[Shrek] That slippery slope of winter weather

With snow and sleet falling from the sky soon to be followed by our personal favorite freezing rain, this looks like a good time to enjoy a second cup of coffee and post an update.

First off, thanks to everyone's e-mails and mentions of concern over my latest bout with A-fib. As my cardiologist predicted in one of my early January visits I converted to regular rhythm on my own (although it took a tad longer than he expected). I'm on new meds that should help prevent a recurrence, with the only draw back being no more alcohol for the foreseeable future. To be honest, it's an easy trade off.

Fiona and I had yesterday off, not for Martin Luther King Day specifically, but because we were laid off for the day. It happens every year on MLK Day, so it's not that big a deal and we sort of look forward to it. The funniest thing about it was many years ago in contract negotiations the union that we belong to asked for MLK Day to be one of our paid holidays. The company refused, and instead decided to give everyone an additional 8 hours or personal time. Since those negotiations the company has closed every MLK Day. Go figure...

With yesterday off we went out to breakfast, but I had to avoid my normal radio listening because WEEI was full of people angered by the Patriots loss to the hated New York Jets. I'm a believer that listeners that call into radio shows, no matter the topic, all fit into one of two categories; people that have no idea what they are talking about or who call to ball wash the hosts. I've seen very little evidence to the contrary.

The one positive thing about the game is it was never really close, so I was resigned to the loss early and was able to get an incredible amount of work done that I'd have usually done on Monday, allowing for me to get even more stuff accomplished. I celebrated getting so much done by not going to work because of the weather, sleeping late, and watching TV.

With tonight's Worcester Sharks/Portland Pirates game, already postponed once in late December due to the blizzard, being put off again until tomorrow I'll get to catch up on my DVR watching. We used to DVR a lot of shows, now it's down to a few and we catch many of those as they air anyway. Our rule of thumb is if we reach four episodes of a show on the DVR, we're really not watching it anymore and it's time to think about getting rid of it. Hawaii Five-O was one we bounced; The Mentalist is one we keep no matter how many back up.