8 posts tagged “winter”
After almost a week of temperatures during the day above the freezing mark, yesterday there were just traces of snow here and there on the ground. Now everything is completely covered and the forecast says that between five and eight inches of snow are going to fall today. Winter is still here. I am not shocked.
Winter. I seldom if ever complain about the season. I like the cold. I find it to be a refreshing change of pace from the sticky humidity of summer. Plus it seems natural to me to have the seasons change. I can not imagine living in a place where the temperature is almost a constant and there is no snow. Yes, my lips may get chapped and my fingers numbed from time to time, but overall I like the winter months. Now having said the positives, I will admit that there is a negative. Driving on snow covered roads at night is not a fun time.
Last night we had expected to see snow coming down as we left the theater. As we exited the underground parking structure that was not the case, so we decided to stop and eat something at a favorite restaurant of ours. Then as we were waiting for the check to arrive we could see the flakes filling the sky. Sigh. We had lingered too long. At first there was little to no trouble making our way home. Oh, there were the arrogant in their trucks speeding by, but we were in no hurry to reach our destination. All that waited for us at home was bed and maybe a movie. Then maybe three miles from home it happened. Rounding a curve my tire slipped off of the snow covered paved road onto the ice covered gravel. The immediate change in traction caused my car to lurch violently and soon I was swerving forward instead of driving. It was not a pleasant ride, but thankfully it did not last long as I spun around and ended up facing the other direction in the ditch.
I was fine. Yes, adrenaline was pumping through my body, but I was unharmed. If anything I was angry. In my twenty plus years of driving, this was the second time that I had ever lost control of my car on snow. The first time had occurred while I was in an altered state and cured me of ever driving that way again. Now a more mature driver in a clear state of mind, I had somehow repeated something that I did not want to repeat. Unlike that other time in the past, I did not have to run to a friends house for help. She had been behind me in her car and saw the whole thing happen. Sadly even with her help there was no way that we could free the car from its newly formed snow bank prison.
Even after returning with a shovel and trying to give the tires something to grip, the car was not going anywhere. With frozen snow firmly lodged under the front axle and a rear tire off the ground, the car wheels did nothing but spin. A tow truck was needed and called. A mere thirty seconds under the power of the winch and one hundred five dollars later, I was free to drive home. It was not how I wanted the night to end.
I had two informal goals for this year. One of them was to read more than a book every couple of months and the second was to exercise more than I usually do. Of those two goals, I seem to be about two thirds of the way on both of them. I read a book in January and immediately started another one for February, but sabotaged my momentum on the second book by leaving it at work this week. Sigh. So to compensate for this mistake I started another book from my pile at home. I chose Mark Helprin's book Winter's Tale. The title alone made it an appropriate choice in my mind. Snow can still be measured in feet instead of inches outside and above the freezing mark on the thermometer has not been a reality in a while. Now a mere forty pages into the book, I have to say that I made a good choice. I like the overall cadence of the book and it reminds me how well the English language can be used to describe people and places.
Back to the exercise front, I tend to better at keeping my routine when I am at work than at home. Having easy access to a room full of exercise equipment is better for me than doing something more basic at home. I need to work on that side of the task more than I have so far this year if I want to increase my weekly days of exercise from three to five.
I have yet to be disappointed by Lost this season. Unlike other people who like the program, I do not search the web looking for clues. Nor do I seek out any rumors and or discussions on as to what might happen next. I am content to let the story unfold from week to week. Instant gratification is not a vice of mine.
Having watched about four episodes of the anime series Eureka 7, I have come to the conclusion that season four might not be the best place to start with a program. I like what I have seen, but I have many questions. Plus the frenetic action of Eureka 7 seems almost silly in comparison to the internal monologues of Ergo Proxy, where an entire episode took place inside the mind of one character. I find Re-L to be of the best characters anime characters ever and am very curious as to how her story will come to an end.
Another quiet night at work has come to an end and I could not be happier about it. Now my concern is the return trip back into work tonight. At the moment a steady rain is coming down and flooding the streets. With the ground frozen and snow blocking sewer drains there is little place for it to go. Then later this evening the rain is supposed to shift over to snow. So I suspect that there will be ice covered roads with snow to obscure my vision as I make my way. I would prefer to stay home.
Even though I have two discs of the anime series Ergo Proxy to watch I enjoyed two episodes of Full Metal Panic at work. I enjoyed every minute of Panic and want to see more as soon as I can. Streaming video is a wonderful thing.
This is the first home that I have ever owned with a fireplace and I love it. There were some problems in the beginning, but that was not my fault. My place had been the model of the subdivision and from what the fireplace people can gather when they looked at it, is that someone from the builders scavenged my fireplace for parts and left it in a half assembled mode. Once that was corrected, I could sit back and enjoy the heat from the flickering flames. Now with the temperature dropping well below zero at night, the quiet heat is a welcomed bonus. Something about being able to see the source of warmth makes it that more meaningful to me.
I knew that it was going to happen, but I still find it a little sad so early in the season. Warm temperatures and steady rain have washed away any snow that was on the ground. Yes, I know that there are still two months left in winter so there is plenty of time left for new snow to fall, but the sudden transformation of the landscape makes it seem sad to me. The holidays are truly over.
A small amount of mold was discovered at the window sills of my place last night. I had a feeling that had happened because the windows were sweating so much from the contrast of the heat inside versus the cold outside. After doing some research, I found out that I was right and that the problem can be corrected with a small amount of preventative maintenance. Part of me is relieved that there is nothing wrong with my place, but at the same time, I was not pleased to see the mold in the first place.
When I walked out of work Saturday morning, I so wished that I had my camera with me. What I saw all around me was the definition of a winter wonderland. Every single tree that I could see was coated with fresh white snow. That simple covering transformed the landscape into something magical in appearance and reminded me why I like winter as much as I do. Yes, the temperature is cold here for months at a time, but the sight I saw is something that people in Florida may never see in their lifetime. I however get to see it every year.
Since I cannot travel myself at this time of year, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Michael Palin make his way from the North Pole to the South Pole. In the first three episodes he crossed Norway, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Egypt. I recognized Helsinki in the program, but everything else was new to me.
