53 beers on tap

Storm of the Century: August 28, 11:30am-- the final post

This is my last Irene post.  Why?  A number of reasons.  One, less than an hour ago I saw the sun peek through the overcast conditions.  Two, clearly, the worst of the storm has passed.  Three, now that the storm is starting to whack New York and New England, I'm really growing weary of the coverage.  Four, the first day of school is tomorrow and there are lots of better things to do.

I suspect that local restaurants are going to have a busy day today as people without power and/or water are going to be looking for somewhere to get something to eat.  I am interested in getting out and about and assessing what damage has befallen the area.  But, I also have errands to do and it's time to get back to life.

So I think the storm of the century wasn't quite that.  Not to minimize the damage or other effects, but the blizzards shut the whole place down for days.  With this storm-- the weather radars are already showing the cloud cover associated with the storm to be just sounth of DC and of course, heading north.  Looking forward to seeing more sun this afternoon.

Irene-- thanks hon, it was fun, but you were just a one-night stand.

Storm of the Century: August 28, 8am

Well, my immediate world now involved thousands of leaves blown off of trees and soaked by the rain, but otherwise--- that's it.  Power and water all fine.

Apparently about 30,000 Howard Countians are currently without power, though.  That's 10% of the county and nothing to sneeze at.  Sure that throughout the county there are hundreds of downed trees, but it looks like the carpet-bombing of information from county government worked.  People stayed inside their homes starting yesterday afternoon, didn't risk it, and stayed safe.

Irene's going to huff and puff for a few more hours and then get out of here.  It may actually be a pleasant afternoon here in the metroplex!

Storm of the Century: August 27, 11pm

Hurricane Irene is boring me.

OK, so, I guess this is supposed to be the brunt of the storm that we're entering now.  Here's my response: really???  There are some decent gusts of wind but I still have yet to see any heavy rain.

I'm sure Irene is wreaking havoc somewhere (Ocean City!) but the New City ain't one of them!  At least it shouldn't be.

Going to try to stay up for one more update tonight, but finding that more and more difficult to do.  Just not excited about this one, true believers!

Storm of the Century: August 27, 7pm

So as advertised, the rain is getting heavier and the winds are picking up. 

The baseball game I was supposed to attend in Frederick tonight was postponed.  Well there's a shock.

So far no outages to report.  Here in the Fortress of Solitude, Marshmallow Man is firmly embedded, with NASCAR and the NFL on TV and a kitchen full of snacks and beverages!

Once in a while an emergency vehicle's siren is being heard.  Wondering who the hell is goofy enough to go out in this mess.  If I had no reason to go out, I wouldn't.  I don't, so I won't.

Storm of the century: August 27, 4pm

Didn't we just have two storms of the century about 18 months ago?  Except those produced snow?

For those of you who still scoff at global warming, I present to you our latest example of extreme weather, Hurricane Irene.  Or perhaps it's now Tropical Storm Irene.  It is pain in the ass Irene though, that's for sure.

I had a late lunch today with a friend and on 29 North and on the way back saw a one-car accident maybe 2 minutes after it happened.  A small SUV went off the right side of the highway and flipped over.  No idea of it hit some water, was blown by the wind, the driver was just dopey, or whatever.  Anyway, it looked as of there were three people in the SUV; all looked not more than shaken, were being attended too by passersby, and police and fire and rescue were en route when I passed through the scene.

We're not even in the brunt of this storm, true believers, and already driving conditions suck.  Like Sgt. Esterhaus said on "Hill Street Blues", let's be careful out there.

More later!

Artie's ring recovered!

So this is an awesome blog post.  Pro football hall of famer and former Baltimore Colt Art Donovan's championship ring from 1958 (which was the season that culminated in the "Greatest Game Ever Played" Colts victory over the Giants) was stolen from him while he was traveling in Japan in 1977.

Fast forward to extremely recently.  HoCo police received a tip that the ring was for sale on Craigslist by a seller based in Elkridge.  Police posed as buyers and approached the seller. 

Apparently the seller was determined not to be the person who stole the ring and won't be charged.  The ring apparently was given to police; no word as to whether or not the ring has been returned to Donovan.  Or, I suppose, whether the ring will be returned.  I guess it should be, as it was stolen property.  Although, the guy who gave the ring to the police wasn't the one who stole it.

Shake, baby shake!

So I know everyone is aware of the magnitude 5.8 (downgraded a short time ago from 5.9) scale earthquake that struck the area early today.  I'll tell my earthquake story first.

I work on the 7th floor of an office building in Baltimore.  I felt a sway back and forth, which caused me to get up from my desk and look around to see what the heck was going on.  Then came the second jolt-- harder and lasted a little longer.  OK, time to get the hell out of the building.  A lot of co-workers had the same idea.  The building evacuated in less than three minutes, I'd say.  About 45 minutes later, the all clear sounded and life returned back to normal-- well, at least back to talking about what the hell just happened.

