Straight No Chaser

Today the federal government was closed due to the snow storm that rolled through over the weekend. Closing the Government only happens once about every 20 years or so so it's an event when it happens. Having traveled out today, I can see why they did. Even some of the more major roads were in less then great condition. Like they had been plowed once and then forgotten. Forget the side roads. People wouldn't have been able to get out of their neighborhoods. It really didn't matter all that much to me as I had already arranged to have the day off before the storm. One of the reasons I did was to attend a performance of Straight No Chaser at the Birchmere. SNC came to fame a few years back as the a cappello group from Indiana University with their You Tube rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. It's embarrassing to admit I've lived in this area on and off (mostly on) since the 60s and its my first trip to the Birchmere. It's a very well known local venue and a number of well known stars have come through there on their way to the top. It's open seating and you are seated in the order you show up. First come first served. Its nice you can enjoy a drink from their bar as you wait until they open the seating area. After you are seated you have about an hour and a half to eat before the show starts. Ann and I both had the prime rib, which was surprisingly good. I also had the bread pudding with bourbon sauce for desert. Very tasty indeed. The show was highly entertaining. The guys put on a good show. They combined their well known holiday favorites with tunes like "Stand By Me". They rocked the crowd and gave two encores. They stayed and signed autographs afterward although we passed on that aspect. I do have to go into work tomorrow after all.

Shoveling Fool

Today's entry will be short and sweet with a few pictures thrown to help tell the story. Today I spent most of my day trying to dig out of 20+ inches of snow. I shoveled two hours in the morning, broke for lunch and shoveled two more hours in the afternoon and for that I got the driveway cleared. I still have to do the sidewalks and our front porch so I envision another 2 plus hours tomorrow.

Lets recap. This was yesterday:

First thing this morning Ann carried our dog Rosie out to the road for a walk as the snow was too deep for her (Rosie) to make it on her own. Ann's foot prints are along our driveway, not yet cleared.

After four hours of shoveling, our driveway now looks like this. I just know the plows will be around tonight and block the end of the driveway again.

Between the before and after, there was a lot of this:

After I was done, we let Rosie trot down the driveway. As you might guess, it's still pretty slippery, but basically she approved of it enough to do her business. Success comes packaged many different ways.

Now I'm off for a long winter's nap.

Welcome to My Blizzard

I'm sure most people have heard that the eastern US is getting hit with a major snowstorm. Living in the Washington DC area, I think we got the worst of it. Just over 24 inches of the white stuff. That's almost unheard of around here. Its probably been over 20 years since we had a storm like this. While its pretty to look at, especially when the outside Christmas lights came on at dusk and it made the bushes look like they were covered in cotton, I dread shoveling it tomorrow. There was no sense in trying to shovel today what with it snowing so hard and the strong winds. It would have been a struggle I couldn't win. So what did it look like? This is a picture of our deck about 10:00AM this morning. There was about 8 inches then.

Looking across the street during the height of the storm. Its about noon.

Another picture of our deck about 1:00 PM.

Although you can't really tell from this picture, it's still snowing out and another 4 to 6 inches still to come.

Another shot from the road in front of our house. I loved the way the snow clung to the trees.

The snow nearly buried our bushes.

I'm sure tomorrow's entry will be about how tired and sore I am from shoveling unless our neighbor a house or two down decides to clear everyone's driveway with his snow blower. Hoping!

Let It Snow!

Right now we are under a Winter Storm Warning. Predictions range from 10 to 22 inches depending where you live. While people in Buffalo would take such things in stride, here in northern Virginia, its blizzard conditions to us. We're fascinated by snow. Sure we get some every winter, but is usually small amounts which melt within a day or two. This much snow is a novelty to us. We haven't had a big storm in several years now so we're long overdue. The fact that it is coming on a Friday night after rush hour has quelled the panic somewhat. No morning commutes to fret about. Still Virginians have done their usual grocery store rush to buy mass quantities of bread. milk and toilet paper. The three necessities, apparently, if you're going to be cooped up for a day or two. The snow started about 8:00 tonight and is suppose to continue into Sunday morning. It will compliment the feel of Christmas and look dazzling under every one's lights. Not so good for the merchants who were hoping for a big Saturday and Sunday full of Shoppers rushing to finish their shopping. I can hardly wait to see what our world will look like come tomorrow morning under a blanket of white. Maybe the snow will be still around for Christmas.

