My Odd Little Nice Day

The freak snow "storm" that showed up today (more like rain/snow/occasional sleet with much of the snow and sleet melting upon impact and the rest disappearing tomorrow) was the setting for a weird, fluky but ultimately rather good day.

It started with my alarm going off at 9:15 this morning (well, technically yesterday morning since I'm writing this a little past midnight, but go with me here). I turned it off and went back to sleep. I dreamed that the Phillies were playing, and I was suddenly called in to play third base. I was so excited! Then the batter hit a soft line drive that clanked off my glove for an error that allowed a run to score. At this point there was a pitching change, and I decided to run into the clubhouse for some reason. I was walking around, talking to someone in there for a couple of minutes. Then I heard a noise and realize that the game resumed without me. I wasn't bothered by this. I was like "Oh, well" -- and then I went out into the seats and sat down to watch more of the game. (And then I found myself out on a street with all of my family. Not sure why.)

I woke up, looked at the clock radio...and it had no time. My power had gone out. I checked my watch -- it was 10:30. I looked out my bedroom window and saw that the rain that began while I was asleep had already mixed with snow, earlier than predicted by the forecasters. I went down into my basement to check the fuse box (although why would it be a blown fuse? Hardly any electricity was being used at that time). Then I called PECO to see if they were aware of it (their automated system said they were working on it). I checked the clock that's on my oven, and saw that it was stopped at 10:15, meaning it hadn't been out long.

A little after 11, the power returned. Just then, I looked out my window and saw a FedEx truck, and there was a knock on my door. The driver had left a package. It was maybe five feet long, but not heavy at all. It was marked "fragile." I don't know why but I thought it might be a fishing rod or two. Although it had my house address on it, it had someone else's name. Perplexed, I brought it inside, went upstairs to shower and get dressed.

MixBlog 10-27-11

I need to put some content up here so the twelve or so of you who are actually reading this stuff (as compared to all the hits I get from people doing Google searches for pictures of shirtless guys*) continue to stop by, so here are some little observations...

Baseball: Right now I'm watching Game 6 of the World Series. It's kind of bizarre. It's 4-4 in the 6th as I write this and both the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals seem to be trying to give the game away with various displays of ineptitude. If they're this mistake-prone in Game 6, what happens if the Cards tie the series and they have to play the dreaded all-or-nothing Game 7? Update: 7-4 Texas in the 7th. Will this game end before I finish this post?

Hockey: Speaking of mistake-prone, I had the Flyers game on earlier. They were playing the Atlanta Thrashers Winnipeg Jets 2.0, who came into the game with a 2-5-1 record, at the Whatever-The-Bank's-Called-This-Week Center. Last night the Flyers lost at Montreal by a 5-1 score. The Canadiens were 1-5-2 before beating the Flyers and hadn't won a home game. So you had to figure the Flyers would be kind of desperate to put together a solid effort.

They fell behind 5-1 in the second period. I tweeted about it at the time and used these hashtags: #karma #apologizesimmonds (referring to this). After the teams traded goals, the Flyers then scored two more in the second and three in the first three minutes of the third period to take a 7-6 lead. I was worried that my tweet was serving as a reverse jinx.

Anniversary Weekend

While waiting for the Super Bowl, here are a few brief thoughts on a events being remembered from the recent and distant past.

One year ago yesterday was the anniversary of the car crash that took the life of Brendan Burke. Here's a fine article that talks about his legacy -- what his coming out, followed by his tragic death, means for gay hockey players and leagues, as well as the eventual coming out by someone in the NHL.

Also one year ago yesterday, Snowmageddon. 28.5 inches of snow officially here. And a few days later, another foot-plus, which would be the third storm that dumped a foot or more on us. But I think this winter has been worse. Because of the couple of large storms and a number of smaller ones, our snowfall total was actually running ahead of last year's total at this time (although now we're behind again, since we didn't have another abominable snowfall in the last couple of days). And the cold has been relentless. At least today and tomorrow the highs will be in the 40s, giving us a little break.

And it seems that 100 years ago today, Ronald Reagan was born, and there's a lot of talk about his presidency as a result. Unfortunately, his policies live on, repackaged and twisted into even more despicable form by the current GOP. For me, June 5th, the day in 2004 when Reagan finally died, is the day to commemorate.

Snow, Baby, Snow

Before you watch this (assuming it works, since I'm trying some new site), please note that I was carrying an umbrella in one hand and my phone in the other, and I had an OCD moment and had to check my pants pocket to make sure I had my house keys. That's why the video is shaky at times.

There must be at least a foot of snow as of the time I recorded this, and it's still coming down. Looking at the current radar it looks like it'll wind down in the next two or three hours.

EDIT: The embed code for the site I tried didn't work. I tried a second site and that didn't seem to work. So, for the first time in quite a while, I tried YouTube -- where the videos I had tried to post lately didn't have sound -- and it's working! With sound!

MixBlog 12-27-10

Now that Christmas is over, we can look forward to the end of 2010. I thought about doing something on this blog this week, perhaps pointing out some of my favorite posts or something. Anyway, that will be for the week to come. I've got a few things to go through now...

Christmas Music: I just removed the holiday songs from my iPod. Here are my Top 5 Most-Played Christmas Songs:

Baby, It's Cold Outside - Glee Cast (16 plays)
Baseball Glove - Gord Bamford (13)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Annie Lennox (10)
Put A Little Love In Your Heart - Annie Lennox and Al Green (10)
We Need A Little Christmas - Glee Cast (9)

All of the songs from the new Annie Lennox and Glee albums were played at least 5 times.

