Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Adventures in Changing Tires

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So, thanks to my living in a construction zone at least for a little while longer while they finish the neighborhood, I got a nail in my tire. Then I got a nail out of my tire (dumb move, I know). Then I got a flat tire.

Rather than sit around waiting for AAA road-side assist, I decided it was time for another adventure in automotive repair (following up on three previous efforts). I changed my own tire. It’s a miracle.

The tire is only a few months old and had Goodyear’s road hazard insurance, so the good folks at Hogan & Sons Goodyear were kind enough to have everything fixed up good as new within 45 minutes for free. I would have more pictures, but . . . well . . . I was in a hurry to change the tire, and Melissa was holding the manual ;-).

The Snowpocalypse Proceeds

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This has sure been one heck of a winter for us snow lovers, eh? We had a huge snow back in December, then another this past weekend, and now a third today. Today’s was only ten inches or so, but accompanied by high winds and layered atop the two feet from the weekend that was mostly still on the ground. Earlier today, the National Weather Service accumulation data put the 2009/2010 winter as the snowiest winter in recorded history for Washington, D.C.

The Federal Government has been closed all week (did you notice?), and my employer closes their office when the Feds do so I’ve been working from home all week. Personally I’d rather have gone into the office Monday and Tuesday since the roads were passable, but oh well. I like working from home now and then, but more than a couple days is overkill. I find it easier to avoid distraction in the office, plus the lag of logging into the VPN is pretty annoying and slows down the work.

The Feds have already announced they’ll be closed tomorrow too, which has to be some sort of record. I think the blizzards of 1996 and 2003 only warranted a day or two of Fed closures each, if I remember right.

Anyway, tomorrow will be another day of shoveling, which should be an interesting adventure since I’m running out of places to shovel the snow to. No big deal. I might even make it to the mailbox to see if the Postal ‘Service’ has decided to start delivering mail again.

‘Gallery Shortcode Style to Head’ Version 1.3

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I just released version 1.3 of the ‘Gallery Shortcode Style to Head‘ plugin for WordPress.

Version 1.3 re-syncs with the gallery code in WordPress 2.9 and adds support for certain WordPress 2.9 gallery features, like the ‘include’ and ‘exclude’ attributes. If you are already using the plugin, you will be prompted to upgrade within about 24 hours.

The patch I had submitted (a long, long time ago now) to WordPress is floating out there in the ether un-used, which is disappointing. I’m going to work on getting a new and improved version of the plugin put together and then submit another patch using that code, hopefully with more success!

WordPress shouldn’t produce invalid XHTML! You shouldn’t need a plugin to fix this!

Let There Be Mail?

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While it is not the official creed of the United States Postal Service (USPS), everybody has heard the old saying: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

USPS has quoted from this saying itself in advertisements and other materials, so it would appear that they approve of the sentiment. Snow is the first poor climatic condition listed.

As such, I’m always a little surprised when USPS suspends service. They announced a suspension on Saturday due to the blizzard, and while I haven’t heard anything from them since I certainly didn’t get any mail yesterday. Will there be mail today?

I’m no fan of the Postal Service, and haven’t been for a long time, but lots of stubborn organizations—particularly doctors and other medical facilities—have not embraced the Internet age and still want bills paid by mailed-check (or even mailed-credit-card information). For the time being, this is still a public service.

Between USPS’s failure to obey their own [admittedly unofficial] creed, and VDOT’s failure to clear our roads, I’m starting to wonder if I can trust the government.

That was a joke.

Update 2/14/2010: For the record, mail was delivered to our house on Saturday, 2/13/2010 . . . for the first time since Friday 2/5/2010. Yes, you read that right. Our incredibly reliable USPS decided to skip an entire week.

Blizzard of 2010 Photos

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I’ve been loving the Blizzard of 2010 here in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Normally I would have just sat-tight for a day or two, but Melissa’s art show wasn’t canceled so I was out in the thick of it. The Subaru, once again, handled it beautifully. Today I went ahead and dug Melissa’s car out too. Here are some photos!

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.