After finishing his snow plowing route yesterday, Mike drove up to my father's house. Huck had already plowed his driveway and shoveled the steps and was getting the snowblower started to clear a path to the woodpile. Mike helped with that chore and then went along.

Even though fewer than half the people were in the office yesterday, it was difficult to find a quiet time to work. The people who were there were extra chatty. Once I started work in earnest, I was able to get some good stuff done. I stayed until after 5:30. As I've mentioned to Sandra, the work that I'm doing will either be an important breakthrough or a massive sinkhole of time, energy, and money.

On the way home from work, I stopped in to Blockbuster for a movie. I usually go there on a Saturday morning and the place is filled with parents and kids. On a weekday night, however, the store is shelter to guys with stunned expressions, each carrying a half dozen DVDs. It wouldn't have taken too many deflections in my life's journey for me to have wound up there. I wasn't in the A/V club in high school, but spent a lot of time with the shortwave radio in the science project room.

A story about this coffee shows up on the news wires fairly frequently, but is worth repeating.