An online journal is an opportunity to see what someone is thinking about at a given point in time. As such, welcome to my mind. This is my life - the world as seen through my eyes, and interpreted with my mind. There's always something going on in my life. It doesn't matter where I am - at home, in Washington DC, otherwise out and about, or at work. Something's happening. And I can share my thoughts and feelings about it with you. After all, what's the point of life if you can't share it with someone?
Now this is what civil disobedience is meant for...
I read an article on The Washington Post's site on my lunch hour at work today, where Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has urged Virginia state colleges to rescind policies that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Basically, Cuccinelli contends that the colleges have no legal right to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, and that only the General Assembly can ban such discrimination. According to the article, the General Assembly has declined to make that move numerous times, including this week.
I took a few things from this. First of all, Virginia apparently got the administration that they deserved. They voted for these knuckleheads, and they got exactly what they deserved - people who want to take Virginia a few decades backwards on social issues. Bob McDonnell certainly got high points from me during Virginia's gubernatorial race last year for the privatize-the-liquor-stores bit, and the reopening-the-rest-areas bit. And Creigh Deeds was certainly a weak candidate. But considering that McDonnell wants to cut spending on public education and the attorney general wants to roll back protections for gays and lesbians has me really annoyed. We don't want Virginia to turn into a state as backwards as South Carolina, where a state lawmaker actually introduced legislation to ban paper currency. I like to say that Virginia can produce an educated citizenry. However, if you can't pay your professors...
Additionally, this is what civil disobedience is meant for. I've thought for a while that a lot of the civil disobedience that happens at protests and such is just for show. I don't quite see how sitting in the street until you're arrested (in a pre-arranged arrest, no less) and things of that nature get much accomplished. However, these state colleges should respectfully tell Ken Cuccinelli to go shove it, and that they will continue to maintain their non-discrimination policies that protect people based on sexual orientation regardless. After all, the heart of civil disobedience is in protesting an unjust law by blatantly disobeying it.
Then the McDonnell administration can run with it from there. They certainly have options. They could replace the colleges' boards of visitors (as these bodies are appointed by the governor), which might possibly have a trickle-down effect on the remainder of the college, and enforce it that way. And if they go that route, while they're at it, they might as well install gay and lesbian drinking fountains and make the gays and lesbians sit in the back of the bus, since that's where they're headed. After all, various sexual orientations are perfectly natural, and hardwired into a person, and thus people can't change who they are, just like how people don't choose what race they want to be (unless you happen to be Michael Jackson, but let's not go there).
Of course, I like to think that these people in Richmond have more sense than to really press the point on this one, and that this is really just political grandstanding to woo their socially conservative base. I mean after all, in saying that state colleges are not allowed to protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation, they're basically saying that someone can choose to say, for instance, "I'm not going to hire you because you're gay." I admit, though, that it takes balls to actually come out and say that colleges have no authority to codify non-discrimination based on sexual orientation, even if the law is on his side. I'll bet, though, that if the state pressed the point, a talented lawyer could probably make a strong equal protection case out of it.
So in the end, even if non-discrimination policies protecting people on sexual orientation are against the law, Virginia's state colleges should maintain them anyway and let the administration dig its own grave.
Too bad Virginia doesn't allow recalls of their elected representative. This is also why Virginia needs to amend its constitution to allow governors to serve multiple consecutive terms. This would make them more accountable to their constituents. Right now, once they're in, they're accountable to no one, because regardless of how well they do or how badly they screw up, they are gone in four years. They're essentially a lame duck before they're even sworn in. As much as we say that politicians spend too much time campaigning for reelection, at least some of it is a necessary evil, since otherwise, you turn into Virginia with its stream of lame duck governors who can do whatever they want once they're elected and be accountable to no one.
And when are people going to realize that discrimination based on sexual orientation, or any other factor that the person cannot change, is just plain wrong?
Web site:This whole thing has really gotten my panties in a wad. So now let's cool off for a moment: PUPPIES!
Song: I can't think of anything that would fit. I've tried. Hum something to yourself.
Quote: Meanwhile, someone ought to see if they can find out what Ken Cuccinelli or Bob McDonnell are doing after hours. I would find it very amusing in that schadenfreude sort of way if some sort of discovery led to one of them having to stand up at a podium next to his wife at one of those mandatory I-have-sinned-against-you press conferences. I mean after all, he who is without sin can cast the first stone, they say...
The redesign of this site to implement CSS layouts is coming along well. So far, all the major templates are built, the site navigates, and the Archives and Major Areas sections are complete.
I'm building the new version of the site in a "sandbox", and I'm going to launch it all at once. This isn't going to be a launch-in-sections like I did in 2004 and 2007. I'm doing the whole thing at once. I'm also deliberately designing it to make sure that no links change. The site still uses PHP, so it's not like pages are going to have to get re-spidered anyway for an extension change.
As far as how things are going to look, expect to see a number of tweaks. All the screen-captures in Major Areas are updated, and Major Areas has a new header image. In Archives, the Vintage Schumin Web page has been completely rewritten, and I've attempted to clean up navigation on the Site Updates page. Then also look for various minor changes throughout, as I bold this or italicize that.
