sweasel.com

This is cool. It’s a music sequencer that you build to look like a little neighborhood. Your car drives by and sounds you’ve designed play. Oh, just go look at it.

Via Kottke. I think.

We be getting RAIN for the next 7 days here at the toenails of the Sierra-Nevada foothills. 12 days off work starting next Wednesday, and two more whole seasons of Eureka to watch with the Son (thanks to Netflix now streaming on the Wii), several classic sci-fi’s in the que after that. Couldn’t be happier with the forecast!

Ohh…

Ahmmm…

I really don’t think I should say what ran through my mind when I first saw todays graphic….

Really, I WEASEL####!!!! Shouldn’t ……

Ooops, did I type that out loud?

Oh.

Oh, dear.

Welp, whaddya gonna do?

We’re eating chestnuts, roasted on an open fire. Okay, on a gas stovetop. Uncle B bought himself a new chestnut roaster.

They’re nice. Filling, but nice.

Ms. Weasel – Don’t believe them! Tuck in with plenty of firewood and booze. If it becomes really desperate, send the Badger up the High Street to replenish!

We’ve actually got a store in walking distance now. Walking distance, even in snow. Provided they can get in to open the store, we’re good.

WRONG!

It’s a farm shop. And they don’t sell BOOZE!

Good job I bought a load yesterday on the way home eh? 😉

That’s ok, Stoatie. Probably just my dirty mind at work….

After all, I WAS a sailor at one time in my life….

From across the pond…far out in the middle of what some call “fly-over country”.

I would have you read from one of us who lives on the “Steppes of Central North America”, not Alexander Borodion’s classic, “In the Steppes of Central Asia.”

We understand the concept of white-out. We understand it well as a death knell to the unprepared who choose to walk into its rapacious power.

Wrote about it here recently:

http://theprairiemelts.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-plains.html

As opposed to us on the Front Range, who usually get either a total shitstorm, or watch as armaggedon passes North and South, because the mountains are too close, blocking the weather from reaching you…

My house hasn’t gotten Bupkiss this year……

[…] to be applied to the most politically motivated scam ever. BTW:  Our pal S. Weasel has the most interesting graphic […]

I live in the shadow of the Appalachian mountains (leeward) in Pennsylvania. It’s been bitterly cold, but only the occasional flurry so far.

And here in South Flyover (Texas) we have chill, though still positive numbers Celsius, and today is the first time in weeks it’s even been cloudy. No precipitation. My stock tank is dry. This is not a good thing.

Regards,
Ric

LOL.. Looks like Icy McViagraWeasel is gaining a following Ye Ole interweb…. 😉

Scuba – That weasel is positively turgid!

You’ve only got 3 weeks to clear out that weather and make it something BA will manage thru. If they shut down the airport again and screw up my vacation plans again I will NOT be happy.

Oh, Airdale. Did you catch the article on Britain’s new politically correct destroyer?

New British Destroyer

Press Release to coincide with the introduction of the new Type 45 Destroyers.

Details have been released regarding Britain’s introduction of the next generation of fighting ships. The Royal Navy is proud of the cutting edge capability of the fleet of Type 45 destroyers. Costing £750 million, they have been designed to meet the needs of the 21st century; in addition to state of the art technology, weaponry, and guidance systems, the ships will comply with the very latest employment, equality, health & safety and human rights legislation.

They will be able to remain at sea for several months and positively bristle with facilities. For instance, the new user friendly crow’s nest comes equipped with wheelchair access. Live ammunition has been replaced with paintballs to reduce the risk of anyone getting hurt and to cut down on the number of compensation claims. Stress councillors and lawyers will be on duty 24hrs a day, and each ship will have its own onboard industrial tribunal.

The crew will be 50/50 men and women, and balanced in accordance with the latest Home Office directives on race, gender, sexuality, and disability. Sailors will only have to work a maximum of 37hrs per week in line with Brussels Health & Safety rules even in wartime! All bunks will be double occupancy, and the destroyers will all come equipped with a maternity ward situated on the same deck as the Gay Disco. Tobacco will be banned throughout the ship, but cannabis will be allowed in the Officer’s Wardroom. The Royal Navy is eager to shed its traditional reputation for “Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash”. Out goes the occasional rum ration which is to be replaced by Perrier water, although sodomy remains, this has now been extended to include all ratings under 18. The lash will still be available but only by request.

