY SAFE Act, shoved down the throats of New Yorkers, satisfies no one.  Typos and bad law passed under cover of darkness (led by the Transparency Governor) don't make NY SAFE.  They make us look like morons.

And speaking of morons. The 'My Future's So Bright, I Have to be a Republican' Dirty Snowpile goes to State Senator Malcolm Smith, the sitting Democrat who tried to bribe his way into the Bloomberg Post as a Republican. I'm not sure whether this says more about his creativity or the foolishness of his partners in crime, so anxious to have any politician in their pocket they'd take one of any stripe.

There will be more to fall as Preet Bharara, the rising star US Attorney for the Southern District of NY, continues to investigate. And that will be a good thing for all of us who lose a little bit of faith in the system each and every year.

Sadly, I could hand out as many awards as there are dirty snowpiles here in Syracuse during an average spring. And even though temps are starting to get up there, we do still have a couple of dirty snowpiles left in town.  So, I'll do one more -- we'll have an even 10 this year.

The 'Make Mine a Single' Dirty Snowpile goes to local State Senator John DeFrancisco, for applauding himself for not double-dipping (retiring to collect a pension and continuing to collect a salary as a legislator at the same time).   While some think it's laudable that he chose not to double-dip, DeFrancisco's comments when questioned by a reporter left a few things to be desired.  He started out OK, noting that he wasn't really retired, and I agree that seems pretty simple and straightforward.  But then, he added

If I get hit by a car tomorrow and I died, it would be a $100,000 benefit, which is probably about two years pension and then my wife has nothing further. That's a real concern. 

Yeah, that's a real concern for everyone who works, Senator, including the taxpayers who support your $113,000 salary and who will be paying the $50,000 pension you've earned on your part-time job.  But we're glad you're taking care of yourself first, we really are.

And with that, the snow shovel is in the shed until next winter.

Dumb luck, laziness, and stupidity

In my local paper on Sunday, a suburban resident offered this tale in a letter to the editor:

Today I swung my front door wide open and placed my 30.06 right in the doorway. I gave it five shells to go in the clip, and noticing that it had no legs, even placed it in a wheelchair to help it get around. I then left it alone and went about my business.

Wow. Leaving a gun and ammunition sitting right by your open front door...seems kinda crazy, at least in my city neighborhood, maybe not so much for this guy.

So why did he leave the gun alone? Well, to see what it would do, of course.

While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the neighbor boy across the street shoveled the snow, a girl walked her dog down the street, the trash man picked up the trash, and quite a few cars went by.

After about an hour, I checked on the gun. It was still sitting there in the wheelchair, right where I left it. It hadn't rolled itself outside. It certainly hadn't killed anyone, even with the numerous opportunities it had been presented to do so. In fact, it hadn't even loaded itself.

Silly gun. It had a golden opportunity, and failed to take advantage of it.

You can imagine my surprise, with all the media hype about how dangerous guns are and how they kill people. Either the media is wrong, and it's the misuse of guns by people that kill people, or I'm in possession of the laziest gun in the world.

Now, he and I disagree on whether killing someone with a gun is 'misuse'. I maintain that using a gun to take another person's life is actually using the weapon as intended, but I understand some folks disagree with me on that.  Many of us would agree though, that people kill people, frequently using guns. After all, the number of times a gun unilaterally kills someone, acting completely without any human interaction or stupidity, is pretty slim (particularly when compared with the number of times people kill other people using guns).

But back to our story. Two things came to mind when I read this, one about this poor unattended gun, and one about a boneheaded move of my own.  

First, about the gun: pretend for the sake of argument that the guy really did what he says he did -- leave a gun and shells sitting unattended just inside his front door -- he should probably be thanking his lucky stars that no one opened the door, loaded the gun, and 'misused' it against him, his family, or his possessions.  Or worse, that no one grabbed the gun and ammo and then 'misused' it against someone else. Can we agree on that?

Now, my boneheaded move:  typically on winter mornings, one of us will warm up the car using the remote starter.  My key ring has the clicker on it, and I always leave it in one of two places in the foyer, so either of us can start the car.  One morning when I went to look for the keys, they weren't in the most logical place, so I looked in the next most logical place, and they weren't there either.

