Last Day of January 2026

It's cold and dreary. Cloudy and snowy. It's the last day of January 2026 and I think it would be a good day to stay home and keep warm. Sometimes the sun would come out and there would be a little blue sky and then a few minutes later the clouds would come along with the snow. Back and forth all day. Lake effect cells passing by.

Parkside Meadow w/ Dave & Donna

Yesterday Becky was on the phone with Dave and during their conversation he suggested that we should all go down to the Parkside Meadow for a fish fry tomorrow. I contacted to ask what time and he initially said 4:30. I made a joke about it and we agreed on 5. Becky and I would have gone down there at 5:30 or 6. Then I called the PM and made a reservation for 4 at 5pm. 

This evening we walked down there at about 4:45 and it took about ten minutes to walk because of the snow. We took our time and it actually wasn't bad. All of the sidewalks from our house to the PM were shoveled and the street corners were OK to walk across. We got there and the bar area was full but we were the first people in the dining room. We were given a table in the middle of the room. It was OK but there were better tables. We asked for a booth but the waitress said they were all reserved. Then we asked about a table along the wall but they too were reserved. Friday night is always very busy for them and people ask for reservations at specific tables. Well, will know better next time.

While we were waiting for Dave and Donna to arrive Len, the owner and our neighbor, came by and chatted with us for awhile. D & D sat down and we continued talking with Len. Meanwhile some folks started coming in. By the time our ordered drinks arrived, me and Dave got beers, Donna got a glass of wine and Becky got an NA, people were coming in and those booths filled up. By 5:30 the dining room had almost filled up. By 6 the place was jammed, the bar area full and the back dining room was half filled too. 

Dave and I got the fish fry with their homemade chips. The cole slaw was good too. Becky got a beef on weck with chips and Donna got a tuna melt. The food was fine and we had a great time. The service was good and although it was crowded we could still sit at our table and have conversations. 

There were a lot of people I knew in the restaurant. Mostly from serving on the PCA board. I said Hi to about a dozen people in the restaurant.

We finished up around 6:45 and headed for the exit but it took a little while because we stopped at a friend's table and chatted a little. Dave and Donna had driven down to the restaurant but they had to park about a block and a half down the street so we walked along with them. After our goodbyes we continued down Russell and over Crescent to our house. It was all pretty quick and although it was cold we were dressed for it and there was no wind. Overall a very good night and we'll go again sometime soon.

Bitter Cold Again

Woke up to another morning of sunny weather with temperatures below zero. It's been very cold almost everyday for the past few weeks. It's usually been single digit temperatures and occasionally going up into the teens. It's been awhile since it was in the 20s. Above freezing... can't remember. There hasn't been a January Thaw this year.

We've had a lot of lake effect snow but the lake must have frozen over so why all that extra snow. We have about 7 or 8 inches on the ground now but it mostly came in small steady increments with nothing melting.

This bad January weather has been happening all over the East, Midwest and the South. We were talking with Katie and the kids on video chat and they were excited about all the snow they had in Philly. 

Yesterday I cleaned off the car three times. I've been trying to keep up with the snow shoveling. A few times this month I used the snowblower but mostly I've been shoveling. Yesterday later in the day the plows came by and buried our driveway with heavy street snow. So I had to go out there again and dig through it. Me and all the neighbors too. 

So later today we are going out for a fish fry with Dave and Donna down at the Parkside Meadow. We plan to walk there so we will be very bundled up. The temperatures will be about 9 or 10 degrees in the early evening.

2054: A Novel

2054: A Novel by Elliot Ackerman & James Stavridis, 2024. I read this in about a week in January. It was a quick read but rather unsatisfying. I think I read this one fast because I kept thinking something exciting would be happening just around the corner, just another chapter. Well, it did describe AI run amok and the results of lots of conspiracy theories. It was a novel of speculative fiction that takes place 30 years in the future. 

I read their first novel together... 2034: A Novel of the Next World War which they published in 2021 and I wrote about at the time. I liked that political thriller a lot but something was missing this time. It took the story about 20 year further into the future and shows us where our society is heading. And the coming Singularity and possible Civil War. 

Bruce Springsteen's Streets of Minneapolis

Bruce Springsteen has always been very vocal in his opposition to the trump regime in many ways. This week he released a new protest song he wrote specifically addressing the issues of police brutality and trumpian ICE fascism in Minneapolis and around the country.

Here are the lyrics...

"Streets Of Minneapolis"

Through the winter's ice and cold
Down Nicolet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
'Neath an occupier's boots
King Trump's private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
Against smoke and rubber bullets
By the dawn's early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good

Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We'll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of '26
We'll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis

Trump's federal thugs beat up on
His face and his chest
Then we heard the gunshots
And Alex Pretti lay in the snow, dead
Their claim was self defense, sir
Just don't believe your eyes
It's our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem's dirty lies

Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We'll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis

Now they say they're here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight

In chants of ICE out now
Our city's heart and soul persists
Through broken glass and bloody tears
On the streets of Minneapolis

Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of '26
We'll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We'll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We'll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis

JT's with Dick & Iris

We had a wonderful dinner tonight with Dick and Iris at JT's. I had the Rigatoni Bolognese which I've had there several times and love. I also had my usual Tuscan Blend wine and then followed it up with a nice Peroni draft beer.

