A Senseless Day

What is a senseless day to SWB?

Today.

The sun is out.  The air is cool. Everyone seems happy. The only real irritating news is of the 10th street bypass having construction near it soon, and that’s not really even irritating because we are so used to it. There is nothing to whine or rant about today.  that really sucks for this blog.

The only thing we can rant about is not being able to rant.

We’re even too used to potholes to care about that much anymore.

The politicians are all the same, so if we rant about one we automatically rant about the others in the same exact way, which nullifies any of our rant enough for anyone to actually really give a crap about it.

The rivers are flowing good, so we can’t even complain about stagnant water, or dead and decaying fish.

……… HELP US HERE!!!!!

-SWB (a frustrated weasel on a too nice of a day)

 

Working Off Those Perks

You’ve heard us mention going into the city and parking far away for the purpose of getting some exercise. It really is a great way to do that, but sorry to announce,we have some ulterior motives.

Here are a few of them:

• The first one, and most important is donuts … the city has one of the few nicer Dunkin’ Donut stores around.
• The second, and almost as important is the exercise walk … which helps us burn off enough calories to make room for at least three or four donuts.  This is important as we aren’t trying to slim down, but at least keep to a point where we can walk off some calories.
• The third … there is just nothing like seeing the people.  All those happy smiling faces glowing with the rewards of their jobs. Alright … they’re really frowns, but if you hang upside down from one of the store signs, they look like smiles.
• The fourth … the construction now going on in Pittsburgh.  There is no need to join the Army or Marines to obtain access to a good obstacle course now.  The city has provided that for us. Fortunately, if you fall into a hole, you can usually land  on the next subway car and ride until the next stop.  If they don’t see you on the roof, they can’t charge you.
• The fifth … the ability to get a fifth from at least five wine spirits shops in the city. This can quickly make your day brighter (especially if it’s a typical partly cloudy Pittsburgh day), and also helps dull the pain from hitting the T-car after you fell into one of the holes in the street ending up in the subway.

So, as you see, strategic parking allows you to work off some perks and gain some too.

-SWB

PS – For those a little light in cerebral material … we WERE kidding about falling into the subway.

The “Pittsburgh Winter” is officially back

If you think we are a little late on this post … read on.

A “Pittsburgh Winter” is only official once the car damage starts.  I’m not talking about the damage from mindless idiots trying to drive 65 during one of the worst storms we’ve had in years … I’m talking about the other damage.

Think about it … come on, you can figure it out ….

That’s right … the potholes.

So far we’ve had to spend $270 on front tires for our 2008 Fit due to rapid fire hits from potholes.  Even if the belt in the tire was going bad, the potholes helped it bite the dust.  The 12 year old I own Civic just got the windshield taken out from a loose asphalt cannon ball hitting it.  That’s another $210.

Yup we now have an official, down home “Pittsburgh Winter”.  Yay!!!

The thing that makes it even worse than the ones I used to remember when I was young is that the 2010 storm was bad enough you can’t even chew out the road crews.  If you handed every Burgher a 5 gallon pail of cold fill asphalt, they’d never be able to keep up.  That just creates more stress when you can’t blame another human.

-SWB

PS – I guess I shouldn’t complain since I survived an ice hit from the bridges … but I’m a Pittsburgh, so I’m required to complain.  What about these out of town folks moving here?, can’t we force them to earn their Pittsburgh citizenship status by filling potholes during lunch???

State Transit Crisis – even with US infused money

We always hope for the best, then the typical happens. This time, even with U.S. help the Pennsylvania roads are again in a crisis situation. There isn’t enough money again, decisions can’t be made at both the federal and state levels, etc,etc. Oh – and the Turnpike Commission Chairman Mitchell Rubin stepped down after his wife was busted with Vincent J Fumo. Hmmmm ….. I wonder if you are going to see more of Mitchell in the news?

Here are two of the current articles from the PG:

The Transit Crisis and Turnpike Chairman

SWB says we just make all of the people in control of making decisions for PA’s road work go out and hand pave the roads for all of the money they wasted.

-SWB

PS – The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s motto – “Shovel Leaning and Money Wasting even better than PennDOT”.