Right now, I'm most worried about two areas. I'm worried about the Main Page, and the Journal. For the Main Page, the Photo Feature concerns me. Currently, the database supplies the left edge of the main content panel, because it varies depending on whether the Photo Feature is horizontal or vertical. I feel that implementing that variable in CSS will be something of a challenge, but I think I'm up to it. Then in the Journal, I'm not too worried about actually designing it all. I'm more worried that a few entries might break a CSS-designed layout and have to get fixed. I'm not too keen about having to comb through 1,200-some Journal entries to find a few bad apples, though I have a feeling I know which ones might break the new page if something is going to break it. Hopefully that concern is unfounded, and everything will go smoothly. We'll soon find out, I suppose.
Meanwhile, I don't know why I didn't do this years ago. I was always a bit leery about CSS for a long time, but once I got my hands on it and determined that I was really going to do it all the way, it wasn't bad. For ten years, I used tables for layout, and while it was nice, it wasn't too centralized. I first started using CSS for colors and fonts in 2003, but I kept the layout in tables. Thus if you turned off CSS right now, things wouldn't look too different, other than losing the colors and the fonts. The thing about tables, though, is that since it's replicated on every page, to make changes to the layout requires changing every page. Not fun. For minor tweaks, one could search-and-replace, but for big changes, it required manually copying and pasting the content onto a new template, and hoping I didn't forget anything. Besides, using tables for layout is so last year.
And here's what's weird - breaking out of tables and into CSS is requiring the copypasta routine again, though hopefully for the last time this time. Now I'll be able to just style it and boom - a new look. And this will be a bigger job compared to when I last did this in 2007. Since then, the site has grown by like 17 photo sets in Photography and Life and Times, plus I've got three more in various states of completion that need to be carried over incomplete.
Hopefully, though, once I'm done, the site will be leaner and more flexible, and better prepared for the future. Or at least I'd like to think.
Quote: Meanwhile, one of the things that led to the redesign turns out to not be me at all. In Android, justified text doesn't extend the width of the screen like it's supposed to. After hours of experimenting, I finally determined that it's definitely a bug. Thus I filed bug report 6767 on it. If you can help fix this, I'm sure that many would appreciate it.
It's okay to want to celebrate one's birthday on one's own terms...
I had an interesting discussion with Mom today about birthdays. And at this point in the year, it's more academic than about planning, because the next birthday is my brother-in-law's in the middle of next month (and for the record, saying "my brother-in-law" still sounds odd). Then Mom's doesn't come up until April, and mine in May. When it comes to my birthday, the last one I was really all excited about was my 21st, and that was kind of tempered when I got a speeding ticket on the way up to JMU that morning. Then 22 and 23 came and passed without much fanfare, but then 24 is one where I rebelled against my birthday. That was the one where I really got serious about celebrating my birthday on my terms. That year, I wanted no cake, and no celebrations of any kind. And my mother never really "got it" on that one.
With mothers, birthdays are kind of interesting. After all, it was a special day for Mom, too. I came into the world, and Mom kinda had to, you know, have a baby. Lots of pain, I'm sure, since Mom went through 30 hours of labor with me before the doctor determined that I wasn't coming out that way, and I ended up being born via C-section. But I like to think I was worth it, and Mom readily admits the same. But I think the whole giving-birth bit is why she's not able to quite figure out why I want to celebrate birthdays quietly on my own terms. Mom wants to celebrate it because, after all, she became a mother on my birthday. But still...
I've said before in this space, as well as in the old quote section, that I kind of don't like awards ceremonies. Okay, I loathe them. I would rather eat razor blades than attend an awards ceremony. It's because I don't like being thrust in the center of attention. And birthdays, if not celebrated properly, fall into the same category. I for one don't like birthday cards. It's unwanted recognition. Save the money you would spend on the cheap sentiment and do something else.
On the subject of cards, it's something of a tradition in my office for the staff to sign birthday cards for people whose birthday it is that month. I've been with my current employer for three birthdays. The first one I had barely started working there, so I just played along. The next year, I asked that a card not be circulated for me, but one was allegedly circulated anyway, but it was lost before it made it to me. Then last year, I again said no card, and the office got me a card anyway. It was eventually given to me, but I kind of feel halfway guilty that I never looked at the card. Of course, I asked that no one do a card for me in the first place. But I was given the card, took it home, and put it on the kitchen table. It sat on the table for about two months, still in the envelope, until I finally threw it away, unread and having never been taken out of the envelope, while I was cleaning house. One could say that he who lasts last laughs best, or one could say I'm remarkably stubborn. But this year, I'm going to again say "no card", and see what happens. I don't particularly want to openly say that I ended up throwing the card away without ever reading it or even taking it out of the envelope because that is kind of insulting to everyone who signed it, but that's what happened...
So I guess it boils down to that I want to control how I celebrate things. Come the end of May, I certainly wouldn't mind it if friends and/or family took me out to dinner at a restaurant of my choosing (hint hint). But yeah, don't thrust me in the spotlight. Let me go there on my own. And hopefully, since we're discussing this now, we'll be all settled on things when my birthday does roll around in May. Ultimately, I don't mind turning another year older when my birthday rolls around, but it's an unwanted celebration. If I can't celebrate it entirely on my own terms, then I don't want to celebrate it at all.
Of course, if the schedule holds as it currently stands, I won't be in town for my birthday - neither DC nor Stuarts Draft...
Song: Meanwhile, linking to that Wikipedia article about the Caesarean section at the top of this entry reminded me of why I didn't become a doctor. I'd thought I might possibly want to be a doctor right up until around middle school. Then I watched a caesarean section being done on TV. That was enough for me. As it was, dissecting the frog in high school, a traditional rite of passage for American high school students, nearly made me puke. I was like, "That's okay, you cut it, and I'll write down what you tell me."