I started back into the dining room to ask My Sweet Baboo if he had the keys, and then I remembered where they must be. With a sinking feeling, I turned around, headed for the front door, pulled it open, and yep, there they were.

Somehow, what with juggling my purse, tote bag, laptop bag, the mail, and a package, and MSB bringing in his work bag and the recycling bin, and both of us trying to make sure none of the cats got out, I foolishly left both the house keys and the car keys in the door. Not just for one hour, but for over twelve hours. The car was still in the driveway, fortunately.

So -- do I have the laziest keys in the world, or am I one lucky SOB, my stupidity going undetected and protecting me, our car, and our possessions? And would I be so lucky if  I did that over and over and over again? I'm thinking eventually the wrong person would step up on the porch, find my keys, and well, you can figure it out from there.  I also suspect the police would be a little less than excited about helping me out.

Same with my suburban letter writer.  Be stupid enough times (intentionally or otherwise) and it will bite you.  And if the worst-case scenario did happen for the man with the laziest gun in the world, I hope he'd be charged as an accessory to whatever crimes were committed using his 30.06.

Sidebar: Embracing winter

The weekend before Valentine's Day My Sweet Baboo and I were booked for a short getaway to rejuvenate and refresh after the long and somewhat logy holiday season of 'too': too much rich food, too much sugary candy, too many leftovers that keep finding their way out of the freezer and onto our table, and too little exercise. 

Typically, for our February escape, I'll find a bed & breakfast somewhere in the Finger Lakes so we can do some winery-hopping.  But this time, with more than enough wine on our racks, I set my sights on the Catskills and started looking for places we could go. I picked The Washington Irving Inn, in Tannersville, and made our reservations before the end of January.

And then...Yep, you guessed it, another of our all-too-frequent 'storm of the century' events loomed on the horizon.  We had a coastal storm. We had a west to east storm. And the two storms were looking to hook up, if you get my drift, somewhere over the New Jersey-New York-Massachusetts area.

The predictions were horrific, they came days in advance and were unending on the local news, in the paper, on the national news.  The weather people were out in full force, trying to come up with the most provocative forecasts, if not the most accurate.  For example, here's the warning that was in my local paper, Syracuse's Post-Standard, the day before we were scheduled to leave:

If you have travel plans in and out of Central New York, here is some information which might be helpful.

First, if you are traveling east, or coming into Central New York from the east, travel Friday will be difficult. Even if you leave early. By 10 or 11 AM, snow, or some sort of a wintry mix should be entering the mid Atlantic all the way up into the Catskills and Poconos.

If you absolutely have to travel tomorrow, it's best to leave leave early. If you can travel this evening instead, all the better. Less stress.

Really? A massive blizzard?  Leave early to avoid the weather and stress?  Rather than listen to the weatherman, we decided we'd stick to the plan and leave Friday morning. We packed plenty of stuff to read and a laptop, in case we got snowed in. We stopped for gas, bought a new snow brush, and headed out shortly before 10AM, expecting to drive straight into the storm.

Traveling down the Thruway, we saw literally dozens of snowplows on the move; there was no snow on the roads, no ice or anything - it looked more like the plows were getting into position to wait for the inevitable.  Leaving the Thruway, we meandered off  through Schoharie on Route 10, then to Route 23, then to 23A which took us to Tannersville. 

We did not see a single snowflake until around 1:45, when we saw three or four (total).  By around 2:30, it was snowing pretty good, with a few inches of accumulation.  After dinner, backin our room,
we were bombarded by weather reports and dire predictions of 15 - 25 inches of snow, getting them not only from multiple NY stations (capital district and Catskill/Hudson area) but also from Eastern Massachusetts and from NYC.  (Note to self: spend more time watching HGTV and less time on local stations.)

In the end, we saw less than a foot of snow - in some places, way less than a foot, more like three or four inches. Saturday morning, the roads had all been plowed, and in many cases we were driving on bare pavement just a few short hours after the storm had ended. 

So much for needing to leave town a day early.

Syracuse winters? Bring 'em on!

Local columnist Sean Kirst had a conversation with long-time Syracuse booster Russ Andrews about Syracuse being the snowiest major city in New York, if not the country. Andrews suggests that it might not be good for us to focus on that, and also that perhaps if we moved the official snowfall measuring station to downtown, we might be able to drop the snow capital name and gain some economic boost.

