This morning’s commute was a time that I would have liked to have been Luigi.
3 minute read
January 18, 2011, 11:08 PM
Yes, that Luigi.
You have to realize, you see, that when it comes to Mario games, I am in the minority on which one I like best. My favorite of the early Mario games is Super Mario 2, which, based on what I see on the Internet, most people don’t like. So when I say that today would have been a good Luigi day, I’m thinking of that version of Luigi. I’m talking about the one who kicks his legs when he jumps way further and higher than everyone else.
See, coming to work today, it was icy, being on the heels of a bout of sleet, snow, and freezing rain (in that order) overnight. And so getting to the bus and then to the office were both a little treacherous this morning. So if I were Luigi, you see, I would look like this going to the bus on a morning like this morning:
Continue reading…Categories: Commuting, Video games, Winter weather
So why don’t you just tell us what you really think?
2 minute read
January 11, 2011, 10:02 PM
So I drove to work today, and then going home, I put the phone in my GPS mount and did a Video Journal entry from the driver’s seat. And here it is:
Categories: Driving, Middle school, Video Journal, Wikipedia, Winter weather, WMATA
And so now I lease an apartment full of glorified paperweights…
2 minute read
July 26, 2010, 6:08 PM
Right now, it seems that would be the case. At least until the power comes back on. With no electricity at home (I’m composing this entry from the office after work), all of my electronic devices are essentially glorified paperweights. The refrigerator doesn’t work. The microwave doesn’t work. The toaster doesn’t work. The television doesn’t work. And most importantly, the computer and the Internet both don’t work. No electricity to power it all, after all.
You may have heard about strong storms coming through the DC area on Sunday. Well, Montgomery County looks like a disaster area for it. Seriously, this storm, which came and went in about ten minutes, did a whole lot of damage. First I noticed it was when I heard wind, and the trees were blowing about crazily. Then the rain came down really hard, really fast. It rained so hard that water from the gutters on my apartment building overflowed onto the balcony. It was crazy. And then the lights went out. And came back on. And then went out again. And came back on again. And then went out for good. I went out on Sunday evening in order to break the boredom of being in a house without electricity, and discovered lots of downed branches and such, including a very large downed tree limb in the far right hand lane of southbound Georgia Avenue near Leisure World. That blocked the entire lane.
Whether you had electricity or not was somewhat hit-and-miss. Some blocks had electricity. Others didn’t. One traffic light would work and another wouldn’t. I happen to live in an area where a large chunk of area was affected, from Bel Pre Road just south of Leisure World all the way down to Reedie Drive in Wheaton. No traffic lights were operating between Bel Pre Road and Reedie Drive as of this morning, and driving down Georgia Avenue last night was a rather dark affair. Still, it was weird. You’d drive through a section of road, and everything was pitch black. Then go a little bit further, and everything’s lit up like nothing’s going on. Then a little further, and it’s black again.
Well, isn’t that a beaut…
3 minute read
February 17, 2010, 7:14 PM
Today was one of those days where it could only get better considering the way it started. Take a look at this:
Categories: Myself, Snowmageddon
And that’s the end of the gutter.
3 minute read
February 11, 2010, 8:52 PM
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:
Categories: Snowmageddon
And snowed in again.
3 minute read
February 10, 2010, 3:08 PM
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:
Categories: Movies, Snowmageddon
More snow? Ayyyyy…
2 minute read
February 8, 2010, 4:59 PM
I can’t get over that they’re forecasting even more snow for tomorrow. But that’s what the folks at Capital Weather Gang are saying. And this after I finally accomplished something:
Categories: Snowmageddon
Okay, that’s enough…
2 minute read
February 7, 2010, 3:08 PM
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.
Categories: Snowmageddon
Another gutter bites the dust…
4 minute read
February 7, 2010, 1:36 PM
Categories: Snowmageddon, WMATA
The snow caused a gutter to collapse!
3 minute read
February 6, 2010, 8:11 PM
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:
Categories: Snowmageddon
I am ready to be snowed in…
3 minute read
February 5, 2010, 12:22 AM
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…
Categories: Snowmageddon, Walmart, WMATA
And it’s snowing again.
3 minute read
February 2, 2010, 9:37 PM
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:
Categories: Driving, Family, Winter weather, Work
Let me tell you, I had a really good time on Saturday…
5 minute read
January 31, 2010, 9:35 PM
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.
Categories: Annapolis, Driving, Events, Winter weather
Snow in Dupont Circle…
2 minute read
December 25, 2009, 9:05 PM
First of all, I hope everyone had a lovely Decemberween, as images of Dr. Christmas and the Dethemberween Thnikkaman dance through everyone’s heads.
I took some photos with my phone on the way into work on Tuesday, the first day back at work after the big snowstorm caused a snow day on Monday. These photos are of the snow encountered on my usual walk from the Dupont Circle Metro to the office.
Snow on top of the canopy over the south entrance to the Metro station.
Categories: Snowpocalypse, Washington DC
“You broke the bowling alley!”
4 minute read
December 20, 2009, 5:22 PM
Meanwhile, before the snow, I had a fun Friday night out on the town. The town of College Park, that is. I got together with JB, Anyman, and Burnt Toast from Anonymous, and we went out for bowling and dinner. We had a blast.
We went to College Park Lanes for bowling, where we rolled three games of duckpins. Of the three games, Burnt Toast won the first two, and Anyman won the last one (by one pin over Toast). JB hovered between second and third place, and then I came in last on all three games.
The strangest moment was when I accidentally broke the pinsetter. I wasn’t quite paying attention, and rolled the ball thinking that the pinsetter was finished. Turns out it was almost finished, but not quite. As a result, the ball hit the pins while they were still in the pinsetter. Oops. See, unlike in regular ten-pin bowling, a gate does not come down across the entire lane when the pinsetter is in action. So my ball hit the pins, and knocked a few of them out slightly left of the center. Yeah, if they hadn’t been in the pinsetter, that would have been a great shot. So the pinsetter sat for a minute or so, and then rose up with the pins it still had. Then after another minute or so, it unceremoniously spewed out the pins that it had been holding. Seriously, it just dropped them all to the floor, like as if it was carrying a bunch of stuff and accidentally dropped it all. We tried to get the lane to reset the pins from the controls we had, but it wouldn’t respond. That led to the comment, “You broke the bowling alley!”
Categories: Friends, Snowpocalypse