Saluting officers has been abolished because it is elitist; it is to be replaced by the more informal “Hello Sailor”. All notices on boards will be printed in 37 different languages and Braille. Crew members will no longer be required to ask permission to grow beards or moustaches, even the women. The MOD is working on a new “Non specific” flag based on the controversial British Airways “Ethnic” tailfin design, because the White Ensign is considered to be offensive to minorities. The ship is due to be launched soon in a ceremony conducted by Captain Hook from the Finsbury Park Mosque who will break a petrol bomb over the hull. The ship will gently slide into the water to the tune of “In the Navy” by the Village People played by the band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines.

Sea Trials are expected to take place, when the first of the new destroyers HMS Cautious, sets out on her maiden mission. It will be escorting boat loads of illegal immigrants across the channel to ports on the south coast. The Prime Minister said that “While the ships reflected the very latest of modern thinking they were also capable of being up-graded to comply with any new legislation”. His final words were “Britain never, never waives the rules!”

http://www.strategypage.com/humor/articles/military_jokes_2010121323344.asp

Of course, the U.S. isn’t far behind……

His final words were “Britain never, never waives the rules!”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
A punner would pick a man’s pocket!

Oh Gawd.. i need to stop staring at that pic. Now, for some twisted reason, I have the Lemiwinks song stuck rattling around between my ears….

I need to ask my doc if the antibiotics and prednisone he put me on monday for my walking Pnemonia have hallucenogenic effects….

We just had some snow the day before yesterday. Enough to make a mess of all the side roads. The expressways are clear enough, but if you actually have to go anywhere (the store, your job, home) it’s frozen slush and snow. I just parked anywhere on my street — wedged myself into the snowbank between the sidewalk and the clear part of the road. I don’t even know if I’m in the right spot and don’t care.

Snow. So pretty. So much trouble. Kind of like one of those high-strung debutantes.

being on my iTouch, I didn’t quite get what you kids were snickering over.

Good thing it’s an ice peeper. Can’t imagine how it would feel to have a weasel knaw it’s thawed self off the real thing. Can you boys? Nom, nom, nom. Plop.

AIIEEEEEE

Here in Southern Colorado, we were supposed to get 15 inches of snow yesterday. By our standards, that is a decent storm, but not anything outstanding; especially since there wasn’t supposed to be the usual high winds to cause whiteouts and take down power lines. However, it went south, and New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle caught it. We just got a dusting.

Granted that our blizzards melt away in a couple of days; but it seems that the UK has not figured out the concept of major snowfall. Besides a well stocked reserve of adult beverages; a couple of weeks worth of food in the pantry, a wood/coal stove, and an impressive woodpile/coal bunker would seem to be indicated as standard winter prep. NEVER believe any sort of government weather service.

At least y’all are better than the French, who closed down Paris because a of measly couple of inches of snow.

Subotai Bahadur

Came home to a couple of inches here in the lower Shenandoah. Not worth dragging out the snow shovel. The wife has a new Outback, so she’s pretty much good to go in our normal weather. If it’s too much for the Outback to handle, stay off the fricking roads.

Down Under, it’s supposed to be early summer. However, Mother Nature appears to be dealing with a case of menopause, as the weather can’t decide if it should be pleasant and sunny, or muggy and wet, or bloody cold and sky-dumping like mad. Had the wood stove going today, and both our water tanks are full to overflowing, and have been for a few weeks now, in spite of doing laundry, dishes, and two showers a day! Wheeee!

Scubafreak: Love the politically correct British Destroyer! Thank you for sharing. *gigglefits*

Stoaty: The frozen weasel-pop (Pop-Weasel ?) is awesome; got giggles from myself and the Dragon too!

Nice blog, Sven – and that Borodin is a favourite of mine.

Subotai Bahadur – One of these days when she’s desperate for something to post about, Ol’ Stoaty will rat on me and reveal the awful truth. If ‘It Happened’ (whatever it may be) we could feed an army for a month. I have what you might call ‘hoarding issues’.

