I'm Worried

No one asked me to endorse Chris Christie, so I didn't vote for him. Either time. Now I'm waiting for the traffic cones to be put up on my suburban street, blocking the kids from being driven to school.

Christie would say, let them walk, its healthier for them And it saves gas. They're probably democrats anyway.

Let's do some damage control, a la Christie:

1. Change the name of the George Washington Bridge. Call it the Bridget Kelly Bridge to Nowhere. She's already there.
2. Change the name of Fort Lee. Call it Trenton-lite. Just as snarled but more picturesque.
3. Give a toll-free day to all east-bound motorist using the bridge. Maybe several. It couldn't hurt.
4. Oh, and for heavens sake, (as Jon Stewart prompted) say you're sorry. 

Sure to be continued. 

Rescued by Michael

When last we left Mr. and Mrs. Muddler they had stretched a flannel blanket across the entrance to their den to keep the frigid air from creeping into the rest of the house, the room heater having lost its pilot light.

When Michael, a Public Service technician, arrived later this morning he was astonished at how cold the back room was, considering the rest of the house was fine. The blanket had done its work.

He was more astonished when he looked at the source of the problem. That gas heater was here when we bought our house more than 50 years ago. It was much older than Michael and he had never seen one like it.

Nevertheless, he was equal to the task and after a few false starts got it working. In less than four hours the den temperature was back to normal.

And, needless to say, so were we. It made my birthday a very happy one.

The Sheet Rocks!

Compared to what other folks are going through with this blast of Nordic air, we've had it relatively easy. Until this morning, when the pilot light on the gas heater in our back room went out. I assume high winds during the night knocked it out.

That heater is a Godsend. It was here when we bought our house 50 years ago and we rely on it to keep the den warm. When it goes out, the cold air creeps into the dining and living rooms and it's just uncomfortable.

In fact, during the 2012 Halloween snowstorm that knocked out our heat and electricity for six days, the only thing that kept our home habitable was that little gas heater in the back room.

As the temperature dropped near zero last night and this morning the back room got colder and colder. It used to have doors that we could close to isolate the room, but we took them down long ago to make a flow-through living area.

What to do until the cavalry (i.e. Public Service) arrives in the morning? My wife says “Let's put a sheet across the entrance to the room.” Great idea, I said, but why not something heavier?

Agreed. So we took the flannel sheet off our bed and I taped it across the entrance to the room. It's not perfect but it will help keep the house a little warmer until help arrives.

Brrrrilliant!

How to Avoid Writing

There are so many ways:

Wash the dishes.

Dry the dishes.

Slice chicken for supper.

Make Russian Dressing (what a mess that was).

Read the The New York Times (the real paper, not on line; great article by David Carr about a 472-page, 4.5 pound REAL BOOK (“Cool Tools”). Doubt if I'll buy it or read it but it was fun reading ABOUT it.

Answer emails, delete spam.

Play a game or two of Spider Solitaire.

Go back to the Crossword.

Get the laundry from the dryer.

All the while the blank screen stares at me.

I stare back and find some other piddling chore to do to delay the inevitable.

Write, scribe, write. Something, anything. Just, as Nike says, DO IT!

Done.

Blocked

I have been blocked by the “Blocked Sender” list. No matter how many times I block Key West Vacations, Belize Vacations, Sanibel Vacations, Lower Mortgage Rates, Buy a Foreclosure, and even Female Seduction enticements, they keep flooding my in-box.

What's a person to do? It's easier to just keep deleting them than trying to block them. If you click on “block message,” you get a question: “do you want to block this message and if you do, all subsequent messages from this sender will be blocked.” It's a myth. Doesn't happen.

No subsequent messages are blocked. The senders change their email addresses just enough to let their come-ons slip through the alleged blockade.

If someone has a solution to this problem I'd like to know about it.

Oops, just got an email from a company offering me “50K coverage, no credit required.” None given, either.

There is no end to this. (Sigh.)

Remembrances of Storm Coverage Past

As I watched the TV lead ups to our current snow storm I couldn't help remembering when I was in charge of orchestrating this kind of coverage as Metro Editor for WCBS-TV News, Ch. 2, in the 1970s.

Some things haven't changed much in 40 or so years. The correspondents are reporting from the usual choke points, the weathermen or women are literally in their elements predicting as best they can what we can expect. But tempered but major hurricanes and Katrina-like disasters, public officials now take no chances. States of Emergency have been declared, schools are closed and we've all been warned to batten our hatches, stock our larders (if we have any) and stay out of the way.

Today, we take for granted the blanket coverage TV gives with live reports from all over the world. When I started in TV news we still had film cameras; once shot on location, the film had to be brought back to the lab for processing and then edited for air. A laborious process.

I still remember when we got our first video camera. We couldn't wait to broadcast LIVE from a remote location. Where was it? On the sidewalk outside our building. The weatherman was reporting in real time from 30 feet away. Never mind what he had to say, the fact was he was reporting LIVE.

One small step for live broadcasting so many years ago.

Let's Try Again

I last blogged on March 16, 2013, railing, at that time, against The Sequester. Well, you all know what happened after that. Millions took pay cuts or lost their jobs altogether and eventually the government was shut down and we had to cancel our vacation to DC.

But this is a New Year and we're going to try again to keep current. I'm not into the bests and worsts of last year, nor do I have "great expectations" for 2014. As an octogenarian, my lists more or less incline toward smaller expectations.

For example: getting out of bed in the morning and making it through the day without dropping something or hurting anyone, myself included.

I'm still battling modern technology, tho. My latest bugaboo is the flood of spam clogging my email box. I have engaged the "block message" application but that hasn't stopped the flow of spam from the same sources I've been "blocking." How do they get through?

I did indulge in a smart phone but often miss messages because it's on "vibrate" because the beeping from those spam emails drives me nuts. I do not have a Twitter account and I rarely look at Facebook. So much for me and social media.

Well, it's the first of the New Year and I don't want to wear out my welcome right away.

So Happy New Year and stay tuned.