The snow is beautiful. You are so lucky to have it. :)

I was in central Florida yesterday where it was sunny and 80 degrees. It was awful.

And it sounds like we are getting more on Friday bk, at least in the Ann Arbor area.

I feel your pain, big daddy. Or, I'm going to give you some pain. I haven't decided which. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

A good camembert, if you please. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

We had 6 hours of snow on Christmas Eve and that's it. Sometimes.we get a dusting in early spring as well.

We did have something like 240mm of rain to deal with in January, so, there is that.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Oh, for sure. We're already into the deepest recesses of our full-on snow removal plan at the airport this week. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

240mm is like $1.25 in US currency, right? Less than the cost of a cup of coffee, so I don't know what you're complaining about.

What's the suicide rate in the winter like out there? Anything like Seattle's? ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I'd take that over the freezing rain we seem to be getting more of this winter.

Send that shit our way. I'm at the foothills of the Rockies and we ain't got shit. Snow pack in the high country is well above average, but down here it's dry as hell.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

Something like that. First I usually convert the mm to degrees Fahrenheit, carry the one, then divide by 2.6 miles to get dollars. American ones.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

True that. At least with our stuff, you can make a snow cave out of it and survive if you're caught out in it. That freezing rain saps your will to live.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I was promised there wouldn't be any math on this exam! ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Not bad in Victoria. It's awesome here.

Up island in places like Tofino they can get 100mm of rain in one day during the winter. Further up the coast it's even more dreary, and infinitely more desolate as well. I almost felt like killing myself just typing that!

Those Seattle types are way too soft.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

At risk of turning this chortle-fest into something semi-serious, I was surprised to learn years ago that suicide rates in winter-centric places (or at least Scandinavia) tend to peak in the spring, not in the depths of winter. I lived with some Finns for a while when I was studying in Sweden, and one of them said "I love winter, I can hide in the darkness...." Solidified my belief that Finns are sort of weird.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC3824731/
"Results
Suicide rates in Finland and Sweden peak twice a year. Both men and women in both countries most often commit suicide in May. There is another peak in October, with the exception of Finnish men. These suicide peaks coincide with a temperature increase in May and the biggest annual drop in temperature in October. We also observed a monotonic long-term change in the Swedish statistics, but not in the Finnish data. Our hypothesis is that seasonal variation in suicide rates may be caused by abrupt temperature changes twice a year that trigger the activity in brown adipose tissue and deepen depression.
Conclusion
While the overall suicide mortality rates varied considerably, the monthly proportions in May did not. This finding suggests a routine factor underlying the spring peak in suicide mortality."

I normally love winter but haven't been able to get outside and enjoy it. Normally I'm like a kid at Christmas every time it snows (which is often as I'm in MI), but am turning into a grouchy and depressed old man of late. I was discussing it with my wife last night and came to the conclusion that I haven't skied since before Thanksgiving, have ridden the fat bike once, have yet to break out the snow shoes, etc... I can deal with the lack of sun and cold temps, but not when I'm stuck indoors.

At least I was ready for it today. I went to visit my dad Sunday, thought the snow was supposed to hit Saturday night into Sunday so thought it was done. When I came outside to go home about 7 pm I found out how wrong I was. 2 hour drive turned into 3+ of PITA.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Move to Canada. It's nice and sunny here with no snow on the ground.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I'd rather have snow then the sleet we have had the last few storms. Snow at least looks nice and the kids can go sledding.(freedom / suburbanite version, not snowmobiles). Sleet just makes everyone miserable.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Get inspired by Winter Olympics.

Come to the Petoskey area. We have plenty of snow, the ski hills are wide open, and the beer is frosty. I'm always amazed at how different the snow levels are in southern Michigan compared to the tip of the mitt. Two weeks ago I was in Grand Rapids and while it was cold, the grass was showing everywhere. When I told folks there we still had 12 inches plus of snow on the ground still, they were shocked. We had a nice dumping of snow last weekend that replaced the ice-crusted snow with nice powdery stuff, perfect for XC skiing and snowshoeing.

My family has a condo in Petoskey and I still haven’t skied since before Thanksgiving, that’s what makes it extra sad! We drove up the week of Christmas but I had a work emergency and had to turn around and drive right back the next day... I wasn’t happy! Petoskey is one of my favorite places.

Get a Fat bike. #MakeWinterGreatAgain.

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You can shove the Winter Olympics right up your... nose. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

That's why God gave us x-country skiing. Get out and enjoy.

You'd think. Must have lost his mittens.

I was a downhill enthusiast (topped out at 190 skis) in my younger days. Franz Klammer was the man! (Also did all the skiing required in the military for cold weather operations.)

Nowadays? Couch skiing only. That x-country shee-ite can go hang. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I feel for you man...I live in the Howell and we've had enough of snow with more to come. I'm in Naples Florida now for business and am headed back this weekend. That reminds me, I'd better text the wife and ask her to have the driveway shoveled out for me...I'll let you know how that works out for me.