Anyone need 24 cans of corned beef?

We also have a car-sized lean-to filled with wood, a full coal bunker and…

You get the general picture, I’m sure 🙂

Snowing like a bastard. Sounds like traffic is moving on the roads. My sister-in-law went to the supermarket today and it was picked clean, so weather panic has set in.

I just hope the booze holds out.

Lightning. Thunder, lightning and snow.

They say warmer and heavy rain tomorrow. Do we believe them, children?

Weather prediction is naught but the basest alchemy.

Believe none of it!

(Honestly…for the past 10 years they have been predicting milder weather with rising sea levels and melting glaciers in the northern suburbs…. Seen any of that?)

Right. It’s stopped and the sun is out. We’re going to make a dash for it.

BOOZE RUN!

Forecast high today is only 71 here in Central Florida. Life is hell!
}:-]

Hey, if the shop in walking distance is closed and you NEEDS you sumthin’, just take the New Orleans approach. Open it yourself! Hell, they even had their coppers helpin’ ’em! And they really needed them those DVDs and LCD TVs and…

“We had plans…”

Man proposes, god (or Gaia) disposes…

It’s snowpocalypse in the UK. The Beeb news channel has run nothing, and I mean NOTHING, but snow stories this morning. Sadly for the Trot Lot, it’s meant their self-aggrandising little protests at Vodaphone, Top Shop & HSBC have gone totally unnoticed… 😉

Oof! That was EVIL.

I proposed we go to a larger town about 20 miles away, on the grounds that higher traffic to it would mean the roads were clearer.

Were they fuck.

I don’t think they’ve done ANYthing out there, most of the way. No plow, no grit, no salt. So even though it’s not much snow, it’s very cold and frozen solid.

It’ll be eviller after dark…like, now.

Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: December 18, 2010, 12:22 pm

Ah! She chose well! I hope, that in these politically correct times, your position is …. defensible. But we will not speak of such further in this public forum.

If the BBC is in “Snowpacolypse mode”; brace yourself when they figure something else out. On the Winter Solstice, for the first time in 456 years there will be a total lunar eclipse coinciding with the solstice. [Visible in the Americas] I’m sure that they will be shoveling paths to the nearest “Druids” they can find to hear their commentary on this “cosmic turning point”. Y’all are going to be deeper in New Age mania than you are in snow.

Subotai Bahadur

Not in WI, cloudy, with another 5-7 inches Monday night.

Rain here until Christmas Eve (am I allowed to say Christmas here?!), which is fine with me, as fog and rain is as close to a white Christmas I’m likely to get living in the Sacramento Valley.

Bit grey chilly here in upstate New York, and we keep having dustings of snow–and one quite vile morning of freezing rain that turned into. . .rain. . .midafternoon. Still, no real snow yet. A handful of brutally cold days, but nothing all that unusual for this time of year.

I can’t help thinking that something really awful is going to happen to us in April, to make up for having had it so comparatively pleasant while the rest of you were suffering.

Ahh, thunder snow. We actually got that one time. Scary. Glad its not here. i’ll sit on my half a foot. At least it’s warm in my basement.

You only have half a foot?!

Sorry, we really did go on a booze run, today 😉

Yes, but to compensate he has three and a half hands. . .

My excuse is that I spent all day doing icky chores I have put off WAY too long.

And, stoaty? About Scubafreak’s observations? The image keeps looking to me like a reaching hand at the end of an extended arm. It’s all in the eye of the beholder, but I’ll concede one may have opinions as to the credibility and desirability of beholders. . .

Glad you managed to make a successful booze run. 🙂

And here in beantown, bupkiss so far this winter. I mean, a couple of days below 40, a snowflake here and there, but otherwise…..a big boring non-winter so far.

Thunder snow storms are a relatively regular occurrence here in Texas. When it snows at all, that is… they are very much preferable to hailstorms, which are thunderstorms with missile weapons.

Still no precipitation of any kind here, and things are drying up. No outdoor burning thanks to dry vegetation, and the horse paddocks are just dust. Oh, well, perhaps it’ll be good viewing for the lunar eclipse.

