I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

It's 9 F out there right now, with a windchill factor of about minus 20 to minus 22 Celsius. I just found out it got down to -27 F last night, which is even colder than I'd thought. However, Island Pond Vermont, which is about an hour to hour and a half drive from where I'm at, got down to minus 42 F, last night! That's almost the same in celsius, by the way, minus 41 C.

There's another small storm on the way, but it's a southern storm so we'll likely see only 2 to 5 inches of snow, if that. Pfft. Where's the blizzards this year? I doesn't really feel like winter 'till we get at least a 12 inch snowstorm dumping on us one day.

Anyway, a naf ol' winter poem for you lot.

COLD

By Nancy G.

Driving hard, the tempest blows,
Obscuring the orbital eternal flame.
Piles of dull-tinged clouds smother the light;
Snow blasts the hills as the winds vent their rage.

Got a last minute invite from my co-worker again, so I'll not be online until tomorrow night sometime, as I spend one more weekend down (or in this case, uphill) on the farm.

Well...first we're going to visit her grandson down in the city of Saratoga Springs first, so he can show her his Christmas presents...then it's off to Fort Edward/Argyle again. This time I'll be doing what I should've done in the first place, and buying a disposable camera...that lousy little Disney micro-digital can stay here on my desk in the lounge, for all I care. Waste of $20, that.

I'm trying to wolf down a quick lunch of hot dogs and German potato salad. She's offered to help my file my state/federal income tax return online, which will be a godsend, as last year it cost me $70...can't do it myself 'cos of the dyscalculia, don't want to risk a mistake, do I?

If I get a refund at all, suspect it won't be much, but I'm not utterly desperate for funds, as I was last year, so it's all good.

I was going to write not only another chapter in my latest Dr Who story on my Who's Stories wordpress blog, but also going to start writing something a bit more deeper, and more personal..with a bit of humour tossed in...but that's going on the back hob for next weekend, now, I reckon...unless heaven forbid, we get laid off in the coming weeks...a very real possibility, all of the sudden, as I'm told the office is running out of work for us, on one of our major selling/collections campaigns. Hopefully if the worst does happen, it will be AFTER I've finished paying off the electric and internet bills.

I was also going to set up a new blog, and begin phasing out this one...I'm keeping Roasting David Tennant on here, but intend to gradully writing less and less in my Ain't Afraid of No Daleks blog, slowly transferring those entries to Wordpress--which has NO issues with spammers, I might add, thanks to Askmet, also no adverts, no pesters to go pro and few bugs as well.

I spent part of the day ringing up rude Canadians. The only difference between ill-mannered Canadians and ill-mannered Americans...is that the Canadians are less nasty and downright mean..and less moronic as well...about their rudeness...they're abrupt and discourteous yes, but they're not also obnoxious and brainless, like us Yanks tend to be.

Although here where I live, we've a 40 million plus acre state park on our doorstep, containing millions and millions of trees, mountains, lakes, rivers, etc., and a resort town somewhat like small-scale Blackpool--only with trees and a lake, instead of the ocean, there's not a heck of a lot here, in Glens Falls.

Oh, the tourists seem to like our very short three street quaint downtown...the locals....meh-not so much. Well, the work-shy and the party-heads like South Street: the Off-Track Betting, Alternative Silver Mine (drug and hippie paraphenalia), Irish Pub, South Street Saloon, The Bar, and Sandy's Clam Bar. The trendy upscale types like Glen and Ridge streets with the Ridge Street Coffee Company, the Wood Theater, the wine merchant's, Aimee's Dinner and a Movie, Wallie's Jazz Bar, Mikado's Japenese Steak House or Davidson's Brew Pub. And, People like me...we more likely to be found at the Burger King, New Way Lunch hot dog stand, Pete's Diner, the public library..maybe the model train club when they have a free open house.

Glens Falls doesn't really have much in the way of tourism attractions, really. It's just a small mill city--which is currently trying to pretend it's a small upscale city...not going to work, of course, but one has to give the republicans credit for trying. Yes, they're actually building super-expensive exclusive condos--in three parts of the city...two laughably on the benefits class ridden South Street...one currently under construction--an upscale condos/business offices space in an old theater building--is directly opposite a welfare hotel and low-scale bar, filled with drug addicts, work-shirkers, and what jokingly passes for gangs, in this city.

Anyway, for the most part, the tourists pass us by, except for special events, like the Adirondack Balloon Festival or the big Arts and Crafts fest. They stay at the historic Queensbury Hotel, and leave for the resorts of beautiful and trendy Saratoga Springs, "The Queen of the American Lakes"--Lake George, Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains, the Green Mountains of Vemont, etc. We have a ski area outside the city, a small upscale art museum called The Hyde Collection, and, across the Hudson River, Cooper's Cave.

