My Week in Review: 30 December - 5 January

The weekly look back for the closing days of '07 and the opening days of '08.

Sunday 30 December: I awoke around 10:30 am and had cereal for breakfast. I caught the first halves of the Jaguars/Texans and Saints/Bears before heading out to do the weekly grocery run at King Soopers. By noon, snow had started to fall and the cloud ceiling dropped to become fog with the snow. At least it broke freezing, barely, as we reached 33 degrees just before the snow began after a morning low of 15. We will end the month about four degrees below normal from averages with around 20 total inches of snow. December could have been worse but it sure would have been nice if it had been better. Six straight weeks of largely ceaseless winter weather and conditions is getting old, but we are not yet even half way through the season. By the time I started to drive back home about 2-3" had already fallen. I made a pitstop at the post office to pick up my mail and send the evil electric corporation their monthly demand that gouged me. I got home and hibernated, reading my newspapers, doing the sudoku, and watching the Vikings/Broncos and Steelers/Ravens games. As evening dawned, I watched the regular season finale for the NFL with Titans/Colts while staying track of the Colorado/Alabama Independence Bowl. I had some sandwiches for dinner and worked on my blog, surfed the 'net, and kept up on my email. Bedtime occurred around 2am.

Monday 31 December: I slept in until around 11am and never left home. I am not the type to take in any New Years Eve celebrations often. I believe I have only gone out once this decade and that was on 31 December 2004. I did that just because the prior three New Years Eve I always had to work extraordinarily long hours driving the cab and dealing with a lot of revelers when I could not be one. Prior to that, I think the last time I went out was in 1999. So maybe I will go out in 2008 or 2009 since doing it about every five years is about right. One year in my life I would not mind seeing the new year dawn in Las Vegas. It will also be neat to see it happen at the bottom of the planet and have it happen during daylight. My day today was about the same as most others at home recently as I had cereal for breakfast, watched all or parts of the six bowl games, caught parts of two NHL games, and watched a SNL tribute program on NBC through the evening. I had some butter bread for a snack. The weather was forbidding outside as it has regularly been lately. Skies were clear but it was quite windy with temperatures reaching only 20 degrees after a morning low of 12 as blowing snow was happening everywhere in the region and led to closed highways and roads throughout Wyoming and Colorado. I plan on staying up tonight well past midnight, though, to see 2008 makes its debut and see the sorry 2007 move its ass out the door finally.

Tuesday 1 January: I slept until after 10am and had oatmeal for breakfast. I watched all or part of four early bowl games: Outback (Wisconsin/Tennessee); Cotton (Missouri/Arkansas); Capital One (Michigan/Florida); and Gator (Texas Tech/Virginia). But I mainly watched the outdoors NHL game in Buffalo between the Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins played in falling snow which was cool to observe as the game ended up in a shootout in near blizzard conditions from a lake effect snowstorm. Later I watched the Rose Bowl (Southern California/Illinois) and then the Sugar (Hawaii/Georgia) though both games were blowouts. It was a crystal clear blue skies day but cold as the temperature only reached 21 degrees after a morning low of 9 with the wind largely dying off by dawn compared to yesterday's blowstorm. We are finally supposed to warm up somewhat starting Wednesday through the upcoming weekend as temps will get into the 40s and may even touch 50 for the first time in a month. The next three weeks are the coldest of the year climatologically and historically most everywhere across the nation, so any positive breaks during this period are very welcome before we start to embark on the long climb out of winter towards more pleasant weather and conditions. I simply stayed home all day without going outdoors at all and continued the winter hiberation vacation through day four with six left. For supper I had some peas & carrots and a ham & swiss on rye. LAL called me after 6pm to wish me a Happy New Years and we had a good conversation. Hopefully I will figure out a way to visit her and KVS and their families sometime during this year. Wednesday I will get up and about and do some tasks and errands and get out of the place for maybe a tasty cheeseburger.

