This past Monday, the 28th, I stopped into the building manager's office where I have my condo and asked if anyone there was a notary and would witness a signature.  Yes on both counts.

Then she asked me what I needed to have witnessed, and I told her that I was writing a Living Will and updating my Last Will & Testament.  Of course she responded that she didn't think I was going to be dying anytime soon.  "I certainly hope not," says I.  "I'm certainly not planning on it, but you never know what is going to happen from one day to the next.  I could have a massive heart attack without warning, or a fatal stroke, or who knows what."

To this she replied, "Yeah.  With traffic so bad in the area, it would be easy enough to get killed just trying to get home from work, especially with the weather we've been having."

All of this took place around 1 in the afternoon.  At 5pm, she closed up the office and went home to find her husband dead.  I don't have the details yet, but they don't really matter.  It's just so erie to have such a conversation and then have one of the very parties to that conversation visited by death a few hours later.  I feel so terrible about that. 

The would be Christmas Day bomber who tried to take down a Northwest Airliner arriving in detroit from Amsterdam used an explosive called PETN.  This is a plastic explosive that is not picked up by metal detectors.  He allegedly attempted to detonate those explosives with a chemical fuse, which would also not be detected by a metal detector.  The entire package was sewn into his underwear.

A similar attempt using PETN was made against the life of the Saudi Arabian deputy minister of interior, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, this past August, and Richard Reid, an al Qaeda recruit known as the shoe bomber, also used PETN in his failed attempt to bring down an airliner.  As a result of that attack, we started making passengers removed their shoes for inspection.  In light of this latest attempt, can we soon look forward to being asked to take off our underwear?

I saw a short blurb on T.V. yesterday afternoon that once again talked about the possibility of "flying cars" for the general public.  A working prototype was actually demonstrated for reporters.  It looked something like a small, car sized osprey aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing capability, and the inventor stood there with a perfectly straight face and proudly announced his prediction these things would be in the hands of half the population by 2020.

Can you believe it.  I mean, come on fellas.  Give us a break.  The thing costs upwards of a million dollars at this time, and while the price may come down somewhat, it isn't going to be anything close to what John Q. Public will be able to afford in the coming decade.

And there are other problems.  People haven't been able to obey traffic laws since Henry Ford's 1st model hit the street.  Can you imagine the death and carnage they will wrought when they start violating air traffic regulations?!  There are altitude restrictions, speed restrictions, air space restrictions, an already over stressed air traffic control system, air routes that must be followed to avoid midair collisions, and of course there are the wait times in air traffic patterns while traffic ahead of you gets processed.  Blah, blah, blah. 

Flying a plane is not like driving a car, and if ever the time comes when personal air vehicles actually make it into the hands of the public, I believe it will finally be safe on the ground roads.

It's amazing what these will do in combination.  I was buried under 24" of snow.  Then it warmed to the mid 40s and rained.  Practically overnight all that snow melted.  Life is good.  Not only that, but my dog is happy once again, because he has access to all his favorite places, and he can stay out longer.  No more cabin fever for him.

Who knows but that you may have been born into this time and place for just such a cause as this.

Temperatures rose yesterday above freezing, causing some of the snow from this past weekend to melt.  Unfortunately, temperatures are again dropping this morning back into the 20s, resulting in a refreeze, creating new iceing conditions of roads, overpasses, bridges, and sidewalks, mailng today another good day to just stay in.  According the the local weather service, this condition is going to repeat itself through Christmas day.

Well, it looks like Senator Reid has got his 60 votes, according to the Washington ComPost on this morning.  The article goes on to say that the bill, with the compromises worked out, will

• Prohibit public funds from being used to pay for abortions.
• Insurance companies will now offer national insurance policies to all Americans, outside the jurisdiction of state regulations.
• Starting immediately, insurers would be prohibited from denying children coverage for pre-existing conditions.
• A network of state-based insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, will be set up where people who lack access to affordable coverage through an insurer can purchase policies.
• Insurers competing in the exchanges would be required to justify rate increases, and those who jacked up prices unduly could be barred from the exchange.
• Reid's package also would give patients the right to appeal to an independent board if an insurer denies a medical claim.
• And all insurance companies would be required to spend at least 80 cents of every dollar they collect in premiums on delivering care to their customers.

Some of these look like Sen. Reid has finally listened to some of the suggestions coming from the more conservative elements of Congress, but while the use of the words "public option" don't appear, the proposed "State-Based Insurance Exchange" for those who cannot afford coverage etc. certainly looks like a public option of some kind to me.  I also note that

• no provision has been made to stop the price gouging by Big Pharmaceutical Houses,
• to try to curb excessive and frivolous law suits against the medical profession, and
• the proposed cuts in medicare spending, which will directly effect the availability of care to seniors. 

Many doctors refuse to accept medicare coverage for payment now.  Addition cuts will result in still more doctors opting out of medicare.  That will force a lot of seniors into the Insurance Exchange, where the State can contro what services will be covered or even made available.  No word yet on what will happen to the medicare premiums they are currently paying, which they can not opt-out of by the way.

And then there is the very constitutionality of whether the whole health care issue is even legal.  I'm sure that if it is signed into law, a constitutional challenge will be forthcoming.

No word yet on what other concessions were needed to get the necessary votes to move the Senate bill along. 

It looks like my final tally of snowfall will measure in at between 24 and 26 inches.  Cars are completely buried, with drifts piled high all around them.  It will take people several days to dig out, and because I live in a seniors community where many of the residents are elderly, some cars may not be seen again until Spring.

It started snowing shortly after 10pm last night, and as of 8 am this morning, we appear to have 8 inches or so on the ground.  It's still snowing, and the weather service says that at times today we will have near blizzard conditions to contend with.  The current prediction is for at least 10 more inches of snow before tonight.

My poor dog, Billie, doesn't know what to make of this stuff.  I adopted him from a shelter in Florida last year; so, while he may have seen an occasional snow flurry in his previous life, I don't think he's ever seen anything like this.  Result: he's not sure where he can take care of his business, so he wonders around, carefully trying to get through the plowed and drifting snow to is usual favorite places.  But he's hindered by his short legs, so he has to back off and wonder some more -- until he can't stand it.  Then -- any old place in a storm, as they say.

[UPDATE 12 noon] -- It's still snowing, but I haven't seen the blizzard conditions yet, although the snow is coming down now at about a 55 degree angle, suggesting that the wind is beginning to pick up.

[UPDATE 5 pm] -- According to the weather center, the snowfall around the area is between 17" and 21", depending on where you are, and another 2 to 3 inches is predicted before it ends.  The ambient air temperature is 23 degrees, but with the wind it feels like 10 degrees.  I'm sure glad I bought Billie a heavy weight winter coat.

[UPDATE 8 pm] -- Well it's still snowing as hard as ever, and outside my place there are 24" of snow on the ground and the forecast is for another inch or so before it ends later this evening.