I’ve never lived anywhere else, and we don’t get harsh winters here. M grew up in the northeast, and snow was a way of life. I never even saw real snowflakes until my 2nd year of college, when I was on a road trip to visit an old roommate, and we went to Cincinnati one evening. Until then, the whole “every snowflake is different” thing was just an expression to me. We get snow, but it’s more like tiny ice chips. When it snows here, it’s a dusting, then it ices over, and lasts maybe a day. All the schools and businesses close, and the stores immediately sell out of bread, milk, toilet paper, etc.

On trips to visit M’s family, I’ve picked up some decent cold-weather driving skills, and think I can get around pretty well.

It has been a few years since the winters have been very cold at all. It might get cold enough for a sweater or something, but the heavier coats are feeling neglected. It makes the summers really awful, though. The winter never gets cold enough to kill part of the bug population off. I’m starting to think that we haven’t had winter at all last year and this year. Just a really long Autumn.

maybe I should take a winter vacation one year. I’d go someplace where I can do something like this.

I upgraded the blog to Wordpress 2.0, lovingly dubbed “Duke” by the coding team. The upgrade was a snap, no plugin snafus, and the admin interface got a major makover. Tis pretty swank. If you’re hesitating the upgrade, get off your butt and click it!

The issues with the heat in my house are all resolved. Again. For the moment. We’ll see. We got a new outside unit, and it is working much better than ever before. It hasn’t been cold since we got it all settled, though. I’m thinking of going ahead with a new thermostat and getting some programmable sensors as well.

I scored some used laser printers and jetdirect devices from work. The price was cheap. And cheap is close to free. And you can’t beat free. I need to fish some network lines around the house for convenience and high-speed data flow… :]

BTW, the first comment that quotes the famous Fark adage about Duke will earn a special ass-whoopin’.

(12:14:32) Gruntled: yeah. that’s how all the big retailers do
(12:14:46) m: that is not allowed in England and Germany
(12:14:48) Gruntled: to put the little retailers out of business
(12:15:13) Gruntled: then they jack the price up b/c they are the only source. they own the market.
(12:15:30) m: and they put huge discounts on other items, or list them “on sale”..just to get people in the door and hope they buy other things as well once they’re there
(12:15:35) m: yep
(12:16:29) Gruntled: before wal-mart got big, everyone retailed the way Mall stores do. Wal-mart changed everything.
(12:16:38) m: yeah.
(12:17:03) m: It sucks that you just can’t beat their prices..I hate to go there, but to save a buck, you have to. You know?
(12:17:10) Gruntled: yep
(12:17:20) Gruntled: you will pay dearly to save that buck
(12:17:27) m: haha..yeah
(12:17:34) Gruntled: I want that embriodered on a pillow
(12:17:45) m: lol

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