Everyone else had seafood. Becky had the Shrimp Scampi. Dick had a Dover Sole which was stuffed with clam and crab with a lobster sauce. Iris had the Grilled Whole Trout. Wow. And we started off with a large plate of Sauteed Mussels. All of us except Becky who doesn't eat mussels. It was delicious and a little hot too. 

The restaurant was busy for a snowy Wednesday night but it was also kind of quiet. It was nice sitting there at our table and enjoying our conversations. We ended up sitting at our table together for a little over two hours. The service was wonderful as always and the staff were exceptionally friendly.

It was also kind of a crazy snowy night on Elmwood Avenue and from our table we could see the snow coming down and at times it looked like a white out. Becky and I parked the car in our usual spot on Bidwell and as we walked the block and a half to JT's we had snow blowing in our faces. We couldn't believe how much snow was coming down. It was snowing when we left the house but not very much and it wasn't until we got over to Elmwood that suddenly we were in white out conditions. It snowed a little throughout the day but it wasn't forecasted for snow this evening. This was all some crazy lake effect snow. We had to shake ourselves off after we walked into the restaurant. Our reservation was for 6:30 but we got there about 15 minutes early. We sat at our table to wait for Dick and Iris. We were concerned for them. They arrived at 6:30 and Dick let Iris off at the door then we parked the car right out in front. We helped Iris in with her walker and got her seated at our table.

During our Christmas Eve dinner Dick and I talked about getting together soon to go out to dinner at a restaurant. We had been talking about this all year whenever we were together for some family event when the kids were in town. Going out to dinner would be a chance for just the four of us to get together. So because of Iris's mobility issues they should pick a restaurant.

Dick had contacted us recently and suggested dinner. We agreed right away and said we were flexible. They decided on JT's restaurant which is one of our favorite places for dinner and picked the day and time... Wednesday Jan. 28 at 6:30 pm. Everything went very well despite the snow.

Right before we left we talked about doing this again at another restaurant but in the Spring. Dick and Iris are traveling to California to spend time with Jeremy, Rachel and the kids and plan to spend about 4 weeks there. Now that's a nice break in the weather.

Woke - IFLA

Our friend in Australia has something to say about being "woke". Here he goes...

"WOKE": A BUZZWORD FOR DICKHEADS WHO RAN OUT OF ARGUMENTS

Right, let's talk about the word "woke", the favorite fucking weapon of every brain-dead culture warrior who can't form an actual argument to save their miserable life.

You know how you can tell someone's a complete fucking moron? They use "woke" as an insult. It's become the intellectual equivalent of just shitting your pants and declaring victory. Can't argue the actual point? Just yell "that's woke!" and waddle away like you've accomplished something.

Let me give you the history of this word, because these dickheads don't even know what they're saying half the time.

"Woke" started in Black American communities decades ago. It meant being aware, staying woke to racism, to injustice, to the systems designed to keep people down. It was about consciousness, about not being asleep to what's really happening in the world. Pretty reasonable shit, yeah?

But then white people discovered it, and like everything else we touch, we fucked it up completely.

Now "woke" means… what exactly? Depends which frothing dickhead you ask.

Teaching actual history in schools? WOKE!
Acknowledging climate change exists? WOKE!
Thinking maybe women should have rights over their own bodies? WOKE!
Suggesting we don't need seventeen guns per person? WOKE!
Not being a cunt to gay people? WOKE!
Putting a Black person in a movie? WOKE!
Teaching kids that slavery happened and was bad? WOKE!

It's become a fucking catch-all for anything that makes me slightly uncomfortable or challenges my worldview in the tiniest possible way.

You've got politicians ranting about "woke ideology" like it's some organized conspiracy. Mate, there's no secret woke headquarters. There's no Woke Pope issuing woke decrees. It's just people asking to be treated like fucking human beings and not wanting their kids taught lies about history.

Ron DeSantis in Florida, perfect example. This dickhead's fighting a war against "woke" by banning books, censoring teachers, rewriting history curriculums to make slavery sound like a fucking vocational training program. "Actually, slaves learned valuable skills!" Get absolutely fucked. That's not anti-woke, that's pro-stupid.

And the books they're banning? Not pornography. Not dangerous material. Books about Ruby Bridges, the six-year-old who integrated schools. Books about the Holocaust. Books with gay characters who have the audacity to just exist.

Apparently teaching kids that gay people are real is "woke indoctrination". But teaching them that God created the Earth 6,000 years ago and dinosaurs are a liberal hoax? That's just "parents' rights". Fuck off.

