It’s warm around these parts. Unusually so.
Usually, by this time of the year, I’ve already gone through the ritual of shoveling the driveway twice. Sometimes, three times if I’m being obsessive about it. This year… nary a snow throw. My back is wondering why it’s still in one peice.
My second computer, “Gopher”, tells me that we’re dealing with something on the order of 59° outside. At 9:00 in the evening. (Sheesh)
To make it even stranger, the Christmas decorations have gone up. Somehow, they just don’t look the same to me without the usual blanket of white to reflect off of. Yes, I know that much of the country never sees a winter to speak of at all, much less snow stacked so tall that they, like Buffalo, just to my west here, are forced to tote the snow out by the train load, to be dumped somewhere in the south to melt. Last time I saw them doing that, it was in a November snowstorm. But still, to someone used to the snow…and as much as I complain about it I still…. No, I can’t say it.
Now, it should be said that early in November the Buffalo area had 2 feet of snow… and for about a week, there, a lot of folks out that way were without power. Where I am was just on the western edge of that storm… and the total effect was I busted an ice scraper getting the truck ready for it’s appointed rounds that morning, while listening to WBEN doing their full storm coverage number.
They spent the whole week proving the value of dedicated radio people, and a fully active newsroom. A high five to Tom Bauerle and his people. I wonder if the Entercom ownership understands the value of the people they have there. (I never got this confirmed, but On top of all the hardships WBEN put up with, that week, I’ve always suspected that given the power outs on Grand Island, where the transmitter building is, they were on generator power for much of that week. )
Speaking of Radio stations, I see at least one local station, WLGZ/990 has gone all Christmas. LGZ is a weird echo of WNYR, which was on 990 years ago, and 680 before that. Weird, because I used to work there back when Marv Maltz owned the place.
That kind of stunt usually means the station’s considering some kind of formatics move following the holiday. Of course local FM’s WRMM and WVOR are doing it too, and I’m seeing no news on them doing a change of programming anytime soon… but think of it… three stations in one market, plus the bleed overs form Canada and Buffalo AND Syracuse… all playing nothing but Christmas music…. And, there again, it seems strange to listen to them all doing that, with no snow on the ground.
And to boot, we did our Christmas shopping early this year. Usually, we end up waiting until the last minute.
All of this “no snow” business is supposed to come to a halt come Saturday, when the daily high’ll be up around 35. That’s far more seasonable than what we have right now.
I’m actually a little annoyed at how things timed out with all of this. Let’s face it; the last one week and before the big chill, and instead of going out and spending it enjoying what’s left of the sunshine I spent it here in my basement office pounding out CSS files. Figures.
I guess I’m not too angry about it though. The new site looks fine, and is starting to get some serious traffic almost a week after having pulled the plug on the old one. So, I guess it’s time well spent.
It looks like I’ll have a place to put the Christmas decoration pictures I’ve been running the last few years, at least. And maybe we’ll have some snow by then.
You watch. I’ll be up to my beltloops in the stuff, come the week after Christmas.