I'm sure I've given a CoC this exact title before, but whatever.
59 thoughts on “January 4, 2017: Moving Sucks”
It could be worse. It could be freezing cold and icy...oh.
We went below zero sometime in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. We're not supposed to be back above zero until Friday.
Ice seems less slippery when it's super-cold.
Unfortunately, my shoes seem less grippy at the same temps.
I know that ice skating works because the pressure of the skater's weight melts the ice under the blades as they pass over. I suppose the same principle is in play for shoes and boots.
I think only if you have the smallest feet in the history of humanity or weigh four tons.
I've read that a woman on high heels puts more pressure on a hardwood floor than an elephant's foot
I wince every time I watch a women's college bb game and see so many of the coaches and others (assistants, etc.) on the courts in high heels.
A fun piece of trivia I encountered over the long weekend:
Without looking, which team has led the American League in total wins over the last five seasons? What is that team's winning percentage over that period?
One nice thing about living on the "throat" of a cul-de-sac is that when you hear the trash truck rumble by, you can walk your trash can over to the driveway across the street. Is it Thursday?
We're headed back to the city that care forgot, but not before experiencing the cold. We had a bit of trouble getting the car to start this morning, and I got to experience the freezing of my nose hair again. I'll let y'all know how 50 degrees feels when I get home.
has something in the theme changed the sidebar behavior of "spoiler" tag text? Now they all show "SPOILER" rather that whatever language was inserted. Is that new or am I just unobservant?
seen on the Book of Face, this article has one of the greatest lede sentences of all time:
More than 1,000 times a minute, someone bites into what has been described as a wet envelope of cat food—and keeps eating.
I'm curious as to how people know what a wet envelope of cat food tastes like.
Canada classifies (or once classified) much of the canned tuna sold in the U.S. as pet food-grade. /factoid
As anyone who cares has noticed, there will be no Winter Wonderland today. We expect to be back tomorrow.
This past week my ongoing location data scrub of our tracks for the Engineering Department prior to PTC has finally taken me to MN, and now across WI. Growing up in NW MN, I never considered UP a MN railroad, but it definitely has a footing in southern MN.
Test your railroad trivia: How many Class 1 RR are there in the US, and what are they?
* KCS is the smallest of the Class 1 RRs, but it qualifies due to its market value which includes its financial division
My grandfather worked for the Chicago & North Western from his WWII discharge until retirement. I've had trouble keeping track of all the mergers, but if I had to guess:
Not bad. SP merged with UP in the late 90s, otherwise you got the majority
Woohoo! Grandpa used to burn his garden every year with leftover railroad flares. Grandma J has kept Grandpa J's big CN&W sign on their garage; he's been gone twenty years this summer. Almost all of it has faded from the sun, with the exception of the faint ghost of the black diagonal and the upper left part of the circle and some ghosted letters.
Canadian National (which I see often enough, but don't think of as a US RR)
Kansas City Southern ( because southern)
Norfolk Southern (because southern)
You mostly miss NS because eastern. We happen to have an NS track just a HR distance from us to the north.
CN merged with either Wisconsin Central or Illinois Central, I forget which, and that gives it the majority of the US right of way.
Separate question, but what railroads do you think of as Minnesota railroads? I don't think all or even many of these exist anymore, but the ones that jump to my mind are:
Chicago & North Western
Soo Line
Milwaukee Road
Burlington Northern/Great Northern/Northern Pacific
Minnesota, Dakota and Western
Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern
I grew up near Great Northern and my grandfather was a locomotive mechanic for them in Grand Forks, so I knew them well.
If I had known what the jargon was referring to before I opened the spoiler, I probably would have been able to guess them all (though I wouldn't have been able to tell you what #2 was short for).
I used to think that Twitter was just another Internet social messaging craze that would pass in time, but I was wrong. It is, rather, a herald of the approaching apocalypse. Maybe even the cause of it.
To my thinking, it's become too mainstream and now the hip kids will be moving on to The Next Big Thing
Yes, but the POTUS will stay there.
If a POTUS tweets in the woods, but nobody is there to see it, does it still smell like crap, does it make any noise?
Yes; it sounds like a wet fart.
Uh, too soon, bro.
OK. Who changed my meme?
Who knows.
Jon Morosi of MLB Network is saying Dozier saga will be over (one way or the other) within a week. I'm guessing the Twins want to know if Dozier will be with the team before the Winter Caravan and Twinsfest.