Here's what really pisses me off, these cunts use "woke" to avoid engaging with actual arguments.

"Maybe we should address systemic racism in policing."
"That's woke!"
"Okay, but what about these statistics showing"
"WOKE WOKE WOKE!"

It's intellectual fucking bankruptcy. They can't argue the merits, so they just slap a label on it and declare themselves the winner. It's what people do when they've got no actual counter-argument but their feelings are hurt.

And corporations, don't even get me started on corporations using "woke" as a marketing strategy, then conservatives losing their shit about it.

Bud Light put a trans person in an ad and you'd think they'd declared war on masculinity itself. Grown men filming themselves shooting beer cans, destroying cases of Bud Light they'd already paid for. Really showed them, didn't you? Anheuser-Busch is crying all the way to the bank while you're drinking Coors and pretending you won something.

M&Ms made their cartoon candy mascots less sexy. WOKE! Mate, if you were sexually attracted to the green M&M, the problem isn't woke culture, it's that you need therapy.

Disney has characters who aren't white and straight. WOKE! Yeah, because the real world only has white straight people, right? Representation equals woke propaganda apparently. Meanwhile, every movie for decades had all-white casts and nobody called that propaganda. Funny how that works.

The Australian version is just as cooked. We've got dickheads ranting about "woke ABC" because the national broadcaster has the audacity to report facts they don't like. Climate change is real? WOKE! Indigenous people deserve recognition? WOKE! Fact-checking politicians' lies? WOKE!

Pauline Hanson loves this shit. She's made a career out of it. Everything's woke. Immigration policy based on actual economics instead of racism? WOKE! Teaching Indigenous history? WOKE! Not being a xenophobic nightmare? WOKE!

Here's the thing these cunts don't understand, calling something "woke" isn't an argument. It's just you admitting you can't engage with the actual issue.

"Woke" has become a thought-terminating cliché. It stops you from having to think. It's a shield against reality. It's what you say when you want to oppose something but you're too fucking lazy or stupid to articulate why.

And the beautiful irony? The people screaming about "woke" are the most sensitive fucking snowflakes on the planet.

They'll cry about "cancel culture" while trying to cancel anything that disagrees with them. They'll scream about "freedom of speech" while banning books and censoring teachers. They'll whine about being "silenced" on their massive media platforms watched by millions.

You're not being silenced, you're just being criticized. And you can't handle it.
Some trans kid wants to use the bathroom in peace? These dickheads lose their fucking minds, form committees, pass laws, make it a national emergency. But try to regulate guns after another school shooting? "Don't politicize this tragedy!" 

Apparently dead kids are less important than making sure trans kids suffer.

Climate change? "Woke alarmism!" Never mind the scientists, never mind the data, never mind that the fucking planet is on fire. Exxon knew about climate change in the 1970s and buried it, but sure, teenage activists are the problem.

Want to know what "woke" actually means now? It means "I don't like this but I'm too intellectually lazy to explain why, so I'll just use this magic word that makes my fellow dickheads nod in agreement."

It's a tribal signal. It's a way to identify your team without having to think. It's the equivalent of a secret handshake for morons.

And the grift, oh, the grift is beautiful. You've got an entire ecosystem of right-wing grifters making millions by screaming about woke this and woke that. They don't believe half the shit they're saying, they're just selling outrage to idiots who'll buy anything that confirms their biases.

Jordan Peterson made a fortune crying about pronouns. Matt Walsh pretends not to know what a woman is. Ben Shapiro speed-talks his way through bad arguments and declares victory. They're not intellectuals, they're performers. And "woke" is their favorite prop.

Here's what "woke" used to mean, being aware of injustice.
Here's what it means now, anything that challenges my prejudices or makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.

You want to know if something's actually "woke" in the way these dickheads mean it? Ask yourself, does it make the world slightly more fair? Does it challenge power structures? Does it ask people to think critically?

If yes, they'll call it woke and lose their fucking minds.
Teaching accurate history instead of propaganda? They'll call it woke.
Acknowledging that racism didn't end in 1965? Woke.
Suggesting that maybe billionaires should pay taxes? Woke.
Thinking healthcare is a human right? Woke.
Not wanting the planet to be uninhabitable? Woke.

Basically, "woke" now means "thing that requires me to give a shit about someone who isn't me". And that's apparently too much to ask.

The funniest part? These are the same cunts who'll tell you to "stop being so sensitive" and "facts don't care about your feelings", right before they have a complete meltdown because a mermaid is Black or a beer can has a trans person on it.

THEIR feelings matter. YOUR feelings are you being woke.
So next time someone calls something "woke" as an argument, you know exactly what they're telling you, I've got no actual argument, I'm intellectually lazy, and I'd rather use a buzzword than engage my brain.

And you can safely ignore every fucking word that comes out of their mouth after that.

