Whitey, Mo, Herbie now....

Bucky Carr. This would be my name for my G6 in honor of Bucky Katt from "Get Fuzzy". The names in the title refer to my three previous vehicles (an '89 white New Yorker, a '94 Cavalier coupe, and, of course, the truck). There is a little confusion here since I have referred to the car with feminine pronouns, but used the name of a male character. Oh well, it doesn't have to make sense especially since it's a little odd to name your car in the first place.

In other news (or not), the last week has been insanely busy. It's a bad sign when Tuesday felt like it should have been Friday. I really am tired of broasted chicken. It's Blue and Gold season and I had chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner five nights over last weekend, twice at the same place. I am not tired, however, of the flaming neckerchief trick--dip a neckerchief in an acetone water mix and ignite. The scarf stays safe with a really cool flame. Fire, Fire!!!

Snow moving has been a major business around town this week. Unlike MI where the snow is left in piles to melt, here they move it out of the way to melt, a lot ending up on the beach and in vacant fields. There have been bulldozers all over the place moving snow. It's really kind of fascinating.

I worked the UW band concert tonight with Rotary. It was really pretty good. They had a lot of spunk and played a good mix. Before the show I was serving brats to the students and was amazed at the food they could pack away. The record was 5 brats for the guys and 4 for the girls including hard rolls (2 brats to a hard roll--a "double"). Went out afterwards with some other Rotarians to a local establishment with a priest included in the bunch. That was odd. It was good since I got to see part of the now defunct A-Team there and say hi.

I realized the other day that I have learned a lot about a variety of things since I moved here besides the obvious info on brats and cheese. I spend a lot of time with bankers and have a clearer understanding there. I've been on college and technical college campuses a lot and have a good idea of the admin side there. One of my leaders is the head of a health care system for the Northeast Region of WI and I've learned a lot there. Of course, I also know more about bathroom fixtures than is healthy. The best part is that I am getting really good at finding people. These folks are all busy, but I am getting damn efficient at tracking them down and getting a meeting with them. I don't have a 100% success rate, but it's improving. Bank presidents' make the best chase. It would be nice if this had an application, but at least it keeps me from getting stale.

That's all I've got for now.

Laugh out loud funny

I love Get Fuzzy. I've been reading it for a long while, but I just picked up in a matter of weeks both big books and the newest smaller collection of the series. It is amazing.

I do still love Dilbert (most particularly Dogbert and Catbert), but Get Fuzzy makes me laugh out loud when I am just sitting there reading it. Dilbert requires a little more thinking and background to be funny.

Where else can you read the tale of a self-centered siamese cat, pushover Shar Pei/Lab mix and young bachelor owner? I know people who remind me of Bucky Katt every time I see them.

The cat wants to eat monkeys, escapes into a cage to eat one and has to be rescued when the monkey thinks he's a bananna. Priceless.

Dash of Fimbulwinter

After a several week string of high's in the 30's and minimal snowfall, fimbulwinter struck yesterday. The forecasters for once actually called for snow and were right and, as usual, most people ignored them, I among them. I woke up bright and early to go to this month's Chamber Leadership day, noticed snow on the ground from the night before, but didn't give it a second thought as the roads were well groomed.

On the drive over, it seemed odd that no kids or cars appeared to be at the schools I passed, but figured that it was too early. The schools were closed, they were listening to the forecasters. I got down to the community center where we were starting the day which happens to be located directly on the Lakefront next to the community marina and saw that the lake was angry and felt the sting of the whipping wind when I got out of my car and still paid it little attention. The class started and we headed out in a tour bus for a couple of stops. As we went out to the bus after the last stop, the storm had started. In a moment of brilliance, I had left my jacket on the bus, prefering not to carry it around and got an arm soaked by the driving snow. The bus driver chose to point out that he had almost taken out a light post while returning to get us.

During our return to the center, it was plainly obvious that the best course of action was to head immediately home and sit the storm out. We did not do that. Instead we sat watching the storm out the window through two more hours of presentations. The course finally was called early to allow everyone to go home.

The scene at the lake was awesome. The community center is set on the beach in a shallow cove formed by North Point and the breakwater. Looking out at the lake the waves were crashing in intricate patterns with whitecaps cresting easily above eight feet and spray freezing as it sailed through the air to form mounds on the shore. The driving wind was gusting strongly causing the snow to fly sideways with enough force to sound like BB's hitting my jacket shell. There were dunes of shifting snow obscuring all efforts at clearance and one could barely see in front of them with the freezing fog. At times, I couldn't even see the lake twenty feet away through the snow and fog. It was chillingly beautiful and I didn't have my camera.

It took some serious effort to get some people out of the lot, especially where there were minivan sized snowdrifts against vehicles. I was able to get out fairly easily and followed a classmate driving a four-wheel drive truck most of the way home. The roads had a single path plowed most of the way, but we had to stop once to help push a vehicle back into the roadway.

