Inauguaration Day

I hope I spelled the title right - the nation is completely unglued as we celebrated Martin Luther King day yesterday (Jan 19), and the same celebrants stayed over to see our new president inauguarated today. One can only hope that things start changing around, economy wise and several other wises. I remain optimistic because I sincerely believe that the new president's only direction is up. In the next few days we will see Hilary approved as Secretary of State, and as long as she doesn't keep many old Clinton hold-overs around should do quite well. In good old NY, our Gov is still laboring mightily over his choice for Hilary's replacement and may make a decision by next week. I see that some of the NY pundits are all in a lather because Patterson is not releasing his candidate questionairres or his "short list" of nominees. It appears that the Gov is simply telling them to go to hell, and it is about time. As I understand it, he is the sole decider on this issue. Would anyone like to make a small bet that Princess Caroline will not be our next Senator?

One other issue bothering the Gov is the obesity issue, and it looks like fast food franchises will be required to post the amount of calories, trans-fats, etc included in the meals they serve. Have you ever in your life seen someone reading a Big Mac wrapper to see what is in it? That is almost as stupid as the EPA's obsession with cow poop. First, they were going to tax farmers for each cow, apparently according to how much poop they produced, but they are also interested in burn barrels, tree pests, birds flying into wind turbines, etc, etc. Speaking of wind turbines, isn't it amazing that the same folks who are screaming for us to reduce gas emissions are raising hell because the turbines might kill a bird or two. I don't know how these folks heat their homes, it seems to me that every sourse of heat has to start somewhere, unless you have figured out how to not use any heat at all. The only way I can see to do that is to move South - waaay South.

On the local front, Legislator Tom Nichols has tearfully resigned from the Legislature to take up his new job as deputy election commissioner. I can't get too excited over that little item because the fun has not yet begun. Someone has to replace Tom, and the selection of his replacement should provide us with lots of entertainment for the next few months.

Our weather has been unique, so say the least, with temperatures dropping quite a way below zero, and snow, which is falling as I write this. It reminds me of my Father-in-law, Omer Tessier, (now deceased). Omer had a thermometer which did not agree with anyone else's in the town of Stockholm. If you said it was 20 below at your house, Omer would announce that is was 25 below at his. On those rare hot days, if you had a temperature of 80 degrees, Omer has 85. It was harmless, and we used to give him fictituous reports of our temperatures to see how far he was willing to exceed us.

Enough for today - later, WCD.