Well, guess what. It's not snow. It's ICE. Solid, packed,
slippery as hell ice. The kind where you can only move upon it if you're Tonya
Harding, let's say. Or if you're wearing your own pair of ice skates with really really sharp
blades. IT'S CRAZY. Yet last week this is exactly what my deck looked like, along with the entire rest of the city. And... alot of the city is STILL covered in it. So is my deck and lawn, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree.
The streets have certainly been plowed by now, but there is
still plenty of ice up along side the curbs and often still on the lawns,
parking lots, etc. On my deck, I still have so much of the ice that I haven't
been able to walk upon it for a week. Okay. So again... guess what.
As we speak it's now SNOW that is now coming down! It began
about an hour ago. So basically the snow is now falling upon the already packed
ice. No big deal, one might think. Except... yet again... guess what. WE
ARE EXPECTING 8 INCHES OF SNOW to fall. Eeeeks. Can you even
imagine??
Granted... I am a far cry from Boston, thank God, but still. I
can't beLIEVE what I will wake up to tomorrow, given the snow is supposed to
fall for the next 7 hours. Man oh man. This is wayyy nuts.
Last week, we all spent the first full day of the ice storm
inside. By the day after that... we all went stir crazy but FAST. I thought I'd
shoot myself. Luckily a whole bunch of us were able to get out of our driveways
(bless you, James for shoveling and salting my driveway within mere hours after
the event) hooking up for at least one meal. No easy feat mind you, given we had
to be VERY careful of black ice. However... going stir crazy makes you do crazy
ass things. So basically for three hours each day for the next four days, we all
met, ate either brunch or lunch, and then all headed home while the below
freezing temps pretty much kept the frozen ice in place. By Friday, we met up at
the ice cream place since we totally needed a Sundae for comfort food! Don't
ask. Oh yeah... the nighttime temps were in the low single digits.
Whatever.
Anyway... luckily I always had power, always had heat and of
course, always had a stocked refrigerator filled with plenty of goodies. Which
may not necessarily be the same for this snow deal, given it will be heavy, wet
snow which kinda means power lines and trees could become totally weighted.
Which is why I PRAY my generator kicks in should power outages become a
problem. The upside of all this is that I was able to get some incredibly
beautiful pictures, which when blown up are stunning shots of winter. Some of
them are shown below. Pre snow fall, mind you.
I can't wait to shoot more tomorrow which could wind up being the
only activity available to me while I await James to come yet again, to shovel
me out. Well wait. I also have my computer. I have my Kindle. I have my iPad. I have my cell phone. And as long as my satellite dish doesn't get weighed down, I also have my TV. So I'm
thinking I'll have plenty to keep my busy the first 24 hours. It's the NEXT 24
that worries me. Uh... I don't do well with cabin fever. In the meantime, get a
load of some of these picts. All ice!
I have to admit... I totally love Valentine's Day. To me, it's a
day to celebrate love. Or... at the very least... like. I consider myself pretty
lucky given I have had more than my fair share of people who have loved me and more
importantly, I have happily loved them in return. And I'm not talking about kinfolk
love, either. I am a sucker for romance thus I am referring to the kind of love
where you swoon over someone who absolutely makes your heart flutter. The sort of love where
you enjoy being with that one person more than anyone else on the planet. Also where you get to
enjoy kisses that make you go weak in the knees and yes, probably offers up great sex,
too. Basically... someone who just out and out knocks your socks off.
I also adore love stories. Love movies. Love songs. Even love
poems. I was but in high school when I first read HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME
COUNT THE WAYS. Now THERE is a love poem, if ever I heard one. Thank you Elizabeth Barrett
Browning for giving a young school girl a mighty lovely romantic fantasy to enjoy for
the rest of her life. In the meantime...
I also love surprises. Happy ones, that is. The kind I got
yesterday, actually. First of all, I got to Skype with my kid for about a half
hour. That always makes me smile. Then I headed out to a weekly brunch with the
girls. Then I did errands before I headed home, only to find my alltime favorites
waiting for me at my doorstep.
One was a single pink rose nestled in baby's breath with
a card signed: FROM YOUR SECRET ADMIRER. Naturally I pretty much knew who it was
from, but even better... I got a DEElicious gift with yet another sweet message from altogether different admirer that was
REALLY fantastic. A beautiful box of chocolate covered strawberries from SHARI'S
BERRIES! I love her strawberries!! If you have not ever had them... order them
for yourself NOW. Seriously... they are incredible. Oh yeah... they arrived about noon let's say and by midnight last night, I had downed them ALL. What can I say?
I love fruit.
Anyway... so indeed. It turned out to be a wonderful day of
romance. Flowers and chocolate. Who could ask for more? Well... wait. Speaking
of more....
