What A Winter We Have Been Having Here In Boston! | armine's Blog

I can't remember the exact day that it started... but if I remember correctly, we have been getting snow (and frigid temperatures often not making it out of the teens) on average every three days or so, since around the middle of December. It snows, the plows and shovels come out; the temps go way down and you feel like your nose will fall off after being out for five minutes - out come the thermals and three sweatshirts again. Then there's a brief, one-day respite, where the sun will peek out and we get above freezing for a few hours - next day the local forecasters are telling us another storm is on its way and everything gets crazy again. It was snowing out earlier, now it's raining; then it's going to freeze up overnight, and the next couple of days the temps are supposed to hover around the freezing mark, which means lots of icy patches on the sidewalks and falling ice from the rooftops.

I like the winter season - but not when it's brutal like this!!

I tried a new health product this week - Fiber One Pop-Tarts (Brown Sugar Cinnamon flavor) - and my verdict is, it's pretty good! And I am glad about that, because now I can reach for a box of Pop-Tarts and not feel funny about it, because I'm not a little kid anymore ;). They made a kid's food for adults (or in my case, big kids) - very good idea - and they taste pretty good, too.

Supposedly they are setting up Internet access at the new desk my staff and I will be moving to (allegedly over the next couple of weeks); I used to be excited about this, but now I am wondering if it 's such a good idea after all. If we get Internet access, everyone is going to want to go online... and if things are slow and we're just sitting there with nothing to do, I think this is a swell way to pass the idle time. The problem is, one never knows what kind of day we are going to have (busy or slow), or just when something important is going to come up that requires a lot of attention. The Internet is great and all of that - but not when you are on company time, and they are paying you to do a job for their business. I can get online and start chatting, blogging, or whatever... but as soon as the phone rings, or somebody comes to the desk to talk to me about some issue, it will be time to shut it off, and who knows when I will be able to get back online again? I guess I'm just concerned that having Internet access will decrease productivity for my staff - and if we do get online access and our job performances start slipping, I have little doubt that we will be disconnected from Internet explorer - and fast. We'll just see how it goes...

Rush Limbaugh is getting a fair amount of heat these days for his radio show; I don't consider myself to be a 'talk-radio junkie', but since I no longer watch television I will turn on the radio (often switching channels quite frequently) to find out what is going on. I listen to bits and pieces of his (Mr. Limbaugh's) show... and while I am no redneck (if readers are offended by this term, go ahead and call me a Yankee; I can take the barb!), I do feel that Rush is one of the most successful broadcasters in our country today. A lot of people listen faithfully to his show, love him or hate him; and now that we have both a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in Congress, I wouldn't realistically expect his listeners to turn him off anytime soon. Let's face it: the Republicans and the Democrats might as well be from two different planets when it comes to political issues; there are strong thoughts and feelings about everything political on both sides of the aisle, and regardless of which team is up and which is down, both will always hold on to their convictions at any cost, no matter what. I thought it was amusing when I heard President Obama say something to the effect of "Americans are decent people, but sometimes they get a little confused. They listen to a lot of talk radio..." HA! Hey - at least Mr. Prez is paying attention to what's on the airwaves out there!  Still - my advice? If you don't like Rush Limbaugh, turn the dial and find a more suitable station. Just don't expect him to give up his job, simply because you don't like him. I'm sure he's very accustomed to his critics at this point!

Had a rather strange dream last night; I don't remember too many of the details, only that I was being chased down a long hallway of a building one minute (because I had set off an alarm), and the next a bunch of guys were working on installing a new toilet for me in what looked like a cave (!). Have NO idea what that was about... dreams can be cuckoo sometimes.

Guess that's all for now... I think I've squawked enough in this blog today!