Snow: We officially had 12.4 inches Sunday into this morning. The forecasts generally went like this: from nothing (Thursday) to a coating to an inch (Friday) to 6-12 inches (early Saturday) to 10-15 inches (later Saturday evening) to 5-10 inches (late Sunday afternoon). The development of this storm, we're told, was very tricky to forecast. (Aren't they all?) As it turned out, all day and much of the night Sunday, the heaviest bands of snow that were circling around the low pressure as it moved north along the coast were unable to push across the Delaware River and into Pennsylvania.

Phillies: Here They Come To Save The Day

It's been a long, tough winter. Budget crises at every level of government, not to mention in millions of households. The absurd path to something resembling health-care reform. The Pope and his church continuing to minimize the importance of doing something about the child molesters in their ranks. The earthquake in Haiti. The horror that is this season's American Idol. A slut named Tiger Woods. "From Paris With Love."

And in more "important" areas locally, a pro football team that ended the 2009 season in heinous fashion and looks to spend 2010 falling fast into mediocrity, a pro basketball team that fell fast from mediocrity into incompetence (but no one cares anyway) and a pro hockey team that was touted as a championship contender, only to fall into a desperate fight to barely make the playoffs so they can be first-round cannon fodder. Speaking of stuff falling, let's not forget Snowpocaplypse, Snowmageddon and Snowverkill.

Enough bad news. Winter, like Donovan McNabb, is gone. Spring has sprung. You can tell because the Phanatic (as you can tell by the photo above, taken on Wednesday) has gone red for a week. The Phillies are back! The 2010 season starts Monday at 1 pm in Washington, with Roy Halladay making his Phils debut. Halladay! Celebrate! Now we've got Roy Halladay...and it's time to celebrate...okay, no more channeling my inner Madonna.

My Week In Comics 2-3-10

Thanks to Snowverkill I didn't go out to get my comics today. So let's reminisce about...

...okay, wait. If I had tried, I could have gone and gotten them. I was up early enough. By 11:30, before the second half of the storm hit, I could have left the house, taken the route 66 bus, transferred to the El and gotten to the one store I know was open (because I got an email saying so). I was worried that the buses would stop running and leave me stranded. The 66 was still going after many other routes were shut down, and didn't stop until the entire bus system stopped running -- at 5 pm. The El was running throughout. So while I would've gotten hit with snow, I could have gotten my books. So it wasn't just thanks to Snowverkill but also to my own failure to think things through.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, we were about to reminisce about last week's haul...

Milestone Forever 1 (of 2): I mentioned, in discussing the Teen Titans issue from last week, that the Milestone universe was merged into the DC universe continuity. This book is a two-parter that in part is supposed to be a wrap on storylines that were going on in the various Milestone series. Except there's no real beginning that explains what storylines are being wrapped up, and of the two series I was buying before the Milestone books ended, I can't remember where they left off anyway. That didn't entirely keep me from enjoying this but it didn't help either.

Superman: World of New Krypton 12 (of 12): This miniseries is over, and the mystery of who was behind the conspiracy leading to the attacks on General Zod and the Kryptonian council members is solved. Looking back, it probably could have been done more quickly. After all, the entire saga of New Krypton and its relationship with Earth is far from over. The end of this book is the beginning of the "Last Stand of New Krypton" arc and its own miniseries, and then into War of the Supermen -- which is going to last, according to DC Comics, a whole hour and forty minutes!

Blackest Night: Wonder Woman 3 (of 3): The conclusion of this miniseries features Diana as the newest Star Sapphire, another appearance by Black Lantern Maxwell Lord and another fight with Mera, who is now a Red Lantern and, thus, consumed by rage. Diana's use of her lasso and her new violet power ring leads to a revelation about Mera's past that, I'm assuming, will be explored in depth in the future. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what that revelation is, exactly.

Red Robin 9: I hadn't bought the last few issues of this series but jumped back on because Tim is back in Gotham and in a much better state of mind. He defeats a Bat-villian, has a chat with his best friend (the one with a Super-dog), learns of a new threat from Ra's al Ghul and meets the new Batgirl (in whose series this arc crosses over). For now I think I'm back on the bandwagon.

Snowverkill and Swimsuits

You may have heard that here in Philadelphia and other parts of the I-95 corridor, we're having a little weather today.

Following December's Snowpocalypse (23.2 inches officially at National Park, NJ -- substituting for Philadelphia International Airport) and this past weekend's Snowmageddon (28.5 inches), the current mess that started last night needed a name. My friend Mark mentioned that it was being referred to as Snoverkill. I added the "w" and made it my goal to see Snowverkill as a trending topic on Twitter. Sure enough, it happened today, at least nationally; I haven't seen it on the Philadelphia list of trending topics, although we do have #ushouldntbeatallstar and #shooturself...

My front steps and a path along the sidewalk in front of my house have been shoveled three times -- my neighbor did it early this morning sometime; I did it a second time around 11 am while there was a lull and just a short coating was on the ground, and a third time around 5:30. In between my two shovelings, over 7 inches of snow fell, and it's still coming down. Less than two minutes after I shoveled the ground was covered again. At 6:45 I measured outside my door -- another two inches already! That would make at least 15 inches in my neighborhood, although it could have been more since early this morning there was a period where the snow mixed with/changed to sleet and rain, which tamps down the snow. (We're under a blizzard warning but the winds haven't been quite as strong as anticipated here, so it may not be officially called a blizzard yet.)