Here in the HoCo, emergency response countywide jumped into action quickly.  Within two hours of the event I received about four e-mails from various civic entities-- my village, county council, the school system-- regarding the event and response to it.  It was a thorough, extensive response and it was most appropriate.

I do have a question mark forming over my head over the HCPSS's decision to close school buildings this evening as a precaution.  As a precaution against what, exactly?  Is there a concern for afterschocks?  Is there a concern about the integrity of some of our school buildings?  More information, please.

Help get The Beers and The Sun together.....

...so all we can do is create stormy weather!  BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

OK, serious time here, folks.

Sorry I missed the last blog party on the 11th, which was hosted by the Sun.  Sounds like I missed a good time.

But some missives went out in the blogosphere during my vacation which I have to challenge a bit.  Said missives appears to imply that anyone who submits their blog on the Sun's list of Baltimore area blogs, can have their blog listed on said page.

Ass the song from "Porgy and Bess" tells us, "It Ain't Necessarily So."

Has anyone visited the list and noticed one prominent HoCo blog on news, community stuff, politics, opinion, etc. not listed?  Why, I have!!!

So I've submitted this blog to the Sun twice in the last six months.  Still not posted.  Don't get a reason why not.  Not cool.  Not cool at all.

Therefore, a little social action for you gentle readers: using the Sun link above, please submit this blog for inclusion on the Sun's list.  Anything less would be uncivilized.

Silly me, but I'm one who thinks that the blogosphere shouldn't be hierarchical, that although not all of us can be The Huffington Post, in our own humble way our little local blogs serve a purpose.  I think any God-fearing blog that isn't vulgar, ought to be able to be listed in this directory.

And yes, that's why I've been a little bitter to Sun lately.  You may have noticed the return of the eight-letter "f-word" used recently to refer to the Sun.  I'll promise to make it stop, guys and gals: just make me part of your little list.  How 'bout it?

MM solely responsible for boffo fair attendance!

Many of you will recall that I urged you all to attend the Howard County Fair, for one simple reason: I was not attending this year.  Getting your ag on at the fair was a sure-file way to avoid the Marshmallow Man for almost ten whole days.

I wrote...and you listened!  This article states that this year's Fair edition, the 66th and next to last for all of recorded history, drew one hundred thousand visitors!  Most impressive!

One more time, Marshmallow Man makes an indelible difference in the social fabric of the HoCo!  Now, if only the Sun will add my blog to their little list.  Despite what some in the blogosphere attest, I know for a fact the blog's been submitted at least twice.

Hating, Loving, and Hating again....Verizon

MM back in Da HOUUUUUUSSSSSEEEEEEE!!!!

Returned from Las Vegas midday Monday.  Was supposed to return Sunday evening, but the local thunderstorms delayed the flight, eventually the crew put in their maximum 16-hour day, and my flight home was grounded in Cincinnati.  Spent the night as a guest of Delta Airlines in a lovely area hotel; reboarded the same plane and all was well Monday.  But, more on that experience in future posts.

So when I returned, I had a busy day Monday.  I had to catch up with work and a medical appointment in the afternoon.  When I returned, I was able to cruise through my work stuff.  Went to my doctor's appointment and, when I came back to finish my work...voila, as if my magic...baaaadddd magic... my Verizon FiOS services (Internet and TV) failed to work.

OK, no worries, I thought, I'll just do the trusty "unplug and replug" trick.  So I did.  No luck.  Damn.  OK, let's try it again, but keep everything unplugged longer.  Same result.  Crap.  Now I need to call someone.

So I did.  Called Verizon, and as we know, Verizon is experiencing a strike right now.  Nevertheless, I spent TWO HOURS on the phone with Verizon to set up a damn service call!  Why so long?  First, technical support had to try remotely-- four times-- to get my service to work.  Then I was transferred to customer service for some reason.  Then, back to technical support to set up a service call.  Then, the service call they had originally set up wouldn't take in the system.  Then they had to do it again-- the second time it worked.  Imagine reading each of the last five sentences with 20-plus-minutge long breaks in between.  That's why the call was so long.

And the kicker?  The call wasn't scheduled until Thursday morning.  Nice job, guys.

Fast forward to Wednesday.  That afternoon I received a phone call from Verizon customer service.  I was told that a technician had visited and fixed the problem.  Could I please go check to see if the service was working so I may cancel the service call.  Well, uh, gee miss, I'd love to do that, except.... the place where my Verizon service is received is TWENTY MILES AWAY from my office!!!  Her reply?  "So, you can't check right now?"  GAAAHHHH!  So I promised to check that night as soon as I got in, and if all was well, I'd cancel the service call.

OK, so when I got in all Verizon services were working well.  Hooray!  So I called Verizon to cancel the service call.  That took thirty minutes and required me talking to three people to achieve.  Oh, my head.  Do after talking to Darius and then Sebastian, the indomitable Nick with Verizon told me that the service call "should be" cancelled in the system.  Should?

I have no idea who is staffing phones at Verizon while the strike continues, but I really hope to not have a problem with my service again anytime soon.  In fact, to never have a problem with my service again would be quite the joy.