Into Work We Goooooooo.....

.....What an eerie drive it was this morning. Felt like the day after a bomb attack. The power went out twice while I was getting dressed. Thankfully not during the time I was taking a shower at least. The news reports looked especially bad in Seattle, with roads full of dead cars everywhere. It convinced me to take off a little early. I bundled up in at least four layers of clothes and trotted out the door.

.....Not a whole lot more snow, but the ice was thick on the car. Took some time to scrape it down before taking off. The roads were sheets of mirror ice with frozen waves on them. I didn't walk out on it or I might have thought again about waiting a couple of hours to start the commute. But I didn't want to be in the middle of a bunch of traffic again, so I hopped in the car and took off.

.....It was an incredibly fortuitous muse last night that convinced me to take McWilliams instead of Fairgrounds last night. As I went over the hill on Fairgrounds this morning towards Waaga, it was BAD. There were at least six or eight cars in various stages in the ditches on either side of the road. Dozens of cars were parked in the car wash parking lot and alongside the road as people abandoned their cars and finished walking home.

.....Waaga was a sheet of shiny ice all the way into Bremerton. Thankfully strategic areas like the Warren Ave. Bridge had been liberally sanded down. Couldn't see asfault at all. I didn't go above 25 MPH the entire time, although it might have caught me at Sylvan Way when the light turned red on me. Hopefully the camera was down.

.....What was interesting to watch were the business signs all along Wheaton Way. The power was continually going off and on and all the business signs started looking like flashing Christmas lights as they twinkled off and back on again. I'm sure the power surges are not good for them, but it sure added to the eerie feeling.

.....Suzie again drove like a champ. I didn't slide once all the way into the Parking Garage. Which was absolutely empty. I think people are taking advantage of the liberal leave and the late arrival. We have a couple of things happening today and I needed to make sure I was ready. Although I suppose if enough people stay home those things might be cancelled. Oh, well. Just means I get to keep that one more day during my Christmas leave period. :-)

.....I hadn't realized just how slick things were until I actually walked in from the garage. I was sliding all over the place. When I finally made it to my desk in the office, the first thing I did was e-mail Oliver and tell him that I am FULLY on board with cancelling Fight Practice tonight. People should just stay home and not get into trouble.

.....Glad they fixed the heat in our hundred year old building last summer. Those days of 110 degree heat in the office in August are a distant memory. But the fact that I have at least 70 degrees in here this morning makes those days of swelter worth it. :-)

.....EDITED TO ADD: Some of the Managers who are actually making it into work are relaying stories of being on the road out of town towards Gorst for up to four or more hours. One of the managers left here last night at 6PM and at 9:30 was only at the Missouri Gate and decided to just stay at a hotel for the evening. Probably a good idea on his part.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Now They Tell Us...

"OPERATING STATUS UPDATE: 11/23/10:PSNS & IMF, Bremerton and Bangor sites have curtailed operations for all day shift personnel. We will assess the conditions at 1 pm for swing and grave shifts."

.....Gee, thanks for waiting until time for work to start before making the announcement. Sheesh!!!!

.....A.

Pandigital Novel

.....My mother was shopping for an e-reader and came across a deal for the Barnes and Noble version of the Nook, called the 'Pandigital Novel'. She ended up not liking it as it was difficult for her to connect to the internet, download novels, and just generally use. She she ended buying a Nook anyway, which she absolutely loves, and giving me the B&N e-reader.

.....It sat on the desk for a couple of weeks until I finally opened it up last weekend and started nosing my way through it. The 'directions' that come with it, both online and written, are vague at best. It did not automatically look for wireless networks and I had to go searching through it until I found out how to manually hook up to our Gondolin Network here at home.

.....But since then? I've been pleasantly surprised with it. It does a lot of the same things that the iPod Touch does like internet, music and video. It has a color 7-inch touch screen with a clear picture. Although I don't think that Rebecca will like it as the pixelation is just on the worse side of average. But for reading books? It's pretty awesome.

.....I really like the iPod Touch, and in a lot of ways it is much better as it is faster and has better graphics. But reading books on the Pandigital is really cool and it is making me want an iPad even more. But I actually agree with Ralph on this one. I want to wait until at least the second generation of iPad's come out, then maybe buy a refurbished model. We've had good luck with Apple and their refurbished electronics.

.....Only thing I am not especially fond of with the e-reader is the price they charge for downloading novels. It's pretty standard at $6 a book, which seems to be the same no matter what the size. You could buy 'The Fellowship of the Ring' for $6 or 'The Hobbit' for $6. I could run down to St. Vincents and buy either one for $0.25 in paperback (two for one on sales days). So, from that angle I'm not a fan. But I have yet to check out the Google Sites for Copyright Free material, so I may hold out on final judgement for a moment. :-)

.....It's a little heavier than I would have expected it to be. Actually seems a little heavier and thicker than the iPad that Talon has.

.....Allows for easy plug in of SDHC cards for additional memory. Works off of ANDROID operating system and actually plays many different formats, including Nook and Kindle. I should probably check out the prices on Amazon and compare.

.....I'll have to let Rebecca check it out sometime soon. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.