What a wild weather day here yesterday – up to six inches of heavy, wet, and unforecasted snow!  If you had no place to go yesterday, it was a real treat. I had to get up from my workspace and look out the window every so often.  I think Morgantown officially got either four or five inches, but unofficial measurements on the ground & hard surfaces around the house gave me upwards (and sometimes beyond) a half-foot of snow.

On the bad side, over 75,000 customers in the north central part of the state lost power and many do not have it restored yet.  My house was one of the fortunate ones that kept power all day, although we kept having flicker moments where the power would cut out for a couple seconds and restore itself.  I am sympathetic to those without electricity – in Charlotte we were without juice for five days thanks to a nasty ice storm.  Our grid there was highly sensitive anyways.  Many thunderstorms knocked out our power for short periods of time, which became very frustrating when our neighbors across the street (on a different grid) still had lights.

Yesterday was not without its low points.  I let myself have a couple of nasty falls, one of which was quite stupid.  I was climbing on a steeper slope of my yard trying to get back to my basement door after knocking snow off of some branches.  This particular piece of hill is right beside my house, uncovered by snow thanks to the roof overhangs.  Just when I think I have sure footing the world slips out from under me and I fall flat on my back in the driveway.  Fortunately nothing was broken.  My shoulders are quite sore from the landing, and I think I may have slightly turned an ankle (quite fun for navigating our campus).  I also fell while climbing up a less severe incline to clear the snow off the top of my Rodeo.  That one only hurt the pride.

Sadly, the snow converted to a cold rain in the early evening, leaving a massive mess outside.  And in a few short days we should be dried out and prepping for the Connecticut Huskies to come to town.

But as I was reminded yesterday, the view of unblemished snowfall is a wonderful sight, and we should all stop for an extra glance.

My son terrifies me.  Wait, that doesn’t sound right. He also amazes me.  Maybe combine the two – he terrifies and amazes me at the same time.

Why?  This kid is going to pass me on PC knowledge sometime before I stop paying for his education.

It’s no secret that each generation is a little more tech savvy than the preceding one.  My dad grew up on punch cards and COBOL.  I grew up on GUIs, HTML, and SQL.  (Papa grew up on paper and pencil, but that’s for another day.)

My son is only three and won’t know the value of computing power for some time, but I believe he is capable of doing things that the current typical three-year-old does not.

• He turns on our PC and logs himself into his account.




• He starts his own web browser (with a customized homepage that links to preschool Flash games) and navigates with three-year-old ease.




• By virtue of logging himself in he can type his own name.




• He started playing with the calculator to augment his early counting.




• He knows which button in the upper right-hand-corner closes a window/application




• And, as I was just shown today, he can “animate” the Microsoft Office assistants.

Many of these things are knowledge bits he picked up on his own, by trial and error.  Compare this with my mom, who can barely play Solitaire and open a spreadsheet.

I would configure my own home server and proxy his PC to keep him away from the seedy parts of the net, but it may not matter.

He’ll probably have it hacked by age ten.

There were many positives to our move back to Morgantown, and most outweighed the negative aspects that popped up.

All but one remained – our palates began to suffer.

Charlotte is by no means a hotbed of culinary excellence, but there are a number of quality restaurants that cross most popular cuisine types.  From American to Mexican, Italian to Asian, Charlotte had quite a selection.

Morgantown is no match, even per capita.  There are some nice mom & pop restaurants here and good Italian is a stone’s throw away, but by and large the restaurant selection here is not up to snuff.  Even from the chains.  (Granted, the new development in town is attracting some of the larger chains.)

Don’t bother looking for Mexican here. Even though there are several Mexican restaurants in the area, none suffice.  The old rule of thumb still applies – the quality of a Mexican restaurant is directly proportional to the number of illegals in the kitchen.  Which gives me an idea – we just busted 20+ illegals who were working construction at The Village.  Time for a new restaurant!

Forget BBQ too.  I fixed my tongue on North Carolina barbecue, not sloppy Joes.

We’re experimenting with recipes in the kitchen and have some that will placate the desires on the taste buds (I’m enjoying a nice plate of homemade ‘cue now). In the end, though, nothing beats a backwoods greasy spoon platter piled high with pulled pork, or brightly colored Fiestaware with authentic enchiladas.

The first BCS poll is released, and our beloved Mountaineers receive a 17th place ranking.  At this point I am ecstatic – to me that is a very reasonable number and probably higher than most everyone expected.  As long as we continue to win – preferably winning out – we should only rise in the ranking as other teams ahead of us are bound to lose at some point.  By the end of the season, we should have secured a position in the top 12.  Average that finish into the prior three years (including Louisville’s #6 that was grandfathered in last year as a nod to John Swofford and the All Cash Conference for getting to count BC’s ranking too) and the Big East should stay within the four-year average ranking of 12th.  This should help us keep our place at the cash trough of college football, and help grow the other teams (and by default the conference) back to at least a margin of respectability.

Baby steps right now – our conference doesn’t have to be the best dancer.  It just needs to be good enough to get on the dance floor.  And West Virginia, at least today, is doing its part.

Again, a good day keeps on getting better.

The sun is out on a crisp, autumn morning. There’s a chill in the air to signify the seasons are changing from summer to fall (my second favorite season), and soon winter (my favorite season) will be upon us.

Classes are going well.

My Mountaineers are undefeated in conference play, are ranked in the Top 20, and hold the inside hand for a BCS bowl.

And for once I’m not overly stressed about work.

Yes, it’s a beautiful morning indeed.