Viking Pirate Enterprises » Indiana Weather

Apperantly, my damning worked.

The VP — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:38:20 +0000

It’s finally snowing. There’s not much, but it’s enough to cover everything in a thin layer of white. This town always looks better when snow-covered, especially when no one else is around, as happens at 4AM. When I was out walking, I think I saw only two cars out, plus heard a snow plow plowing streets to the North of me which I didn’t see. I also enjoyed the opportunity to be the first to leave footprints on the snow-covered sidewalks.

This first snow also gave me the opportunity to continue a four-year old ritual I have. The primary component in this ritual involves wearing my kilt. While one might think that this would cause me to get cold when walking around outside, it doesn’t. Due to the clouds and snow and lack of wind, its relatively warm outside (30° as opposed to the 14° wind chill two nights ago). Unfortunately, there isn’t enough snow on the ground yet for snow Scotsmen.

I haven’t heard Craig’s opinion on the snow, but Jason’s complaining about it and Nick and Mike (who took the above picture) both are talking about doing doughnuts in it. Before Josh left about 2AM, he made a miniature snowman (about 8 inches tall) complete with arms made from the tines of a plastic fork. It’s currently sitting in the freezer here at work.

Snow, damn it.

The VP — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:01:10 +0000

All the weather reports for this area keep talking about how we’re supposed to get snow tonight, or last night, or tomorrow night, or last week, or whatever. So far, we’ve not had a single flake. Sure, we’ve had plenty of rain, both freezing and regular, and even what could almost be considered sleet, but no snow. Apart from yesterday when it was 58° outside, the temperature’s been cold enough to snow (hanging around 40 each day) it just hasn’t. Of course the cold temperatures also makes my nightly walks that much more fun. I may need to get my hat out of storage, as 14° with wind chill (like it was an hour ago when I went outside) is rather chilly.

It’s finally snowing

The VP — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:49:13 +0000

After the staff meeting today, I went outside to verify that my car didn’t have a parking ticket since I’d left it in front of the building all day (I figured it was a holiday so they wouldn’t ticket me, which they didn’t) and it had just started snowing. When I checked later from the apartment window and couldn’t see any snow, I thought it was just another fluke of Indiana weather, and it had stopped. As such, it was a pleasant surprise to see that it was still snowing when I left to take Angela to work, and quite hard, too. The flakes are just small enough that it’s hard to see them from the apartment window without a good light for a backdrop.

For those who don’t know, I love winter, and especially snow. I grew up in the northern parts of the midwest, particularly around Chicago and Cleveland where one encounters lake effects, so my winters were always snow-filled. So not having had any sticking snow until now has been really annoying. I just hope it lasts a while.

In sadder news, my mom put our cat Phantom down. He was eighteen years old and his health had been deteriorating for a while; when I saw him over Christmas he looked almost zombie-esque due to clumps of fur falling out, and he hasn’t been able to walk very well for the better part of this past year, at least, so I understand why and think she did the right thing. At the same time I grew up with him and will miss him.

Goodbye, friend.

Look, an Update

The VP — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 04:07:33 +0000

Well, the holidays are officially over, and everything is returning to normal. Apart from doing a bit more driving and spending more money than I would have preferred, they weren’t too bad this year. Highlights included visits to both my mom’s house and to Dad and Irene’s, including home cooked meals at both, as well as the Cousins’ Christmas in Peoria, which involved spending time with my nieces.

A couple New Year’s resolutions:

Lose weight. I know this is one of those clichÃ©d ones, but, for the sake of my future health, I think it’s necessary. This will also help with my back problems, which brings us to:
Fix what ails me. I really need to get my back taken care of, or at least under control. While I can live with it as it is right now, it’s causing me problems sleeping which affects everything else I do. I also need to finally get my toe fixed.
Save more, spend less. I’ve got a number of potential large purchases coming up this year, including needing a new vehicle since I don’t think Kato will last as a primary car for another 12 months, and I’ll need money for them. This means I really need to try to cut back on any non-essential spending. In addition, I need to get all the bills that I owe paid off, to try to rebuild my credit in preparation for these purchases.

Those are the big three. I’d also like to try to travel this year if my finances will permit me. It’s been nearly six years since I’ve last been on a plane, and almost as long, not counting the three day excursion to Sault St. Marie, since I’ve been out of the Midwest. I’m also going to try to update this blog more often.
Theoretically my work will be rearranging our pay scales in the coming weeks, meaning a raise for me. If this money can all be devoted to paying off bills or put into savings, this will help with goal three. However, I don’t know when this will actually happen as Dave hasn’t announced it to the company yet: I only know of it because of an IM conversation I had with him.

It’s currently less than 30Â° outside, and really windy, so we might have a chance of actually getting a winter this year. Alternately, all this wind could bring us warmer air. I’d prefer the former, as we’ve not had any snow worth mentioning so far.

Of Snow, Family, and Deflowering a Turkey

The VP — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:53:19 +0000

We got snow here Wednesday night/Thursday morning, and, for the first time this year, it was enough to stick. It’s only a couple inches, but it helps make the city look more like December. What also helps is the temperatures in the thirties and below every time I’ve left the apartment recently.

I found out at approximately 1:00 AM this morning that Chris, the fourth night guy, decided he couldn’t cut it and quit without any prior notice. This means that I’m back to working six nights a week, with the short night Monday night instead of Thursday night. This isn’t a problem, except that I was counting on having the Monday night of Christmas off to spend with my family. Fortunately, as I only work three hours and it’s Christmas so we shouldn’t be that busy, Dave’s stated that I can basically skip work that night.

Apart from finding coverage for work, our Christmas plans are starting to shape up nicely. Tentatively, we’ll be here until the morning of the 22nd, then up to Chicago to visit my mom on the 22nd and 23rd. From there we’re taking Gary down to my dad’s on the 23rd, then I get to come back here for an additional night of working. Then Christmas Eve and Christmas day are at my dad’s, with the 26th finding us heading to Columbus, IN, to visit Angela’s family. The evening/night of the 26th we’re driving to Peoria for a family get together on the 27th, then back here in time for work that night. While it sounds like a lot of driving, it’s kinda necessary to see everyone that needs to be seen, and better than going to Arkansas like last year.

On the subject of Holidays: Thanksgiving went pretty well. Angela and I drove up to Chicago Thursday morning to have dinner with my mom, her boyfriend Cary, and my younger brother Gary. Most of the cooking was done when we got there, but we were just in time to help Gary with the turkey. The particular recipe my mom was using included buttering the turkey, then inserting butter under the skin between the skin and the meat of the bird, most likely as a substitute to basting. It turned out really well, but the actual application of butter betwixt bird and skin was a rather interesting operation, and prompted many jokes not appropriate for mixed company.