Snow and animals are two things you cannot control.

I've been neglectful of this page for a little while. I've found that it takes great emotional energy to come up with a few hundred words about something over which I am passionate. Plus, after doing it for nearly 4 years it has become more difficult to come up with something I haven't already written about.

There is more snow coming. Just as the remaining two feet has disappeared to the point that we are starting to see the ground, another blast is coming from midnight until noon Friday. In case you're keeping score, that's 36 hours of snow.

I try not to stress over it, since I am powerless to prevent it. The only thing I can do is deal with it, but as this is storm number 4, it's getting a little (a lot) ridiculous. Having it fall over two consecutive work days is just adding insult to injury. At least now, I have a shovel. We won't re-hash that nastiness.

ORLANDO, Fla. – A SeaWorld killer whale snatched a trainer off a poolside platform in its jaws Wednesday and thrashed the woman around underwater, killing her in front of a horrified audience. It marked the third time the animal had been involved in a human death.
Distraught audience members were hustled out of the stadium immediately, and the park was closed.

Wednesday's attack was the second time in two months that an orca trainer was killed at a marine park. On Dec. 24, 29-year-old Alexis Martinez Hernandez fell from a whale and crushed his ribcage at Loro Parque on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Park officials said the whale, a 14-year-old named Keto, made an unusual move as the two practiced a trick in which the whale lifts the trainer and leaps into the air.

Go figure. A whale with the word "killer" in its moniker actually fulfilled its purpose in life. Elephants stomp people at the circus, bears attack, snakes bite and jellyfish sting. Hell, even people can kill you if you rile them up enough, so why do stories about animals killing people make the news? It's bigger news when the whale swims around, eats fish and makes that chirping noise. I'd guess that just pisses him off to the point that he figures "the next time one of those jokers gets near me, I'm going to make him pay for using me as an ornament for his pleasure. I am not a toy - I am an animal."

They'll kill you.