Where have I been?

I just realized it's been nearly a week since my last post. I guess you can say I've been busy. I'm not sure with what exactly, but I know I haven't been here much this week. I even missed this past week's assignment on new urban legends. I had a good idea too. Want to here it?

My new made up urban legend was about a race of super-intelligent, radioactive rats that were living in the sewers and planning a take-over of the over world. They had been feeding off all the pollution and toxic waste and evolved into super smart rats that weren't going to take it anymore. Just to make it interesting I was going to say how their plan was to take over on 09/12/01, but too many lost their lives taking there positions in the World Trade Center on the 11th. Anyway, that's what you missed. See all you miss out on when I'm not around?

Also, I've been practicing my photography skillz. (Can you uses the 'z' when talking about photography? Do I look cool or stupid? Don't answer that.) I went to this sculpture park by our house, that I didn't know existed until last fall, and practiced there. Some turned out okay, but I still need to practice more on composition and such. While this particular picture isn't great, I like it because it is disturbing to me.

See that? The dog's tongue is coming out the back of the head! That is why it is called "Heavy Dog Kiss." I can't think of a more accurate title. The rest of the photos from that day can be found here.

In the weather today...it's snowing. Which really sucks since it was in the upper 60s on Thursday and nearly as warm on Wednesday and Friday. So, yeah, happy Vernal Equinox! Of course tomorrow is the Chicago Shamrock Shuffle race, so it should be nice and chilly for that. It won't be the slush-fest it was last year, but it's not going to be nice. I swear, if it is nice next weekend I'm going to be pissed.

Speaking of races, this year they are moving the long race I've done the last two years to August and moved it to Soldier Field instead of the suburbs. Dammit! So now I'm looking at a half marathon on Labor Day. This makes me nervous since I've never done a race that long. Sure, they long race I do is 9.3 miles so the half is only 4 miles longer, but that is a tough four miles. You know? But the half marathon looks really scenic, doesn't it. Plus, I get to run through Hamburger University. How can I pass that up? We'll see how training goes, I guess.

Well, that's about all I've been up to. It better stop snowing soon.

We were much heartier back then

Tomorrow will be the second day that school is closed due to cold weather. It's about -11F out there right now, going down to about -16F or so overnight. Maybe a bit lower. When I was a kid, back in the old days, we were never off of school because it was too cold. We walked 2 miles to school with paper bags on our feet, socks on our hands, through waist deep snow; even when it was below zero. And we liked it. Nobody cared if you lost a finger to frostbite, or a nose, or most any other appendage. (I did say most!)

Funny story about waist deep snow. Back in high school we would walk to school because the bus trip was longer than the walk and, in my opinion, any time off the bus was much better, no matter how cold. Anyway, we used to walk through this field to cut out about 1/4 of the distance to the school. At some time in late fall some construction was starting up in that open field, but it was covered up by snow for the most part. Well, one day walking home one of the guys happened to step into a foundation of one of this buildings that was covered in snow. He sunk up to his waist in snow and was pretty much trapped. We laughed at him a while before helping him out. So, yes, we did walk through waist deep snow. I wasn't lying. Well, at least one of us did.

I wonder; if I stayed outside in the cold without any gloves long enough, then I took my hand and whacked it against the car, would it shatter? You know, like that scene in Terminator 2 where the Robert Patrick terminator is in liquid nitrogen then he breaks into a million pieces? That would be kind of neat. I would be without a hand, but I'd have a nice scary story to tell the kids so they make sure to wear their gloves outside. Too much?

So, what's the point of this post? I'm not sure. But I wish work would be closed due to it being too cold outside.

Stop me if I've told this story about cold already. (I searched through the blog, but I couldn't find a reference to it.) Back in the mid-80's we had a really cold Christmas. I don't remember exactly what year it was, but my sister had an '84 Trans Am at that time. We were at my dad's house for Christmas and it was brutally cold out. It was one of those days you were afraid to kick the tire on accident, just in case it could shatter. I want to say the wind chill index was down around 50 degrees below zero. I could be wrong, and they changed the measurements for wind chill anyway, but it was close to that. What I remember most is it being so cold that my sister's car door locks wouldn't work. The key would go in, but that was it. But, somehow we were able to get the hatchback open. So, I had to climb through that to open the doors. It was fun. I felt a little bit like MacGuyver. Though he would have found a way to open the car door with some gum and a toothpick.

So, yeah, it's cold. It's winter. When do I leave for San Diego again?

I remember winters like this

As you probably know from my complaining, it's been a little snow and cold here so far. We've had it pretty easy the last several years and I'm not used to this. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky. No need to respond to that.

I took some pictures. Want to see? Too bad.

This was after our first snow. As you can see this tiny little tree is barely covered to it's lowest branches. I think we got about 3-4 inches here.




