Somebody Look Up Last Year's

October 11.  Not too bad a date to turn the heat on, I guess  

It had to happen sooner or later.  Unless you live in the desert or something, at which point, you'd be tracking your electric bill by when you turn the AC on.  

So, the unofficial first day of fall is today.  It has nothing to do with the Autumnal Equinox, or dates on a calendar.  It has to do with the first day that my house gets too cold and I can't put up with it anymore and I'm forced to flip the switch on the thermostat.  It's a mental thing.  

So, with the overnight temperature in the Greater Jeremy Area getting down to 29 degrees F (-2 C), the inside of my house was a balmy 64 degrees when I woke up.  That sort of temperature is fine for sleeping, since I can just curl myself up into a little Jeremy burrito with blankets, but when it comes time to shower and brush my teeth and get ready for work, it's just not okay.  

It's not such a big deal this year, since the price of home heating is quite reasonable at the moment.  It really is just the principle of the thing, succumbing to Mother Nature and truly coming to grips with the end of summer, even if I have a bunch of fallen leaves in my yard already.  

It's okay.  I guess.  

So each year, it almost becomes a moral victory for me to go one more day before I flip that switch.  I'm really doing nothing but hurting myself by waiting, but it's a nice feeling that I've made it just a little longer without it.  So, I don't know what the date was last year, but I would guess it was a little later than this.  But all in all...October 11th...not so bad.  

Hint: It Was A Sequel

I’m starting a pool for how long my house will smell like chili

Put me down for 72 hours!  Things like that tend to linger, but I'm also curious how you would determine when the official time stops.  There's no quantifiable metric for smells in your house.  

Well, strictly speaking, analytical measures of odor is impossible, but that's beside the point here.  What's important to note is that I made chili!  

With or without crushed Oreos?  

Without, and three bonus internets to everyone who gets that reference.   

So, on occasion, I cook things.  It comes in handy when it's time to eat, and since I don't always have time to prepare things that take time and effort to cook, I enjoy those occasions and make the most of the opportunities.  Recently, that meant chili.  It should be known that I currently have 8 unique chili recipes in my collection with varying degrees of quality, spiciness, effort, and resemblance to what any reasonable person would call "chili."  Chile Recipe #3 is a white chicken chili which more resembles Irish Wedding Soup than it does any other chili I've ever had, but it was called "chili" in the recipe, so we go with it.  

I decided to prepare a batch of "Jeremy's Award-Winning Firehouse Chili."  It involves, as you might expect, garlic, and onions, and jalapenos, and Oxford Commas, and spices of various sorts.  When the pot has simmered for a full two hours, you are treated to a wonderful culinary delight which has earned praise from critics all around the Greater Jeremy Area who were invited to my house for chili.  So as of yesterday evening, I have a rather substantial container of leftover chili in the refrigerator, and the rather substantial smell of cooking chili throughout my house.  

Sure, it's mostly garlic smell, which is amazing, but there's certainly more stuff going on.  Since it's fall, I can't really have the windows open so much anymore, so whatever smells are in my house will probably tend to linger a little longer than they would during the open-windowed months.  So, I'm left with the options of air fresheners and scented candles and the like to neutralize the odors...and no earthly clue how long it's going to smell that way.  So...who's got opinions?!

The Blag Goes Down The Pan Once More

I missed a great opportunity for a joke yesterday.  I apologize  

Is this another political post?  I think comparing the entire debate to a bad joke would be at least somewhat appropriate.  

Actually, no.  Today's Sametime Status is purely about comedy and missed opportunities.  Let me take you back...

So yesterday, I was having a conversation over the instant messenger, as I am wont to do.  When I have these conversations, they are often about work-related topics, but on occasion they drift off into other territories.  When that happens, I do my best to make sure that comedy is involved somehow.  Well, in the case of yesterday's off-topic conversation, I had a grand opportunity to add some laughs, and completely missed it.  

It only took about 6 1/2 hours for me to come up with the joke.  

I started a conversation with a former co-worker about hole saws, and my upcoming need for one.  This former co-worker has a pretty comprehensive collection of tools at his disposal, and I figured before I run out to a local home improvement store to buy a hole saw, I should ask him if he had one I could borrow.  He did not, but that's beside the point entirely.  

See, I need a hole saw to drill holes through my ceiling to install recessed lighting in my family room area.  It's a poorly lit area of my house, and as much as it will be a substantial pain in the buns to add this much of this type of lighting, it's something that really should be done.  I decided to undertake this project over the summer, but also decided to hold off doing it until the temperature in the attic drops to temperatures more suited to crawling around in an attic wiring light fixtures.  This type of project is really about the only thing one could possibly need a 5-inch hole saw for.  My co-worker saw right through my plan.  

Upon asking if he had a 5-inch hole saw, he asked me, "Putting in can lights?" since "can lights" is another term for recessed lighting fixtures.  Around 9:30 last night, I finally realized I should have said, "Nope...they're going in the living room."  

That would have been funny.