When I got to my complex, the driveway was almost impassable. I pulled up behind a neighbor who warned me not to go in further as he had tried and gotten stuck. With the help of the apartment manager and maintenance person, we were able to get both of our cars parked in the lot with a combination of shoveling and pushing. As soon as we were done, we ended up helping several other residents get in and get parked. This was exhausting. The irony of this was that I met more neighbors in that time than I had in the year that I lived here.

The numbers for the storm ended up at 10 inches of snow with the highest recorded wind gust being 44mph and reports of thunder and lightning during the storm. According to several sources, there hasn't been a snowstorm this bad in a decade. Many cars and semis ended up in ditches and the freeway was even closed a few times due to the weather.

This morning I had to dig my car out which had the rear part buried above the bumper and helped a senior who lives in my building to dig her car out. As I'm typing, the maintenance guy is still clearing snow from parking areas and walkways and he's been at it all day. The snow piles around town are enormous and there are still roads that need a second pass to clear them completely. The snow continues to drift in a strong wind so I expect the trucks will be busy cleaning up for a few days.

My car handled really well in the snow and only had trouble when the snow was up on the bumper. It was a lot better than Herbie and the traction control worked great. The only bad part was that snow got packed into the wheels and froze so the balance is screwy until I can get it all out which I am near completing.

Now it is supposed to get really frigid. The forecast is for 9 to 12 below zero tonight with wind chill down to 40 below. Tomorrow there is a forecast high of eight with wind chills in the 20 below range and then a slow warming trend is predicted for the next week. Short of the Blue and Golds that I have to attend, I plan on staying in to let this cold thaw out a bit.

The view I mentioned in the post below--currently my laptop backdrop. 

Unus Annus Laxus

Today marks one year since I left the nest in Michigan and came to live on the lakeshore here in Sheboygan. It seems reasonable at this point to reflect on the time that has elapsed since.

The first thought that came to mind was standing on a 2,000 foot cliff in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Looking back in time is rather like looking at that or any river flowing from a distant source situated atop a high canyon wall. Parts of it show in stark relief as if they are near enough to touch, while the vast majority is a quick moving flow obscured by mist and distance. The channels entering and leaving the river are the looming points of change that altered the flow, the least of which has an effect all out of proportion to what might have been expected. The slow bends have long lasting effects that are barely noticable at the time, but make as much difference as the sharp turns. In the end each person's river flows to the sea merging with all those who came before.

Obviously I'm not at the sea and have no intention of getting there any time soon, but have at least journeyed atop the precipice to look back. It was a profound change of course to move. Leaving behind all that I knew well and making the leap on all of a month's notice was more intense than I chose to give credit at the time. There are still days when I wonder where else I could have landed. Most days it seems like that was all a long time ago some days it seems like yesterday. As I wrote before, home is still an elusive concept in the singular sense.

There was some culture shock coming here. It may still be the Midwest, but Southeast Michigan is more East Coast than I would ever have realized before. The whole switch from a metro suburban area to an area with a relatively light population and 50,000 resident cities considered large has its own adjustments. Overall, I prefer the lifestyle here, but miss the convenience and options of a large metro area. I am more aware of my area than I was back home, I use the local shops for a variety of things and avoid most food chains except Subway in preference of local establishments. I have a better feel for the "community power structure" than I ever was in Michigan to the point of knowing more about the area as a whole than some lifelong residents--no joke.

Work wise, I feel overly wedded to work part of the time leaving a rather one-dimensional feel to things. Part of that is the still somewhat daunting task I accepted in turning the district around. I got the iceberg stopped, now it's a question of getting the momentum going and in the right direction. I was (and still am) awful cocky about knowing my business when I got here, but managed to learn a lot and improve my skills over the last year. There are still a lot of things I can and want to do better. It would be nice if skills were like software that you could load quickly and just install the updates as they become available. The downside would be losing the journey and as any seasoned road tripper knows that's the greatest part.

I do need a hobby, especially in winter. There is only so much time I can spend watching TV, playing Civilizataion or reading. The key part is finding one that doesn't cost a lot. It is only recently that I got at all bored in what free time I have. Before I spent it putzing on settling in to my apartment, doing one of the above, or out with the now defunct "A Team", but those don't hold my interest as much as they did. Why spend time out at bars when you don't drink or smoke and are not keen on crowds? Occasionally the people watching and conversation is refreshing but drunks are only amusing for a short while. Alas.

Enough wallowing. Overall, was it a good idea to move? Yes. No question. I was getting stale and this has been a breath of fresh air (with the occasional cloud of smoke). We'll see what this year brings, hope it's interesting in a less Chinese way than this year has been.

Spin

Spin: From Despair.com, those anti-inspirational poster geniuses, home of "Not everyone can be an astronaut when they grow up." comes a line of videos to teach management staff how to demotivate their staff. Excellent.

My new dresser--the behemoth. The delivery guys' only comment was to not expect their help in moving. Note the lonely pile of VHS tapes struggling to find a meaning for existence in the DVD/DVR era.  

What's a planet

CNN.com - Scientists: New 'planet' bigger than Pluto

Here's a great argument: What's a planet? This seems much more worthy of discussion than whether Farve will return to the Packers this year. Does it matter? I guess we might have to change that little ditty (which I can't remember) for the nine "planets".