http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageServer?pagename=adv_cleancar

Fourteen other states have adopted California’s standards and are also waiting for the green light. These states cover 40 percent of the U.S. auto market. Implementing clean-car standards would make a huge dent in our global-warming emissions

Can you attend via photo? Just take a picture of yourself, your family and friends, holding car keys and email it to us. At the hearing we’ll present thousands of photos with this message: EPA Holds the Key to Clean Cars!

1. Send an email to:

2. Take a moment to customize the subject line and body of the message:

Subject Line: EPA Holds the Key to Clean Cars

Message: First name, last initial, your state. Feel free to add a comment in your message!

3. Attach the image of yourself holding up your keys — and send!

4. Notify The Sierra Club that you sent the picture on the above web page and they will add you to their flickr photostream.

I had to post this article and some of the pictures that went along with it. First, the pictures are near a house I pass by everyday on Orchard Park Road. When I went out on Friday, I noticed the water was up really really high and near the backdoor of the house. Now the water has flooded the whole property.

The other portion of the article deals with where I used to live, Stony Road in Lancaster. The woman in the article, Heidi Marki nee Schneggenburger, is someone I used to go to Grammar School with in Bowmansville.

Record rain, warmth add up to a fast thaw that raises water levels in creeks — and basements
Updated: 12/28/08 07:31 AM

By Dan Herbeck and Michelle Kearns
NEWS STAFF REPORTERS

The white Christmas was a nice touch. But then came the record-setting rains and record high temperatures that flooded basements, closed roads and turned Western New York into one sloppy mess on Saturday.

And today’s weather could be a wind-swept nightmare for kickers and quarterbacks when the Buffalo Bills take on the New England Patriots in Ralph Wilson Stadium.

“This is an extremely unusual weather day,” Steve McLaughlin, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said on Saturday. “We set a record for rainfall and a record for high temperature, both on the same day.”

The temperature reached 63 degrees late Saturday night, the highest reading ever for a Dec. 27 in Buffalo, and the 1.21 inches of rainfall also was a record for the date.

As a result, many homeowners in the region spent the day pumping out and cleaning out their basements.

Police in many communities — including Orchard Park, Evans, West Seneca, Boston, Collins and Hamburg — reported that they were inundated with basement flooding calls in residential neighborhoods.

“The storm sewers are just full up, and the water is backing up into basements,” said Orchard Park Police Officer Leonard Govenettio. “[Town workers] are trying to keep the storm drains open.”

In Buffalo, complaints came from residents on the upper West Side as well as those driving on the Delaware Avenue S-curves near Forest Lawn.

The water level was dangerously high at a number of area creeks.

“Last week, we accumulated about 30 inches of snow. [Now] we’re seeing all that snow melt over a period of two days,” McLaughlin said. “And, you have all that rain. That is a very fast thaw.”

The heaviest of the rain was over by Saturday afternoon, but for homeowners like Bill Ernst of Orchard Park Road in Orchard Park, the damage had already been done.

Just as Ernst was preparing to set up a second sump pump in his flooded basement, he noticed the flood waters from nearby Cazenovia Creek were taking over his backyard.

“All of a sudden in the last half hour, it just broke loose and came this way,” Ernst said as he somberly watched the floodwaters rise above the benches on his picnic table.

A few houses farther down, near the Ridge Road intersection, muddy brown water had risen almost as high as a four-foot above-ground swimming pool.

West Seneca disaster coordinator John Gullo stopped by to offer sandbags and said he had been fielding general calls from people worrying about their basements. “It could challenge us,” Gullo said of the rain and melting snow.

In nearby West Seneca, flooding caused West Seneca Police Lt. David Szmania to close the southbound lane of Transit Road near Bullis Road.

“We’re adapting as we go along here,” he said. “Once the temperature drops, I hope that [flood waters] will stabilize and go back down.”

To Ernst, who lives near a location where his late grandparents began farming about 100 years ago, flooding was starting to seem more frequent.

