You Thought the Leaden Winter Would Bring You Down Forever

Wednesday. Some people mark the beginning of winter when the temperatures first dip below freezing. Some people go by the first snowfall. Officially it is the winter solstice, which usually lands on Dec. 21st or so. I, however, go by the first time it takes me over an hour and a half to get to work due to a slight dusting of snow on the roads. A couple of months from now, these conditions would be nothing, maybe even a reprieve. However, since summer has completely erased people's minds of how to drive in snow, I had the pleasure of getting stuck behind drivers doing 30mph in the left lane and fender-benders from people who think slamming on their brakes while driving on ice is a good idea. Coincidently, I mark the end of winter with the huge, unexpected late snowfall that causes an equal amount of accidents due to drivers' overconfidence; i.e.: "I've been driving in the snow for 5 months straight now... I'm an expert on how to turn corners on ice doing 75mph..."

Once I got into work things got a little better, but I have been quite busy. There is a huge push to clean up all of our old receivables by the end of the year, so I've been working on those all day. I was finally able to get payment on one really old order today. It was only $6K, but it was such a pain to get it collected that it felt like a major victory. I got kudos from the Big Boss Lady, so I guess that's cool.

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. This "day of infamy" is widely seen as the US's entrance into WWII (although we had been secretly engaged in naval battles with the Germans and loaning troops and supplies to Great Britain long before). On this day in history, thousands of US Naval troops were attacked unaware and killed, many of them while they slept. Please take time today to remember this dark day in American history. On a similar note, please join me in trying to forget this disaster.

Update on an ongoing story: The Denver Post reports Gary Barnett will be fired within the next couple of days. The front headline of The Rocky Mountain News sports page says Barnett deserves to stay. If you have been following along the past couple of days, I'm sure you can guess which media outlet I agree with on this one.

I listened to Cream on the drive in to work today. For those unfamiliar, anytime you hear those popular music buzzwords "power trio" or "super group" please remember that those terms were first coined to describe Cream. Cream was comprised of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker. Although the were only together for a few years, they produced many long-lasting rock classics, such as Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, and I Feel Free. For those who want to hear a true Clapton jam, check out the guitar work on Crossroads. I particularly like Tales of Brave Ulysses as well. Heck, they're all good. With Clapton you just can't go wrong. Very, very highly recommended to anyone who has even a modicum of affinity for rock and roll. Good stuff.