Wednesday 2 January: I awoke around 9:30am and headed out for a breakfast burrito at McDonalds after getting my newspapers for a change of pace for breakfast. It was a sunny day and much warmer as the temperature broke freezing and reached 34 degrees after a frostly low of 2 degrees. The winds also settled down noticeably and switched to coming out of the southwest, beckoning warm air in the coming days and temperatures will rise even overnight into the mid to upper 3os as these chinooks often do in January and February. I then went over to Barnes & Noble for a couple of hours and perused some periodicals and books to while away part of the afternoon. I returned home around 3pm and took the rest of the day to surf the 'net, blog, keep on the email, and watch CNN. Later I switched over to watch the Thrashers/Hurricanes game and the Fiesta Bowl between Oklahoma and West Virginia. I then switched over for yet another Avalanche debacle, losing to the Coyotes. Later I caught the reappearance of both David Letterman and Jay Leno after both shows have been off the air for about two months due to the writers strike and both were entertaining. I later caught an episode of ST: V and watched a couple episodes of M*A*S*H before going off to some kip around 1:30am.

Thursday 3 January: I awoke around 11am and caught some news on CNN before going out and getting the newspapers and having some tacos at Taco Johns. It was a cloudy day but warmer as temperatures reached 47 degrees after a low of just 36 degrees as strong southwest winds blew all night and day to warm the air and even melt a little snow and ice. I returned home around 2:30 and worked on the blog, surfed the 'net, and stayed on top of my email. The penultimate college football game is tonights Orange Bowl between upstart Kansas and Virginia Tech. I also caught parts of the LMU/BYU game. The Orange Bowl featured ZZ Top as the halftime show which was great and cool to watch. I also stayed on top of the Iowa caucuses on CNN as Wolf Blitzer was on top of all the results and analysis with the expert CNN team. For supper I had frozen chicken and dumplings heated in the microwave. I did not do much active or important the rest of the evening and went to get some kip around 1am.

Friday 4 January: A Friday off from work. After I awoke around 11am, I had some oatmeal for breakfast. After spending a couple of hours surfing the 'net, I headed outside to escape the place. It was a cloudy day and quite windy although the winds diminshed substantially later in the afternoon. We reached 44 degrees after a morning low of only 37 which tells you we really had strong winds overnight. Snowmelt is occuring but still there is a long way to go. I almost fell several times on spots of ice. I took the truck over to get air put in all five tires, and two were low. I then headed over to King Soopers, picked up the newspapers and a couple of groceries, and then went to McDs to read, listen to the radio, and enjoy a cheeseburger. I got back home around 5:45 and went about finishing working on my office which I was able to get done for the most part. I listened to some my CDs (various 70s music) as I worked on the project. I then cleaned up the kitchen, including shaking rugs, taking out trash, and sweeping the floor. I got my humidifier up and running and hopefully that will help somewhat with my dry throat, nasal and sinus cavities, and skin. I took a break at 9pm to watch Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS as he had interviews with Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul. Later I watched one of my favorite movies, Crocodile Dundee II while I worked on the blog, caught up on my email, and surfed the 'net. Bedtime was at 1:30am.

Saturday 5 January: The NFL Playoffs started today so I stayed home and did not go out at all. After a breakfast of oatmeal around 11am, I surfed on the net and watched some MWC hoops between Air Force & Utah and the Rutgers/Ball State International Bowl in Toronto. The Redskins/Seahawks game was fairly good and close into the fourth quarter. We had cloudy skies with winds as the temperature climbed to 48 degrees after a morning low of 28. As we got into evening, some rain (!), hail, and snow pellets fell. Quite unusual and unexpected. I had some turkey sandwiches for a late afternoon snack. The Jaguars/Steelers game started at 6pm and JAX controlled the game for the most part although they had to rally to pull it out. I also kept up on the Islanders/Avalanche and TCU/SDSU. I made myself a frozen lemon smoothie (squeezed lemon, ice, water) for a treat. For dinner I had some cream of mushroom soup and some grilled cheese sandwiches. I later watched ST:TOS; M*A*S*H; the first Austin Powers movie; the first Batman movie; and then faded off to get some kip around 2am.

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