Quote: Meanwhile, I think I took a good course of action in 2005 by leaving for a while. If I had gone home and seen that cheesecake that Mom bought against my wishes, I think I would have lost it, throwing the cake onto the floor, or worse. Let's just say it probably would have been very ugly, and there would have been very harsh words said, and many people's feelings hurt. As it was, I ended up taking the partly-eaten cake and threw it in the garbage the next day, having never had a slice of it myself.
It's raining, and wouldn't you know it, I left my umbrella on the Metro coming home. I find this kind of ironic for two reasons.
First of all, while I was still at work, one of my coworkers wanted to take the umbrella, thinking I had pinched this one that had been sitting abandoned in a corner for about six months or so. I told him that this one was my "work" umbrella, and that the other one was still there.
Then secondly, when I got into my seat, I noticed that someone else had already forgotten an umbrella in that same seat. Then on the long ride back to Glenmont, I took one of my famous Metro naps. I woke up as we were pulling into Glenmont (going over the switch south of Glenmont tends to wake me up), and got off the train. The train went out of service at Glenmont, and headed for the yard. Then as I was riding the escalator up to the street, I realized it - no umbrella. Crap. Well, there goes ten bucks. So I saw that some poor schmuck had left their umbrella in the seat, and then left a second one to go with it.
Of course, how I managed to leave an umbrella that's three feet long on the train in the first place is kind of beyond me, too. I don't know how I managed to pull that one off. But it's gone now, and no getting it back without somehow managing to get into Glenmont Yard (which is off Layhill Road about two miles from my house). I can tell you what car the umbrella is on (Breda 4090), but like I said, that car's in the yard, plus it's not likely I'll see that car again for a while (last time I had Breda 4090 was on October 30, 2008). And besides that, I certainly won't see that car again before the nightly cleaning crews get to it and clean up my umbrella.
And I usually have a good record with umbrellas, too. Last time I lost an umbrella was on Breda 3064 on May 5, 2007 at Fort Totten. Mom and I had just gotten off our Yellow Line train at Fort Totten, and the train left the station to turn around. Then is when I realized that I left my umbrella on there. I figured I'd get it back, because the Yellow Line trains leave Fort Totten, cross over to the other track north of the station, and then come back in on the opposite side. Since we were in no particular hurry, we waited for the train to come back. Back it came, and that Breda rehab had already been picked clean of umbrellas. My umbrella was nowhere to be found, unfortunately.
So a trip to CVS looks like it will be in my future to pick up a new umbrella.
Otherwise, though, before the rain came, I finally put that new comforter set that my parents got me for Christmas on the bed yesterday. And here it is:
This is the "Tudor Square" pattern from Domestications. I also went and bought new pillows to go with it, since mine were starting to get a little worn out. The comforter set came with the comforter itself, two pillow shams, and a bedskirt.
Due to the design of my bed, the bedskirt didn't get used, but I did use the pillow shams. I had one question when I went shopping for the pillows on Saturday. That was, are you supposed to put the pillows in pillowcases in the shams, or do you skip them? I didn't know, so I bought two pillowcases for a few bucks each just in case, since I could return them if I didn't need them. So on Sunday, I put the new pillows in the pillowcases, put them in the shams, and slept soundly on them. The question remained unresolved Monday morning, when I asked my coworkers. I got a few "I don't know" answers before one person gave me a definite answer. He said that the pillows you put shams on are for decoration only. You don't actually sleep on shammed pillows. You put those aside before you go to bed and sleep on a second set of pillows in conventional pillowcases.
That just blew my mind. My first reaction was what's the point of pillows that are just there for looks? Seems a waste of money when one lives alone. I don't have a girlfriend, and I don't have roommates. Who am I trying to impress with pretty pillows? I certainly wasn't trying to impress myself with it. I thought the shams looked nice and all, but I'm not about to un-sham the pillows every night, nor am I buying a second set of pillows. I'll sleep on the shammed pillows and the hell with what proper sham protocol is. As another coworker said, the fashion police will not come busting my door down, and, jokingly, also said that if the fashion police were to raid me, the shams would probably be the least of the fashion faux pas to be found at my house. So we're good.
And I love the way the comforter looks on my bed! The pattern, rather than a solid color, certainly adds a splash of excitement to the bedroom, doesn't it?
Quote: Oh, by the way, when I was showing my friend Katie what the comforter would look like, I originally sent her a link to this one (yes, pink flamingoes) to see if I could get a rise out of her. She did not disappoint. Then I told her I was kidding, admitting that I looked for the tackiest one I could find to send her as a joke, and sent her the real link.
This will mark the second time I've redesigned Schumin Web to have it end up looking almost exactly the same as it did before...
So I recently built a new template for Schumin Web for an upcoming site redesign:
I know what you're saying - it looks exactly the same as before. Well, with the exception of the elimination of the vertical divider bar between the menu and the content, yes - it is basically the same, with only a few minor cosmetic differences. But under the hood, things will be a bit different. I'm finally getting away from using tables for page layout, and using CSS to lay the site out.