Since he bought his house in 1983, water has flooded from the creek into the basement two other times, just in the last few years, once forcing him to replace the furnace, water heater, washer and dryer.

He blamed the flooding on new development taking up land that used to be able to absorb water like this. “The water just doesn’t have any place to go anymore,” he said.

Ernst was not alone in his misery. Erie County sheriff’s deputies received reports of flooded basements in Collins, Colden, Alden and Grand Island, said dispatcher Greg Hayden.

In Lancaster, Roy Schneggenburger, 74, reported that the brand new wood floor that his daughter, Heidi Marki, just had installed in the basement of her Stony Road home was ruined by flooding.

And state police said a number of roads had to be temporarily closed in the Southern Tier because of deep water and vehicles that became stuck on the roads.

“People need to be careful. If you see deep water in the road, don’t try to plow through it,” said trooper Thomas James at the Boston station.

In North Buffalo, the Delaware Avenue S-curves that wind their way through Delaware Park also had to be shut down by police for a few hours. Traffic was diverted from the curves after several vehicles stalled out in deep water and had to be towed away.

Meanwhile, on the city’s upper West Side, a Lexington Avenue resident complained of severe basement flooding in her neighborhood.

Not everyone was unhappy with the sudden and surprising warm-up.

Two professional dog walkers — Lana McCoy and Rose Sims — were walking Harley, a big black Labrador retriever, and Harper, a little brown dachshund on Forest Avenue near the S-curves.

Puddles were a problem, they said, but the warm spell was nice.

“Is this global warming? Hard to say,” said Bob Perry, a resident of nearby Bird Avenue. “This is freaky weather. It’s wonderful if you don’t have a flood in your basement.”

McLaughlin added there will be more freaky weather in store at the 1 p.m. Bills-Patriots game in Orchard Park.

This morning should start out as very balmy, with temperatures nearing 60 degrees, but around 10 a.m., a cold front is expected to move in and the temperature should move down sharply, possibly reaching the high 30s during the game.

Heavy winds are expected throughout the game, gusting at times to well over 40 miles per hour.

“It looks like this is going to be one of the windiest games ever played at the Ralph,” McLaughlin said. “There should be some roaring winds.”

Less extreme winter weather is expected Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures ranging from the high 20s into the low 40s, and not much snow.

I hate going to the grocery store a day or two after Christmas only to see them dismantling all the Christmas items and putting up the next holiday…

VALENTINE’S DAY

Here is Wegmans tonight:

Sam tagged me. This is the “unedited” version. I look better from this angle. You can’t see how fat my face is now.

Please tell me – which eye is the fake one? Hmmmm?

1. Take a picture of yourself.. riiiiiight.. NOW!
2. DO NOT change your clothes. DO NOT fix your hair.. Just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.
5. Tag 10 people to do this!

As for the 10 bloggers…hmmmm….

1. Clarencegrad72
2. Swampcrone
3. The Lake Effect Affect
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Yeah, I’ll have to get back to this on Saturday…yeah [/Lumbergh]

Me in the Ocularist’s office waiting for my eye to be cleaned.

I had an 11am appointment. Good job on the office keeping the appointment time!

The Cafe at the Aquarium:

The view from the Cafe window at the Aquarium:

Outside of the terminal:

I made this tonight and it was awesome. I found the recipe in Good Housekeeping’s Quick and Simple magazine from December 25 2007/January 1 2008.

It was quick and easy!

The Lady’s Cheesy Mac
Serves 6 to 8

8oz Elbow Macaroni
2 cups of grated Cheddar cheese
3 large eggs beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
4 Tbsp. butter cut into pieces
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350° . Cook macaroni according to package instructions; drain and transfer to a large bowl. while still hot, add grated cheese.

2. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, sour cream, butter, salt and milk; add to macaroni mixture and stir until well combined.

3. Pour macaroni mixture into a medium casserole dish and bake for 30-45 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden. Sprinkle with additional cheese and let it melt before serving if you like.