Because "woke" isn't an argument. It's a surrender. It's what you say when you've already lost but you're too proud to admit it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do something extremely woke, like reading a book, or believing in science, or treating people with basic fucking dignity.
The horror.

A Summer Dinner in January

Becky made some nice hamburgers today for dinner. We were joking around that it was a summer dinner... in January and it was snowing. She made some very tasty sweet potato fries along with a salad. 

A January White-Out

This afternoon we had a very sudden and intense winter storm white-out. Within less than a half hour after taking these photos the sun came out and there were some blue skies. Strange weather from our lake effect. We didn't even have a January thaw this year.

December was milder than usual but then the snows came from across the country. The Mid-Atlantic has had a tough winter.

Our winter this year and January in particular has been much stronger and more of the traditional Buffalo winter that we have come to expect over the years that I've been living here but that we hadn't experienced much of over the past several years. Our winters have been much milder overall with the occasional big storm.

The Big Storm

A big storm is coming... again. It is mostly coming across from the Midwest and dumping lots of snow everywhere and especially the South and along the East Coast. Philly is getting lots of snow as is New York City.

We're on the edge of the storm but it will be creeping northward and getting to us. It's kind of fun to watch the weather maps on our phones and watch the progress as the snow gets closer.

I was thinking about this weather technology and our phones and how different it is now from what weather forecasting and getting the relevant local information was like for so much of my life. 

Memorial Service for David Thiel

Today was very sad and emotional as we attended the memorial service for Dave Thiel at a funeral home on Delaware Avenue in Kenmore. Joe Thiel was in town this week to arrange the service and to take care of Dave's home and belongings. 

We had gone out for dinner at Coles with Joe and Debbie earlier in the week.

The memorial service for Dave was very nice and attended by a lot of his guy friends from his music world. Joe had a bunch of Dave's guitars at the service and some of his friends brought instruments. First people gathered and talked for almost an hour before Joe started things with some memory recollections about his brother. Several other folks also spoke. Becky felt too emotional to speak although she has had a lot of memories and experiences with Dave over the years. We had just seen Dave this past summer when Joe and Debbie were visiting. We had gone to the Albright. Dave didn't look too well and Becky wheeled him around in a wheelchair. We were not totally surprised when we had seen on FB that he passed away. 

Dave's musician friends then sat around playing guitars as a tribute to him. One of the highlights was this bunch of deadheads playing Ripple while people sang along.

There was also lots of food ready for to eat. Joe had ordered several pizza boxes from Bocce Club. I guess he missed that old Buffalo standard. I had a couple of pieces and it wasn't bad. That was probably the first time I had Bocce Club pizza in about 40 years. There were also plenty of sandwiches and salads along with a huge pile of assorted delicious cookies. Eat a few of them too.

We got to the funeral home right at noon when the memorial service was supposed to start and we were there until about 2:30 pm. 

Alone & Ignored... sleepy trumpy

Here is an iconic photo of trump sitting alone and ignored by real-world leaders. Maybe they just didn't want to wake him up but more likely they did not want to hear what he had to say and they really just didn't want to talk to him.

Earlier when he was doing a rambling demented speech about nothing the heads of state for the nations of Western Europe boycotted the opening of the international world economic forum at Davos.

He has been a horrible embarrassment to America during this terrible trip to Europe.

The LOL Red Carpet

Donny the smelly orange turd getting embarrassed again. When he arrived by helicopter to the conference center in Davos Switzerland for the World Economic Forum he had his staff put out the red carpet and he was expected a crowd of dignitaries and world leaders to greet him upon his arrival.

No one was there. Everyone ignored him. LOL.

With Joe & Debbie @ Coles

Last night Becky and I went out to dinner with Joe and Debbie at Coles. We had a really nice time although there was some sadness in our conversations with the passing of Joe's brother Dave which is why they were in town in January. We started talking about Dave right away because Joe had brought in a stack of small artworks for Becky. They were works of Becky, her father and her mother that Dave had in his house. Joe was clearing out the house and gave the artworks back to Becky.

We had some great food as usual. Both Debbie and I had their Guinness Beef Stew. Becky had a chicken cutlet sandwich and Joe... he had a beef on weck I think. I had ordered their Guinness Drunken Pumpkin which is a black and tan mix of Guinness Stout and a Southern Tier Pumpkin Imperial Ale. Joe was interested and I suggested he try one. He did and he loved it. 

We had a nice time. We said our goodbyes and we would see them on Saturday at the memorial service for Dave. 

Here is a photo of the artwork that Joe brought back from David's house.

Of One Blood - A Novel

Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins, 1902. I finished this book last night. This was an incredible novel written by an African-American woman during the first years of the 20th century. The novel is an adventure to Africa to explore an ancient civilization that goes beyond a historical novel and into the realm of science fiction and fantasy and the discovery of the power of blood, race and biological kinship of all people. The prose adds a quirky, dream-like quality to the narrative.