YIPPEE. TODAY I WENT TO SEE 50 SHADES OF GREY!! Granted, I
prepared myself for it being a crapola sort of movie, but I DID read the entire
trilogy so I HAD to see how all this played out in the movie. Guess what? It was
totally excellent crap! Of course my being the idiot that I am, I was SHOCKED to
see how soon the story ended. No wonder. The other two books in the trilogy will
come out at a LATER date. Duh. I can't believe what I jerk I was to
imagine the enTIRE story would be covered in this one film. Doesn't matter
though since...
This turned out to be a perfectly fine Valentine's weekend. I hope EVERYone got to enjoy some bit of sweetness from someone they enjoy. Afterall, love is what makes the world go round, right? Oh... in closing, get a load of this, btw. Oh man. This so can't be good. Case in point: check out the lows on Wednesday and Thursday nights. EEKS.
Earlier today I was in the car and as always, I was listening to my alltime favorite: Howard Stern. I love his radio show. I even pay for it and lots of other channels via Sirrius satellite. In
particular, I love his interviews. They are by far, the alltime best. Actually,
Al Michaels calls Howard the best interviewer in the country, but whatever.
Plus... Howard is so on target about many many topics; not the least of which was
his take today on mandatory vaccines for children. As in: what the hell is
what's with these parents who haven't weighed the lesser of two evils and
figured out vaccines saves childrens' lives. Uh... about that polio shot we all
had as youngsters? Kinda think that maybe it helped to totally reduce the disease
in millions of kids?? Smallpox sound familiar? But whatever. In the meantime...
What I really loved today was when Howard was talking about
the Super Bowl players. And how, for whatever reason, when announced and/or questioned by
reporters, they not only state their names, but also, their college ID's. In
other words: to which college they went. Sorta like: Linda... University of
South Florida. Howard went on and on about this topic until finally, he decided
he wanted his staff (and callers) to ALSO do the same. As in: Howard Stern... Boston University. (graduated Summa Cum Laude in
Communications, btw) All I can tell you is that the conversation
immediately became hilarious. Oh yeah...
Howard also suggested that in addition... what the pro football
players should REALLY be asked to do, is recite the multiplication tables up to
12. This had me roaring, needless to say. Or if not that, then maybe just say
their name and include: convicted or not convicted. I was totally laughing right
smack out loud by now. Talk about the truth often being said in jest, right? He also
felt that maybe you could even throw in a number referring to how many times
you've been laid. I just totally couldn't help but laugh. Anyway...
Howard eventually decided to have several of his staff members
come into the studio; staff who btw, any fan such as myself would know in a
flash. They were to announce themselves stating their names and the college they
attended. Things got to be really hilarious by now... especially because those
people stated their name and the college they went to, alright. But... SEVeral
sorta, kinda forgot to ALso mention that they never actually GRADuated from
the school! Total cheating, if you ask me. And btw, this is exactly what kills me on
Facebook, let's say. Attending college and graduating from college are way two
different things altogether.
Particularly in football, which often could be soooo misleading.
Case in point: Ok, so the player graduated college. BUT graduating with a 1.8
GPA is not at ALL what I'd call walking away with a fantastic, comprehensive
sort of education, let alone never graduating in the first place. I mean...
seriously. A+ in sports is one thing. D+ in Basic Studies is bullshit. Just
saying. Besides, don't even get me started on the grasp of the English language
and/or grammar of football players.
More importantly... sorry Charlie. It doesn't really count if
you merely atTENDed school. I mean... the whole point is to get finished with school. As in: a diploma. Hell... I'll be happy to attend one class at Harvard
and boom. Where'd you go to school, Linda? Harvard University. REALLY? YOU
WENT TO HARVARD? WHY... YES. YES, I DID. OH... GRADUATE? UH... WELL, UH... ACTUALLY, NO. Which of course is what I should have anted up in the first place. Otherwise... completely misleading, right? Seriously... this is what I call: withholding information. MAJOR information.
Which is why the show today was so damn amusing. You should have HEARD what the staff was saying about their education. Or in some cases, not saying. I loved when some had to backtrack but plenty in their educational claims. OH. I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN NOW. IN THAT CASE, THEN I ONLY HAVE A CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION FROM THE LOCAL TECHNICAL SCHOOL.
All I can tell you is that like everyday, I had a simply delightful ride home
listening to all this crapola. Which reminds me... today was a major day of
energy and accomplishment. For some unbelievable reason, all of sudden I woke up with the energy of a 35 year old! Which is good since amongst other things, I had 4 different returns to do at 4 different stores
and YIPPEE YIPPEE. Got them all done in about an hour and a half. I totally
deserve a prize which maybe in the end I did get, since I probably made a quick
$250. I may hate doing errands, but man do I ever love making money while doing
so.
