Continued Cold, Tammy's Paintings and Choices...or a Lack Of

The continued cold weather has grown tiring with no signs of global warming anywhere and I'd really love to know that it's real. We'll be back down near -10f tonight with a high tomorrow somewhere near +8f. I'm going riding regardless. The problem with winter riding lately is that we've had a few warmer days which have allowed a good bit of melting to occur which I'm happy about but along with that are areas where the melted snow becomes frozen patches of ice and creates a major problem for my skinny tires. Those frozen spots remain persistent with the temps as cold as they've been. I'll get out mid-morning tomorrow when there's less traffic should I need to take the lane to avoid an icy shoulder.

I was going through a stack of CDs tonight; some were labeled and some weren't. I came across one with some scans I'd done of a bunch of watercolor paintings Tammy did when she was in college more than a dozen years ago. I'd already uploaded them to our website a few years back but when I initially did it I was still trying to find a happy medium between uploading content for dial-up users vs content for broadband connections. I've since decided that trying to compress photos so much so as to make them easily downloadable for dial-up users leaves me with an end result which isn't really worth bothering with. I used to try and keep the images under 50k and that small of a file too often left a lot to be desired. Pumping them up to something closer to 120k gives me much better results and that's what I've done with this set. I've also included a couple which weren't previously a part of the set online.

Rachel has her license test one week from today. I got a little frustrated with her when we were out driving a few nights ago. I like that she's a confident person but when it comes to driving that can be a problem. She sees her friends getting their licenses and figures if they're good enough to be on their own then so is she. That may be so. I explained to her that it isn't because we think she's not as good a driver as her friends but that we have high expectations for her and it isn't enough just to have a grasp of the basics. We talked tonight and I think she understands where her mom and I are coming from.

I heard somebody say that McCain's wife, Cindy, is always seen by his side so it leaves people with the impression that McCain is some younger more viral man than he actually is. I disagree with that thinking. I think her standing next to him makes him look a lot older—sorta like he's her dad. I dunno.

Has there ever been a sorrier collection of candidates to choose from? It's safe to say that our political process isn't one designed to put before us the best our country has to offer. Hillary is harping about Barack's lack of experience and I have to wonder why he doesn't counter with something about experience being overrated. If the next 4 to 8 years means more of the same experience we've grown accustomed to, I'd rather take a pass.

I thought it was amusing that McCain received Bush's endorsement yesterday. Did he really want that? As an air traffic controller, we're tasked with handling the president's flight as it makes its rounds. It's usually a hassle due to all of the temporary flight restrictions associated with it. I have to wonder how many republicans out there are looking forward to Bush coming to their town to campaign on their behalf? I'm guessing not many. This should be a quiet campaign season with respect to Airforce One for myself and my fellow controllers.