After last week's ice storm during which we were out of power for a day, I gave my dad a call to see how they were holding up. They live up in New Hampshire who got hit worse than we did down in Massachusetts.

He was still without power, and there was no end in sight. So I offered up my generator, which he reluctantly accepted.

Fast forward one full week. There was a big storm coming and I was getting nervous that we'd need it here again. I picked up my cell phone to call him and it rang in my hand. It was him, calling me the same time (spooky!) to say that power had just come back and that he'd be driving down to return the generator in the morning. He'd been running it for a solid 5 days.

That night it had snowed several inches, but there he was, taking no chances that his grandkids would be without power as the tail end of this storm promised heavy icy rain.

As we were lifting it out of his car and moving it back into the garage, he apologized for not filling up the tank, but he didn't want it to slosh around and leak in the back of the SUV. Are you kidding? I didn't even give it to you full.

He also apologized for not changing the oil on it for me. Again, are you kidding me? You've had no power for a week.

But he did hand me a small bottle of threadlocker, "That nut on the rubber foot keeps coming off from the vibrations," and a big lock and chain. "These things are being stolen left and right. Keep it locked up when you're running it."

There's a proverb I seem to recall that goes something like this, "Never return a neighbor's dish empty."

Thanks for the lesson, Dad.

It's fun watching my 2-1/2 yo son, Alex, start to grasp the concept of Christmas. Last year he was too young to have any idea what was going on.

This year, while I still don't think he has any idea what's in store for him, he knows something is up and that Santa's coming (whatever that means).

But I think the stress is starting to get to him. Last night he woke up crying at 2 am urgently speaking words that I just couldn't figure out. "da armints under my bed" and "da armints beeping".

Armints? huh?

After a game of 20 questions, I finally figured out that he must have been dreaming about Christmas ornaments. Ornaments under his bed? Beeping?

Ornaments Alex?

yes!

Under the bed? beeping?

yes! red and purple!

He could not be consoled. Finally, we had to take a walk downstairs to see the Christmas tree which somehow eased his mind.

As soon as we got there, he broke into an impromptu rendition of "Jingle Bells". With that he went back to bed.

Even at 2 am, I had to laugh.

OK, now that all the subdomain updates are kicking in, getting ready to 'announce' the 'big launch' of d.jangro.com.

What the heck are you doing, Scott?

There are a few factors at work here...

1. I'm always eager to learn new stuff. I've written a few python scripts before, but in evaluating web application frameworks, I owe it to myself to get familiar with django.
2. This blog is written in python using the django framework. I just like how it's so close to my last name. the 'd' is silent in Django.
3. I want to check out Google App Engine. This site is hosted there.
4. I'm always holding back posting stuff on my primary blog, jangro.com, because it's so ingrained as an affiliate marketing blog. I also have this thing where I must post heady, well written (as I can) entries. Whenever I allow myself to get away from that there, I don't like it.

This pretty sweet basic python blog application is written by Benjamin Golub. You'll see that I really customized it (not). Sorry Benjamin, I will, really. I found his blog while reading up on SUP.

Fun stuff. I'm going to treat this like a tumblelog. A place to post just about anything that comes to mind that I cannot in a right mind post to jangro.com

freedom!

I just can't seem to be able to get into friend feed. I try and try. I think I know why now -- I started out by following some of the social media celebrities.

I've been realizing that these guys are actually ruining it for me. Not that they're doing anything wrong, I just don't care what they're talking about incessantly.

So, Justine, Scoble, Calacanis, Feldman, et. al., see you later. Nothing personal, in fact that's just it, it's just not personal.

(I know they're crushed.)

Here's my new scratch blog that I'm running on Google App Engine and running on python, of course.

Hopefully soon, it'll be visible at this URL: d.jangro.com

Fingers crossed!