For just pennies a day, you could help feed a starving kid that'll just grow up to father another bunch of starving kids...

...or you can buy a really sweet tv. :D

I've been wanting a big screen tv for a very long time, but I wouldn't buy one until I could get hi-def service, because I hate stretching the image to fit the wider aspect ratio of the tv. DirecTV finally added the albany stations in HD recently, so we decided it was time. I had been saving my spare change for a while... somewhere around 10-12 years. I had a giant plastic beer bottle full of change that I'd been adding to for a long time. It weighed too much for me to carry it upstairs, so it's been sitting in our foyer since we moved into the house a year and a half ago.

On Saturday Kristin decided that it was time for the tv. I poured the change into a 5 gallon pail so that I could carry it to the Coinstar machine at the Big Y. The change filled approximately 2/3 of the 5 gallon pail, and it weighed over a HUNDRED POUNDS!



Carrying this 100lb bohemith was a feat in itself. The 5 gallon pail was barely able to hold up to the strain, and I wasn't doing much better with trying to carry it. I lugged it into the Big Y, and immediately drew a crowd. The coinstar machine is great because you don't have to deal with the pain in the ass of rolling it all... which honestly, for me, wouldn't have been possible considering how much change we're talking about. The problem with coinstar is that they take 9% of your total, which in my case, would have been a fairly significant amount of money. But... you have the option of getting your redemption on a gift card instead of cash, and when you do that, you get the full value of your change... i.e. no 9% fee. Circuit City was one of the gift card options, so we did that. Below, you can see our totals from our receipt:


So... off to Circuit City we go! We intended to head to Keene to get our new TV in order to save on sales tax. Unfortunately, Keene didn't carry the TV I wanted. Of course, thanks to the fact that Circuit City only employs idiot teens who don't know anything about their job, it took me most of the day (and 3 different sales guys over the phone) to learn this. So, we headed to Holyoke after dinner on Saturday for our TV. In addition to our $782 in coin money, DirecTV also gives you $300 off any HD TV when you sign up for DirecTV Hi-def service, which we intended to do anyway. So, all totalled, we only wound up spending a few hundred dollars out of pocket for our snazzy new Sony KDF-50E3000 that now resides in our living room. :)

God Bless New Hampshire!!!

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/21/2179.asp

Right now legislation has been proposed (by a democrat no less!) to raise the speed limit on some highways from 65 to 70mph in New Hampshire. Oh wait, it gets better! As part of this proposal, it would become illegal for those left-lane-squatters to hold up the left lane with their holier-than-thou bullshit antics. Somebody's actually listening to my prayers!

If this bill gets passed, I'm going to celebrate by taking my Camaro to Laconia for a nice weekend of nothing but high speed highway driving. As part of this celebration, I'll be making citizens arrests on every left lane nut-hugger that I get stuck behind!

God Bless New Hampshire!

I wish California would just fall into the fucking ocean

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/us/11control.html?ex=1357707600&en=608b7b5bb2921934&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Read up. California is about to pass a law giving THEM control over residents' thermostats! That's right! New thermostats will be remotely controlled, so that when they feel it's necessary, they can set the temperature of YOUR home.

Big Brother at it's finest. Unbelievable.

Go back to Mexico... or not?

I've decided that the illegal immigrant issue is quite a bit more complicated than it might seem. I've always been of the opinion that we should close our borders to illegals, and send all of the current ones home. Stupid bills like the one Elliot Spitzer tried to pass that would give drivers licenses to illegals in NY make my blood boil. Don't get me wrong... legal immigration I have no problems with. Most of us wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that. My great-grandparents came over on the boat, just like most other's did. I just don't like the ones that are here illegally, and I sure as hell don't want to see them getting any kind of special rights or pardons. We don't need to encourage it!

So, round them all up and send them back, right? Well... maybe not. Unfortunately, our economy might depend on them. There are jobs that they are willing to do at pay levels that no American can do. These illegals cost employers far less money than even a minimum-wage employee would cost. These employers include many farmers with large crops to harvest, construction companies, builders, and many service industries. so what happens if we send all the illegals back? Vegetable prices skyrocket. Construction costs increase. Hotel prices go up. So on and so on and so on. I can't help but wonder just how much of an impact losing 11 million illegals would have on our economy.

Something tells me that the money we saved on police, courts, INS, healthcare, uninsured accidents and all of the other problems they cause would more than offset the higher prices of lettuce.

Chicken Soup really IS good for the soul!

