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Today in history, greetings, and social banter here. (More)
New Amsterdam, now New York City, was incorporated today (1653). Also, baseball’s National League was founded (1876), Punxsutawney celebrated the first Groundhog Day (1887), New York’s Grand Central Terminal opened (1913), and James Joyce’s Ulysses was published (1922). And the Groundhog Day Gale hit the U.S. and Canada (1976).
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
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16 degrees in North Central Blogistan, feels like -4, 27 mph winds, 5 foot drifts outside my back door and in the streets.
Here is what it looks like from the sky (that is my house in the upper middle):
Update: Here is link to HuffPo which has the photos (NOAA site down): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/midwest-snowstorm-weather-_n_817070.html?ir=Chicago
In the “protected” front entry of our house, there is a drift two feet high that we’ll have to step into just to leave the house. I thought that was bad until I read my niece’s Facebook status from where Mom and my brother’s family all live. The drift outside their front door goes all the way to the top of the door. They were right in the path of the worst snow and wind, and had lots of Thundersnow.
You know it’s bad when the largest employer in the area had to announce that all of its sites are closed today until the second shift.
I will try to get pictures later. I have not seen drifts like this since I was a little kid in Massachusetts. And I think some of those drifts looked big because I was little.
That is um, like, um. OMG it’s the end of the world!
Seriously, that’s awful. I tuned into the weather channel last night and thought, “Snow Hurricane.”
Hope my fellow Blogistanis are all tucked in and safe.
Good morning!!!! It’s feeling like the end of the world here! Yesterday the kids have a half day due to the snowstorm , but I picked them up halfway through their halfway because the roads were getting too treacherous. They are off all day today, thankfully because I really don’t want to go out today.
Our furnace is cracked and was throwing soot all over the house. We had to move into a hotel for TWO WEEKS while they clean. Yikes! they took all of our clothes – for three days all I had was the (grimy) clothes on my back. We got some clean clothes delivered last night, thankfully. This is a nightmare. At least I get to pick out some new colors for the walls since the whole house is getting repainted – thank goodness for small favors!
Hope everyone is surviving whatever awful weather pattern you are in! It was almost nice to be here – I couldn’t log in this morning and it took a half hour to get a new password. Now I’ve got to feed my hungry and loud kids. Sigh…
OMG. That is awful. Thanks for checking in, theKgirls. I caught your excellent post on DK the other day and would like you to repost it here.
I’d love to – I’d sign up for a morning slot, but I can’t guarantee that would be a snow day… Maybe once we move home — or the Evening Focus.
We have Evening Focus openings next Monday-Friday (2/7 – 2/11). I think you’re already an Author here. If so, you can reserve a slot in the Authors Notepad in your Dorm Room. Just scroll down to the Evening Focus section where it says “Volunteer Here:” and type in your username, topic, and the date(s) you want. Were you thinking a one-day article or a 2-3 day series?
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
I hope we can get you to do an Evening Focus over two days.
I know that there will be questions and a second planned day is a great way to address questions from the first. I saw your post on DK created a lot of questions in the comments (and some thread-jacking
). The two-day series format works very well for that.
Good to see you Kgirls and sorry to hear about your furnace. I hope it isn’t the end of the world just yet but it would seem like the human race is doing everything stupid thing it can to hasten the end.
Yikes, theKgirls! We had a much-more-minor incident a few Palm Sundays ago that we shall not detail for fear of evoking The Casa Crissie Water Curse again. We did get a new floor out of it, though….
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
That’s so awful, Kgirls. I can imagine your distress because I remember our when our house flooded. On the other hand, we didn’t get to stay in a hotel.
I hope they get things fixed up quickly
Hugggs!
That is amazing!
