Snowbama

Snowbama. That’s what area folks are calling yesterday’s snow-and-inauguration mashup.

I thought the inauguration was fitting, and was glad Prez O didn’t promise the moon and the stars. I was also thrilled to see that he and Michelle hopped out of their limo to walk the parade route, a la Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. One of the first signs of problems with George W. Bush’s term for me was the tank of a Cadillac he rode in during his inauguration. While admittedly Bush likely didn’t have any say about the car, something about that rubbed me the wrong way.

Anyway, time for Prez O to get to work. And what a daunting job it is.

Thirty-Nine and Holding

Travis loves his Jerry Lee Lewis, The Definitive Collection CD, to the point that its beginning to drive us all crazy. He plays it literally all day long, all the time. It’s cute and yet maddening.

This morning he’s chosen to play Jerry Lee’s Thirty-Nine And Holding on repeat. The amusing thing is that Travis has no idea of its significance this morning. Just a happy accident. Or torture, depending on your point of view.

As I post this he just switched gears to another song. That makes about 15 times in a row for “Thirty-Nine and Holding.”

(As for me, while my 30s were great, I’m fully ready for my 40s!)

Lordy, Lordy

I woke up today and my thirties were missing. If anyone has seen them, let me know! And I believe my brother Allen is in the same predicament.

A little more water under the keel, as my friend Dave said recently. I like that. Nautical and all.

What an amazing decade it’s been, though. Here’s hoping this decade is just as rich.

The Singing Sysadmin

I like to sing. I think I’m pretty good, too. Even so, I tend not to put others through my singing so I usually sing only when I’m alone.

Years ago I found that server rooms – with their noisy cooling fans – make a good venue for belting out songs. I was doing just that one day at a startup company when two of the women there totally busted me. Apparently my voice carried a bit farther than I thought!

At my new job I spend much of my time in the server rooms. These particular server rooms have sliding doors at each end of the aisle, providing even more white noise over the roar of the servers. When I’m in a good mood I can often be found working on a server while pretending I’m on stage.

Hey, the servers can’t complain.

Shatterbug

In my haste to capture shots of the kids’ running out into this morning’s snow, I inadvertently dragged our Nikon off the shelf and onto the floor. Fortunately, it wasn’t a forceful impact, but it was enough to damage the flip-up flash.

I toyed with the idea of fixing it myself, but that camera means too much to me to risk messing it up further. I’ll be shipping it to a factory-authorized repair shop soon (and will be hating every minute I’m without it). Sigh.

Two (no, five!) inches of snow

Looks like we’ve gotten two inches of snow this morning, with plenty more still falling. Beautiful and peaceful, it is.

I’ll be at home today, methinks.

[Update: 8:40 AM] The initial snow was more like three inches. And its still falling!

[Update: 2:00 PM] The official measurement at MT.Net is a total of 5 inches of snow.

Snow kidding

The current weather forecast calls for about 3″ of snow tomorrow, though depending on where things converge it could be less or much more. Fortunately, by coincidence we stocked up on our white goods yesterday, when we were still oblivious to the coming storm. Should things get messy tomorrow I’m staying put. With the vpn into work I can still be productive.

It was exactly four years ago when we got an inch of snow and all hell broke loose in Raleigh. That inch of snow wreaked more havoc than the 20″ we got in January 2000. Let’s hope this won’t be a repeat.

Community involvement

I conducted another meeting of the East CAC this evening. It was one of those meetings that sent me home feeling great. I get a rush out of being with a group of people passionate about their neighborhood.

It’s no small amount of work supporting my neighbors through the CAC, but it sure is a blast to see how much it’s appreciated.

Yet another update on jazz musician Mark Turner

I had a dream last night that I cut my fingers off. In my dream, reattaching them was as easy as sticking them back on my hand. Not so for jazz musician Mark Turner, who cut his fingers for real back in November.

Here’s an update from Aaron Parks on Mark’s fingers:

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Good News (update on Mark Turner)

Some very encouraging news regarding Mark Turner and his injury. It’s looking like his recuperation is going much faster than anticipated, and he may be back to playing gigs again sometime in the next couple of months. Much better than the six months of recovery time that was initially expected. Let’s all wish him continued healing through the rest of 2008 and into 2009…

Get well, Mark!