Telling it like it is

We've had about the crappiest winter here since we moved here. There's really only been two days since the end of November where we've needed to use the snowblower. The winter tyres on the car are wearing out because of so much dry road, and when it does get vaguely wintery down in the valley, it's rain. Sure we've had a ton of snow in the mountains, but down here it's been a piss-poor excuse for winter. And now the days are growing longer, it signals the inexorable march towards the dog days of summer, where we have to endure weeks of 40 degree (C) weather. Eugh. Still - there's some hope we might have a long, cool spring like we did last year. I'm a winter person. Spring and autumn are just fine, and as far as I'm concerned, summer is that awful three months we have to put up with in the middle of every year where it's hotter than the surface of the sun, the A/C bills are gigantic, and all the gardens are dead from drought.

Ok I like Obama. I think he's doing a reasonable job given the scorched earth he was left with when Bush left. But today he did something I find bizarre and irritating at the same time - he's axed NASA's Constellation rocket program which was going to take us back to the moon. No more Ares, no more Orion. Instead he wants to get more commercial spaceflight enterprises involved. Which means private investment - which is good - but it also means fleets of highly overpaid lawyers. In other words, we're never going into space again. I'm not quite sure how this is supposed to be regarded as progress :-(