You'd think I'd have switched to CSS layouts years ago, but I didn't. I started using tables for layout in the fall of 1999, when I started using that instead of frames. Frames were hip at one time, but by 1999, the frames fad had passed. So I went to a frameless layout the only way I knew how - by using tables. It seemed to work. And I went through seven redesigns using tables for layout.
My impetus for changing things now is because of my Motorola Droid phone. When I browse Schumin Web on the Droid, I use the regular Web site. I haven't used Mobile Edition in a long time. And the regular Web site looks a bit funky on the Droid when the phone is held vertically. Horizontally, it did just fine, but when the phone is held vertically, it tried to cram everything into the left half of the screen. No good. So now with CSS layouts, I can drop Mobile Edition entirely, and do something smarter with CSS, creating a layout designed for regular computers, and one optimized for mobile devices (and finally offer the whole Web site for mobile users!). This will also make site redesigns a breeze, as I will now only have to write a new style sheet to make the site look totally different. No more manually moving pages over to new templates. Good riddance to it. It's a pain.
Then I don't know what it says when I carry the same design over a second time. Remember that when I converted the site to PHP after the old ASP site unceremoniously went down on me in 2007, the newly-converted site looked the same as the old one, with only minor cosmetic differences. I liked the layout, and wanted to keep it. Now, with the exception of the Online Store and a background change in 2008, my site has looked more or less the same since 2004. And the layout seems to work. But it does feel funny to sink hours of work into reworking the Web site for the end result to look almost exactly the same as before. But I think it will be worth it in the end.
I've done redesigns two ways - I've built the whole thing in a sandbox and then launched it all at once, and then I've done redesigns in sections, where each individual section is redone and released immediately. The 2004 redesign, which brought the current layout, was notable for that, since the site had two distinctly different looks for about two weeks in October of that year (with an "excuse our dust" message about the ongoing work). One was the old "blue cream fade" layout that was getting phased out, and then the other was the then-new layout. Then the 2007 redesign, which converted the site to PHP, was also done in sections, as I was intent on bringing the various sections back online as soon as possible, and thus they were released as soon as they were completed. All the others were launch-all-at-once. For this one, since there's no urgency in getting things switched over, I'm going to do the all-at-once launch. I see no reason why not to. Then just hit the switch when it's time.
And then a friend mentioned something that is very true - while the site is basically ripped apart, tweak it! Oh, most definitely. President Harry S. Truman did that in the 1940s when the White House was gutted and rebuilt. When they rebuilt the interior, they made changes in places, like how the Grand Stair now opens into the Entrance Hall rather than the Cross Hall. And with every redesign, some details on pages have changed. I'm sure I'll find some sections that can be done better while I've got the site taken apart. Plus now I understand PHP includes a lot better than I did when I did the conversion in 2007, and so I think I can do it more efficiently, too.
So now that the test was a success, it's time to develop a production template and get this redesign rolling...
Today was one of those days where it could only get better considering the way it started. Take a look at this:
That's pretty ugly, don't you think? Here's what happened to bring us to this. I was leaving for work, and had to cross a snow mountain that's between the sidewalk in front of my apartment building (not the public sidewalk), and the parking lot of my apartment complex. The property management had not dug out any gaps of any kind so that people could walk through. What I ended up walking over was a low spot on it, but still, I had to cross a snow mountain. So I got over the snow mountain, and then coming down, I stepped on some black ice. Down I went, landing on my knee. I left a nice spot of dirt on my jeans, and it felt like I had skinned my knee. It hurt like hell in that superficial-wound kind of way. But I got right back up and headed to the bus. It hurt continuously all the way to the office, and it didn't stop until 10:30 or so.
Of course, in going to the bus, I had to make a decision: Do I go back in, change my pants, and then take the Y bus to work, or go forward and catch the 51 bus? I decided to go forward, and the hell with the dirty spot. And I caught my 51. See, to go back would have required crossing the snow mountain two more times, and that would be like tempting fate.
On my way into the Metro, I updated my Facebook status on my Droid to say, "Ben Schumin fell on ice on the way into work today." This is when we find out that word truly does travel fast when you post on Facebook. I didn't even get three steps into the office, and someone said that they'd heard that I fell on the ice on the way in today. Yeah, word travels fast. And I wasn't at all ashamed of showing the dirty spot on my jeans where I went down. After all, it was a mark of an experience, and besides, I went down and got right back up. Took that bullet like a man, so to speak. Arrrrr...
I couldn't actually inspect my knee until I got home, though, since I couldn't get the pantleg of my jeans up high enough to look at it without touching it and causing amazing amounts of pain. And yeah, it hurts. I got a few looks going home on the Metro when I sat down and made this pained expression because when I sat down, the leg of my jeans shifted (as pantlegs do between sitting and standing), and that was no fun.
But at least I didn't really get hurt all that bad. I can handle a little scrape. It could have been much worse. I didn't pull any muscles, didn't sprain anything, and didn't break anything. I think I did pretty well when you consider that. And I didn't wreck my jeans, either, from what I can tell. Excellent.
Now, though, the question is what to do this evening with my knee. I'm thinking beer. I think that one beer ought to hit the spot tonight, and distract me just enough to forget about this skinned knee...
Quote: This is also when it's kind of a shame for it to be a 300-mile round trip to go see Mom. After all, when you were a child, what did you do? You hurt yourself, and then your mother kissed it and made it all better.