Snowed pretty good just before and over Thanksgiving. Here in River City, it sneed, melted, froze, melted, froze and now snow on top. Wheee I convinced Giggles to go to the cabin for Thanksgiving, as I still hadn’t got my elk. Bad move. Her story is here http://www.thekitchenwitchblog.com/?p=3593 (shameless blog whoreing for the Mrs.) I will say, I’ll not go up in the snow again without a sled. And I still didn’t get my elk. Mcgyver, Out

Headline weasel doesn’t run when stimulated any more?

It bloody well rained today. In the middle of December! It’s meant to be barbecue weather and it’s sodding cold. My thermometer says 21 °C at 9.30 in the evening. It should be at least five degrees hotter than that.

I am no longer physically capable of surviving snow. I don’t know how you manage it. I am shivering just thinking about it.

Badger – You can never have enough booze, coal or firewood.

wow, It’s actually gotten cold here at the foot of Cheyanne Mountain. First time this year, so far….

Huh! I had ‘a travelling companion with baaaad feelings’ in the car with me yesterday on our booze run, Mcgyver 😉

No sense of adventure, some people.

I commuted between Providence and Boston for twenty five years. I had so many near misses, I ultimately became quite phobic about snow and ice. You could be toodling along fine, and suddenly lose it for no apparent reason. Got so I took vacation days at the merest hint of bad weather (and no, I didn’t drive a Miata all those years).

Link whoring always welcome here, McGyver.

UB, that was prolly jes’ cause she knew what booze choices you would make. Either that, or she was rememberin’ her recent experience with home brew. I am absolutely confident that it had nothing to do with a concern over your driving capabilities, NO MATTER HOW FOUL the conditions you had to navigate…

S.Weasel – I was always afraid of running off the road, in bad conditions, into the deep ditches along either side of the “B” road I took to and from work. The B1102 back then was severely crowned and quite dark.

Hmmm. It’s winter here—-with all that that entails. I note that it’s pretty much the same for everyone else. Hrrrmph.

Me too, MCPO Airdale. Many of the twisty roads we travel have deep ditches on one or both sides. And they have a body count.

Were they fuck.

Would you look at that. Interesting formulation, there.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a bit of an English accent has crept into her diction as well.

LauraW: she’s gone native. What was ir we heard last, Stoaty: flowers in the parish church? You’re stomping around in wellies and a tweed skirt like Penelope Keith, aren’t you?

According to my sister they had three inches of snow in the Isle of Wight. This is like getting sleet in Marseilles. Brrr. Big bruv up in Aberdeen is snowed in.

They canceled the Carol Service today on account of the slick. That’s a real popular tradition in our parish (about the only time we go into the church).

Yes, I’m morphing into Margaret Rutherford. It’s my life’s ambition.

But sometimes in the still of night, I shout in my sleep, “goldurn it, somebody skin me a possum! I’m plumb starving!”

Hmmmm, not so brrrr. I just got out of the Sierras, weird doings. We did have about 4 feet of base snow which has been transformed to 4″ of slush. That good old Pineapple Express. It was 37F at 8200′ I’m expecting the “snap” over the next week, whereas one might wish to keep the brass weasels at home.

I used to own a small John Deere utility tractor named Dorothy. I used to clean out most of the drives in the nieghborhood, as the stuff the plow shoves into the drive is not good to run through the snowblower. One time, it was a heavy, wet snow that fell, and then a hard freeze overnight. I had a hard time opneing my drive, and decided , when I was ready to open the drive across the street, to take a run at it. So I backed half way up my drive, and floored it. Dorothy and I roared down the drive, and dropped the blade at the end. So we shot across the street, sparks showering from the blade edge on the cement, and the amber rotating beacon on top flashing away, onlt to discover that I had forgotten that the drive across the street was offset a few feet from mine, Dorothy and I coming to an abrupt stop when we hit the curb. Man, that hurts when one is thrown against the loader uprights! Steel Hard!

