All's quiet on the eastern front

So, it's been a while. I make no excuses, even though I have many. But today I have called out sick and I am watching the snow fall outside my window.. I got nothing but time to think and blog. It's snowing a lot.. like a foot! That's just overkill.. an inch or two and I think we all get the idea, any more than that is just unnecessary. Oh well, whaddya gonna do?

Since my last blog I had a birthday and it is now 2009. I often think about how we will be thought of in a hundred years. Think about how we think of people who were alive in 1909, and born in the 1800's... Like they were almost in a completely different world. Will that be how we are thought of by people in 2109? It's weird. We like to think we are the center of the universe and the most advanced generation ever.. but we're just a passing fancy in the grand scheme of things. Wow, this cold medicine is some good shit.. blowing my mind!

But all that is kinda pointless to think about.. All we can do is live our lives the best we know how in the age we're given. We must do the best we can for ourselves and our loved ones. That's enough for me.

To that end, I am doing OK. They laid off a bunch of people at work... but not me. It's been cold and snowy.. but last week it was 60 and sunny for a day and I hit golf balls. I am reading more than I ever have... the train is good for something. I have now watched all of The Sopranos on DVD... "when in Jersey..". Margaret and Mia moved away and I miss them a lot.. but they're happy and safe in El Paso and I couldn't be happier and thankful for that!

So, it had been a while, but now I'm back on the blogging wagon.. or is it off the wagon? And now a few pictures from the last couple months: (Links to more pictures on the right)
My best snow man so far.. a fine hood ornament. $21 plate of pretty lousy latkes from the Stage Deli.. It was Chanukah and I was desperate. The rocks of Sea Bright, NJ, my most recent daytrip.. about an hour south on the Jersey Shore.

Well, that's all I got for now.

Snow and THE Ohio trip

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! I think it is probably my favorite holiday, if I could call any of them favorites. In general, holidays suck. Nevertheless, I found myself driving some 9 hours each way to Columbus, OH. This was my first time in Ohio, where both sides of my family are actually from. My friend Mitch, seen here in front of his house (clearly very happy to see me), is a pathology resident at THE Ohio State University. That's right, THE. If you don't say the "The" they will yell at you. Silly and pretentious? Yes. But the campus is nice and Mitch likes it there. He cuts up dead people for a living and gave me a tour of the morgue. I saw a split second of my first real dead person.. I saw something bright red that was probably some sort of guts and decided that was quite enough.

The drive went smoothly and surprisingly quickly. Along the way I made my first ever snowman at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. He isn't very big, doesn't have a face, and is really pretty pathetic, but I love the poor bastard and was sorry to leave him behind. I'm sure I'll have more practice making snowmen in the coming months. Yesterday I woke up to snow falling outside my window. Sounds romantic when I put it that way, but I wasn't thinking romance at the time. I was just hoping it would be over by the time I got out of the shower. It was.. but it did stick a little and I took a picture of my car's first snow.The snow really is pretty to look at, and is still sorta a novelty to me, but I can't say I am looking forward to too much of it. It's cold! Although, I did get gore-tex shoes and feel I am now ready to kick winter's ass.