The weather people are having their moment of glory in light of the recent blizzard and another storm expected tomorrow night. They are all over it with their computer models of the storm.

It's logical to predict a range of snowfall, but one model had it down to the tenth of an inch. I thought that was a bit excessive. Nobody can be that exact when it comes to snow.  

The recent blizzard has certainly kept plow drivers and dump trucks busy. There is so much snow to haul away. Storms create a sub-economy of people and businesses who profit from bad weather. 

They do the job and should get all the credit. They don't make money when there is no snow. They hit the jackpot with this storm, but it won't last for long. 

Every time there is a big blizzard, we see stories about homes along the coastal shore being severely damaged. This storm was no exception for a few homes in Marshfield, Mass.

People who live on the edge of the coast realize the dangers that come with that. Some have been through this before. The home they showed on the news report had a portion of a shattered seawall in the living room.

There is little that can be done to stem the force of the ocean. The best thing to do is avoid living in those areas. That won't happen for some. They will build again. 

I thought it was strange that the lights were left on for a softball field in January with two feet of snow on the ground at Riverside Park in Haverhill at 5:20pm. 

There might be a problem with the timer. I don't think there are too many teams are batting the ball around in January even if the ground is bare. 

I bought a new pair of boots the other day when I went to the LL Bean store. They were on sale for $150, marked down from $230. There is always a big mark-up on retail products.

The boots got their first test today when I went outside to dig my car out from over 24 inches of snow. My feet stayed dry.

They are very well made, but come from China like everything else these days.

It still has not started to snow. We are suppose to get the storm of a lifetime. Some of the weather people have talked about it in terms of historic portions. That remains to be seen.

They have also called it epic and a monster storm. We might even get Thunder Snow. As it stands now, everyone is hunkered down waiting to see what will happen.

What is the over and under for the final snow amount? 

I finally went to a Wegmans store today. It was a fun time. You would never know that we have a pending blizzard facing us on Monday. The place was quite normal.

When I look at the maps, I took the long way to get there by going Rt 93, instead of Rt 3. I wonder how long it really takes. Wegmans is a great store, but the distance is an issue.

Could I get there door to door in under 40 minutes? I don't think so.

We got about six inches of snow today. People act like we got a blizzard. The media is all over it. Nothing like a storm to capture the headlines. 

People act so strange at times. You would think they never saw snow in their life. Facebook is filled with people who have nothing to do except complain about the weather. 

They will feel the same in July when the temperature is in the 90's and it's humid. 

Shingles is something that I didn't know much about. The commercials on television say that if you are over 60 and had chicken pox, then you can possibly get shingles. 

Today, I read a posting on Facebook from a friend who has a case. It sounds quite painful from what he said.

When I had my recent physical, my doctor suggested a vaccination. I ended up getting one. I hope it works. 

Governments at all level try to come up with laws that often fail to address the real problem. We are seeing that in New York City where there is a proposal to ban on-street parking by out of state vehicles from the hours of 2am-5am.

The real problem is the lack of neighborhood parking in all of the five boroughs. There are two million registered cars in the city. Many have out of state registrations. Some are legitimate, but many are owned by people trying to avoid higher registration and insurance rates.

Rather than have a crackdown by law enforcement, officials propose  a parking ban. This is the easy way out, instead of identifying those who violate the law with their out of state registrations. 

The committee in charge of the Boston 2024 Olympic proposal is being too secretive about the details. They claim that disclosing them would hinder their chances of being successful when the final choice is made in 2017.

The group opposed to the bid is gathering signatures to put the proposal on the ballot for approval by the taxpayers. I'm in favor of a vote. Public funds will be used for this no matter what they say.

Up to $5 billion is earmarked for infrastructure improvement. This money will be taken away from other projects, such as bridges and roads. 

I feel like the public is having the Olympics forced on them.   

My computer monitor was acting strange today before it went dark. After a series of system reboots, it looked like it was dead. I decided to hook up an old monitor to see what would happen. I got a display and was able to do a series of Norton virus scans.

Everything seems to be ok now after I reconnected my HD monitor. The problem has happened in the past. I'm not sure what is going on. 

I never would have been able to resolve this problem without the help of my old LCD monitor. I have not used it for over a year. It was sitting on a bureau in by bedroom. 

This is a good example on why we shouldn't toss things out when they still work. 

People do a lot of different things with food and drink. Some of it is way out there. I saw something on Facebook today about a new trend involving putting a slice of butter in a cup of coffee instead of cream.

I never would have thought of this. It doesn't make any sense to me. Butter is not the healthiest food. I can't imagine watching it dissolve in my cup. I don't drink coffee, but I wouldn't use it in my tea. 

We have a dumpster for trash at my apartment complex. It gets emptied on a regular basis, but some people are careless with their trash. 

The other day, someone threw a large box into the dumpster when it was half filled. Why didn't they break it down? It would have taken very little space. Instead, it got in the way of everything.

I'll never understand why people throw boxes like that. It happens too often.

Last night, I attended a cooking class with some friends. We replicated a very interesting menu in a way I had never done before.

I learned a lot in the time we were there. I'm determined to create my own salad dressing with lemon, spices and olive oil.

The first attempt is tomorrow. I have what I need.

I wish Las Vegas was taking action on the over and under for the cost of the 2024 Olympics in Boston. The figure of $3.5 billion is absurd. I would bet the house on the "over". There is no way it will come in for under that price.