I am thankful we did not lose power (knock on wood) in my little corner of Chi-town. The winds were impressive at the height of the storm. We have 20 inches so far and expect more over the next 8 hours before winds shift to the west. I managed to shovel the walks and garage, but it was slow going. The snow is much heavier than I expected. With the temperature, I expected it to be fluffier. Four- to five-foot piles beside garage and driveway area. I hope this stuff melts slowly. If we get a 50 degree spell in a week or so, all that water is going to come into the garage.
My goals for the day are to have everything cleaned up before the temps plummet tonight, check on the older neighbors, and lend them a hand. The moisture content of this snow will make it brick-like when the temps hit 0 this evening. It will take a chainsaw to cut it up.
I told my wife I was going to get on the roof with the leaf blower to clear the overhangs so the gutters do not collapse. She asked me if I have been drinking. I told her no, but I intend to start.
I’ll bill you for the screen-cleaning after this….
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Sorry…
Sorry? Really? I hope not because I needed a good laugh and this was brilliant.
DWG,
LOL
LOL 
LOL 
LOL 
LOL 
LOL 
LOL 
LOL 
LOL 
LOL 
LOL 
I made that mistake one year. “Oh I will just drive over it to go to work and clear it when I get home”. It turned into 4 inch thick ice and was on the driveway for 2 months.
We are going to wait until the plows finish and then get the driveway cleared.
Bailey’s and Coffee?
Happy Candlemas everyone
Happy Candlemas to you too, JBF!
Special Weather Statement:
In other words, “For crying out loud, are you nuts? Get off the darn roads!!”
Stay home during this kind of emergency usually means everyone. Some day the onion will issue a weather alert that lists the fools who thought they were exempt. Those that ended up in the ditches.
I’ve never understood what people are thinking when they do this. It’s not like there isn’t fair warning.
I remember back in ‘94, we had a major blizzard where I was living at the time. I lived right on a state highway, and I made it home from work just before the storm hit. 4 hours later, with storm in full fury, two feet of snow already, and a foot on the road, visibility next to nothing, I saw a car go by. All I could think of was “what idiot is driving in this weather?” 
Gaaaa….. Is that a robin on yer bird feeder?
Not likely!! Maybe a penguin.
I just got in from shoveling snow to clear a space for my dog. That is one of the problems with having a dog who is only 8 inches tall. And drifts that are 3-5 feet tall. I gave her a spot (down to grass … she is very persnickety) and it seemed to be enough.
Wind seems to be dying down but there is a LOT OF SNOW.
This year may qualify as Groundhog Day Gale II. I hope the worst of the weather has passed, that everyone stayed home, and that you stay home and safe today.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Methinks that no groundhogs will be seeing any shadows today. If they are smart they will stay in their burrows … at least until the plows come through.
That was my thought, Jan. Punxsutawney Phil probably won’t see the surface of the snow today, let alone sunlight, let alone a shadow. In fact …
… hold on …
… Punxsutawney Phil just texted the BPI Squirrel:
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
LOL! Nice to get so cracked up so early.
LOL
, thanks BPI squirrel for the info.
The temperature here yesterday was…ahh never mind.
Big empty box where your photo is supposed to be Jan. And link not working for me.
I see that. Let me see if I can fix it. NOAA site might be overwhelmed.
You can tell me, Mike. I was enjoying the same thing.
Go ahead and say it, Mike. The relatives from Florida have already called to let us know what we left behind.
OK. You asked for it…. 79!
Friend in Texas posted as her status yesterday that her kids school and her office was closed yesterday and it was too dang cold to be in Texas.
I responded that it was a right cold 70 degrees here in FL and I might enjoy some time by the pool for her.
You are allowed to enjoy your retirement. I am not harmed by knowing that you have 79 freaking degrees. Not harmed at all. No just fine with that. Did I tell you I don’t even mind? Wahhhhhh.
Scientists are noting that the temperate and the artic climates have flipped this winter. While we are freezing and constantly digging ourselves out, at least in Northern Blogistan, the arctic is warmer than usual.
