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It's snowing but the weather outside's not frightening

 Just a moment ago I stepped outside and noticed that some sort of frozen precipitation is falling along with the rain. It looks like our first winter storm of the season is starting to take shape.

 The agency I work part-time for put their employees in this region on administrative leave beginning at noon because of the winter storm. That just means we get to go home early. It’s no big deal for me since I was only supposed to work until 1:30 p.m. I came home after lunch and took a nap, waking at 1:30 p.m. I know. Life is hard.

 This is the  first time I can remember the National Weather Service — our station is out of Lake Charles, La., — actually predicting snow since I have been living back in the Beaumont area for the last four years. Perhaps they did last year when it snowed on Dec. 11 and I just don’t remember it. But here is how Lake Charles forecaster Sam Shamburger prognosticates the snow fall in an updated version of the latest weather forecast discussion:

   ” AT THIS TIME…OUR CURRENT FORECAST SNOW TOTALS OF 1 TO
    3 INCHES IN NORTHERN ZONES AND UP TO 2 INCHES IN SOUTHERN ZONES
    STILL APPEARS REASONABLE.”

 Sorry, the CAPS are the weather service’s not mine.

 Now if you live in Minnesota or New Hampshire or Siberia or any other place snowfall is a common occurrence, you might wonder what the fuss is about. The answer is that it doesn’t snow — at least in measurable amounts — very often in Beaumont, Texas. The fact that it did last year and a measurable snowfall is expected this evening is kind of like seeing a group of Republicans sporting “Raise My Taxes. Please! T-shirts.

 Just how rare are measurable snowfalls on the upper Texas-Western Louisiana coast? Well, Beaumont has had 17 measurable snowfalls since 1895, according to NWS records. A measurable snowfall occurs on average once every 7 years here with January being  the average month for such an event. I don’t know if this is some kind of recording error or not, but these records indicate the largest snowfall on record  being 30 inches on Feb. 14, 1895. People back then must’ve thought the world was ending. The second greatest snowfall was 4.4 inches in 1960, followed by 3 inches in January 1973. The latter snow I remember as I lived about 60 miles northeast of where I now live.

 The 1973 snowfall was fun. I was a junior in high school and this was also the first snowfall in which I drove. It was quite enjoyable because I lived in a small town and no one, it seems, ventured out on the roads except for fools such as me.

 Last year’s snowfall, which was the earliest on record and will be beaten out of that title if this storm pans out, was the eighth greatest amount of measurable snow on record at 1.8 inches.

 I made some kind of remark on Facebook last night concerning the impending snow storm trying to be funny. An old friend from high school scolded me with an emoticon because she didn’t get the reference I made and she was excited about the prospect of snow. I later wrote that I was as well.

 For all the problems snow can bring to probably most or a sizeable amount of Americans who experience it regularly before, during and after Winter, I feel the rare snow in areas of Texas where I have spent most of my life as a rather cleansing event. I don’t mean cleansing in a physical sense but more in terms of the human psyche.

 In places where snow doesn’t often fall there are kids who get to revel in its charms while older folks get to think of snows past when they were younger and played in it making snowmen or were engaged in snowball fights. Of course, some older folks probably had to walk 20 miles in the snow to school and they scowl at just the thought of it. Others think of snow in terms of magic. And some also remember that they wished some sort of magic was available during snows  in which they were stuck in it or caught out in it on the shoulder of some lonesome interstate.

 But snow is what it is and looking outside I see that some of it is now beginning to fall, along with the rain and the temperature. Like the song says, “Let it snow … ” I’m off work, inside where it’s warm so, if there is magic to behold then let it commence. If it sticks I will post some pics.

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Some observations on "Gate-gate"

 Call it business as usual. Congress has managed to politicize “Gate-gate” or whatever the media choose to call the recent White House security breach.

 The Secret Service chief told members of the House Homeland Security panel today that “appropriate procedures were not followed.” Ya think?