Some changes I made to the recipe were:

4 cups of grated cheddar cheese
16oz of Macaroni
Left out the salt
Topped the macaroni with Wegmans Italian Classics Bread Crumbs, Seasoned before baking

I screwed up NaBloPoMo08 this week by not writing yesterday. Oh well. It was bound to happen.

The one thing I hate about October and November is the stores pushing the Christmas Season.

Here is a sign found in Wegmans:

MusicChoice (channel 401) has started playing Christmas music.

Wegmans was removing their Halloween decorations and candy prior to 10/31 to put up Christmas Decorations.

Borders has stated playing Christmas music when I was there on Thursday November 6th.

Christmas commercials have started. Back in the Day the ONLY commercials you would see were for Time Life’s Sounds of the Season or any other Christmas album compilation. The real commercials would start during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Is this the ONLY time of the year when someone can give a present out? How about give food to the poor and hungry? Does the public realize that they are still hungry during the month of July?

Maybe I’m turning into Scrooge and be hatin’ but honestly holidays are more about money and things instead of the original meaning.

How about a song from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street:

When Christmas time is over and presents put away, don’t be sad
There’ll be so much to treasure about this Christmas day and the fun we’ve had
So may happy feelings to celebrate with you
And, oh, the good times hurry by so fast,
But even when it’s over there’s something you can do to make Christmas last

Keep Christmas with you
All through the year,
When Christmas is over,
You can keep it near.
Think of this Christmas day
When Christmas is far away.

Keep Christmas with you
All through the year,
When Christmas is over,
Save some Christmas cheer.
These precious moments,
Hold them very dear
And keep Christmas with you
All through the year.

Christmas means the spirit of giving
Peace and joy to you,
The goodness of loving,
The gladness of living;
These are Christmas too.

So, keep Christmas with you
All through the year,
When Christmas is over,
Save some Christmas cheer.
These precious moments,
Hold them very dear
And keep Christmas with you
All through the year.

I don’t even know what to title this post as I’m in the phase of “I don’t really care.”

Yes I voted. I wasn’t excited walking up to the booth. All I kept thinking about is how I had to be on North French Road in an hour and drive from West Seneca there without taking the thruway. (Cover one of your eyes, drive the thruway and then talk to me.)

Every blog I’ve read seems to be emotional about the newly elected president.

I’m not.

I knew he would get in due to the stupidity of McCain and his sidekick Cupcake Palin. Call me Allison DuBois if you will. Cupcake was an insult to every intelligent woman on the planet and she hurt his campaign whether the repubs want to believe it or not. I guess I’m a Maverick for stating this.

I’m glad it’s over. I was tired of all the pre-recorded phone calls of telling me who to vote for. I’m not a dem or a ‘pub so I can make that choice for myself without the phone calls.

I’m was tired of all the ads putting down each person running. Instead of stating how great the person was for running in whatever position, they were intent to show how the other person fucked things up. 90% of the locals running did not state what they have done for the area or will do for the area. Good luck with that. I hope the correct person was chosen without publicizing the facts.

The shocking news of the day was Prop 8. Why should someone care if a same sex couple decides to marry or why should the public be allowed to dictate someone’s life?

Don’t give me the “Adam and Steve” and “Adam and Eve” crap. That book is a compilation of stories passed down from generation to generation. One Gospel writer was senile while writing his version of the events.

If a God is supposed to love and tolerate everyone, why can’t the people who supposedly worship and praise this God, have the same compassion for another human being instead of showing their hatred?

These are the same people who will run you over in the parking lot after mass 1 second after the final blessing is given.

The above is one of many reasons why I call myself a recovering Catholic and refuse to attend any mass.

The American public can choose a black man for a president but will not allow homosexuals to marry.

Wake me up when these people grow half of a brain.

Even the Chalk Drawings at the Waterfront supported Obama:

But then some were “Reppin their City”:

There’s nothing like a new pair of Crocs with new Jibbitz to brighten up a dull day.