Hugggs and good morning, everyone
I’m going on a little rant here. Alaska is now gassing wolves and their pups in their dens. It seems the caribou population is down, and while no one has even begun a study to determine why (couldn’t possibly have a thing to do with climate change, melting tundra or human activity I’m sure) they are now not just shooting them from helicopters but hunting them in their dens.
The National Park service, in its attempts to reduce the coyote population in the lower 48 is poisoning meat with a chemical so toxic that some nations have banned it as a chemical warfare weapon. So toxic that the corpses of animals killed with it must be handled as toxic waste.
And of course it’s not just killing coyotes. It’s killing wolves and pet dogs, and any other animal drawn to eat meat.
Nothing like using a sledgehammer.
There clearly is something wrong with us as human beings. It is too bad we are taking other species with us on the path of the destruction of the earth.
Sigh?
Amen to that, JBF. Amen.
Is now when I remind them of Yellowstone and the return of the wolves there?
For 80 years no one could understand what was wrong with the ecology in the park and why everything was so screwed up. Within 5 years of them reintroducing wolves into the park people were seeing other animals in the park that they hadn’t seen in years.
It’s times like this that I must remind myself that no good will come out of making the humans poisoning and suggesting that these animals be poisoned have to eat the poisoned meat themselves as it would just sink me down to their level.
Sometimes people really disturb me.
The factors most directly affecting caribou density are human-related. These factors include habitat fragmentation (biggest factor), human harvest, and deforestation and logging (allows more efficient predation by wolves). Wolf impacts on caribou are only large when the wolf density is large and caribou density is low (thanks to stupid human tricks). If they want large caribou herds, then protect their habitat. Climate change also plays a role by increasing snowfall, which makes it more difficult for caribou for forage in the winter, and by increasing summer insect effects.
What we have here are stupid human tricks. They want large caribou populations because the stupid humans find it amusing to shoot them, but they also want to destroy the caribou habitat by mining, drilling, pipeline construction, road building, and expansion of urban areas. In short, they want to blame the wolves for their own short-sighted activities which affect caribou population density.
Killing off the wolves might produce a short-term increase in caribou populations already under stress from stupid human activities, but those caribou populations will continue to decline in the long run because of human failure to protect habitat.
Morning all,
Yes, it did rain yesterday and overnight. Rain to freezing rain to sleet to snow as temps drop. At least they closed the schools today. It rained on New Year’s day and again yesterday and today. Very odd weather for Western Reserve Blogistan.
My neighbor did something so neighborly yesterday I decided to not be cynical yesterday. He came with his snow blower and cleared the driveway. He did the same for his neighbor on the other side and for the one on the other side of me. He said he was being neighborly. Now need to do something for him like buying a plant for spring for him. It just totally made my day.
Did not cross post of Furthermore! yesterday. Instead, emailed MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, concerning their lack of coverage of KKKasich and his lack of diversity. I did some research and 2010 was the first year in ~30 years that the radical R’s did not run any black people at all on a state wide ticket. I don’t think they ran anyone of color at all statewide or for state rep, senate or Congress, but I have to check on that.
Will let you know if I do post it later at dk. Hate to waste the work I did copying, pasting and reconstructing the links, but oh well.
Cleveland, Ohio gets dissed again by DNC. I got that same e-mail from the FLOTUS….very disappointing.
Hope everyone is well and stays safe out there. If you don’t have to go out in the bad weather, that sounds like the best course of action.
A mighty fist bump to you all!
What a lovely story, JBF. It made my day, also.
Ed Schultz was all over the Kasich thing (heard it on the radio while running errands).
I noticed in the news today that Kasich re-announced the appointment of his lone black staffer:
Now there is a lonely job.
You are wise to not crosspost. There were 20 diaries on the same topic yesterday.
Still considering it since it might drive some more traffic here.
Looks like it is even worse than I thought outside. Blowing snow, really windy, and crunchy ice underneath a layer of snow.
Yikes for anyone who has to do any driving today, not me.