 The ranking Republican weasel on the House committee, Rep. Peter King of New York, wants White House staffers to testify to see if there is some blame that could be spread their way. Anything to attempt harm to the other party even if the real victims here were the White House, the President and his family. Fortunately, this was a benign incident — this time.

 Along with the Republican “gotcha machine,” the talking heads on TV have been doing their usual hand-wringing. “Oh my, what if the president got stabbed with a fork during the state dinner?” “What if the intruders tried to attack with biological warfare?” “What if someone tried to get the president with a butter knife.” Or, heavens forbid, a plastic spork.

 What these same people don’t realize, forget or just plain omit is there was probably a unit of Secret Service snipers placed strategically out of sight at all times during the dinner, just waiting for such moves. I say probably, I don’t know for sure. I have been in the presence of a presidential visit to a building — a mess hall at Fort Hood actually — and saw a team of black-suited Secret Service agents emerging afterwards carrying cases that I seriously doubt held musical instruments. I don’t think I am revealing any state secret here because these snipers were in plain sight once the president left the building (so was a Marine with a metal briefcase that I imagine contained the Nuclear “Football.” — scary stuff.) Nevertheless, the snipers were not visible inside the building when the president was inside, so you put two and two together. Similar placement of hidden  Secret Service or other police officers takes place as well wherever the president decides to pop in and say hello.

 From what I’ve seen being in close proximity to a president, on about a handful of occasions, is that the POTUS is pretty well-guarded. Whatever I think might be flaws in presidential security I will keep to myself unless asked by the Secret Service. And the flaws that I have seen were generally specific to the former president.

 Also, and this too is from my own observations dealing with and watching those in the last president’s entourage — and a traveling one at that — the White House staff does have a hand in security but it appears to be more of an administrative manner. But when the rubber meets the road, or the tires touch the Tarmac, the Secret Service is ultimately in charge of the president’s life. The buck stops with those folks who, at least I say, do an incredible job. For the most part, the Secret Service presidential detail is awesome.

 I’m sure the Secret Service will learn from this mistake and continue doing what they do well. As for the uninvited guests, if it turns out they were not invited to the White House in a legal manner I hope justice will be done and they are made an example of why fame (or infamy) isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

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Afghanistan and the eye of the Tiger, oh my

 Today I have a few words — figuratively speaking — on subjects of which I could discuss with thousands of words. However, I don’t want that and if you read this blog, you surely don’t want that.

 First off, Afghanistan and the upshot of President Obama ordering 30,000 additional troops into whatever it is we are fighting over there.

 Flip a coin. Heads, you approve of the additional troops. Tails, you disapprove. That is how I look at the announcement of additional forces. I initially thought we should have gone into Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Today, I’m not so sure. The only thing I am sure of is that we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq. That war is what one might call unjust, not to mention illegal. I haven’t heard it called “Bush’s Folly” or “Shrub’s Folly,” but it should go down in history that way.

 If the search and destroy mission for Osama bin Laden and gang should  not have been a federal criminal investigation — with help from the military and CIA — many of the troops and material poured into Iraq (not to mention the billions of dollars) could have went to Afghanistan.

 I guess the American in me believes that we should find some kind of victory both in Iraq and Afghanistan and leave. We need to figure out what it is we are there to do because I am not sure what our goals are now in those countries.

 As for Obama sending more trooops to augment the more than 70,000 already there — and the allies sending 5,000 more to help the almost 40,000 NATO and other foreign forces in Afghanistan — I say: “Let’s see if it works out.” He has offered a timetable, albeit a seemingly short one.  So if the situation doesn’t improve by whenever it is Obama wants a withdrawal to begin, then we get mad and jump up and down and say: “Bad Obama. Bad, bad Obama.” This seems as good as anything else I can imagine.

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 Next subject. Le Tigre. El Tigre.  Ang Tigre. The Tiger.

 Tiger, Tiger, Tiger.