I'm sure the Twins, and Dozier, would like to have this settled one way or another, but if, say, the Dodgers call up a month from now with an offer that it would be best for the Twins to take, I hope they would still take it.
I would think that would only happen if a team's circumstances dramatically changed, such as a key player were suddenly injured or unexpectedly retired. I'm sure if a significant offer came, they would listen.
I am not sure why it is that I am not completely cynical about the T-Wolves. It may be a character defect. This club has given its fans so few bread crumbs over the years. That game last night, [poop emoji]. The Wolves have the worst winning percentage of any of the 30 franchises. Few highs, mostly lows. Sigh.
I took my 10 year old to the Portland game. It was awful. I hate the Wiggins 1-on-five offense. I hate seeing KAT launching 3-pointers with no rebounders. I hate seeing Ricky sit in the corner and do nothing. Just a painful team to watch 70% of the time.
I've just spent the last part of my last day of vacation fighting with my internet company. COX is probably the worst company on the planet
Comcast would like a word.
They're giving comcast a real run for their money. I'm completely hamstrung (as are most of us) WRT to choice. The 'free' market can kiss my ass.
Amen on "free" markets.
Mrs. Hayes & I were just discussing this tonight. Out ISP recently merged with Time Warner (practically a kiss of death for customer service). The only other option in our area is a DSL provider, which is as close as you can get to time travel back to 2007. There's talk about municipal fiber here, but who know if that'll happen given the funding streams involved.
Speaking of internet, Hulu is going to be introducing live streaming of channels, including CBS, FOX and ESPN among a number of other channels. The service will be for "less than $40 per month" and would include all their other on-demand videos. So presumably that means the service would be less than $32 additional to current service (with ads or less than $28 w/out ads).
At launch, Hulu’s offering will also include a cloud-based digital video recorder and many local station affiliates.
The WSJ is reporting that this will be launched "in the coming months."
Great if works for the postseason.
So, I decide to try my hand at making a great veggie burger. Black Beans, Forbidden Black Rice, Roasted Beets, Beet Ketchup, Dijon Mustard, Smoked Paprika, and the kicker... ground juniper berries. Not sure if any veggie burger would satisfy me in terms of texture, but the flavor was pretty darn good.
In the summer dr. Chop and I make black bean 'burgers' pretty regular. Black beans, wild rice, an egg, some bread crumbs and seasoning. Yeah, not a burger, but pretty satisfying.
I just saw the inconceivable. Steph Curry missed a pair of FTs. He has now missed a total of 14 attempts this season.
It could be worse. It could be freezing cold and icy...oh.
We went below zero sometime in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. We're not supposed to be back above zero until Friday.
Ice seems less slippery when it's super-cold.
Unfortunately, my shoes seem less grippy at the same temps.
I know that ice skating works because the pressure of the skater's weight melts the ice under the blades as they pass over. I suppose the same principle is in play for shoes and boots.
I think only if you have the smallest feet in the history of humanity or weigh four tons.
I've read that a woman on high heels puts more pressure on a hardwood floor than an elephant's foot
Yep. Tiny areas can exert huge pressure.
I wince every time I watch a women's college bb game and see so many of the coaches and others (assistants, etc.) on the courts in high heels.
A fun piece of trivia I encountered over the long weekend:
Without looking, which team has led the American League in total wins over the last five seasons? What is that team's winning percentage over that period?
Wow, spot on with the team. Their percentage is a bit lower – they've only cracked your number once over that time.
Only one team in the AL has broken .600 in a single season during the same period, while four teams in the NL have surpassed that mark.
One nice thing about living on the "throat" of a cul-de-sac is that when you hear the trash truck rumble by, you can walk your trash can over to the driveway across the street. Is it Thursday?
We're headed back to the city that care forgot, but not before experiencing the cold. We had a bit of trouble getting the car to start this morning, and I got to experience the freezing of my nose hair again. I'll let y'all know how 50 degrees feels when I get home.
has something in the theme changed the sidebar behavior of "spoiler" tag text? Now they all show "SPOILER" rather that whatever language was inserted. Is that new or am I just unobservant?
also, did you know that Dave Brubeck died?
It has always looked like that.
yep.
did you just wake up from a long, long nap?
Also, did you know that Dave Brubeck died?
I heard that at least 5/4 times.
seen on the Book of Face, this article has one of the greatest lede sentences of all time:
I'm curious as to how people know what a wet envelope of cat food tastes like.
Canada classifies (or once classified) much of the canned tuna sold in the U.S. as pet food-grade. /factoid
As anyone who cares has noticed, there will be no Winter Wonderland today. We expect to be back tomorrow.
This past week my ongoing location data scrub of our tracks for the Engineering Department prior to PTC has finally taken me to MN, and now across WI. Growing up in NW MN, I never considered UP a MN railroad, but it definitely has a footing in southern MN.
Test your railroad trivia: How many Class 1 RR are there in the US, and what are they?
My grandfather worked for the Chicago & North Western from his WWII discharge until retirement. I've had trouble keeping track of all the mergers, but if I had to guess:
Proud to be working in the same company as your grandfather, then!
Woohoo! Grandpa used to burn his garden every year with leftover railroad flares. Grandma J has kept Grandpa J's big CN&W sign on their garage; he's been gone twenty years this summer. Almost all of it has faded from the sun, with the exception of the faint ghost of the black diagonal and the upper left part of the circle and some ghosted letters.
Separate question, but what railroads do you think of as Minnesota railroads? I don't think all or even many of these exist anymore, but the ones that jump to my mind are:
If I had known what the jargon was referring to before I opened the spoiler, I probably would have been able to guess them all (though I wouldn't have been able to tell you what #2 was short for).
I used to think that Twitter was just another Internet social messaging craze that would pass in time, but I was wrong. It is, rather, a herald of the approaching apocalypse. Maybe even the cause of it.
To my thinking, it's become too mainstream and now the hip kids will be moving on to The Next Big Thing
Yes, but the POTUS will stay there.
If a POTUS tweets in the woods, but nobody is there to see it,
does it still smell like crap, does it make any noise?Yes; it sounds like a wet fart.
Uh, too soon, bro.
OK. Who changed my meme?
Who knows.
Jon Morosi of MLB Network is saying Dozier saga will be over (one way or the other) within a week. I'm guessing the Twins want to know if Dozier will be with the team before the Winter Caravan and Twinsfest.
I'm sure the Twins, and Dozier, would like to have this settled one way or another, but if, say, the Dodgers call up a month from now with an offer that it would be best for the Twins to take, I hope they would still take it.
I would think that would only happen if a team's circumstances dramatically changed, such as a key player were suddenly injured or unexpectedly retired. I'm sure if a significant offer came, they would listen.
I am not sure why it is that I am not completely cynical about the T-Wolves. It may be a character defect. This club has given its fans so few bread crumbs over the years. That game last night, [poop emoji]. The Wolves have the worst winning percentage of any of the 30 franchises. Few highs, mostly lows. Sigh.
I took my 10 year old to the Portland game. It was awful. I hate the Wiggins 1-on-five offense. I hate seeing KAT launching 3-pointers with no rebounders. I hate seeing Ricky sit in the corner and do nothing. Just a painful team to watch 70% of the time.
I've just spent the last part of my last day of vacation fighting with my internet company. COX is probably the worst company on the planet
Comcast would like a word.
They're giving comcast a real run for their money. I'm completely hamstrung (as are most of us) WRT to choice. The 'free' market can kiss my ass.
Amen on "free" markets.
Mrs. Hayes & I were just discussing this tonight. Out ISP recently merged with Time Warner (practically a kiss of death for customer service). The only other option in our area is a DSL provider, which is as close as you can get to time travel back to 2007. There's talk about municipal fiber here, but who know if that'll happen given the funding streams involved.
Speaking of internet, Hulu is going to be introducing live streaming of channels, including CBS, FOX and ESPN among a number of other channels. The service will be for "less than $40 per month" and would include all their other on-demand videos. So presumably that means the service would be less than $32 additional to current service (with ads or less than $28 w/out ads).
The WSJ is reporting that this will be launched "in the coming months."
Great if works for the postseason.
So, I decide to try my hand at making a great veggie burger. Black Beans, Forbidden Black Rice, Roasted Beets, Beet Ketchup, Dijon Mustard, Smoked Paprika, and the kicker... ground juniper berries. Not sure if any veggie burger would satisfy me in terms of texture, but the flavor was pretty darn good.
In the summer dr. Chop and I make black bean 'burgers' pretty regular. Black beans, wild rice, an egg, some bread crumbs and seasoning. Yeah, not a burger, but pretty satisfying.
I just saw the inconceivable. Steph Curry missed a pair of FTs. He has now missed a total of 14 attempts this season.
Free Cherry Berry for everyone!
Hot take
Not quite as hot as the video at the bottom of the screen that shows a moron eating the hottest pepper in the world.