fatrockstar

Over a week of being snowed in and doing nothing but eating hasn't helped. I don't think I've gained a whole lot, but man... I really hate that bloated, fatty feeling. It used to make me want to eat more for some reason, but all it does now is make me very thirsty.

I'm also fighting a migraine -- one of the last stages of my hangover. You'd think by this time of day I'd be okay, but I'm not.

Outside it's become slushy. This is actually a good thing. Bare patches of asphalt are appearing and I am hopeful that there will be more tomorrow. Nothing would make me happier right now than to be able to walk to the grocery store without worrying I'm going to fall on my ass or twist my ankle in the snow. I need a good, brisk walk. I have my boot camp and kickboxing DVDs but have been unmotivated to use them.

And then there's Grady. He disappears somewhere in the house for most of the day, and when he's decided he's had enough of that he harasses the shit out of me to either let him sit on me or make me feed him. When I don't comply he finds the noisiest piece of plastic he can find and chews on it, or he goes to his litterbox to digdigdigdig... I don't enjoy trying to get something done on the computer and having his little whiny butt aggressively trying to get on my lap. He is not neglected. I promise you that.

Waiting for the Advil to kick in. I should probably go out to my car and see if I can find that vacuum seal doohickey for my 4WD.

After 40 minutes of cursing loudly in the snow under my car, I got chains on. Both attempts to move forward resulted in me throwing a chain off my rear passenger tire. It wasn't until a neighbor came along to help that the car finally made it into the garage. I now have one chain on, and another chain somewhere in the snow. I'll go back and get it on my way out to work, but still... I really need to get that looked at.

I am stuck in the cul-de-sac for the night.




This is because my 4wd went out at some point during my travels today. It could have happened when I hit a chunk of snow a little too hard. Either way, I'm done driving in this crap for any reason. When the snow melts, I go in to have it repaired and hope to god it doesn't break me.

This means that I have to find some other way to get into work tomorrow, because if I don't go, I can't afford the repair or anything else.

I will venture out-of-doors on Monday. I will attempt to deliver something I sold, and then I will attempt to go to work.

Today I made chili. I left out the cayenne, figuring that's the main reason I have never been able to actually eat the chili from this recipe, and I think I can eat it now. I have enough frozen to last me another month and a half.

If travel is a bust tomorrow, I will stay home and bake cookies. I have no snow shovel and am buried in over a foot of snow. My front yard has no character anymore, there's so much snow. If I didn't have a stoop, you wouldn't know where the walkway was supposed to go.

I should get into the habit of not being on the computer while talking to people on the phone unless I am looking up something for them.

The local paper reports that the storm wasn't as bad as predicted and the worst has passed. Now we just have to become comfortable with having a white Christmas and try not to kill each other out on the roads.

In the meantime there are thousands of people just like me who can't afford to not go to work on the three days of the week surrounding the Christmas holiday. I also can't go see Miss Judy, and can't do a number of things I had planned to do in the days before the world stands still. There is one thing I will be doing on Monday that no one can stop me from doing, and that's making a delivery of merchandise to a fellow in Everett who wants to give his wife a happy surprise on Christmas morning. I made a promise and intend to keep it.

I worry more about my habit of isolating myself than I do about relating to other people. I'm fine relating to others, it's creating the situation that is difficult. I wonder if it's just me, if I would do the same thing somewhere else.

Today is my 6th wedding anniversary. Garret didn't appear in court, so the petition was dismissed. I haven't seen him in a year.

I need to get rid of this house.

Snow has been reported in outlying areas. In Kirkland it is still light, and the wind has not picked up. Everyone expects to lose power at some point in the night for an indeterminate length of time. I am turning off my computer and will go in the other room to watch a movie and try to block stray breezes from the fireplace/chimney since I still have no idea how to light a fire in there without making my house explode.

I will be posting anything halfway interesting over at Twitter: http://twitter.com/wynnec

Keep warm, everybody.

I feel fortunate that I have a gas range and water heater rather than electric ones. I will still be able to cook and wash if the power goes out.

I just went out to hand off a bag of unopened wall & ceiling hooks to someone who responded to my FreeCycle ad. Never done that before, but I'm glad I did. I met a neighbor! I really need to stop being so terrified of calling people. We have telephones for a reason, and they can't all be incoming calls.

It's really fucking cold out there. Cold and bright. I wrapped my scarf around my mouth so I wouldn't have to breathe icy air, only to manage fogging up my sunglasses. I can see, or I can breathe -- I can't do both.

Right now things are calm (knock on wood). I just have to go get some produce for my chili (and more meat, because I am not that bright when it comes to memorizing recipes, apparently) and return some movies. I'm not too concerned about the power going out. I'm more concerned about all my friends who live at the top of hills that can't go anywhere due to icy roads.

With all the stuff coming down from my sky you'd think there'd be more on the ground. I just took a ruler outside and measured just under 2" of snow. It looks like the sun is trying to come out.

Allison is IMing me to let me know a group is about to walk to a pub by her place. If I joined them I'd have to drive, and I don't know if it's worth it. I'm still waiting for the afternoon commute to start so I can get an idea of what the road is like. The intersection that gets me out of the 'burbs and toward the commerce is notoriously perilous when it's dry. I can't imagine what it's like covered in snow and ice. I'd really like to go. It's too far for me to walk -- I'd be outside for an hour at least, and it's uphill all the way back... darn.

My fingers are cold.

I can't even work from home because the remote access email isn't letting me in anymore. Why am I not playing video games? Oh, right -- it's because I'm addicted to my window to the world known as The Internet.

I'm fighting the urge to bake cookies. Instead I am cleaning and throwing things out in piles. Anybody know if I should be keeping the papers that come with my prescriptions? I've never needed them before, but I'm worried that I probably should hold on to them for some reason.

I should not have the goldfish crackers in my house. I always eat the whole bag before the day is out.

Tonight it's supposed to snow. There's snow in the forecast for the next three days. I'm told it should snow at least five times before Christmas. If that is so, there is no way I'm going to be able to get out of town to visit my dad. I also won't be able to pick up anyone from the airport should they actually buy a ticket to come visit me (*cough*KidSister*cough*).

The thing that sucks about snow in this area is that hardly anybody can drive in it. It doesn't matter if you were born and raised in Greenland hauling sheep from one town to the other, if you're in the Seattle area NOW, you can't drive in it. Anywhere else you'd probably be able to, but not here. There are too many people on the road who haven't got a fucking clue what they're doing to exercise safe snow/ice driving. If you're not doing your best to avoid them, you're being hit by them.

This presents a small problem. I have two doctor's appointments this week. One of them I can't reschedule and wouldn't want to anyway because it's too important. I wonder how the rest of the week will go?

As for me, I just need to make sure I have plenty of clean, dry socks.