Security costs are estimated to be at least $1.5 billion. Organizers expect the federal government to pay for it. The issue of a disposable 60,000 seat Olympic stadium is another story. This whole thing is such a joke. There are so many people serious about it.

I think it's very hard to plan for the future. So many things can happen that can effect the final outcome. One thing I did today was to enter the 2015 New York City Marathon on November 1.

A lot will happen between now and then in my life and the world. We will go through winter, spring, summer and halfway through autumn.

It's always an exciting time and something I look forward to. There is so much unknown over the next nine months. Such is life.

I'm never impressed when I see someone running with their dog. They will say it's a way for their pet to get exercise, but dogs were not built to run on the streets for miles on end.

I saw someone today dragging their dog along on a day with the temperature is the low 20's. A dog can never tell you how their legs feel. If they are hurting, they will just push on. I know of a couple of runners who had dogs that developed leg problems from their running. 

They should just take their dog for a walk. 

Dutch Elm disease has devastated the stately trees that have been a staple of New England scenery. Many have been cut down in recent years to prevent the spread to other ones.

It was unfortunate to read that a tree estimated to be 150 years old had to be removed from the Boston Common. It's amazing to think that it had been there since the Civil War. There was a concern that it could fall and injure people. 

They will plant another one in it's place, but it will take decades before it grows to the height of the former one. 

I read an interesting story about names for kids. Parents come up with some very creative ones that I never heard of. They no longer use the traditional ones.

Parents don't seem to realize that a name stays with their child forever. Some kids will always be asked how their name is spelled. That is a disservice to them. If there is a question in the spelling, maybe their parents should choose a different one. 

I support President Obama's proposal to provide free tuition at all community colleges. It's a great opportunity for higher education to reach everyone.

I don't support on how he wants to pay for it. It will cost an estimated $60 billion over the first ten years. That is a small amount when you consider the federal budget.

He wants the federal government to pay 75% and the states would pay the other 25%. 

The federal government loves to pass laws and have the cost passed on to the states. I fully support the President's idea, but the federal government should pick up the full cost. 

The worst case scenario has played itself out as Boston has been chosen by the US Olympic Committee as a host city for the 2024 Summer Games. 

We will now be forced to listen to the nonsense about Boston until sometime in 2017 when the final site is chosen. Boston won over San Francisco, Los Angels and Washington DC.

This is such a bad idea. This proposal is being forced onto all of us. There has been limited public input. I don't believe in spending one tax dollar for this, but plans are already being floated to divert some of the money from the State Lottery to pay for infrastructure improvements. 

The biggest farce is using public transportation to move people. The subway and trolley system in Boston is a joke. They also want to build a removable 70,000 Olympic Stadium.

There should be a vote by the people of Boston to determine whether this should go forward. 

Car manufacturers have gone to great extremes to make their cars lighter for fuel economy. Every pound matters when trying to come up with the right design.

I was shocked to hear that Kia no longer provides a spare tire. Instead, they have an inflater kit which only works if the tire has a puncture from a nail or some other sharp object. It won't help if there is a cut in the sidewall. This can potentially leave motorists stranded. 

Kia offers a temporary spare tire kit as a $250 option. Many buyers have complained that they were not aware of the missing spare tire during their sales negotiation.

I think it's a bad idea from a safety point not to have a spare tire. Something bad will happen before this is corrected. Kia dropped the ball on this in their effort to improve fuel economy.

My Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner wasn't picking up the dirt and dust as I used it today. Upon closer examination, it was easy to see that the filter was clogged very badly. 

Whenever I clean the filter, I need to go outside and shake it against the inside of the dumpster in the parking lot. It was amazing how much dirt had been trapped by the filter.

It seems to be working better now. No matter how much I vacuum, there is still more to do. 

I have a new pair of sweat pants. Unfortunately, I need to take them to a tailor to get taken up at least six inches. I'm not sure who NIKE had in mind when they designed them. They are more suited for a tall basketball player.

My last two pairs of sweat pants also needed to be taken up. I know their feeling is one size fits all, but these pants are too long.

I plan to take them to a place I never tried before. Hopefully, they are cheaper than the last one.

It's  always a challenge to eat healthy. It surprises me when I like something after not trying it. I found that the case to be with horseradish.

There are numerous commercials on the radio about its health benefits, especially its anti-oxidants. I finally bought a jar the other day. I have been using it instead of imitation mayonnaise. I like it a lot so far.

There are other things out there that I need to try. 

With all of the social problems that face us today, some local communities have decided to raise the age to 21 for kids to buy cigarettes. What will this solve? They will just travel to the next town to buy them.

I think these local rules are short sighted. Tobacco products are a big problem in this country. People start smoking at an early age. I feel the same way about buying alcohol.

If you can enlist in the armed services and die for your country, you should be able to buy alcohol and cigarettes at 18.

I have two house plants that seem to be thriving in spite of the lack of sunlight in my apartment. One of them turned one year old today. I bought it at Home Depot. A few of the leaves needed to be trimmed, but it appears to be in good health. 

My last plant lasted for over three years before the leaves started to turn color and fall off.

I water my plants about every ten days. In the past, I gave them too much water. That seems to be a key. 

Northern New Hampshire and so many resorts need snow at this time. Snow can happen at any time 

They really need it to let it snow around here.

Everyone starts the new year with a sense of optimism. That can fade real fast as life takes detours along the way. Things happen.

I find it amusing that people say some of the same things on Facebook that they said last year on this date. Back then, they were looking forward to 2014 and wanted to put 2013 behind them. It's the same this year except they want to put 2014 behind them.