Ah, the joys of record snowfall. Cabin fever and collapsing gutters. And today, the gutter collapse went ahead and finished itself off. First of all, this is what we started with:
And underneath that, we had this:
And then there was this:
I saw it happen, too. I was sitting at the computer working on Wikipedia, and then I heard this loud noise from outside. I turned my head to look just in time to see that board that was dangling over the balcony in the above picture fall below the level of the balcony. And that was the end of the gutter, as the remainder of the gutter on the back of my building bit the dust. And so now, we have this:
No more gutters.
And then on the other side, I looked at the car, and it feels like I've been here before:
Figures. Just as soon as I clear the ice off the car, I get another foot dumped on it. Note the large block of snow still on the roof from the first snowfall that I didn't clear just sitting high around the rest of the new snow. But at least my car doesn't look like the car that's parked next to mine:
Yeah, I don't think that this car has moved since the first snowfall on Friday, and so I'm sure it's pretty much blocked in with packed snow, plus there's the whole thing of having to clear about three or so feet's worth of snow off the top of it.
Meanwhile, I've decided that I'm clearing the car on Saturday, and then going somewhere, for the explicit purpose of getting out of the house and doing something fun. I should call around and figure out if anyone wants to get together...
Winter certainly is packing a punch this week, isn't it? First the snowstorm on Friday, and now today. And meanwhile, the collapse of the gutters continued, as the gutter that had collapsed under the weight of the snow over my neighbor's balcony now collapsed over my balcony, leaving this board with nails in it hanging ominously overhead:
Meanwhile, the icicles are really growing. I knocked all the icicles off that board about an hour ago, and so the icicles you see are about an hour's worth of growth. There were a few big ones before I broke them all off, and I had some fun with the big ones.
Do you remember the Pastoral Symphony sequence from Fantasia? In the thunderstorm scene, Vulcan crafts the lightning bolts and tosses them to Zeus, who then throws them down to the ground, like this:
Image: Disney
So before I had fun with the icicles, I checked all around my balcony to make sure there were no people, and then I broke the big icicles off, and I was Zeus for a few minutes, hurling three-foot-long icicles off the balcony like they were lightning. Unfortunately, though, in real life, they don't fall nearly as nicely as they do in the cartoons. While Zeus's lightning bolts hit the ground at a nice angle, my icicles had some spin on them, and thus most landed on their sides. I hit a bush with one of them. That was kind of funny.
Then the floor of my balcony is pretty much ice, and nothing that a broom can fix this time. It's pretty icy out there, mainly because there's stuff that froze on there after the gutter collapsed. Then that hampered my efforts to remove snow, and now it's all frozen. Lovely. Well, that'll keep, I suppose.
And for those of you not in the DC area, this is what it looks like outside Glenmont Metro, from the traffic camera at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Urbana Drive (Glenmont station):
Photo: Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation
For those familiar, the KFC next to Glenmont station is just out of frame to the left. Then if you're familiar with my Transit Center site, this is the intersection where the buses go in and out to service Glenmont station. Yeah, the roads are white. The only people crazy enough to go out are these people in their big SUVs.
That's the thing about the big SUVs. These people get in their big cars and develop a "Superman Complex", thinking that they're invincible with their big, four-wheel-drive vehicle. You wouldn't believe how many SUVs I've seen in the ditch in bad weather because their drivers thought that they were invincible and went driving when they shouldn't. I for one know better than to go driving when it's snowing and I don't have to. My Sable is front-wheel-drive, and while it does give better control than rear-wheel-drive (which the Previa had), I know I'm not invincible.
Song: Believe it or not, I've had that song from Today's Special that made Jeff cry in "Tears" stuck in my head. That's the one about the boy who finds the bird, nurses her back to health, and then loses her.
Quote: So with the current snowfall on top of the first one, how deep do you think it's going to be in all? I'm going to say pretty deep...
Yes, the car is free. I can now leave the house and explore. I got loose by going forward into an empty parking space and slotting myself in that empty space. Of course, it's not like anyone can use the space I vacated. It's still blocked in, since I didn't bother to clear behind the car. I'm out, and I'm just looking out for number one here, since I don't have the tools to remove it. But this will give Lester, the maintenance man at my apartment complex, a fighting chance of nailing it with the snow plow on his truck:
After all, now there's no car to damage by making a close pass, and I'm now in a space that's already clear. And then my car shed a big chunk of that snow hat that it was sporting yesterday. I was maneuvering the car to get it out of the spot, and then, POW - everything that was on the roof ahead of the forward bar on the roof rack broke free and fell forward. So we went from 100% visibility to zero in five seconds. That was too much to use the windshield wipers on, so I got out and removed it with the broom. But at least it did that now, in the parking lot, rather than while I was out in traffic or something. That could have been really dangerous if it had done that in traffic.
Meanwhile, on Capital Weather Gang's map, I am right on the line between 5-10 inches and 8-16 inches. At this point, I don't care which I get, but I'm just hoping it's the light, fluffy kind of snow like we got in December. That way I can just brush it off and get on with things. The wet, heavy variety is a real pain to move.
Quote: Meanwhile, I'm guessing we have work tomorrow, though no call has been made as of yet. The snow day today was nice, but I have stuff I need to do tomorrow.
Well, I got the windows cleared. That's probably enough for now, since the maintenance folks are going to need to do some more plowing before I can even think about moving the car. There's more than six feet of two-foot-deep snow (some of which can support my weight) behind the car that I can't move with the tools that I have.
But just to show you the epicness of this snowfall, here are pix:
The snow next to the car is up to my knees.