Our meeting on the west coast actually ended on time and I was able to switch flights to catch the red eye home. This time we had a wide body 767 instead of the flying tube of a 757. Still the plane was filled to capacity. Every single seat filled. I managed an aisle seat so that wasn't to bad. It was full enough that they were telling the people that were the last to board to forget about overhead bin space and made them check their bags. They didn't look to happy about that, but frankly it would have been chaos and long waits if they didn't do that. Those people would have been opening every bin looking for a space, blocking the aisles and making a nuisance of themselves. At least United didn't make them pay. When I fly, I like to listen to the ATC calls. I heard our flight transferred to Albuquerque, fell asleep in time to hear us transferred to Washing Control. Somehow listening to the co-pilot tell the Air Traffic Controllers "Ta-Ta" as they were handed off as somewhat amusing. Not something they teach in pilot school, I'm sure. I'm glad I manged to switch flights, otherwise I'm not sure I would have gotten home on time or at all. Probably diverted somewhere else due to the snow or the flight cancelled. What fun that would have been. Instead I can relax, lean back and enjoy the beauty of it all.

One Day to Go

Two days down and one day to got. Sitting through 9 hours of PowerPoint presentations is just pure hell. Make it all about engineering processes and you double the pain. I have no real involvement in the today's or tomorrows presentations. More there as a referee making sure that our side doesn't impose new requirements on the Contractor and not allowing the Contractor to cry foul where none exist. Its a matter of getting from one break to the next. Occasionally looking up to make sure the meeting is still on track. Really the only thing to look forward to was the food. So lets get down to the food rundown:

Breakfast: You basic pastry and muffins. No donuts, Bagels that should be embarrassed to call themselves bagels. Definitely LA could learn a thing or two from NY about making proper bagels. The upside is there is plenty to go around. Coffee is overflowing and kept hot. Frankly I don't care since I'm not a coffee drinker. Water and juice are available, but for those of us who get our caffeine through soft drinks, where are the Cokes? Pepsis? I'd give breakfast a "C".

Lunch: One of the IPT Leads apparently loves a Russian restaurant close by so we had Russian food for lunch. Two different salads, two different meats (lamb and chicken), some sort of meat pastry and bread. Very tasty and very different. Plenty to eat, it was warm and more or less on time. I give it an "A". Definitely something a little different and not the typical working lunch of Italian pastas or sub sandwiches.

Dinner: Oh the obligatory "social" where the Contractor and Government teams are suppose to mingle and bond and its all good for the program. Of course what usually happens is the Government people mingle with the Government people and the Contractor people mingle with the Contractor people. The social was at a Mexican place of some repute or so we were told. We're from the east coast so what do we know? Anyway it was more about drinks and appetizers. I lucked out and sat by a guy who was celebrating the birth of his first two grandchildren and who bought the first two rounds. Score! The appetizers were good and plentiful. Certainly no need for dinner. Two different versions of southwest spring rolls. Chicken pot stickers and steak quesadillas. Overall a pretty good time, even if I got stuck talking to China Lake engineers about their motorcycles. Overall a "A-"

I did manage to change my flight home and will be on the red eye tomorrow night instead of waiting until Friday morning to fly home (and spending a whole day on a frigging plane). Looking forward to going home.

Five Years Ago - Nothing

I'd love to write about something special that happened five years ago, but dang if I remember anything specific from that year. The kids were all out of college by then. The girls weren't married yet. I'm drawing a complete blank. Maybe I can try again next year.

I don't know how road warriors do it. This traveling thing gets old fast. The flights are the pits. The days roll into one meeting to another, eat dinner and roll into bed. Rinse and repeat. You start to learn more about your co-workers then you really want to know. The only upside is trying new places to eat and the snacks provided by the meeting hosts. I could get use to having treat day five days a week. I'd also weigh over 200 lbs. Fat and slow. Trying to rearrange my flight home to get home earlier. Hope I can swing it. Time for bed.

Why I Hate Traveling

This week I'm in LA on business. Looking after the public trust as it were. But frankly I'm over the whole traveling thing. When I was younger, I looked forward to traveling on business. Going to new places, eating out, getting out of the office. It was all great. Now it's just a drag. Flying is a big part of it. Flying these days just sucks the life right out of you. It begins with having to get to the airport ridiculously early to check in. Check in usually involves long lines, the first of many you'll encounter. The next line is getting through security. The endless back and forth to get to the front of the line. It's like waiting for a ride at Disney World without the fun ride at the end of it. Not to mention having to strip down and emptying pockets and trying to sneak that bottle of eye drops through. Next up is the airplane. I flew out on a Boeing 757. Also known as the cattle car. It's not a wide body and features 6 across seating. Maybe its just me, but the seats seem to be getting narrower. Nothing like spending 6 hours on a plane stuffed next to two other guys with no leg room and no elbow room. Every time I fly these days, it seems that the plane is full. I mean really full. Like no empty seats full. An lo they had the heat on for sure. That was one hot airplane. Of course everyone tries to bring as many bags on board as they think they can get away with. The fact that airlines are charging to check bags does nothing to cut down on this practice. It seriously delays both the loading and unloading of the aircraft. Idiots all. I can hardly wait for the flight home. I just hope they have good snacks at my meeting tomorrow.