All Things Bubba

Snow on an ornamental crab apple tree
Only a couple of weeks ago, people were wondering where the snow was. Hah. Now it seems like it's snowing every other day.

Today we got socked. It wasn't supposed to start until the afternoon, but it was snowing by mid-morning. I had been planning to leave work early, partly because of the weather, partly to catch the Mitchell report news conference, but the roads got so bad, so fast, I ended up staying until almost my usual quitting time. I was hoping the roads would be plowed and the traffic would lessen. (It was so bad they closed the malls. Two weeks before Christmas, and they closed the malls. Yikes.)

My car was buried under almost a foot of snow by the time I left the office. It took forever to brush it off, even though a kind stranger helped me. Then I wasn't sure I'd be able to get out through the knee-high snow. Took a lot of wheel-spinning, but I finally made it.

The main arterial through town was reportedly backed up for miles, so I took the back roads. No traffic, but the roads were very greasy. I should have taken my chances on the arterial.

I did make it home safely, though I had a couple of moments where I had to shift into low gear to get the car moving. Now the question is whether I'll be able to dig my car out tomorrow. It's still snowing. And there's supposed to be another storm this weekend.

The non-tender deadline has been completely eclipsed by the Mitchell report. The Reds non-tendered two players last night - Jerry Gil and Brad Salmon - and promptly re-signed them to minor league contracts. I wondered if the Yankees might do the same with the players they non-tendered, and the answer seems to be yes, at least for one of them. Darrell Rasner's dad says his son will return to the Yankees.

Don't know if the other players will agree to similar deals. It will probably depend on whether they get any better offers, and whether they think they have a chance at cracking the Yankees' roster.

A-Rod's contract was made official today. I wonder if that's the reason for the long delay. Not just to wait until after the non-tender deadline, but to try and deflect attention from the Mitchell report.

And speaking of A-Rod...Jose Canseco said he couldn't believe A-Rod's name wasn't in the report. Ugh. He's hinted before that A-Rod is a juicer. Canseco is a sleazeball, but so far, everything he's said about juicing has proved to be right. I hope he's wrong about A-Rod. I was looking forward to his wiping out Bonds' asterisked record. What a bummer if A-Rod's records end up asterisked, too.