The top of what's dug out in this picture is the roofline of the car. Everything above that is just snow. Wet, heavy snow, no less.
I'm finding a car under all this. Again note the sheer amount of snow piled on top of the car. I doubt I'll be moving that pile on top any time soon. I'm hoping to like shed all that while driving, and hope that it falls backwards when it does.
So there you go. I've cleared all the side windows, the back window, and part of the windshield. Hopefully that will be enough to at least allow the sun to reach the inside of the car and warm it up a little. If the interior is warmer, that will hopefully melt the bottom layer of snow on the windshield and make it easier to remove later.
All I have to say is, this snow is ridiculous. Being the wet, heavy variety rather than the light, fluffy stuff we got in December, it holds a shape quite well, and doesn't take well to being moved. Clearing the windows was enough, thank you.
And still no call on work tomorrow. Needless to say, if we're having work, I'm taking the Metro to get there. And wearing my boots.
Yes, another gutter bit the dust, this time on the other side of me:
Looks like my apartment complex is going to be installing some new gutters soon...
Meanwhile, here's another view of the snow over my balcony:
Yes, it's extending beyond the end of the roof by more than a foot. Yikes. Then meanwhile, the balcony itself should be high and dry before too long, since I swept it of all the snow last night. All the stuff I couldn't sweep off has melted or is almost there, and it should evaporate off soon.
And then here's the car after the snow ended:
I'm going to guesstimate about two feet on the top of that. I'll be coming around with the scraper and the broom to take care of that pretty soon.
Then for this snowstorm, I rediscovered TrafficLand.com, where one can watch the various DOT cameras. My father's used the VDOT cameras to watch me as I'm coming home on I-66, but this time, I'm using it to check road conditions. Looks like Virginia's done the best work in clearing its roads, as a check on the Interstates in Virginia plus some local roads in Arlington shows a lot of blacktop visible, and cars moving at just about normal speeds. Maryland and DC have some areas that are good to go, but a good bit of Georgia Avenue and 16th Street are still white. Then my street is of course completely white, and I don't expect it to change. What did we do before we could visually check road conditions on the Internet?
By the way, in regards to the traffic cameras, I don't mind them, since everyone can view them and see the same thing. It's when the feed from government surveillance cameras is not open to all - that's when I take issue. But as long as everyone can see it, then I consider it fairly benign.
Meanwhile, here's the situation in the parking lot:
People are once again digging their cars out. I'm just glad that I don't have to actually drive to get to work. I can take the 51 to the Red Line and then go.
Of course, this assumes that Metro is actually running. Metro is still running underground-only service. New this time is that they're running Red Line service between Forest Glen and Glenmont. The question becomes, why? That tunnel section is so far from the rest of the underground stations, and you're not connecting up with downtown Silver Spring. Who knows. The Yellow Line section in Virginia that's running between Pentagon and Crystal City is one I can justify, because of the Pentagon and all the defense contractors out there. But the section up by me is running, yet Metro won't even send full service up to there when running a regular schedule.
Speaking of the Red Line short turns, here's what someone should do: Introduce a resolution or something that says that one cannot call regularly scheduled service on the A and B routes "Red Line" unless it goes all the way to both Glenmont and Shady Grove. Anything else would need to be designated as another color (I would suggest pink, to underline the not-quite-Red-Line element of it). None of this "Red Line to Silver Spring" and "Red Line to Grosvenor" nonsense. That's not Red Line service. Force Metro to either spend a significant amount of money to re-sign the entire system for a new color for the short-turn trains, or run all regularly-scheduled Red Line trains to both Shady Grove and Glenmont. I'll bet they'd pick the latter. This would, of course, need to exempt special services like snow routes and short-turns for track work. But that would nip the regularly-scheduled short turns in the bud.
And before anyone complains about this idea, I want to see you have to sit out trains of the color you need on a daily basis because they don't go where you need them to go.
Yes, the wet, heavy snow (compared to the light, powdery stuff in December) caused a gutter on my apartment building to collapse. And I happened to get before-and-after photos. Take a look:
Note that the snow extended beyond the end of the roof by more than a foot.
It kind of doesn't surprise me where the collapse occurred, though - that area over my neighbor's balcony had been something of a weak spot for a while. Now they'll have to fix it, though, since that gutter certainly isn't pretty as it is right now.
Meanwhile, my balcony was covered, too:
The snow sticking to the verticals like it did kind of surprised me, but I legitimately did not think that much snow could pile on top of a balcony railing that's only an inch and a half wide. And in the second picture, notice again more than a foot of snow out beyond the end of the roof. But unlike over my neighbor's balcony, nothing has collapsed over here. And that snow up there is remarkably resilient. A minor strike caused all the snow on the balcony rails to fall off when I went to sweep the snow off my balcony, but I prodded that snow with the broom a number of times, and poked it with the broom handle, and got nowhere. All I did was leave well-defined holes where I'd poked it with the broom handle. That snow wasn't going anywhere on account of me.
Then there's the car:
Covered. And buried up to the hubcaps. This time, though, I thought ahead, and brought my scraper inside before the snow started falling. That saves me the trouble of having to get into the snow-covered car to retrieve the snow-removal device before clearing the snow. I figure I'll dig myself out some time tomorrow, or at least clear the upperworks like I did last time.