This was her last novel. She was considered a prolific African-American author and a influential literary editor of her time.

This book is one of a series of early 20th century proto-science fiction novels published by MIT Press in their self described Radium Age of underappreciated forgotten classics from 1900-1935. There are 21 books in the series at this time. Here is a link to the MIT Press Radium Age from Penguin Random House. 

The author, Pauline Hopkins, was a prominent African-American novelist, historian, journalist, playwright and editor. She wrote novels that explored social and racial themes. 

A Crowd Control Experience

My own crowd control experience.

All of the daily news reports and videos of the terrible crowd control tactics of trump's masked storm troopers has brought back some personal stressful memories from 55 years ago when I underwent military training in crowd control. I was an 18 year old kid.

That was in May 1970 following the Kent State shootings. I was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station outside Chicago where I was training in ship propulsion systems. After Kent State the base commanders where expecting large protest demonstrations. I was put into a special unit and did some extensive training in crowd control that included swinging a baton and shield while marching forward in step. Back and forth for hours we practiced. We also worked with a unit of Marines who were regular guards for the base. I was in the third row behind the Marines. I probably got more training than these ICE goons get today.

I was really scared. It was only less than a year earlier in the summer and fall of 1969 that I had myself participated in anti-war protest demonstrations. Quite a few of them including a recent march to the Pentagon in Washington DC.  And now here I was on the other side of the line.

Fortunately there were no demonstrations that spring at the Great Lakes base. There were plenty of other marches but they were concentrated at Army bases like Fort Dix, Fort Lawton, etc. but not where I was stationed. Also most demonstrations were on college campuses. After a week or two our group was disbanded although I guess since I was trained I could have been called up at any time but it didn't happen. Like I said... my few weeks of crowd control training was probably a lot more than what the current masked goons on the streets of America get today. Then I went to sea.

Chicken Soup with Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Tyme

Becky made a deliciously wonderful chicken soup today. Yesterday we had chicken cutlets and she made some extras which went into the soup today. She called it a Chicken Spice Soup and I asked her what spices to which she replied... parsley, sage, rosemary and tyme. Just like the song.

We had the last of that fantastic Heidelberg French Peasant Bread with it. That bread is now our go to soup bread. 

Ralph Towner RIP - Kitchen Listening

Last night before going to bed we saw that guitarist Ralph Towner passed away at the age of 85. I always enjoyed his music which was an interesting blend of jazz, new age and world music. I discovered his music around 1974 when I was very interested in the music coming out of ECM Records and the laid back new age jazz of that time. 

I collected several of his albums around that time and also the records of the band Oregon of which he was also a member. 

Today I put on a group of Towner's albums. Just a couple of weeks ago I had played some Oregon albums in a Kitchen Listening set. I need to listen to those albums again real soon. 

In the meantime I have a group of his albums playing in the kitchen right now. So beautiful and wonderful sounding. He really had a unique way of playing the acoustic guitar.

His albums in my collection:

• Solstice, 1975
• Matchbook w/ Gary Burton, 1975
• Sargasso Sea w/ John Abercrombie, 1976
• Sound and Shadows, 1977
• Batik, 1978

The Oregon albums in my collection:

• Music of Another Present Era, 1972
• Distant Hills, 1973
• Winter Light, 1974
• In Concert, 1975
• Together w/ Elvin Jones, 1976
• Friends, 1977
• Best of the Vanguard Years, 2000

Bills Fire Head Coach

It's all over the news today... local and national. The Buffalo Bills fired their head coach Sean McDermott. Was he the scapegoat because they didn't advance in the playoffs toward the Super Bowl? He coached the Bills for nine years... 2017 to 2026 and had a win-loss record of 98-50 for the regular season. He was 8-8 in the playoffs and the Bills never made it to the Super Bowl during his time as coach. I guess management figured it was never going to happen if he couldn't do it this year. 

This firing also happened two days after the Bills lost a game 33-30 to the Denver Broncos that they should have won. They had plenty of opportunities to win that game but...

Apparently he is going to take a year off before looking for another coaching job. Josh Allen was reported to be very emotionally upset at the firing of his coach.

And in the meantime the Bills are looking for a new coach.

Winter Storm Warnings

Today we have had several official winter storm warnings

The message says... "Winter storm warning remains in effect until 4 pm EST Wednesday..." Heavy snow with total accumulations 10 to 20 inches for the city of Buffalo. High winds gusting up to 50 mph. 

We were planning to go to the Albright Knox Art Museum tomorrow and then dinner at the restaurant across the way... The Terrace on Delaware Park Lake. I guess maybe not. But then I checked the hours and found out the restaurant is closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Not sure what's going on.

Update 1/19: Well, we got up this morning and there was apparently only a dusting of snow last night. It was supposed to start at 2 am and continue all night and morning.