That should work out just fine, son. We look forward to hearing reports from you on your impending recovery from those devastating injuries you're gonna suffer, too. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Took the family up to Nubs last weekend, we rented a place in Harbor Springs. The conditions at Nubs were spectacular, powder everywhere! The trip home to the Detroit area was 7 hours, including a stop in Birch Run, but it was so worth it!!

Listen. It was -11 in beijing Wednesday and not a fucking flake, snow or otherwise, in sight. Just air that would choke you..........

Enjoy it.......

Yeah. I'd say we're enjoying the sh*t out of it right about now. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

There's a plane out there on the taxiway, behind that dump truck, by the way.

;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Franz Klammer? Dude, there was Dave Irwin, Steve Podborski and Ken Read... but you picked Franz Klammer? A European? Geez...

I liked Podborski. But Klammer's gold medal-winning downhill run in the '76 Innsbruck Winter Olympics was legendary. :-)

Power and speed. He attacked the downhill like Mike Tyson in his prime attacked his opponents. "Domination" is the word I'd use.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

The drive home from the airport today. Fortunately, I -- unlike many around this hellhole -- know how to actually drive in all that white stuff. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

It was wicked here in Kalamazoo, just an ungodly amount of snow overnight and throughout the day. I was working from home, got a text around 11:45 from my wife saying that the 4 year old's day care was closed, jump in the car to go get her and have to drive 45 on I-94. Start the drive home and out of nowhere my dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree, fortunately right as I'm getting off the exit to take the backroads the remaining 4.5 miles. The car starts chugging like an asthmatic being choked, so we pull into a parking lot, realize I can't call my wife because she's in a half day's worth of job interviews and has to do a presentation so I don't want to rattle her and cause any more stress than she's already imposed on herself, so I call the father in law to bring us home, and 5 minutes later I start the car back up without a problem, think it's just the computer starting to go out, and figure I can get it home, park it, order a used ECU from a boneyard, and replace it myself. Around 1/4 mile later it starts back up, go to pull into another parking lot, but now the windshield is fogged up a bit because the blower isn't working, try to swing just slightly wide to pull into a parking space, smash into a wall of white from a snowbank and am hooked on it. The kids are in the car, so I can only be pissed off inside myself and not explode as I'd like to; a nice guy helps me get it unhooked from the bank and they let me leave it there until later when the tow truck can come and get it to my mechanic, and by this point I've realized that it's almost assuredly the alternator and not the ECU. Father in law picks us up & brings us home, only for the 8 year old to realize he left his tablet in the car and will likely be without his precious Minecraft for the weekend, loses his mind about that, and I just shrug my shoulders, "Sorry, dude, I cannot be responsible for everything. Now ya know." I've already missed my conference call for the day, realize the snow is coming down so fast that my wife won't get in the driveway if I don't go snow blow it. Start the snowblower, get the heavy stuff pushed out from the garage, and it just stops working, so I decide to try to use my backpack leaf blower, realizing after 10 minutes that it'll take me 3 hours. Finally, I explode, and leave the snowblower running so the neighbors won't hear me over the engine, throw my arms up and down in a rant, "You motherfucker. After this whole day you decide to be a motherfucker and stop working on me. God damn you, motherfucking asshole snowblower." Better that than the kids, I figured. Then I realize the snowblower won't respond to that and magically heal itself, so, now completely covered in crystalized snow, wearing no gloves, I contritely walk to my next door neighbor, head hung in shame, beg for pity, and borrow his really nice snowblower. Despite me probably needing it more today, that's why my neighbor is going to find a 4 pack of Founder's KBC in his hands. And now it's 6:30P on Friday and I'm logging back on to catch up on 3 hours of missed work. And to that I say, "Michigan in February, you can kiss my lillywhite ass!"

Please send some of that frozen stuff my way here in California. It is looking like my skiing season pass will be another donation this year.

YOW! Sorry you had such a bad day, man. :-(

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Thanks. I’m actually already laughing about it. It’s one of those days where everything goes awry, but nothing goes awful in the scheme of things. We did encounter nice, helpful people so I suppose that’s a good lesson for the kids. Could be much worse, so we’ll drink coffee & hot cocoa tonight and laugh it off.

Maybe the mechanic will call Monday and say it’s not worth fixing the car. The way today went, I’m anticipating it so I already contacted my wife’s cousin who’s an auto dealer manager & asked him what he has available at a deal. Maybe I’ll get a new bicycle transport carriage when all is said and done, 4 years earlier than I planned for.

you must be someone around the detroilette airport to have your own street sign.





your wx was sucking it hard on sunday...fah reelz.

'

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

Hahahahahaha! Only a jet jockey would have picked that BK thing out, big guy. ;-)

And yes; the WX was sucking to the max this last weekend. Ugh!

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

man, i grew up in the midwest. i sooo miss the slower pace and friendlier people but i absolutely, positively, DO NOT miss the midwest winter. the biting, stinging cold that comes with the wind. efffff' dat bro.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed