Aerie Report, February 28, 2010

I spent time today reshoveling the driveway. Actually, because I cut my time short yesterday (it started to snow as I was two-plus hours into shoveling), and because there was an additional 1-2 inches of snow overnight, I was able to use the thrower on a sizable portion of the parking area in front of the garage. Therefore I only had to shovel the straight away to the road (about 30 yards) and the area immediately in front of the garage (about 10’ x 40’) that I had shoveled yesterday afternoon. This took me all of two-and-a-half hours. Not much time savings from using the blower on all of it which I could have done if I had not done any shoveling yesterday. *sigh*

Anyway, about forty-five minutes before I finished, it started sleeting/snowing. The temperatures were right at the freezing mark. Luckily it didn't amount to much and the radar screen's pretty clear...except for the Armenia Mountain Blob. (Really should find someone who can answer the question: Do windmills create radar signals; aka The Blob?)

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Today is February 28, last day of the month. It was 26 days (nearly four weeks) ago that Paunxsatauney Phil made his prediction of six more weeks of winter upon seeing his shadow. Since then, it feels like it has snowed every single day. Every. Single. Day. If Phil had been hauled out of his comfy little burrow in the annex to the Punxsatawney public library on any day since February 2nd, he would have been hard pressed to see his shadow.

See, that’s a mistake on the part of those who run the show out there in Punxsatawney. They let the little bas… I mean critter, go back to sleep. If he forecast an early spring or a longer winter what does he care? He’s going back to that little cushiony, well appointed little Hobbit Hole of his where the school children can peek in through the glass window. Make the little … guy stay up and experience the results of his predictions! You say there’s going to be six more weeks of winter? Enjoy it pal! No fresh grass fro you to gorge on until all the snow disappears. That'll teach him!

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Today is also the final day of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Sadly the host Canadians defeated the Americans in the final event of the games. The Canucks took the Gold in ice hockey with an overtime 3-2 victory.

I wonder what NBC will do now. MSNBC’s ratings improved when they were running Olympic programming. I’m sure NBC’s did too. (I didn’t watch more than an hour of it, however. Even that was when I was channel surfing and happened to land on a particular event that was of interest.) What shows does NBC have on in prime time? Do you care?

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Speaking of Olympic coverage…. One of the reasons I didn’t watch much is that I could never tell when any particular event was going to be aired. I didn’t want to watch figure skating so as to watch bobsledding or downhill skiing. NBC seemed determined to make these games unwatchable. And, since that was the case (or at least my perception) they deserve to lose an estimated $250 Million on them.

As for the Olympic committee’s choice of Vancouver where the average daily temperature mid to late February is in the 40s, maybe next time they will award the games to Bali. I hear the UN thinks it’s a grand place.