 Why is the mainstream media doing stories on what was, initially, a rather odd car crash involving Tiger Woods?  Do viewers and readers of the media have such uninteresting lives that they MUST know the details of all the indiscretions of this sports (sports?) star? I have the most uninteresting life  imaginable, at least at the moment, and I don’t care about Tiger Woods” intimate moments. Let me be a bit more specific. I DON’T GIVE A RAT’S RECTUM ABOUT THE TIGER WOODS SCANDAL.

 Tiger Woods has not been elected to greatest golfer in the world or highest-paid sports star in the world. We do not own Tiger Woods. He has no obligation to tell the public zip. Sure, every star of every kind blames the media when things start to go South. But if anyone has a case against the media, this time it is Tiger Woods.

 It makes me both angry and sad to see great newspaper and broadcasting outlets report the latest on this scandal. Why don’t they report something really earth-shaking, like this?

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The ever-traveling bad day

 As you may have noticed, I didn’t post anything yesterday. That is because I spent eight hours at the local VA clinic, the latter hours awaiting on my foot X-Ray results which ultimately were not sent back to the doctor by closing time.

 Later in the evening I called the Tele-nurse line and asked them about my X-Rays and I was told no evidence of a fracture was found. You could have fooled me. But come to think of it, the VA didn’t find a fracture when my other little toe was broken about six years ago. When I had foot X-Rays several months back because of neuropathy problems in my feet, the pictures then showed that a fracture had occurred in that toe.

 For reasons I don’t want to discuss because they are too long and ridiculous to go into, I question the workmanship involved in the X-Rays. That is all I will say, take it as it is. Then again, the toe might not be broken. It looked worse than my other toe when it fractured though.

 As you might expect, the episode yesterday at the VA was not fun. It has basically ruined both my days — yesterday and today.  I have not been a delight to talk to. For instance, I almost called a deputy sheriff running the X-Ray machine at the county courthouse an a**hole. That wouldn’t have been good. Accurate, perhaps, but not good.

 The point in all this is that a bad day has consequences that sometimes go beyond one day. Only you can prevent a bad day, sez Smokey! Or something like that.

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A funny, but most interesting commercial

 Early this morning I was awakened by an agonizing pain in my left, little toe. I think I might have fractured it last night as I was putting my normally hurting feet — courtesy of neuropathy from a still undiscovered origin — up for rest.

 For some reason I had difficulty going back to sleep but it wasn’t just due to the pain. No, it was because I couldn’t remember all the lines in that hilarious Dos Equis TV commercial, “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” Click here to see the ad.

 The bearded, non-celebrity can be seen boating, playing jai alai or leading a night-time expedition with all in tow dressed in their finery. The voice-over proclaims that “His reputation is expanding faster than the universe. He once had an awkward moment just to see how it feels. He lives vicariously through himself. He is the most interesting man in the world.”

 Slate critic Seth Stephenson points out that the most interesting aspect of the ad is the subject’s line: “I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.” Stephenson equates such an admission to Tony the Tiger saying he doesn’t like cereal but when he eats it, his brand is Frosted Flakes.

 It is difficult to imagine just to whom the advertiser is pitching. It would hardly be the “Whazzuppp???” crowds of bygone Bud Light ads or the other babe-laden  ads which equate drinking tons of beers with finding tons of fine women. Sometimes  it is hard to figure out just who an ad has been crafted for, especially when humor is involved. Humor crosses many different lines when it hits and just as many lines when it doesn’t.

 Nonetheless, hats off to the firm that came up with this campaign for its clever humor and its appeal to memory. It kept me up trying to remember it word for word this morning, didn’t it? Dos Equis has an accompanying Web site with the campaign, the funniest part of this medium is that the most interesting man supposedly leaves a note telling people to explore what’s around his place. There, in his study one finds a number of empty match boxes from foreign spots which can be opened and which contain local insults, something Mr. Most Interesting insists is helpful to know when operating in varied cultural climates.