Sean's Birthday... 37

Happy Birthday Sean! It's hard to believe that today he is 37 years old. We are so very proud of him and everything that he has done with his life so far. I also realized that I had just turned 37 a few weeks before he was born. 

We had a nice phone conversation with him tonight and we're looking forward to going out to dinner with him and Ashley when we get over to their home in a couple of months. There's a nice restaurant that they love and we want to check out. Milas Restaurant in Schenectady. 

Sean and Ashley went to that restaurant a couple of days ago. Sean had this lobster pasta.

Christmas Lights... Down

Took down the porch Christmas lights down today. Was it too early? I don't think so. I just wanted to get out there and take care of that chore when there was a break in the weather. It's been so cold and so snowy lately that when the opportunity arrived to get the lights down I took it. There is also a lot more snow coming in the forecast.

I think we usually have the lights up from a couple of weeks before Christmas until a couple of weeks after New Year's day or thereabouts. 

The picture here is from last year. This year there was a lot more snow.

King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution

King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson, 2025. Today I finished reading this fascinating and actually very timely book given all the stories about Iran in the news this week.

This was a book that I kept picking up to read but then put down again after a short time because it was such a disturbing story. It took me almost a month and a half to get through the book but it was worth the effort.

I remember that time of the Iranian revolution very vividly in the late 1970's. and the 1979 hostage crises in particular.  Also recently I had been reading some of my notes I'd written about the hostage crises I had written at the time and found in my box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor.

I had read several histories of the Middle East, Persia, Iraq and the region in general. It was certainly an interesting story of the Shah of Iran, the so called King of Kings. I was shocked to read how weak a leader he really was and also the terrible bungling of the Americans in dealing with him and the Iranian revolution. President Carter really did a bad job but then of course he had lots of inept people giving him bad information.

The book also detailed the proof that the Ronald Reagan campaign really did work with the Iranians to keep the American hostages in captivity until after the election so that Reagan could use the crises against Carter. As we know, the hostages were released the day Reagan took office. Everyone believed it was Reagan manipulating the crises behind the scene but it has only been recent that the proof has become public as described in the book.

Bills Lose - Season Over

The Bills lost their playoff game against the Denver Broncos today and the season is over... again. 33-30. It was a hard game to watch and they lost it in overtime. It was a game they should have won. The lead changed many times throughout the game. They had many dropped balls, fumbles and interceptions. There were also many controversial calls by the refs and especially at the very end of the game in overtime. Enough that many folks think the game was thrown but Josh Allen did turnover the ball four times.

It was a very sad day for Buffalo Bills fans. Also at the end of the game in overtime the Bronco's quarterback Bo Nix broke his ankle. So much for the Broncos in the next playoff game.

IFLA Windmills

Windmills. Trump has always had some weird shit views on windmills. Really crazy.

So here is that guy from Australia with his pointed comments on the trump regime and windmills. 

"Alright, here we go, because this “windmills are ugly and they kill birds and they scare whales” routine is the laziest, most dishonest little fossil-fuel comfort blanket on the internet.

Yes, turbines can kill birds. That’s real. It’s also why sane people do boring adult things like proper siting, monitoring, and mitigation, including trials like painting a blade to reduce collisions. You know, problem-solving, not pearl-clutching.

But here’s the part the anti-wind crowd always “forgets”, like they’ve got a memory leak in their skull: if you actually compare impacts per unit of electricity, fossil fuels are worse for birds than wind. Not “a bit worse”, orders of magnitude worse. One commonly cited analysis has wind at about 0.269 birds per GWh, fossil fuels at about 5.18 birds per GWh, because fossil fuels don’t just whack a bird with a spinning blade, they poison ecosystems and turbocharge climate change.

So when some bloke says, “I care about birds, therefore coal”, what he’s really saying is, “I care about birds the same way I care about the gym”, which is to say, it’s something I mention right before doing the exact opposite.

Now let’s talk about whales, because the hypocrisy here is absolutely cooked.
The same people who cry, “Wind farms disturb whales”, will defend offshore oil and gas like it’s holy water. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry has been blasting the ocean with seismic survey airguns for decades, and we have peer-reviewed research showing behavioural disruption in whales. Humpback whale singing can drop as seismic pulse levels increase, and blue whales change their calling behaviour in response to seismic survey sounds. But sure, mate, tell me again how your real concern is “the vibes of the ocean”.

And while we’re on whales, you want to talk about “things in the ocean that hit whales”? How about ships. Vessel strikes are a recognised, serious conservation problem. The International Whaling Commission literally warns that for some populations, ship strikes can be the difference between survival and extinction. But yeah, the real menace is a turbine sitting there minding its own business, not the global armada of steel apartment blocks flying through migration routes.