As a decendant of James Fennimore Cooper (on mum's side), it falls on me to tell you about Cooper's cave.

James Fennimore Cooper was one of America's first popular novelists, penning stories like The Plainsman and Last of the Mohicans. The latter has been made into film several times. Cooper has a town named after him, west of Albany New York, called Cooperstown. Cooperstown today, is most noted for being the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and home of all-star games played by famous old-time baseball stars every few years. There's also a Glimmerglass opera festival and a few other museums in the area. But, Cooper himself is quite famous, of course. Until he came along, America really didn't have anyone to compete with British authors of the time, unless it was Washington Irving (who also has some ties to my mum's family), with his stories like Rip Van Winkle and The Ghost of Sleepy Hollow.

Anyway, in the mid-1820's Cooper explored the Adirondack Mountains...inclding the Glens Falls area. This area was extremely active in both the French and Indian (Queen Anne's) war and the American Revolution...quite bloody it was, too.

So, grist for a writer's mill, was a cave under the falls of the Hudson River at Glens Falls--this cave would one day feature in Last of the Mohicans, in a scene where the hero and heroine escape from the Indian's camp, by hiding out in a cave under a waterfall...yup, what's now known as Cooper's Cave.

Nestled under the Cooper's Cave bridge, which connects the Village of South Glens Falls and the City of Glens Falls, sits a viewing platform adjacent to the cave, with information on James Fenimore Cooper; and the Mohican Tribe. Access to the cave is strictly restricted, however, due to the potential hazards, and special permission has to be gained for entry.

It's a big deal around here--there's Cooper's Cave Bridge (which has the waterfall under it, which is a tourist attraction in South Glens Falls), Cooper's Cave Ale Company and Cooper's Cave Federal Credit Union, Cooper Street...well, you get the idea.

COOPERS CAVE TODAY:

Doesn't ANYONE in this stinking apartment building actually sleep at night???

Cripes! People have been running up and downstairs, slamming doors and stomping on the floors all stinking night long...I mean, like every couple of hours, doors slam and people are stomping around in their winter boots, like it's broad stinking daylight.

Midnight, half-past 1am, quarter after 2am, 3am, 3.30am..now one of the boys came home...probably drunk by the sound of things, at 5am...yeah, slamming doors, stomping in his boots, knocking over the furniture...kicking off his boots and throwing them across the room, by the sound of it... !!!

Then, hillbilly's next door join them--the same one's that had the big fight again last night, the same one's who were slamming the outside door downstairs and their apartment door every bloody hour on the hour...the kids upstairs joining them once or twice.

It's blinking cold, and all I want to do is sleep in my nice, warm snug bed. Fat chance with these chav drunks around me. I personally don't get the wonder of being drunk, myself. Making a patently deliberate arse of yourself, ticking off the sober, feeling like crap the next day...what the hell's the attraction?

I gave up trying to go back to sleep. It's freezing in here! The cats are cold--I woke to three cats snuggled all around me. I turned up the heat at 2am to a totally unheard of 82 degrees...and it's still only flippin' 62!...which is better than the 50 it was, at 2am.

I mean, what was with all the comings and goings all night long? It was flipping 15 below zero out there, last night! That's minus 26 C. Even now at nearly 6am, it's sill 4 below zero, apparently... (-20 C) Who the hell wants to come and go at night, with those temps? Who the hell wants to go out drinking? Someone seriously has a drinking problem, if they've got to do a pub crawl in those temps, even around here.

Well, I was a wee hungry, so I fried up the last of the potatoes and onions, a couple of eggs and some Canadian bacon, and had breakfast.

Figure maybe by the time I'm done eating and blogging it'll quiet down and maybe I can go back to my nice warm bed for another hour or so, before I have to get up to go to work.

Life sucks and then you die.

In light of the revelation that the first Dr Who Special--set to begin filming in about 4 or 5 days--will be at least partly filmed outside the UK, rumour is flying fast and furious over where this special will be filmed.

So far, the hot contenders are:

Tunisa
Las Vegas
Egypt
Barcelona or some other part of Spain
Malta

With other people hopeful guessing at:

Greece
Hollywood or southern California
South of France
New Zealand
Southern United States
New York City--in January??? Don't think so.
Australia
Mexico City
Canary Islands

PLACES I'M PRETTY SURE THEY WON'T BE FILMING:

Northeastern New York state (especially Glens Falls)
Western and Central New York state (aka: "the snow belt")
New England
Fargo North Dakota
Chicago
New Jersey
Alaska
Canada
Milton Keynes
Glasgow
Aberdeen
Cheapstow
A sheep pasture in the Gowers (but you never know)
Iceland
Greenland
Norway
Russia/Sibera

Anyway, wherever it's to be filmed, and whatever script Russell T. Davies OBE throws at us, I'm sure it'll be fantastic and well worth the wait to watch.