The First Days Of Spring in Pittsburgh

The first days of spring in Pittsburgh are always unique. They are never the same, and never come in the same way. Personally I think this is a sign of God having humor. Here is my tale of how this season came to play with Pittsburgh today.

—————————————————————-

It’s the first days of Spring and I imagine to see many a thing,

many kids at play with birds in the air gliding on a wing.

—–

Dreaming of this Spring scene while laying in bed,

I was thinking of flowers blooming early and turning a bright pretty red.

—–

Following a whim I caught in my dream,

I dressed in T-shirt and shorts wearing a smile that just seemed to beam.

—–

I ran down the stairs, and whipped open the door,

to a Spring sight I though that I could adore.

—–

But the only thing I saw could not have made me frown more,

it looked like a lost Pittsburgh river rat clawing at my door.

—–

The pond was still covered with ice and my shirt apparently thin,

I screamed out to God, “this isn’t the way it was in my PS3 Sim!!”

—–

The only thing flying in the grim cold at this time,

was the WPXI traffic copter covering a three car pile up in it’s prime.

—–

It’s supposed to be warm, happy, and sunny …

but no matter where I look there isn’t a single bunny.

—–

The only thing to be seen blooming were the pothole flowers,

Turning the expensive cars into over-sized earth plowers.

—–

A beautiful Spring movie scene did not greet me this day,

It seemed that the glorious Pittsburgh weather just pushed it the other way.

———-

-SWB

PS – Welcome to Spring in Pittsburgh … get your shovels back out!

It’s Spring (in Pittsburgh) … I think, maybe

A few days ago it was nice, sunny, and happy. The buds on my fig tree have opened bringing it out of dormancy ….. so it needs to go outside now. The dogs are staring out the window waiting to dig up all of the spring flowers. It’s going down to 29 tonight. Huh?

Well, there are signs of spring … I’ve seen them:

• The emerging craters known as potholes.
• The Pittsburgh Police officers almost getting knocked off their bikes by the Downtown drivers.
• The homeless residents appearing in various corners of The SouthSide and the river shores.
• The spring beer pong competitions and dollar draft specials.
• The entertainment promoters advertising they are trying to get Metallica to do one last Pittsburgh concert.
• The Pittsburgh Penquins are actually winning.
• The Pittsburgh Steelers are starting to come out of hibernation.
• There is still no sign of The Pittsburgh Pirates doing anything useful.
• The lines of students at the airport flying home to their parents (or somewhere they haven’t told their parents they are going).
• The motorcyclists going through road barriers and flying over ledges on tight turns.
• Predictions of spring storms strong enough to blow the rest of your shingles off your roof are coming from the weather channel.
• New fake Steelers garb shows up in The Strip District along with the roadside cell phone dealers.
• You smell the Mancini’s bread stand from five blocks away and realize you can’t even get near it once you get to the store.
• Sounds of accordions playing everywhere!!
• Rain soaked club advertisement cards all over the sidewalks.
• Your winter tires are bald.
• Your prized spring flowers that just bloomed are now in your dogs mouth.

Yep – although it’s not in full bloom yet, it’s definitely the beginning of spring in Pittsburgh.

-SWB

PS – For the clueless, Beer Pong is not a game where you volley a can of beer between two racquets.

The Sun is out again!

It looks like this is going to be a preview of the weather this year – the sun coming out right after a light rain to make it nice and sticky, and it’s only March.

Oh, well ….. at least we are not getting one of those mid-March 24-inch dumps … although the shoveling out might get some of us the exercise a winter hibernation requires.

I’m sure we’ll get to the typical Pittsburgh 100% partly-cloudy days soon enough to help us discover the other Pittsburgh weather love …. potholes.

-SWB

A Common Fear

I’m headed for a common fear amongst many today.

Is it the fear of losing a job? ….. No

Is it the fear of your child being hurt? ….. No

Is it the fear of losing a loved one? ….. No

Is is the fear of dying of cancer? ….. No

Is it the fear of taking your car in for state emissions and inspection? ….. Yep, that’s it. The mercilessness of the Pittsburgh streets don’t help the matter.

Wish me luck …. if you see a man weeping in the middle of the road next to a silver Honda, that would be me.

-SWB