My mother-in-law bought me Ron Chernow’s book Washington A Life for Christmas. Just started reading it and I had to bring this passage to your attention. Be prepared to
or even 
Washington wanted to “form himself as an English country gentleman.”
Words for the wise.
Cool Mike. Maybe copying all 110 and sending them to Congress could contribute to ‘civility’.
Hrmm … no “Choppeth not thee that cherry tree, but if that cherry tree thou choppeth, lie thee not about having choppethed it?”
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
We could add: Flatulate not loudly and extemporaneously, but subtley, and with great care as to location and nearby listeners…..
Coffee spew, HH99. Well and truly.
Hugggs and good morning.
Good morning to you winter! So good to visit here today and hear from friends and kindred spirits. I should try to get some pictures later, when my photographer awakes.Actually, I may’ve taken one just now if I worked the camera correctly. When the rest of the household wakes up, will see if I can persuade someone to send it to Jan, and ask her to post it for me. It truly is a fairyland around here. Trees glistening white and silver, even as it’s snowing a bit. I can only wonder what it’ll look like tomorrow, when the weatherman says the sun will shine!
A prayer and good thoughts headed yer way for passing the seasonal bumps in the road. Bless you friend, and bless your humanity.
Sincerely, Hoghead99
Just email them to me and I will see that they are posted. It is one of my jobs.
OK, you da Jan!
I’m looking forward to your pix, HH, and I loved the Thoreau poem you trekked out to get for us. A true kindness.
Enjoy your day, dear friend, and bless you, too. You are always a bright spot.
Well, it’s morning! I’d normally say good, except it’s cold and there’s been about 8 inches of snow so far, with the worse to come here.
Just finished the trudge over to my neighbor’s wood furnace to stock it up, and had the fun of digging through the snow to find the wood I’d thoughtfully (I thought) left in front of it so I could find it easily today.
Check out Leanne’s post over at Blue Wave News, it’ll make your blood boil.
Seems like there is a DNS problem with BlueWaveNews. I read it in my Google reader.
The attempt by the Republicans to redefine rape is hideous. I add it to a long list of hideousness we are seeing and probably will see.
I don’t know what DNS is but I can’t get to blue wave either. I am assuming that it may work later, right?
DNS – Domain Name System – is the way that your request http://www.bluewavenews.com gets converted into an IP address like 123.45.6789. When the servers are mucked up, the routes are disturbed and you get messages like I did “your request was redirected in a way that will result in it never being resolved”.
DNS servers are usually set up by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) but are controlled also at the firm that is hosting your site.
BPICampus.com had a DNS redirection issue last summer and it is very annoying because there is, quite literally, nothing you can do until “someone else” fixes it.
The route that a request takes from your browser to the actual site can take a lot of hops (that is what they call them, by the way) and all it takes is one break to cause a problem.
65 currently atm in South Blogistan with rain expected most of the day. With any luck the snow blanketing most of the U.S. means that Rep. Napier (KY) and the KY ACLU will respond to my calls today.
Anyway everyone stay warm and listen to some Jimmy Buffett music.
I hope you reach the people you’re trying to reach, HurrikanEagle. And stay dry.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Jimmy Buffett music is an excellent suggestion for today. It may be just what I need since a huge drift at the end of the driveway means I am stuck here for a while. Thanks HE.
Good morning all, hugggs if’n you want some. Seventeen here, and a bit of a wind blowing. Today makes me thankful for the well-stocked woodshed!
Went on a bit of a hike yesterday PM until we realized that with the wind increasing, the ice-coated woods was NOT the place to be!
Years back I built a shelter out of scrap wood which measures but a foot wide and 16″ tall maybe. It shelters some poems, one appropriate to each season by our reckoning, which are laminated to further protect them from the weather. There are rather stout clips at the top corners to fasten the things, keeps them from blowing away, you see….. The poem for this season is by Henry David Thoreau, and if my wife were awake she could lay hands on the book which contains it, right quick, alas I cannot. Anyhow, Henry speaks of “…going up through Stowe’s young oaks,” I believe it is, and later about, “….the sound of the wind in her rigging.” All very appropriate to the day…..
