2002-12-09 - 3:34 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "Let It Snow!"

It SNOWED!

Since I've been disappointed in the past by predicted snow that never materialized, I was expecting, at most, a dusting. It wasn't supposed to start until 9am. Instead, I came downstairs at 8am yesterday to find at least two inches already on the ground. Wheeeeeeeee!

Poor Poindexter ended up walking about a third of the way to work. The buses are not terribly reliable, obviously, and he refused to drive. When he came home, I met him about 3/4 mile from our house and walked home with him.

After lunch, I went out to take the bills to the post office. I bundled up good, so I was TOASTY! I measured various spots around the house with a ruler, and it seemed to be about 5.5" around 2pm. I cleared off the truck, to get a head start on that, and the sidewalk in front of our house.

The neighborhood was dead. Almost no cars on the road, and a lot fewer people out. Many stores didn't bother to open. And because there were fewer cars, with the few cars that are out muffled by the snow, the streets were very quiet. I love the hushed sound. I wondered if it was like this back before cars, but then I considered that horses and carriages must've been pretty loud.

I was shuffling through virgin snow, and thinking about snow days off school, and suddenly I remembered a snippet of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book. Laura is a new schoolteacher, and she agonizes over her decision to mark a pupil tardy. That pupil had just broken a path, on foot, through about a foot of snow. And Laura marked her tardy anyway, if I recall correctly! We're just a bunch of pansies nowadays, I swear. Me especially.

So, the downside to this kind of weather is that I need to wear thermal underwear and bulky clothes in order to keep warm. That inhibits my flexibility considerably and pisses me off.

Three times in the last two days, I have tripped going up the stairs. Ordinarily I skip steps going up, but with all these clothes on, my legs won't lift high enough to hit the steps easily. I have to concentrate.

I am 31 years old now and still I sit on the floor and pull my knees up to put my socks on, just like a little kid. Every winter this suddenly gets difficult, and I think I'm getting old and stiff, and then I realize that no, it's just the layers.

We have a separate heater/AC unit for the bedroom, so I think I'm going to crank it up to 75 and hole up in the bedroom for a few hours in shorts this weekend. Maybe I'll start re-reading Atlas Shrugged while I'm at it. All my other books are still in boxes, anyway.

Other stuff:

- Earlier this week when I was driving to pick up Poindexter, I was stuck at a traffic light near which was a six-foot teddy bear wearing a santa hat and waving to passersby. It was so cute. I desperately, desperately wanted to get out of the car and give it a hug. Usually I find people in bear costumes to be a little creepy, but not this one. It was that cute.

- I hate overzealous shovelers. Those people who are out shoveling three times while it's still snowing, and shovel far more space than they need to. My neighbor shoveled a three-foot radius around his car AND an equal-sized space behind it so he could back out. But the road itself is still covered with snow. That just seems excessive, and I feel pressured to do something similar, and I really, really don't want to. Heck, the stuff's gonna be melted by Monday!

- The thing I hate about being outside when the temps are below 45 is that I get beastly hot inside my coat, but my fingers and toes stay cold.

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