Well, that was an interesting night.

I was woken up at least three times last night by the sound of the wind and rain slamming into my house. And every time I woke up, I noticed that my poor dog was staring at me, looking very concerned about the current state of events in the middle east.

Or maybe he was concerned about the sounds of the rain and wind slamming into the saide of my house.

Either way, he was concerned.

Fortunately, I managed to rig up a connection for my generator in case the power went out. That act virtually assured that I would not lose power.

It's like carrying an umbrella - it won't rain if you have an umbrella.

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Here are a couple of links:

• Only in Pennsylvania.



• Only in Florida.

I'm ready for the big blow.

According to the entertaining yet inaccurate weather people, we can epect 40-50 mph winds this evening. I don't know if I believe them but since I still haven't completed the hook-up for my generator, I'm a little concerned we might lose power.

The piece that needs to be completed is the power inlet on the porch. The power cable from the sub-panel has been pulled to the porch but I have yet to cut the opening fro the power inlet. I know, I know, I've been saying that I'm going to do that for the last few months. What can I say, it's cold and I'm a frail old man. I hate working in the cold.

So anyways, what I have now is a hole drilled through the wall into the porch that I've fed the cable through. Then I put a 30amp/250v (NEMA L14-30) plug on the cable. I can now plug the cable directly into the generator.

Hopefully we don't lose power but if we do, I'm ready. When you live in "Tornado Alley - New England Division", you've got to be prepared.

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We have a new senator. His name is "Mo".

I'm not sure how we got him as our new senator because no one asked me if I wanted him or if I thought he would do a good job. Hell, no one has even bothered to tell me about him.

Actually, the more I think about it, I'm betting he can't be any worse than our previous senator, John "I'm rich! Filthy, Stinking, Rich!" Kerry. And who knows, maybe when he takes the senate floor for the first time, someone will yell out, "Hey Mo! Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck. Woo Woo Woo Woo..."

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Here are some links:

• This was either a very well thought-out headline or a major mistake on the part of the editor...



• Why?



• Only in Florida.



• She did what in the kitchen? (Only in Florida)



• Only in Florida.

No worries.

I spread a little calcium chloride on my driveway last night so it was fine this morning. No slipping and no sliding.

And according to the highly knowledgeable yet extremely inaccurate weather guys, it's going to be in the high 40s tomorrow. That means that whatever ice there is will be gone by tomorrow night.

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Here are a couple of links:

• He must have been planning one hell of a Super Bowl party.



• Key phrase in this story: "Driving with skates is probably not very safe."

I may have made a grievous error - I shoveled my driveway.

I got home around 3:30 this afternoon and decided that I would shovel the inch or two of snow off my driveway. My wife, who also got home early, poked her head out the door and said, "I just left you a voice message asking if you wanted me to do that. I was wondering about the ice that may come later."

That's when I made what might be my error.

I said, "Nah. I'm going to shovel it. If it ices over, I'll worry about that tomorrow morning."

So I'm hoping that when I wake up tomorrow morning, I won't find a 1/4 inch of ice on my driveway.

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Here are some links you might visit:

• In the first place, there is no wrist watch on the planet that is worth that much money. In the second place, was the clerk brain damaged? Who, in their right mind,would hand a toothless, smelly guy a brand new Rolex?



• If you have 45 minutes to kill and you are as interested in space flight as I am, you might find this interesting.

I have an idea

In the late 1700s, a group of farm boys got together in a local pub, had a few beers and managed to write a document called "The Constitution of The United States". The end result was a a well-written, understandable document that defines the basis for our entire government and they did it using only 4,400 words.

I would like to propose a bill that says all future government regulations shall not be allowed to exceed 4,400 words. If a bunch of guys can explain the United States of America in 4,400, then every new law, code or regulation should be less than that.

This includes the US tax code.

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In case you haven't guessed, we have begun the arduous, complicated and thoroughly enjoyable task of doing our taxes. We don't have all of the necessary paperwork but we've got enough to at least start them. And over the years, we've found that spreading this out over a few days is lot less stressful than trying to get it done all in one sitting.

Yay! I love doing taxes!

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I only got a couple of links for you:

• Women - do not take their blankets....



• Key phrase in this story: "Part of this investigation is of a sensitive nature and still under investigation."