Now take a big breath, because here comes the part everyone pretends they don’t know: the fossil fuel supply chain is a travelling environmental crime scene.
Oil spills don’t just make the water look yucky for a weekend. They kill wildlife in huge numbers and can cause long-term ecological damage. Ten years after Deepwater Horizon, NOAA documents large estimated losses in sea turtles, plus ongoing impacts studied across species and ecosystems. There are scientific reviews that tally catastrophic wildlife mortality from major spills, including massive seabird deaths. But yes, please, keep screaming about a bird near a turbine while you defend the industry that can turn an entire coastline into a toxic soup.

And then there’s shipping pollution, because the “leave whales alone” crowd somehow has zero issues with bunker fuel exhaust. The International Maritime Organization spells out that sulphur oxides from ships harm human health, causing respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and contribute to acid rain and ocean impacts. There are also peer-reviewed health impact studies estimating serious health burdens from shipping emissions in coastal areas. That’s people breathing this shit, not just fish having a bad day.

Now let’s drag mining into the sunlight, because the anti-wind crowd loves to act like fossil fuels come from a magical underground lolly jar and not from bulldozing, blasting, draining, and scarring land for generations.

Open-cut mining creates massive land disturbance, stability risks, and long-term rehabilitation liabilities. Regulators try to manage this with bonds and obligations, but official audits have warned that if operators default, the public can be left holding the bill. That’s you. That’s taxpayers. That’s communities living next to a giant hole in the ground while the company’s executives have already faked a smile on LinkedIn and moved on.
So when someone says, “Wind turbines ruin the view”, I want to shake them and go: mate, have you seen a coal mine? Have you seen tailings, dust, groundwater impacts, cleared habitat, and a landscape that looks like the surface of the moon? But no, a white tower on a ridge is the real tragedy. Get absolutely fucked.

Here’s the truth in plain English:
If you genuinely care about birds and whales, you don’t pick the energy source that:

• kills more birds per unit of energy, and worsens the climate pressures threatening bird species
• disrupts whales with seismic blasting, and increases lethal ship traffic risks
• has a track record of catastrophic spills with long-term ecological harm
• pumps toxic exhaust into coastal air, affecting human health
• leaves massive rehabilitation liabilities that can land on the public when companies fail

You pick the option that can be improved with better siting and smarter mitigation, and you keep tightening the screws on best practice.

So yeah, let’s be honest about turbine impacts, and then let’s be equally honest about the fossil fuel industry’s body count, on land, in the sea, and in people’s lungs.

Because this “I hate windmills because I love nature” act is, nine times out of ten, just a political costume party for people who want to keep burning the same old shit and never have to think about it again.

A Nice Fish Dinner

Becky cooked up some nice salmon this evening. A delicious avocado salad too along with some fried potatoes. 

Snowy January Day

Today we woke up to a very snowy January day. Overall most of the winter so far has not been too bad with a few snow days that had 1 to 3 inches of accumulations. Not much more than that... until today. We had about an inch or so over night but it kept snowing off and on all day. It was cold too.

When the snow stopped or slowed down I went out and did some shoveling. It turned out I did it three times today. The last was in the dark about 6 pm. The temperature at that time was 9 degrees and I could really feel that cold in my fingers after cleaning off the car. I didn't clear off the car at all earlier in the day and it turned out to be about 5 inches piled on the car. 

It stopped snowing around 8 pm for the night and I'll need to go out there in the morning to clear everything off one more time. That is until tomorrow afternoon when it will start snowing again and continue all night. It will be snowing off and on tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. It's a lot of snow time but the weather reports keep saying 1 to 3 inches each day.  We'll see. 

The Grifter - IFLA

Now let's talk about the corruption of that orange turd. Our friend in Australia always has some good comments about the grifter fascist regime in our country.

Here he goes again... 

"Alright, let’s call this what it is, because if you don’t laugh at it, you’ll just start screaming into the pavement. So here we’ve got Trump, the self-proclaimed anti-corruption crusader, the guy who never shuts up about “draining the swamp,” now shipping oil money from Venezuela into a bank in Qatar. And the explanation is, don’t worry everyone, it’s a neutral location. Neutral. Like Switzerland, if Switzerland wore a Rolex, sold oil futures, and asked no follow-up questions.

This is not foreign policy. This is a mob movie with a flag taped to it. “Why Qatar?”
“Oh, just somewhere safe.” Safe from who? From scrutiny. From seizures. From anyone asking, hey, where did this money come from and where’s it actually going?
This is textbook grift. The oldest trick in the book. You take dirty money, you park it somewhere warm, quiet, and friendly, and you call it “temporary.” That’s not governance, that’s money laundering with better PR.

And the audacity of doing this while yelling about corruption. That’s the real artistry here. Picasso-level hypocrisy. Years of screaming about elites, globalists, and shady foreign banks, and now it’s, “Relax, it’s just Venezuelan oil cash sitting in Qatar. Totally normal. Very transparent. Very legal. Probably.”

