Hal Stern's thoughts on the economy, software, services, technology, and snowmen. Hal Stern: The Morning Snowman

Saturday Jan 22, 2005

We have been promised a true winter storm, bordering on a blizzard, lasting into Sunday morning. Our good friend Mr. Car Thermometer was checking in at 5 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, which causes an underflow error when translating to Celcius.

With advance warning, however, the Snowman family is fully prepared for this weekend's weather events:

  • A dozen DVDs, some from Netflix, some from Blockbuster.
  • Two new Gamecube games, rented from Blockbuster.
  • A reasonable supply of books delivered in the past month from amazon.com.
  • A working internet connection, which is significantly improved from 8:00 am today, when one of the cable company's amplifiers was suffering from the shivers. Even the bits are cold.
  • A week's supply of Campbell's Chunky soups. Seriously. Right up there with Pop Tarts as nerd fuel. As of 1:00 PM Eastern time, we have almost two inches of snow on the ground. The roads are slippery, but that didn't stop our intrepid mail carrier from trucking (literally) up the hill. The "rain nor sleet nor snow" mantra isn't apocrypha, it's a fact. You heard it here first: Forget the Hummer, the next status symbol with four wheels is a USPS truck painted bright yellow.