As some of you may know, my grandfather had gotten pneumonia before Christmas, and wound up in the hospital, followed by a short stay in Sweetbrook Nursing Home. All said, it was somewhere around a 3-4 week period of time that he wasn't home. During that time, it was so hard to see him. He was still sick, and had very little strength while in the nursing home. Worse yet, his spirit was broken. I think he had himself convinced that he wasn't leaving... that he was there for good. During those weeks, things were turned upside down because we were going over there after work and on weekends. Christmas wasn't the same with him there. When he was finally able to go home, it was a huge weight off of everybody's shoulders. He was certainly the most relieved, but we were all very glad to get back to a more normal type of routine. But, even after he got home, things weren't the same. He was still weak, and unable to get up and down the stairs. This left him unable to do his daily routine of grocery shopping, preparing lunch & coffee, and all of that sort of stuff. Slowly he started to come back to normal.

Yesterday, he made his first batch of chicken soup since he got out of the hospital. His making this chicken soup really is a symbol that things are back to normal now. He drove himself to the grocery store to get everything he needed. He spent the morning cutting up all the veggies and preparing the chicken, then he spent the afternoon boiling it and stirring it all, then finally bottling it for all of us to take home our portions. Picking up that chicken soup last night was one of the biggest emotional pick-me-ups that I could have had. It was really an indescribable feeling to get that soup. Things really are back to normal, and boy is that a great feeling. I haven't had any of the soup yet, but I absolutely can not wait to have it for dinner tonight. This moment has been a long time coming, and one that I'm going to remember. A cup of Campbell's Chicken Noodle may not do shit for your mental health, but this jar of Nono's chicken soup is worth it's weight in diamonds to me.

:)

6 Empty Stalls

There are 7 stalls in the men's room near my cube. Due to the rarest of all finds - the seat up on one stall, indicating it's unused since being cleaned - I take the 2nd stall from the right instead of the one all the way to the right that I usually occupy. I'm enjoying my personal time, when somebody else comes in. He's got 6 empty stalls to choose from, with the ability to get as many as 5 stalls away from me. So what one does he choose? The one directly to my left. 6 fucking stalls and you need to sit in the one right next to me!? Are you lonely?

While I'm on the subject of inexcusable bathroom etiquitte, I'd like to remind all men reading this that when standing at the urinal, the same rules apply. It is imperative that you provide the maximum buffer zone between you and other pee-ers. If you cozy up to the urinal next to me, I just may feel the urge to mark my territory. And don't talk to me. What is it with guys that feel the urge to talk to me while we're pissing? I'm touching my junk. This is a private moment, not happy hour.

Pictures from my Opening Day (12-16) ride

I finally got these pics uploaded so I thought I'd post them. Click on all of the pics for a larger version!

Most people haven't seen the Woodford trails like this, especially on opening day.
These pics were from my ride on Sunday Dec 16. This was the morning after we received about 12-14" of fresh snow, which fell on top of nicely groomed trails which were completely unridden because the trails hadn't opened yet. This resulted in trails that were perfectly smooth under that new powder. I rode until I ran out of gas (oops).

Here's the Heartwellville parking lot. No cars in sight, and not a single sled track:



Here's the trail behind me:


And up ahead:




How many guys have seen BN5 look like this? For refrence, to the left is 7A back to the power lines. To the right is 7 North.


Here's my sled parked at BN5. The only tracks were mine:


Here's BN8. Just as I approached this intersection, I saw the two Ski Doos that left these tracks just seconds before I was able to come up Airport Rd. Since they turned left onto the Glastenbury Loop, I decided to go right and stay on Airport Rd. The couple miles between the Somerset parking lot and this intersection was the only stretch of trail that had tracks on it before I got to it.


I rode all the way up to Kelly Stand Rd, then turned right to stay on 7N. I rode to the spot where the Weenie Wagon used to sit where I snapped this pic:


After that I turned around and headed for home. Then I decided to shoot over to the Harriman Reservoir, which is where I ran out of gas and wound up walking out!
I've never ridden in conditions like that before. It was absolutely amazing to be riding on perfectly smooth trails, with a 14" cushion under me. My sled just floated right on top of that powder (as you can see from my 2nd pic), and never sunk more than a few inches. Between the amazing conditions, and having those trails totally to myself, this was absolutely the best ride I've ever taken... right up until I had to start walking!

_______________________________________________________________________

Here are pics from Saturday's ride (1-05) that Kristin and I took together.

Here is Kristin in the driveway, all ready to go!


Here is Kristin at BN5 in Woodford:


And the two of us:

A Very Snowmobile Weekend

This past weekend was a truely impressive weekend for snowmobiling. I had the good fortune of being able to go on Friday, again on Saturday, and again on Sunday. All 3 rides were very different.