Then we got our bigger storm. We were supposed to get about 8 inches but we only got about 4 inches. So, you can see the snow is a little higher on the tree but also, the little bush in front is now completely covered. This snow was much wetter than this first, so it compressed some of the older snow, otherwise it would have been higher.




Over Sunday and Monday we didn't get any snow, but it was very cold (-20 to -30 on the wind chill). Today it snowed again, and we are going to get more later today and tomorrow. Slowly the little bush is getting more covered. Due to the direction of the wind some of the snow is getting cleared away from the little bush. (I don't know why I keep calling it a tree. Also, now only the very top of the other bush is sticking out.


I figure, at the rate we are going, our house should be buried by February. That's not good since Jenn and I are going away then.

I realize this isn't much snow compared to some places, it's just the frequency of the snow that is getting to me. It's like every other day! If I was a kid I'd love it, but I didn't have to drive in it. Or, clear the driveway. Sigh. Yes, I am getting old and cranky.

I need to go shovel now.

A good start to the week

It was not a pleasant start to the week in our household. Let me tell you a little about it.

On Sunday, according to every calendar (except the one in our laundry room) Sunday is the start of the week, I worked during the day, then we went to a party at night. There are a group of us from work that were hired on the same date, so we got together to celebrate our tenth anniversary. It was fun. We all work different shifts, and different day off rotations, so we don't get to see each other as much as most co-workers do. It's interesting to see how much things have changed since we were hired. Some have gotten married, kids have been added, one has a daughter in college now; in other words, we are all getting old.

Anyway, since the party was on a Sunday we knew we wouldn't be able to stay long because the kids had school the next day. That worked out well for me. After we ate I felt lousy. I was pretty sure it was my acid reflux/ulcer problems kicking in because of the pasta sauce. So, we packed it up and left there just before 8 pm. The party was only a few miles from the house so we were home and had the kids in bed by 8:30pm, not too bad for a school night.

Because of my (what I thought) acid reflux I planned on sleeping downstairs in the recliner. For those of you who don't have the problem, laying down with acid reflux is not fun. Not that sitting up helps much, but it's better than laying down. Anyway, by about 1:00am, I realized it was something different. I won't go into details, but it was a long night. I posted a message on Twitter (are you on Twitter? Why not?) about how I'd rather have the little alien bursting out of my gut like in the movie Alien. No alien came out, though at times I wasn't so sure it wouldn't happen.

When Jenn and the kids got up, I went upstairs to bed to try and get some sleep. Jenn came in about 20 minutes later to say our son wasn't feeling well, she wasn't either, so she was going to stay home, too. So, what we ended up doing was trading off sleeping. I slept until about 11:30 am, then Jenn slept until about 1:30pm, then I went back to bed and slept until about 3:30pm. It was a fun day! I still felt lousy after 5:00pm, so I called in sick for work today as well. I feel better, but not 100 percent.

I've been saying this since since my son was sick last week; I'm glad we are getting this over with before Christmas.  We've had one really bad Christmas, we don't need another one.

There is some virus going around people. I recommend wearing hazmat suits until this passes. Maybe after the winter is over. Save yourselves! 

It's Monday, right?

Pardon me if I am a little confused; it's been an odd weekend. I worked Saturday during the day, then we went to a holiday party at night, I slept in on Sunday, then I went to work for the overnight shift. The midnight shift always messes me up because I start at 11pm the day before it shows on my schedule. In other words, when I went in at 11pm on Sunday my schedule showed I was working on Monday. So, when I am awake, I'm never 100 percent sure what day it is. At least I work during the day tomorrow. Then I am off Wednesday, and I go back to work Thursday. I have vacation time at the end of the month so I'm working all my days early. Got that? Yes, I realize that this has been the most exciting paragraph I've ever written. Thanks for saying so!

I believe I've mentioned that winter has arrived here already, to make it better we are supposed to get some freezing rain tonight. I like the way freezing rain makes the trees shine, I do not like how it makes you drive sideways down the street, slide through intersections, and just plain make it seem like the steering wheel is not connected to anything. It was supposed to start hours ago and we have nothing yet. I'm hoping it misses us. I'd much rather have a few inches of snow. With snow I can make snowman, what do you do with ice? Besides spend hours scraping of so you can open the car door. I told Jenn the other night that we are either moving to a warm climate when we retire or buying a place to live during the winter months. We better start saving. Come on economy, let's get moving! My 401K is not going to make money on it's own.

Okay, enough complaining about the weather. I should get some other things done anyway.

How was your weekend? Or Monday for that matter?

It's miserable outside

Only three or four weeks ago we were praying for 40 degree weather. Now, since we had a couple days in the 70's, this same weather is so cold. The continuous rain isn't helping. It leeches all the heat out of your body. I think work should have been called of today.