And the justification is unintentionally hilarious. They say it’s a neutral location so the funds can be “moved safely and without risk of seizure.” Without risk of seizure. You don’t say that unless seizure is exactly what you’re worried about. That’s like saying, “I’m not hiding this body, I’m just putting it somewhere it won’t be found.”
This is what grifting looks like when it wears a suit and waves a flag. Offshore shell games dressed up as statecraft. The swamp didn’t get drained, it got franchised internationally.

And now zoom out a little. You’ve also got to ask, was that $400 million Qatar jet just the down payment? The opening handshake. The complimentary drink before the real money starts moving. Because suddenly the money needs a “neutral home,” and somehow that home lines up perfectly with a Gulf banking system where accountability is optional and discretion is the product. Funny how that works.

A $400 million jet isn’t generosity. It’s a receipt. You don’t give someone a flying palace unless you expect a return. That’s not friendship, that’s business.
And notice who always gets a free pass in this system. Not workers. Not families. Not people scraping by. It’s always the billionaire class. The ultra-wealthy elites. The people who speak the only language that has ever mattered here, money with a lot of zeroes and no questions attached.

And here’s the punchline. If literally anyone else did this, Trump would be on stage screaming about treason, corruption, global banking cabals, and selling out the country. He’d be frothing. But when he does it, suddenly it’s strategic brilliance.

This isn’t about helping Venezuelans.
This isn’t about stability.
This isn’t about transparency.
This is about milking a militarily weak country dry.
This is about control of money, away from oversight, away from accountability, parked neatly where the lights are dim and the questions never come. It’s a masterpiece, alright.
A masterpiece of grifting & shifting cash that ain't yours pal."

Trouble Coming Everyday

What goes around comes around... trouble comin' everyday and it's getting worse. 1966-2026. From the Mothers of Invention album Freak Out, 1966.

"Well I'm about to get upset from watchin' my TV
Checkin' out the news until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day is just another rotten mess
And when it's gonna change, my friend, is anybody's guess
So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin', hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin' every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay that trouble comin' every day
No way to delay that trouble comin' every day"

Bills Anniversary Native Pride Glasses

When cleaning out the so many beer glasses we had on our shelves we came across a rather unique set of two. They were Buffalo Bills 50th anniversary glasses that had the Bills logo and the dates 1960-2009 on one side. The side of the glasses had a Native Pride Travel Plaza Seneca Nation logo. I have no idea where these glasses came from but I guess we must have had them around since about 2009. 

Becky was planning to sell some of the beer glasses we didn't need and thought that these would go too. But then I considered that Sean and Ashley might want them so I took this picture and texted it to Sean. Later we talked about them and sure enough he would take the glasses off our hands. He also didn't know where they came from although he thought they might had come from Consumer Beverages. Sean might have been working there at that time. 

So I put the glasses back in the shelves and we will keep them until Sean and Ashley come to town or we go see them. I know they will enjoy the glasses. In the meantime we have a lot more to get rid of.

The Senate - IFLA

Here he goes again. This time it's a wonderful rant about the orange turd and the senate. Will trump follow the law... doubtful.

"Alright, the fact this even needs to exist is already insane.

The United States Senate is now having to write legislation that basically says, “Hey, just to be clear, you’re not allowed to use the military to occupy or annex NATO countries.” Read that again slowly. That’s not a sci-fi plot. That’s Congress putting childproof caps on the nuclear launch codes because the guy in charge keeps licking the power socket.

This isn’t some abstract legal cleanup. This is an emergency brake. This is lawmakers going, “We need to physically block funding so this lunatic can’t wake up one morning and decide Greenland looks like a timeshare he wants to flip.”
Think about how far off the rails you have to be for your own government to say, “No money for invading allies. We’re cutting you off at the source.” That’s not normal checks and balances. That’s a containment strategy. And let’s be brutally honest about why this is happening. It’s not because Trump misspoke once. It’s because he keeps floating the idea of grabbing territory like a bored real estate developer, Greenland, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela. He treats sovereign nations like listings on Zillow.

So now Congress is stepping in like exhausted parents at a supermarket, grabbing the trolley and saying, “No. Put that down. You’re not buying a country today.”
This bill isn’t about foreign policy vision. It’s about damage control. It’s about stopping a rogue president from detonating NATO from the inside because he thinks alliances are optional and international law is a vibe.

And here’s the punchline. The strongest military on Earth is being told, in writing, that it cannot be used to kidnap, occupy, or annex allies. Not enemies. Allies. That’s how far trust has collapsed. If you’re wondering what a constitutional crisis looks like in real life, it looks like lawmakers racing to lock doors before the guy with the keys decides to light a match.

This is not strength. This is not leadership. This is America having to protect itself and the free world from its own president. And the rest of us are watching this thinking, thank Christ someone finally grabbed the wheel, because the car was heading straight for the cliff. Extreme measures exist for extreme behavior. You don’t childproof a house unless someone keeps trying to drink bleach. This bill is childproofing the presidency. My only concern thus far... Trump's reputation precedes him when it comes to following the law."