“…I had forgotten that the drive across the street was offset a few feet from mine, Dorothy and I coming to an abrupt stop when we hit the curb. “

A lot of the people whining in the comments and letters page of our local newspaper that the council never grits their side roads or send a small snowplow seem to have forgotten that they were almost certainly the ones who demanded ‘traffic calming measures’ (i.e. humps in the road) which prevent plows from being effective…

I have what you might call ‘hoarding issues’.

Yes, Uncle B, we’ve seen the toilet paper stash. . .

😉

Lessee — the sun is high, temps are in the mid-to-upper 50s (F), no precip in the forecast.

After dark, temps drop to the upper 30s (still F) and incoming is generally light-to-moderate…

So how ARE the chickens doing?

Bored stiff. They won’t come out of the chicken house when there’s snow on the ground. Won’t even go out in their run. Today, they came out the pop hole and stood on the ramp and just stared at it.

I tiptoe out and give them treats and talk to them, but they’re still disconsolate.

Poor little chicks. We were given some fresh eggs last week and they were so good (gently sizzled in butter, served on top of toasted English muffins slathered in cream cheese). Made me want some chickens of my own, though where I live now is not safe for chickens.

I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in England is disconsolate about now, given the weather reports. I expect Uncle Badger is ready to chuck his snow shovel and invest in a hot tub.

There won’t be a White Christmas here in the Texas Hill Country. We’ll be lucky if we don’t catch on fire instead. No rain in a long time, and none in the forecast. It’s a tinderbox here.

Hey Deborah:
Almost ANY place can be made safe for chickens if you choose. We lost our first set of chicklets (along with the landowner’s flock) to some foxes last Christmas day. I built a coop and we started a new flock which actually had hatched one brood, but then raccoons broke in and killed all but two. The coop NOW has chicken wire ALL THE WAY around, INCLUDING overhead under the roof. That wire was initially stapled in place, but then I ran 1x2s over it at each rafter and screwed through the 1x2s into the rafters. I have 2x2s or 1x4s screwed through the wire into the framing at all lap joints for the wire, or the wire laps over to the next rafter so there is no credible way for any predator we have around here to get through. 1/2″ hardware cloth up three feet from the ground to discourage snakes and such, with a 1×4 “keeper” at the top and bottom for that as well. Snap-link through the eye of the door latch to make sure you gotta have hands to open it. And I built a chicken tractor with similar construction so they’re safe out during the day as well. Of course, they’re still vulnerable to my friend’s horses, who shredded the roof on the chicken tractor and started to tear the chicken wire. But the horses aren’t likely to INTENTIONALLY hurt the chicklets, although one or more of the chicklets MAY have a heart attack or something like that if the horses do their thing. The remaining risk is our version of yobs. And there’s not much one can do about that with “Law Enforcement” what they are. Again, YMMV, but don’t write off your ability to make a safe place for a flock if you WANT to do so.

Thank you Mark. Your chickens must be very happy 🙂

One hen is sitting on about 20 eggs right now, and they SHOULD hatch in about 2 1/2 weeks if things go well. Another hen just finished a batch without much success, but the problem was bantam eggs dropping through the holes in the bottom of the crate she was nesting in. Nesting boxes have been moved to the floor and it doesn’t look like there are any egg escape problems this time. Of course, we’re having unseasonably cold weather, apparently due to Global Warming, so we’ll have to see how well this batch turns out. Both settin’ hens are relatively young and therefor new to this game, so that may also be part of the problem. And the first hen got upset when we moved the rest of the chickens to the chicken tractor during the day to give her some peace and we ended up keeping the whole flock in the coop to keep her company. This other hen seems to prefer to set in privacy. Ah, women!

And by the way, here:
http://www.thebigshow.com/video_day/videoNew.php?day=2010-12-20
is the perfect Christmas gift for guys…

Crested Butte is supposed to get 6 to 8 feet of snow out of this latest storm – we got rain…and not much of that either. Oh, and wind, don’t forget the wind. I am ready for summer.

Sounds like snow in England is just like snow in Atlanta: no one ever thinks it’ll happen, the government is unable to cope and the streets are full of fools who think they can drive on greased glass. Heck, I passed three folks in the ditch on a five-mile drive! 🙂

–and now they’re calling for “flurries” on Christmas Day. It’s the End Times, I tell you!