And an overview of the snow in my apartment complex:
Song:Dupont Circle snowball fight! This is when I curse the fact that I live in the suburbs, because I can't get to these things when it snows this bad because I can't reach an open Metro station...
Quote: So "Snowmageddon" seems to have made its presence known...
I am ready to be snowed in this weekend. The Sable is safely parked, and the cabinets are full. I am set. My castle is stocked up. Bring it on, nature.
Otherwise, today I discovered that adults can be just as bad as children when it comes to getting revved up about a potential snow day. All I heard today was, "Do you think we're going to get tomorrow off?" I was all, noooooooo, since I think that the Feds have already decided on their course of action. They're operating under an unscheduled leave policy for Friday, which for us basically means show up. Now whether they close early once the snow starts coming down is another story.
Meanwhile, speaking of snow days, when I was in school, I always just wanted to strangle those teachers that acted like it was our fault for missing school due to bad winter weather when we grumbled about having to go to school on Memorial Day for make-up days. These teachers that would say, "You had your Memorial Day back in January!" Big help. Like it's my fault that it snowed. I remember my seventh grade year was hell for that kind of thing. We had something like 16 snow days that year. Thus we had no days off of any kind except for weekends from the last snow day in March through to like June 16 plus one Saturday (yes, we had one make-up day on a Saturday). And when you couple that with the fact that my homeroom teacher was a real d-----bag, it made for a very rough year. This particular teacher even made fun of me (in a mean way) in front of the whole class when he presented me my perfect attendance certificate at the end of the year. I had better attendance than he did that year, and he made fun of me...
Then this evening, I went grocery shopping. That place was remarkably busy for 9:30 at night. But when people are planning on getting snowed in, it makes sense. Lines were snaking way back towards the frozen section, and many areas were picked clean. But I am now snowstorm-resistant. I have food, and I have beverages. I am set. I commented on the phone to Katie that you'd think the world was coming to an end or something the way people were cleaning out the store.
And finally, on my way home from work today, I spotted this little gem on the northbound yard platform at Brentwood:
It's on the back wall of that little platform structure, right where the riders can see it. Presumably, the banner is cheaper than training, and makes them look like they're doing something to the public. Some of Metro's recent safety gaffes are just plain inexcusable, and a little banner is not going to help anything, even if it is in a conspicuous place where riders can see it. The whole banner thing kind of reminds me of the "Safety Department of the Month" thing that they used to do at Wal-Mart. Rather than actually promote safety in the store, they just hung a banner from the ceiling to make it look like they're doing something. As someone who was part of the safety team at Wal-Mart, I can tell you that safety is a joke over there.
Yep... it's snowing again. And of course, I'm still hitting the workahol, staying tonight until 7:30. When I stay late, I drive, and when I drove through, the roads got progressively worse the further north I went. P Street NW in DC was fine. Then 16th Street NW in DC was also fine. Crossing into Maryland, 16th Street was good. Then Georgia Avenue inside the beltway was all right, but once I cleared Wheaton, I started having to guess about where the lanes were. I really had to slow down in the last two miles home, once I cleared Glenmont station. Then my street was white except for tire tracks. But I made it, and I am once again in my nice, warm apartment.
Meanwhile, they're calling for a good bit of frozen precipitation this weekend. Capital Weather Gang gives a 20% chance of more than eight inches. However, the reality is that they don't know. They gave a 25% chance of less than an inch, a 25% chance of 1-4 inches, a 30% chance of 4-8 inches, and then the aforementioned 20% chance of more than eight. But instead of saying "I don't know", professional weather forecasters just guess. After all, giving something like that looks a lot smarter than "dunno".
Otherwise, I've been meaning to show an old family photo for about a month now. Take a look:
I'm going to guesstimate 1982 or 1983 on this. That's going based on this photo of me on Santa's lap. Welcome to the early 1980s, boys and girls. This is before my sister was born. Then my parents look so young! And look at Dad's hair. I have vague memories of that hairdo. I kind of remember when Dad got rid of that 'do. Meanwhile, I don't really remember Mom's hairstyle changing as I grew up, but it's noticeably different from today's "Mom style". I think she changed it so gradually that it was easy to sneak it through.
Meanwhile, Mom is multitasking in this photo. See, when I was a child, I couldn't sit still. For that matter, I still can't sit still, but that's another story. Thus Mom was holding me down long enough for the photographer to take the photo. No idea what happened after that. But the photo looks good, so presumably it worked.
I, meanwhile, have no memory of this photo being taken. Too young, I suppose. I remember the photos we had made at KIS Photo in Rogers, Arkansas in the late 80s, but not this one. Then I also vaguely remember a portrait attempt at an Olan Mills in New Jersey. There, we had to wait so long that my parents finally just left. As mentioned, I couldn't sit still, and I had been up and around enough to the point that I was no longer as photogenic as I should have been. I remember the outfit I had on, but yeah, no photos. And I looked sharp, too. That failed experience eventually led to this photo:
Basically, my parents dressed me up and took some photos of me in the house. I looked awesome, if I do say so myself.
And then outside, the snow continues to fall. Are we getting off of work? Not a chance. It has to snow enough to cripple Metro before the Feds will declare a snow day. Meanwhile, Augusta County, where Mom teaches, declared a snow day by 7:00. They really can't handle snow. The president needs to come down there some time and teach them about that "flinty Chicago toughness".
