Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

It's positively balmy in Syracuse today: highs in the lower 20s. Zowee! It's enough to make the more heavily-traveled streets and roadways wear down to actual pavement, instead of the semi-permanent ice that's covered every byway for the last week or so. The problem, though, is going to come when it finally warms up sufficiently for some actual thawing (next week, perhaps). The snow-pack on the ground is now sufficiently deep that there will likely be some flooding when the thaw hits. (This was an annual concern in Buffalo, as well.)

Oh, and speaking of Buffalo, I was forwarded a news item by a friend of mine (Aaron, who is one of two people I know who really should have a blog of his own) about a new scheme that Buffalo is considering to raise some money. You know how credit-card statements and such will come with some advertising material stuffed into the envelope along with the actual bill? The City of Buffalo is considering doing this with its own mailings. I guess this can't hurt, aside from increasing the amount of junk mail in Buffalo citizen's garbage cans and recycle-bins, but still: I'd love to grab some of these guys by their suit-jacket lapels, shake them a bit, and scream, "What are you doing to increase the city's tax base, you twits?!" (Actually, they are considering selling a city-owned set of high-rise apartment buildings to a private company, which would result in some welcome tax money for the city. Of course, who knows if this will be an actual help or merely a drop in the bucket, expecially to offset the tax hit the city is likely to take when they turn over control of some downtown real estate to the Seneca Nation of Indians, for their damned casino. Arrggghhh.)