The official weather reporting for our area is done at Hancock International Airport, in the snowfall-prone 'north of the Thruway' area a few miles north of downtown, where there is typically less snow. According to Andrews,

I think it’s wonderful to be first in anything, but I don’t think it’s good for our economy to be seen as being all that snowy. I work just north of the Thruway...and it’ll be a blizzard out there and when I get home, to downtown, we’ll be getting nothing.

I agree with Andrews on the differences between reporting stations. Similar to real estate, with weather it's location, location, location. I live in The Valley, a few minutes south of the city center, and more often than not that the weather we have here is different than the weather at any of the local TV stations, even as they are telling us about the differences between their on-set weather and that at the airport. There have been many times when we've left  the homes of friends and family in other sections of the city in a blinding snowstorm - or rainstorm, for that matter - and quickly entered clear skies and clean dry streets.  And there are of course times when we have the inclement weather at our house, but nothing's happening in Eastwood or Tipp Hill, and something totally different is happening in Liverpool or Manlius or at the airport.

Kirst's question is, should we embrace the airport weather, or should we pretend it's not representative? And should we aspire to be number two or three on the list of snowy cities?  Do we really want to lose the Golden Snowball to someone else, our fellow cities-in-snow Buffalo, Rochester, Albany or Binghamton? And could we stand losing to someone outside New York, like Erie PA?

S Drummond photo


Frankly, I'm on the 'embrace' side of things. I'm not a skier or a snowmobiler, but I do enjoy getting outside in all kinds of weather, including winter, for the fresh air, to take photos and to just enjoy the weather hand we're dealt. I also shovel a mean driveway and sidewalk, having lived in Central New York for most of my 54 years. 

I remember back in the day, I'm guessing it was the 80's or 90's, when we had the slogan  "Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes!"  There was another one, along the lines of  "In Syracuse, we have four seasons - sometimes all in the same day!"  Now, I can't recall if anyone officially used these or not, but at least in conversation, (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) we wore our weather on our sleeves and laughed at it.  

Here's my favorite comment (from user 'crysania')  in response to Kirst's post:

Does it really matter? 103 inches of snow is still a LOT of snow to most people. Saying "Oh no it's not that bad! We didn't get 149 inches of snow, we only got 103!" sounds ridiculous to people not from the area. So measuring it in a different place isn't going to make it any "better" in terms of snow.

She goes on to point out what those of us who live here already know, but seem to forget:

Perhaps what should be advertised along with it is that we have a lot of snowplows, a lot of salt, and for the most part we know how to tackle this much snow. Most of the time our snow falls in a few inches every day, which here is not a big deal. And often some falls and then melts away, then more falls, then melts away. It's not often we have 4 or 5 feet of snow on the ground. I guess if they're SO afraid of the snow chasing people away, they need to show how it's either not a big deal or how it can be good for business.

Here's Andrews again:

A lot of cities don't have four seasons.  Why should our worst season be most prominent? 

Our "worst" season?  C'mon -- winter is one of our four best seasons!  Our winters are only a part of what we need to be selling - yes, selling - to folks who might be interested in coming here to live, to attend college, to start a business, or just to visit. 

As I write this, there are ridiculously small snowflakes wandering around outside, acting like they can't decide whether to just stay afloat or come in for a landing. I'm hoping that they'll build up some momentum, and cover the ground with a fresh blanket of snow. Not a ton, mind you, but just enough to make it pretty again, until it's time (and warm enough) for us to get outside and start our spring cleaning.

Are you with me?



Future Shock

S Drummond photo

Updated, March 15, 2014

I wrote this post, about the future of personal computers, five years ago this month.  I thought of it earlier this week when I was shoveling snow for almost two hours straight. Even for me, that was a little too much. 

So, in addition to what's below, I'd ask my modern computer to put some kind of force field up around my house as soon as we had six or eight inches of snow on the ground, to keep us from getting any more.  And to open up the force field and let a light dusting fall, when the snow on the ground gets too dirty to enjoy.

And, of course, to have the snow melt at just the right time, before I can't stand it any longer.