It’s still very icy hereabouts. There is about an eighth or maybe 3/16″ of ice fastened to everything outside. I ran the generator for an hour yesterday, as a test and exercise, and also to keep the power on, heh…..
Oh heck, I am gonna hike out and get that poem and post it here for you. Be right back!
Regards, Hoghead99
January 2, 1859
Going up the hill through Stow’s young oak woodland, I listen to the sharp, dry rustle of the withered oak leaves. This is the voice of the wood now. It would be comparatively still and more dreary here in other respects, if it were not for these leaves that hold on.
It sounds like the roar of the sea, and is enlivening and inspiring like that, suggesting how all the land is sea-coast to the aerial ocean. It is the sound of the surf, the rut of an unseen ocean, billows of air breaking on the forest like water on itself or on sand and rocks. It rises and falls, wells and dies away, with agreeable alteration as the seasurf does.
Perhaps the landsman can foretell a storm by it. It is remarkable how universal these grand murmurs are, these backgrounds of sound – - – the surf, the wind in the forest, waterfalls, etc. – - – which yet to the ear and in their origin are essentially one voice, the earth-voice, the breathing or snoring of the creature.
The earth is our ship, and this is the sound of the wind in her rigging as we sail. Just as the inhabitant of Cape Cod hears the surf ever breaking on its shores, so we countrymen hear this kindred surf on the leaves of the forest.
Henry David Thoreau
Thanks for taking the time to get that for us, HH99.
Wow, thank you for the beautiful story, and for finding that Henry David Thoreau quote, HH99. Glad to see you have some time off. Sorry your time off corresponds to being snowed in….
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Oh I am glad of it! Uncle Pete does not take kindly to people unable or unwilling to brave the ice and cold. There is no place I would rather be. Seventy inside, woodstove idling around 300* and cinnamon swirl raisin toast. Warren Buffet doesn’t have it any better!
Okay. I am officially angry. The Birther Plan To Block Obama’s Reelection. From Arizona (where else?):
I hope that a state can’t do this. Hawaii says they do not have this long form birth certificate for Barack Obama.
BRB Calling the DoJ
Not seriously but almost tempted to do it. A state doesn’t get this option when it comes to the Presidency and the Electoral College. There are a few states that just seeing their name at this point makes me angry because I know stupidity is going to follow in the article. Arizona tops the list at the moment in terms of going instantly angry and wondering what they’re trying to screw up this time.
I thought I remembered seeing that different states have different rules for ballot access. For example, in Wisconsin there are usually a dozen or so presidential candidates to choose from because our access is pretty easy. I also know that states control elections. Remember Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio and Katherine Harris in Florida? They had to certify the elections and I am sure had some say in the ballot creation process.
This kind of stuff scares the heck out of me. There are plenty of states now that are completely under control of the Republicans.
Nobody has an “original long form” birth certificate. Do you? Certified is enough. My own “original” birth certificates, and those of my children, were signed by the county clerk at the time. States don’t have the facilities to keep originals of these records.
The legal qualifications for the presidency are set by Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution. Under the Article VI Supremacy Clause, the state of Arizona can’t establish its own standard for “natural born citizen” as a legal qualification for the presidency. This is grandstanding and conspiracy mongering, but the federal courts will toss it out.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Except for that pesky thing about Arizona having to declare a “judicial emergency” after the murder of Judge John Roll because there are already three Federal judicial openings in Arizona. And the recent report that said that Arizona should add 5 more judges to meet the caseload.
The right-wing pretends to hate judicial overreach but they use the courts to their advantage on a daily basis. The various “rulings” on the Affordable Care Act, for example, pits activist judges (more likely to be conservative judges) against laws passed by two houses of Congress, signed by the president, and vetted by legal scholars.