Song:Caitlin's Favorite Ways To Be Bad. It's really funny. Meanwhile, her office is more of a mess than mine is. My office is about ready for its monthly straightening-up, but I don't see it happening this week...
Quote: Interesting bit of music trivia for you: I can get from the parking garage at Whole Foods to the parking garage in my office building in the time it takes to play "Can't Turn You Loose". I got into my office building's garage just as the last note played. Every time I hear that song, I'm reminded of Elwood Blues, when he said, "Lots of space in this mall!"
Let me tell you, I had a really good time on Saturday...
I had a really good time on Saturday. I went to the Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge, aka "Plungapalooza", and while it was really, really, really cold and snowing, I had a blast.
The event was held at Sandy Point State Park, near Annapolis. The idea is simple: put on a swimsuit, and run into a body of ice-cold water in the middle of winter. The proceeds from the event went to support Special Olympics, and of course, all involved had a great time.
As I mentioned before, I didn't jump in. Nuh-uh. Too cold. And when you consider all the cold-weather gear I was wearing, I was determined to stay toasty warm, too. And for the most part, I did.
Getting there involved taking the Beltway to Route 50, and then a short distance on local roads to the parking area. Parking involved leaving the car at a satellite location and then taking a shuttle bus to the site. I parked at the Naval Academy Stadium, and took a bus from there. That was like jumping into a time-warp. The bus appeared to be of more recent mint than I would have ridden, but the interior was light green, and the seats were dark green. I thought they got rid of that when they started using the brown interiors in the late 80s. I guess I was wrong. Ugly green on uglier green is obviously alive and well in the 2010s.
Arriving, they had several tents set up. One was the sponsors' tent, which contained a giant sand sculpture of the various sponsoring organizations' logos, and then there were things for sale, live music, and carnival games. Then there were the registration tents, the beer tent where those over 21 could enjoy beer and wine, and the sweatshirt tent, which sold commemorative sweatshirts. And all the large tents were heated, thank goodness. Then down further was the plunge zone, where the participants would actually run into the water.
The weather was perhaps the biggest challenge of the day. The forecast had called for snow, but the event was still on. Heading down to the event, it was starting to snow, and then at the event itself, the snow was really coming down. So not only was it cold as hell, but it was snowing on top of it. Good thing I wore my boots. Because of the weather, I used Duckie for photos and such rather than the Canon, because I swear I am never losing another camera to the weather again. One is enough.
At 12:00, the plunge zone closed to spectators, and people started getting ready for the 1:00 plunge into the Chesapeake Bay. I got a good spot for shooting, and got some pictures of the festivities:
A group from the Bowie, Maryland police department takes the plunge.
A girl wearing nothing but a bikini stands in the water.
Lots of people in the water! Notice the red color on the chest of the man getting out of the water. I can imagine he was really cold right then.
A man strikes a victory pose in some very cold water.
A man comes out of the water wearing a speedo. Honestly, this is probably the best way for the menfolk to plunge. A little something to cover the necessary areas, and thus no big, baggy suit to cling to your body and be cold against your skin. That way, the warm, dry towel afterwards feels that much warmer since there's no big pair of wet shorts to get in the way.
A woman shivers after taking the plunge.
And then I also got video:
As you can see, this was a happy crowd.
In between the 1:00 plunge and the planned 3:00 plunge, I found my way to the sweatshirt tent. There, they had a large heater set up in the center of the tent. Time to warm up some cold hands. I left my gloves on, which warmed the gloves and my hands inside, plus dried off the water. You could actually see steam coming off the gloves! It was SO warm.
However, the event ended slightly early. Due to extreme conditions, the 3:00 plunge was cancelled entirely. A shame, but it happens, I suppose.
Two participants who didn't get to plunge at 3:00 were a man in a green zentai and another in a rainbow tie-dye jumpsuit. Such awesome outfits, but too bad they never got to plunge...
So everyone headed back to the buses to go back to the satellite locations. There were three lines - one for the Naval Academy Stadium, one for Anne Arundel Community College, and one for Kent Island High School. I quickly found my line for the stadium, and got in it. It was like waiting for a theme park ride, as "ferbling" (as my parents refer to it) was the name of the game. The line for the buses was four rows deep, and moved in spurts as about 40 people at a time were sent to buses as they arrived.
Waiting for buses in the snow.
Once we got a bus, the ride went smoothly, and was a lot of fun. But upon arrival, I had to actually find my car. Less fun. I kind of remembered where it was, but not really, and realized that finding it would be somewhat difficult since it would be wearing a white overcoat of snow. I eventually zeroed in on it by pressing the alarm button on my remote. I found my way in, and started it up so it could warm up while I scraped the windows.
The drive home was hell. The roads were passable, but they weren't clear. The drive home was slow, and the quality of the roads was inconsistent. There were some areas where it was clear, some where you could kind of make out the lanes, and others where you just had to guess. SHA was hard at work clearing roads (I passed a few snowplows), but it's admittedly hard to keep up when it's coming down hard. I saw a lot of accidents on Route 50, and that just added to the stress of the drive back. I ended up stopping in College Park for dinner, because I finally got to that point where I absolutely had to stop and take some time off of driving or I would scream. I ended up going to IKEA (yes, that IKEA) for dinner, and ate at their in-store restaurant. All in all, it wasn't a bad meal for a furniture store. The Swedes know how to do it. And then from there, home.
So all in all, I enjoyed myself. Look for a Photography set about the event, and I'm definitely coming back next year.