On Friday after work I decided to take a ride. I knew that it would start warming up on Saturday, and I prefer riding on the trails when the snow is colder and powdery instead of wet and compacted. I left the house at around 5:30, and found that the trails were ungroomed and very bumpy. Sections were as bad as I've seen them in recent memory. I have to admit though, that sometimes I really enjoy thrashing the bumpy trails, and I had a blast pounding 2' moguls at 50mph. While I was out riding, I came across all 3 groomers, so in addition to the major bumps, I also got to ride some perfectly smooth virgin groomed trail. There's nothing quite like a perfectly smooth snow highway with not a single snowmobile track in sight. I managed to get in a good 65 mile run and was home by 7:30.

On Saturday morning, Kristin and I got ready for our ride together. This was Kristin's first ride, and she was nervous about going. I certainly wasn't nervous, but I also really had no idea what to expect. I was excited to get her out there, but was also fearful that I was going to wind up with one of those major pain-in-the-ass situations that would result in a ruined day and an unhappy wife. Fortunately, that couldn't have been farther from reality. She did great all day, and she had a blast. We found something that we can enjoy together, which is really something great. She managed to ride almost 60 miles on her first trip, and the more she rode the better she got. I need to make some adjustments to the sled so that she'll have less trouble with darting and turning, but once I do that I think she'll quickly get good enough to be able to keep up with us on a normal ride. She can't wait to go again, and I'm looking forward to it too.

On Sunday, I rode with Mike and Ben. Rather than ride the regular trails, we decided to head East past the Harriman Reservoir, and down to the power lines, then up to Jacksonville, which is a route that we don't typically take. Unfortunately, shortly before we got to the power lines, the trail turned into garbage. We continued on until we reached the power lines, but the trail got even worse, so we turned around and headed back to the main trail. We took the main trail to Jacksonville, where we got some lunch at the store, then headed home. Riding over that way is a very different experience than the usual Woodford riding that we do. Woodford trails are big, wide, and usually well groomed. They're also pretty much all in the woods. When we head east, we ride smaller, bumpy trails that go through individually owned segments of property. This includes many trails that pass right through people's yards. It's an interesting experience to ride through these more populated areas. All said and done, when we got done, we'd racked up about 60 miles on Sunday.

I tried to get a lot of riding in, because this week the weather is warming up, which is going to ruin the trails. I won't be able to ride again until we get colder temperatures and more snow. Hopefully it won't be a long wait.

I should have pictures to add in the next day or two.

Mother Nature... Typical Woman

Mother Nature Can't make up her mind.

We get absolutely blasted with snow, which wound up nearly waist deep not too far north of my house a couple weeks ago, only for it to get warm and for heavy rain to cause massive amounts of melt, which of course causes a lot of run-off, and shitty snowmobile trails. The trails were outstanding after we got the big snow, and then the rain pretty much ruined them.

Over the last couple days, we got another 20+ inches of snow. I expect the trails to be absolutely fantastic... until the end of the weekend when it's going to warm up. Next week, rain and the chance for 50 degree temps , potentially for as long as 2 weeks. More melt, more run-off and more shitty trails.

On Saturday I think Kristin is going to attempt to make her maiden voyage. This is a bittersweet event. I've been looking forward to getting her onto the snowmobile and getting her riding, but now that it's almost time, it's begun to dawn on me that now instead of 100 mile days, I'm going to have 20 mile days, at least at first. This wouldn't be so bad, except that now with the crazy weather, my opportunities for long rides are becoming quite limited.

But, that's ok. It will be fun to get her out there and get her riding. I don't really know what to expect from her. Riding a snowmobile is a very different experience than what most people are used to, especially if they've never spent time on ATVs and motorcycles. It's very intimidating at first, which results in a lot of timid reactions to some of the dangers that you encounter. When you see dips and open water, slamming the throttle all the way to the bar isn't exactly intuitive, but it's often necessary. Likewise, there are a lot of situations where more throttle is better than less throttle, but it takes a big leap of faith to try that for the first time, especially when you're still not used to the huge amount of power that these machines have. Even though more throttle is better than less in many cases, in almost all cases, too much throttle will put you into a world of hurt. It also takes a lot of getting used to when it comes to cornering. Snow is slippery, so it's just not natural to expect a snowmobile to be able to turn a corner at 50 mph. It takes some faith. Then when you get over that and you start gaining that faith, you start to see that inside ski lift and it scares the shit out of you. Holy crap, I'm going to roll over! I'm going to slide off the trail! No you aren't. You get used to seeing that inside ski in the air after a while, but it's just another one of those things that will scare the hell out of a new rider at first.

Hopefully it won't take long for her to start to feel comfortable on the sled and gain the confidence it takes to ride at a pace that allows her to stay with the group, and to gain the stamena to enjoy a 100 mile ride.

Either way, it'll be an adventure. :)