Normally I stick around the neighborhood for New Years Eve but this year I decided to spend it with my cuz Rob Reardon and his wife Connie and 3 adorable kids just outside of Fort Drum where he is stationed. Actually we have spent many a New Years eves together when he isn’t overseas serving our great country. Most of the time a few blocks away from me where his mom lives.

They just bought a house off the base and a bunch of us are heading up there, spending the night of course and who knows, maybe I’ll even get a tour of the base. Robs served all over the country during his 17 – 18 year career so far with the Army. Places include Colorado, Alabama, Germany and did tours in both the the Gulf war and the Iraq war. Obviously we are all very proud of Rob and all of the troops who serve to keep our freedoms in tact. This isn’t a political post, just about how I’m looking forward to spending some time up North with family and Friends, having a few sodi pops and sitting around trying to solve the worlds problems like we normally do. My biggest fear is that once I’m there and after a few sodi pops I’ll end up signing something and waking up in Iraq. Nah, my cuz wouldn’t let that happen. Hmmm, he does tend to take a practical joke a little too far sometimes. Maybe I should make it a Pepsi kind of night.

Look out Fort Drum, here comes the Snowman and there better be some snow on the ground. If anyone from Fort Drum reads this can you let Rob know I’m coming. I think I lost the RSVP. And don’t believe any of the stories he might tell you about when we were younger and me paying him to do yard work with Jamaican money. Or was that monopoly money. All lies I tell you. I would never take advantage of my little cuz. Hey, Have a great weekend all!

Here it is late December and all I can talk about is an inch here and there. Binghamton won the latest snow round picking up just over a couple of inches. Syracuse gained about 8/10 of an inch on Buffalo’s lead picking up 1.3 inches of snowfall. Buffalo and Rock City both added another half of an inch and of course nothing but a trace showing up so far for Albany.

As boring as the snow race might seem so far there is no doubt in my mind that this season could play out to be one of the most exciting ones since the resurrection of the Golden Snowball contest. Binghamton and Rochester have a small battle going on for third place right now and Syracuse is slowly closing the big snow gap that buffalo had. So far Syracuse is the leader for snowfall amount in December picking up just over a foot of the white gold while Buffalo reports 7.4 inches for the month.

As for my snow season predictions, I’m going to stick with them. I still think Nor’ Easterns will come into play this season. How off is Syracuse compared to last seasons totals. Last year on todays date Syracuse had 59.7 inches of snow compared to 12.2 this season. If my fuzzy math is right that’s almost 4 feet of a snow difference. Who would of thought after Buffalo’s snow blast in October that December would of been this mellow? Have a great day All!

So much for my white Christmas prediction. Get use to it, I’m wrong more than I’m right. I think that’s the optimistic side of me that shows up on the GSB website. It’s snowing right now as I type however and from looking at the radars it looks like most of the Golden Snowball city’s might pick up some new snow. Since the last update only a tenth of an inch to report for Buffalo and Albany. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. Yeah, I know ya didn’t ask ; )

Buffalo, for the first time this snow season has fallen behind it’s normal to date average which I would of thought almost impossible after the freak snow storm they had in October. The good news for Buffalo is that they continue to hold a substantial lead over the rest of us with Syracuse still needing over 20 inches to catch them. Buffalo most likely will have at least a 3 foot lead over last place Albany by sometime next week. What a lame December it has been snow wise and I feel sorry for the skiers, snowmobilers and all the other snow lovers who have the time off to enjoy it for the holidays. Hopefully we will set in to a good snow pattern sometime soon and the ski resorts, snow plowers and snow businesses can start adding to their bank acts soon.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are enjoying the holiday seasons. Personally Christmas was a fun time for me having most of our family in town to help celebrate. Tiresome but still a blast. Once the holidays are over I’ll be posting more often and of course when ever there are new stats to report they will be reported. Have a great day all!

When does winter begin? I’m reading articles and hearing news reports that tonight, a little after 7PM it’s good bye fall and hello winter. But other resources, including calendars are stating that winter begins on the 22nd. My head is spinning right now trying to figure it out. Of course my head spinning when I try to think isn’t anything unusual. I was under the impression that winter this year starts tomorrow??? Thoughts, feedback, facts???

Unfortunately I’m not talking about trying to get prepared for Christmas and the holiday season. The Christmas panic attack is still at least a day or two away. I’m talking about an event that took place today. There was a press conference today at the Syracuse DPW to welcome in winter and to talk about our great snow race, the Golden Snowball contest.

The good news is that I was invited to participate. The bad news was that I was invited to participate. Don’t get me wrong. I was honored that Dennis Brogan thought about including me. The thing is I’m the type who panics and turns into a sissy man when ever I’m in front of a bunch of people. Today was no different and if you watch WIXT Channel 9 news you will see me at my best prime panicky, hyperventilating, sissy man form. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they will cut my part out or if I’m in the camera’s view the through it all, the whole presentation might end up on the cutting floor.

I wrote a short page and a half speech or whatever you want to call it to read. I think I ended up saying like 2 sentences of it and then did my best to make my escape. I’ll post below what I planned on saying and if you catch the news tonight you’ll get to see what I actually ended up mumbling out. I can appreciate Dennis’s job and anyone else who has to be a public speaker. As for me I’ll stick to typing and hiding behind the computer. All in all it was fun though and if your smart you might want to eat dinner before having your appetite ruined seeing the Snowman on the news. Just a suggestion.

The set up was perfect for the news conference. The DPW site with all the hard working men and women standing in the background and a couple of Snow Plows on each side of the podium. As was mentioned at the press conference, Anyone that lives in Syracuse has to admit we have some of the best snow removal road crews in NY if not in the entire US. I think they deserve a raise myself. Ok, I was paid to say that. I’m joking, I wasn’t paid.

The fun part was getting to meet Dennis whom I’ve talk to several times on the phone and Jeff the Commissioner of the DPW. I think that is Jeff’s title.

The biggest part of my panicky, hyperventilating day though was that I finally got to meet Sean Kirst from the Post standard. We’ve probably talked a couple dozen times on the phone and of course you all know he has been the person to keep the Golden Snowball contest going and growing each year with his great articles and research on it. To that I say, Sean it was a privilege to finally meet you today.