Speaking of nothingness,
I had a nightmare last night that I was stranded in Pahrump. (having landed there on a broken rocket) with no way to get to Las Vegas. No rental cars, no buses etc. I was fabulously rich, but there were no atm machines. And when I managed to trick $1000 out of a store clerk using my atm card, no one would drive me.
I don't recall how it ended.

the snowman

once in the cold winter i built a snowman
a hat, 2 pieces of coal, and he seemed to know i named him sam
later out came the sun
his snow stated to run
and he then realized he would melt right where he am

You spent the $1,000 in a local whore house.

You are welcome.

I smoked some salmon yesterday. All day process. And the previous night you have to soak the salmon in brine for about 6-8 hours.

It came out delicious (crispy outside moist inside, just the right balance of smoky and salty) and will be a main course for Christmas dinner.

Stressed out! OMGGGG. Stressssssssseddddd OUTTT. The store was a zoo. The shopping center was chaos. There was a line of people outside of TJ Max. I've never seen anything like it! Are we having fun yet?

Not sure what Christmas fun is supposed to feel like but this does not feel very relaxing

Amazon ftw.

Seems expensive for Pahrump, but if you say so
Uncle Bah Humbug ftw

Had to shop for my three granddaughters. Fortunately, my daughter asks what my limit is (none), we go a couple weeks ago, and she just throws into a carriage whatever she feels like. And she wraps everything for me.

My mission for tomorrow is to pick up champagne and red wine. Everyone knows my limitations.

Also took my assistants out to dinner last night and the department chairs to lunch Tuesday. So basically I spend a fortune, avoid stores, and create some nice memories and good feelings. It helps this time of year, Katy.

I went to Monterey, California for a conference last week. Took my daughter and wife to the aquarium. My daughter spent most of the time going down and up stairs and running around the place (not so interested in the animals). My wife loved the animals and I loved following my daughter around.

Now, we're back home and I cooked scallops with broccolini. It was surprisingly good (I'm not a great cook). The goal was to let my wife relax as much as possible.

I did almost all of my Xmas shopping online, so I avoided the stressful side of the holiday.

I love that aquarium: pet the rays, trip out watching the jellyfish, and a decent bar where you can sit and look out on the bay. There used to be a decent pool hall nearby, many years ago.

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals

Merry Christmas from Las Vegas



If this offends anyone, I apologise in advance. It is meant in fun.

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Merry Christmas Lounge!

Hope everyone has a great holiday and eats way too much and gives/gets lots of great presents. Tis the season!

Vegas in a nutshell.

My dad liked this line a lot.

Spent yesterday with my granddaughter who is almost seven. We went bowling, to lunch with a couple of my co-workers, strolling around the Roger Williams Park and Zoo (nearly 60 in RI today), brought her to visit her great-grandmother briefly (I explained to Ellen my mom has dementia, to which Ellen replied, "Oh, short time memory loss like in Finding Dory), a quick stop at co-worker's home to feed her chickens, home to her mother and father for dinner, and I topped off the day by reading a chapter from a Harry Potter book to her, and, finally, putting her to bed. Well worth taking a day off.

That is a great day!

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I had the privilege of spending 4 winters in the Fairbanks, Alaska area in the early eighties. That is one cold assed town in the winter. From late November through February the average low is minus double digits. You can always count on it to go into the minus forties sometime during the winter. The Fairbanks people are so used to the minus degree weather that if you ask someone what the temperature is they will just say something like "it's 27 degrees." That means its 27 degrees below zero. And a lot of darkness too. On December 21st the sun is above the horizon for just 2 and a half hours.

There are a lot of tricks to keeping a car running in the extreme cold. One trick is the block heater. You keep your car plugged in to keep the oil and water warm. In downtown Fairbanks the parking meters have plugins for block heaters. This was instituted because of people leaving their cars running all day. It created a huge smog problem. The extreme cold usually comes with a termperature inversion. The exhaust out of cars has no place to go so it hangs in the air about head level. People would walk down the street bent over to keep their head out of the smog.

Another trick is to put cardboard in front of the radiator. I had to do that just to keep the heater blowing warm air. Another problem was when you let your car sit for a couple of days. The part of the tires that were on the ground would freeze flat. If you jumped in and took off fast you ran the chance of blowing a seal and having a flat tire. You had to starting rolling slow until the tires got back into shape. Changing tires is not fun when its 40 below. And you better have gloves. Touching metal when its that cold will freeze your fingers to the metal. And you are going to lose some skin pulling your hand off it.

Some people carried a tarp and space heater in their vehicles. Plugins are not available everywhere. They would throw the tarp over the car, fire up the space heater and throw it under the car. A half hour later they would roll everything up and throw it in the trunk. Then jump in the car and take off.

minus 20's and zero for the high is expected around montana starting monday for 5 days. also wind chill factors of up to minus 40 possible. just out of my valley it likely will get to minus 40 in some spots.
i can say this now as it is officially winter. and may consider wearing wool socks outside.

i dont think anymore i can stand all this cold
as it seems i am not made of that mold
if i had to relate it to poker
even if dealt to me the joker

i likely would lean to fold.

Good.

Our anapæstic specialist, John Cole, will be along shortly for a more rigorous examination.

you tell john cole to stay away from my post
i swear he can easily become toast
i dont mean i will light him on fire
as i cant stand from the crowd the ire

but a literary knockout for which i can boast

So about that spot and the fishing stuff being discussed up the thread.

You've got two not very bright gentlemen heading out fishing in a small boat.
They are having a great day.

#1 says "This is an amazing ****ing spot"
#2 says "I don't ever remember a run as good as this."
#1 responds "Well how in the hell are we ever going to remember this spot"
#2 says "That's easy ya dummy. We just gotta mark an "X" on the deck of the boat."

Wouldn't one naturally say, "**** you too!"

I believe that Ray needs help. He has turned to writing poetry, a dangerous sign if ever there was one. Perhaps Zeno can elaborate because, as we all know or should know, "poetry makes nothing happen."