I Need A Siren

Snow tires are off, and war on Mother Nature has been declared!  

Once again, Jeremy is foolish enough to poke the Weather Bear.  The next great blizzard of 2017 should be just around the corner.  War Were Declared

I really don't think it's as bad as all that.  I believe I stated yesterday that it's Spring.  I also did a modicum of research. 

By that, of course, I mean I looked at the weather forecast for the next week, and didn't see any snow and at least one day of 70+degree temperatures.  Therefore, nuts to winter!  I took the snow tires off of my car!  I also had a free hour in which to do it, and that was quite possibly my last chance for a little while, so I took advantage of the opportunity.  It was quite honestly a nice day for it, as well. 

What I'm never quite fully prepared for is just how dirty the job is. 

Sure, this whole cleanliness thing was exacerbated by a minor injury I suffered at the hands of a plumbing project I had completed the day before.  So, as it turns out, when you have threading on a standard copper pipe, for example the kind of copper pipe that you screw a bathtub spout and diverter onto, those threads can be remarkably sharp and can cut through the skin of your thumb rather easily while you're applying teflon tape.  But that's beside the point entirely. 

So, I had a bandaid on my thumb while I'm changing the tires on my car, and that didn't really last all that long.  As soon as that bandaid slips a little bit and you get an entire winter's worth of road grime and brake dust underneath it, all of its adhesive properties go right by the wayside, and you spend more time trying to keep the bandaid on your thumb whlie spinning lug nuts than you do spinning the stupid lug nuts. 

All of that having been said, I completed my task, bum finger and all, and officially declared war on that bitter old crank, Mother Nature.  I've traded my gas mileage for a lack of traction in the snow...let's see what she does about that. 

The Triumphant Return?

Yesterday was a lovely day for open windows and skunks  

And today is a lovely day for the return of Jeremy.  It's been a while!  

So, today, I return from a pretty long, unexpected hiatus.  There have been some issues keeping me away, and overall, the world hasn't been very funny lately, so that's put a crimp on my Blagging ability.  All of that ends today!  

At least for a couple weeks until work sends you down to Texas for a while.

None of that's been decided.  

What has been decided is that it's officially spring!  I guess that's decided chronologically more than anything else, but the weather is finally improving to the point where it may actually start to feel like spring.  It was a downright tropical 59 degrees (15deg C) yesterday, which made for prime opportunity to open the windows for the first time since early fall and allow some fresh air into the house.  

It was lovely.  

You know who else thought the weather was lovely yesterday?  

The skunk outside my house.   

So, all of the areas of my house that had open windows and mild, breezy conditions got invaded by the pungent and unmistakable odor of skunk, thereby completely destroying the very purpose of opening the windows in the first place.  

Spring sucks. 

It's Like An Ace In The Hole

Is there a band that can “Rock and Roll” and “Party” at the same time?  

That assumes the possibility that Rocking and Rolling is not mutually exclusive to partying.  Which seems like at least a reasonably valid assumption.  

So, not long ago, I heard a song playing on the radio.  I forget what it was called.  But, the important part here is that the band seemed to expressing a desire to "Rock and Roll" all night in addition to "Partying" every day.  It was unclear if they were ultimately successful in either of their endeavors, but let's talk about goal setting for a bit here.  

I'm okay with a rock band wanting to Rock and Roll.  That is more or less what they're for.  But why do they limit themselves to merely wanting to Rock and Roll at night, when apparently the parties happen during the day.  If their rocking and rolling does not help contribute to the party, then they're either at the wrong party, or their rocking and rolling can't be very good.  Ideally, I would think that they could combine their efforts to everyone's benefit.  Rock and Roll at a party, thereby increasing the level of the party for all involved.  

It's also easier on the band's sleep schedule.  

However, I do understand that pulling this off would require finding a rock-and-roll-conducive party that lasts all night.  Otherwise, you end up rocking and rolling until the party ends, and you have nothing to do the rest of the night while you want to be rocking and rolling.  Conversely, if you rock and roll at an all-night party, then you may not feel up for partying during the day when you ostensibly want to be partying.  It's a conundrum.  

It seems to me that the easiest solution is to find a rock and roll band who is okay with doing their rocking and rolling during traditional partying hours and not limiting themselves to doing so all night.  Sometimes the most obvious solutions really are the best.  You know how the old adage goes...Keep It Simple, Stupid. 

September Ended Some Time Ago

I got to sleep in today because I can’t tell time!  


Well, I suppose that's one way to go about it.  Probably explains why you were late to work.  


I was in the office at precisely the usual time.  Maybe even a little early, since I beat that one school bus.

So, here's a little insight into how things go in Jeremy-Land. 

During the winter, the house tends to be pretty cold at night.  This is ostensibly to help the environment by lessening my use of fossil fuels, but it's also because it's cheaper.  I also own several blankets which do a terrific job of keeping me warm at night, and it would be a shame to waste their effectiveness.  I also enjoy wrapping myself up in a those blankets to make a little Jeremy Burrito at night, which would be too hot if the ambient temperature weren't on the low side.  Bottom line, cold house, warm blankets. 

That is, until about 20 minutes before my alarm goes off.

See, my programmable thermostat warms up the house during the time between my standard wake-up call and the time when I have to leave for work.  It's also smart enough to know that it takes around 20 minutes to heat the house, so it starts the ramp-up process a little early so that the correct temperature is achieved at the correct time.  It's pretty smart that way.

However, a side effect of that is that the temperature in the house is gradually increasing during that time to the point where the little Jeremy Burrito notices and becomes too warm, occasionally waking me up in that 20-minute window in between when the temperature starts increasing and when the alarm goes off.  It's a fact of life that I have to deal with in the winter months when the heat is on.  Not a big deal, usually.  If I find myself in this situation, I look at the clock, notice the time and make some snap decisions.

I believe I've noted on this Blag that despite my considerable genius, my brain may not be running at its full potential first thing in the morning. 

Regardless, if it's early in the temperature ramp process, and I still have around 20 minutes to go before the alarm, I just roll over and go back to sleep, effectively hitting the snooze button (which I otherwise never do on principle) until it's actually time to get up.  Failing that, if there's closer to 5 minutes left before alarm, there's not much snooze time left, and it will already be warm, so I'll just grab my phone and start reading through Email/Facebook/Twitter/Internets or whathaveyou to get a jump start on my day.  Then, once the alarm starts, I get out of bed and do the whole "getting up" thing. 

That's normal. 

Not long ago, I woke up in the morning, looked at the clock and noticed the time.  I figured that I had 5 minutes left until the alarm, so I grabbed the phone and started scrolling through notifications and such.  I went through this process for a little while before I realized that I was getting through more internets than I usually do in my 5 allotted minutes, and I was still cold, so I took another quick glance up at the clock (despite the fact that I was holding my phone which has any number of clocks on it).  It told me that I still had a full 28 minutes left before alarm time. 

So, apparently, my first viewing of the clock actually told me that I had 35 minutes of sleep time left, so I totally jumped the gun on the whole phone bit.  I still had a solid half hour to sleep in.