Day 1028

I spent most of the day carrying a small ceramic heater from room to room in a somewhat vain attempt to keep warm. Eventually, I decided to give up on the ineffectual little heater and just put on a sweater. My Northern readers would probably laugh at these antics. You guys seem to wear sweaters indoors all the time. I'm a Southerner though and prefer to pretend that Winter doesn't exist. I usually just turn the heat up and wear a t-shirt and shorts around the house all Winter.

Unfortunately, I can't turn the heat up yet, because the furnace is broken. The HVAC guys are coming out tomorrow to give me an estimate on replacing the furnace. This is probably going to hurt. A good furnace isn't cheap. There's really no alternative though. You can't live very comfortably without a furnace during the Winter. At least this is probably the last furnace I'll need to buy. The current furnace lasted twenty-five years. It will be a miracle if I last twenty-five more years.

I spent some time today getting my ducks in a row for a new technical article I need to write this week. I always learn something new when I research these articles.  Last week I learned that steam turbines powered railway locomotives during the 1930's. This week I learned that Germany has oil wells. Why did I think that Europe didn't have any oil of its own? Shows what I know.

I used to think that curators only worked in museums. Now, I think curation has a much broader appeal. The term has become an Internet buzz word with people curating pictures of cats on Pinterest and making lists of people who like chocolate on Twitter. I've never seen such an explosion of information gathering and list making in my life. I'm fascinated by people who love to make lists. Why?  I never make lists. Even though I sometimes talk about my "to-do" list, there is never an actual list. It is just a figure of speech. Jeez, I even go shopping without a grocery list. Although I don't understand this fascination with lists, I'm grateful that it exists. If it weren't for the list makers, probably nobody would read this blog. I got added to another list today. Almost immediately, 100 new people started looking at my photos on Google+. What a strange world we live in.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day