They’ll find a judge to rule on this, and quickly. The appellate courts will handle this quickly as well. Simply, state legislatures don’t get to define what a clause of the U.S. Constitution means. Federal courts do.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Senate R’s created this emergency by not doing their job of confirming judicial nominees. Makes them look bad
really evil. The conservative movement is good at using the tools of our government to dismantle it. In chaos they and their masters can steal.Thank you Crissie. I have two lawyers, you and cousin Susan, whose input I seek or wait for, before I waste energy getting angry at something that I needn’t have bothered fretting over. You both, you especially save me from wasting lots of energy over something dumb. You make important contributions to my mental health.
You’re welcome, addisnana. I guess it’s a little easier for me to look past a lot of the conservative grandstanding because I do know what their limits are. No federal judge would let this Arizona bill stand as law. Doing so would set a precedent that state legislatures can write laws that define clauses of the U.S. Constitution as it will apply within each state. Whether a given federal judge agrees or disagrees with Arizona’s standards in this bill, I just can’t see one signing away the judiciary’s authority to interpret the Constitution.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Hi everyone.
Today in south cental north blogistan skies are clear. High 4 degrees. Windchill -20. Low -1.
Stay warm and safe, LakeToba. Windchills like that can kill … quickly.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Ty NCB!!!
This is just to record a word of thanks to everyone in our neighborhood. Because it is so bad here, almost every business, including the usually too large to close, are closed. Starting about 9:00 this morning, it seems that everyone who has a snowblower, or is healthy enough to man a shovel, came out to clear sidewalks and driveways. When Mr. W went out (his work has a meeting scheduled for noon today, postponed from 7:30 am.), he thought that he would be spending a good hour trying to get everything clear. Thanks to the help of several neighbors, the sidewalks are clear, the driveway is clear, and the 2 foot drift in front of the door is gone. Mr. W has joined them, and they are going next door to the couple that are older and haven’t even started clearing their driveway and walks.
At this rate, the entire cul-de-sac will be taken care of in good time. This is the kind of thing that renews my faith in humanity, overcomes the cynicism, and gives strength to fight the craziness.
Yeah. There was alot of that here when we had our bliz in dec. Folks helped each other shovel out. Me included! I shovelled out all of my neighbors. Jumped three cars, got stuck myself got helped out! It is refreshing how helpful folks are in person. If only we could apply that globally!
Movies and novels often use the Society Collapses After Disaster meme. A blizzard or earthquake or volcano or etc. strikes and people abandon social order for dog-eat-dog primalism.
The problem with that meme is … it’s just false. People tend to bond together when a blizzard or earthquake or volcano or etc. hits. As your and JBF’s and LT’s stories today show, our “primal” instinct is to help each other.
Thank you all for sharing them.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
One of our neighbors did the sidewalk for the couple next door — he is disabled and can’t shovel and their plow guys won’t be by until this afternoon. He cut right through to our driveway which was very helpful.
We are clear to the road but the snow drifts in back are almost up to the bottom of the bird feeders so our birds need rescuing next.
That is a great story of neighbors helping neighbors. When we are confronted with nature, it seems to return us to our sense of community. Maybe that is the rural “spirit” that addisnana was talking about yesterday.
My miniature schnauzer helping me shovel snow.
My long haired miniature dachshund stayed inside and slept.
Mine would have been happy to stay inside, but I needed him to run around for a few hours to burn off some energy. Otherwise, he goes into brat mode when bored. He will wander around to find something he knows will irritate you, prance in carrying it in his mouth, and take off through the house. He is much better behaved with exercise.
By the way, if you want a photo embedded, just put the direct link into your comment. An admin or an editor has to turn it into an embed for you. It is a Wordpress limitation related to bandwidth.
Thanks. I figured I was doing something wrong. I am a newbie to wordpress.