Snow Joke

Well greetings form the snowy wasteland that is central New Jersey. We are in the midst of the biggest snowstorm ( well the only one actually. so far) of the year. It is being heralded by the Weather Channel as "Blizzard 2009!". It's going to dump over a foot of snow on us here in the great Garden State and is wreaking snowy havoc elsewhere along the Atlantic corridor.

The storm started early this morning. Before I was awake for work. Yes I was going to go to work today. Last night over dinner I said to Mags "I bet nobody will show up for our big sale. I can't believe they won't cancel" Rescheduling is out of the question. I can't fully explain the madness involved in setting this thing up or breaking it down, but I'm guessing they will not reschedule. But the events of this cold early am leave my mind open to expect anything.

So after a horrible, restless night for both Mags and myself ( Mags did tranq me at about 130) I crawl out of bed at 630 and go into the kitchen to make tea and feed the boys. I get up extra early because I feel that the roads will be slick as the crews probably haven't been out yet. I have a small breakfast and get my winter gear on. I head out and sure enough, the storm has started. The road crews here in my area are pretty good about keeping things relatively clear. But I was out early before them and the going was slippery at best. My 20 mile commute involves mostly two-lane country roads. Except for 15 minutes of 'county highway' rte. 130 (four-lane road). My job is south of me. So as I go further south, the storm gets heavier, visibility is near zero and the roads are absolute crap. It is slow going and the trip takes me almost 50 minutes as compared to the 35 it usually takes. Not awful but still...

So I get to within, I dunno, a fucking mile of my job, my cell rings. I look at the caller id and it is Mags. I assume she is calling to make sure I got to work o.k. (She's sweet like that) I pick up the phone and this is our conversation....

Me: Hey babe

Mags: Con? You aren't going to believe this.

Me: okay......

Mags: "Someone just called and asked for you. I told them you had left a long time ago and were headed to work..."

Me: "and?"

Mags: (slightly upset) "They said to turn around and come home. The sale has been cancelled."

Me: Are you fucking kidding me? I'm a mile from the place."

Mags: "Sorry. Why did they wait until ten minutes before your shift was going to start??"

Me: "Got me."

Mags: "Well come on home and be careful."

I turn around in the parking lot of a small soccer complex and begin the treacherous drive home.

The roads are continuing to get worse and I crawl along the side streets to rte 130. One of the bad things about winter in New Jersey is all the big SUV's and the people that drive them. They feel like they are completely safe and snow won't affect them. Therefore they drive like ass-bags.

The roads are covered in snow, covered and I have these people riding up my butt then roaring past me. I hope they all got where they were going in one piece.

So I come home, make tea and Mags continues to try and figure out why the company would do something like that.
Well good news is, I made home in one piece and now we will sit and watch the storm from the warmth of our little home.

If the storms got hold of you, i recommend you do the same

Not Good

So I'ma at work today and I'm finishing loading a trailer. I put the dock plate down but the end of the plate, the part that extends from the plate to the truck won't fold down.

Let me paint a picture, if I can. The plate is flush in the floor. When you want to load/unload a truck you raise it. You do this by pulling a ring that is in a hole in the plate. The ring is connected to a chain that raises/lowers the plate. At the end of the plate is a piece of steel that flips out when you raise the plate (to connect dock to truck) and when you pull the chain again, the piece of steel should fold back down and then the plate falls back into the floor. Got it? Good.

Well the small piece of steel at the end of the plate won't fold down so I decide to do it manually. The only way to do this is to stand in the trailer and push down. So push and push I did. With no result. I took a deep breath and pushed again. This time success! However, my foot is beneath the small piece of steel and instead of that small piece just folding down, the entire plate comes crashing down. On the end of my foot. My foot is pinned between the dock plat and the edge of the trailer. Not good. The pain, at first was pretty bad. I was able to get most of my foot out of my shoe in time but my poor big toe and his neighbor suffered the most. I did not go the the e.r., doc whatever. Because it really only hurt for a hour or three. I have since then looked at my toe and it looks like something Prince would wear on Halloween. Not pretty.

I was actually going to take a picture of my foot jammed in there but my brain was too busy processing the pain. Maybe I can recreate it tomorrow.

A Dirty 'Oul Day

I speak, again, of rain. It's bucketing here. Again.

So it's Sunday and I've not posted in a week. Honestly, nothing has been going on. Ive been working. Picking up some O.T. as we are having our warehouse sale. Even worked yesterday. Six hours. I'd rather be home but I'll enjoy the extra scratch in my check.

Got home from work and Mags had gotten herself all dolled up (She's cute without make-up too) and decided we needed to go out to eat. Sh'e right. We haven't been out in sooo long and really, who deserves it more than us? So we headed to our local Chilis. Dontcha just love Chilis? We were lucky to get in when we did. We were seated immediately and within ten minutes it was packed to the gills. We got the two for $20 deal. Our appetizer was the Tostada chips and salsa (which I think I could live on) and I had the ribs and Mags had a pulled pork sandwich. I'm not sure what 'pulled' pork is exactly. Maybe the pig that fought the hardest at the round-up? Not sure but Mags liked it. For desert we got the hot fudge brownie with vanilla ice-cream toppin' it. A very good dinner for under 30 bucks.

Next stop was to say hi to her folks and then it was home to watch 'Body of Lies' Interesting flick. Decaprio and Crowe did a good job on this one.

One of the best parts of winter coming is that we have broken out the down comforter. This thing is sweeet. It would keep you warm if you were sleeping outdoors in January. Seriously.

Well thats it for now. Exciting, I know. Stay warm.

Rain, Rain and More Rain.

So the weekend started with both of us 'sleeping in'. That phrase is in quotations because really, 730 is late for us. I get up and 530 for work and Mags usually gets up with me. So sleeping 'til 730 is quite a happening.

Weather today is just crap. Heavy driving rains that might turn to snow later. Super. The dampness is killing me. Might need to take something for my back. Perfect day for a hot-tub.

We (Mags) decided that today we would put up the tree. (pictures will be posted soon) Not a big deal. The hardest part is getting into the attic and passing all the stuff down to Mags and then carting it downstairs to the living room and getting it all set up. We have lots of ornaments and decorations and usually it takes us a day or two to get everything set up. Our only real problem is Chainsaw. He is too interested in the ornaments, more specifically, the old-style glass ones. But just the tear-drop shaped ones. He is weird. So just about three minutes after putting the last ornament on the tree he reached up and flipped one of the old-style, glass, tear-drop-shaped ornaments onto the floor and broke it. Well, at least we have that out of the way. That was a new record by the way. Good job you little prick.

So I ran out and grabbed some lunch at our local Wendys and now we're just chillin'. Hoping something good is on HBO tonight.