my god winter's a bore

I have neither overheard nor participated in a conversation about anything besides the weather and the havoc it's wreaked in many, many days. It is funny to remember that just a few weeks ago I was longing for a cold, wintry day so that I could stay in my house, watching movies and puttering around with lots of yarn, because I have some sort of weird internal thing where I can only stay inside and be lazy if it's cold and/or dark outside. Well, wish granted, except that I am now officially sick of being inside with yarn and my ass actually hurts from sitting on my couch. Even the dogs, the only creatures in this world who never get sick of me look, if not sick, slightly bored by me. And I don't blame them, not one whit. I did force myself to the gym last night, despite pounding headache and overwhelming existential fatigue. I listened to Janis Joplin on my dying ipod while riding the stationary bike and thumbing through a left-behind copy of Shape magazine (I have a love of reading stupid magazines while on the stationary bike, they are just so chock full of endless advice: eat this, walk there, stretch like this, visit this place, try communicating in this way; it's sort of fantastic). I went home after and was pretty much ready to throw in the towel at 8:30, crawl into bed with my big thick tome and try not to pass out with the book on top of me. But then the phone rang and I ended up on the receiving end of a friend's monologue, which was sort of better than reading as I could rest my eyes and just occasionally murmur so as to make it clear I was listening.
Apparently the next storm will be mild, although I no longer believe anything the weather forecasters say. After all, if we end up getting another two feet, they'll just explain what happened (a cold air system moved in and became literally fixed over Agua Fria). One thing that's clear is that three or four days of bad weather combined with just a little bad luck (downed power lines, a bad accident, something) and Santa Fe could easily be undone and for good. This past week has revealed just how poorly prepared our infrastructure is, and this isn't to cast stones. Infrastructure is kind of a long-term investment and clearly the city has been struggling to respond now in the way that it should have responded immediately had it been prepared to respond immediately, which it wasn't. The comments on the new mex's story about potholes are hilarious; trust Santa Fe readers to hone in on the fact that the person featured in the story was driving a Mercedes!

nusbaum street!

After many days and many complaints about the state of the roads, the city is finally doing something, although too little too late. And what is up with Nusbaum? When I called this morning (for the record, I have never called the city to complain about anything), I talked to someone who wasn't sure which street Nusbaum is. Um, the one with your library on it? It's terrifying!
Speaking of terrifying, last night's shoot out is pretty scary, particularly given how confusingly it's been conveyed. When I read this morning's story, I wasn't convinced that I had a very good explanation for why cops were firing repeated shots when there tons of people around, and that business with the father and his daughter crouching on the floorboards? Now it looks like several police have been put on leave. Also, if he has an extensive criminal history, why isn't it in the story? Maybe they are waiting for tomorrow's print edition?
Well, I'm just happy I could log in today. I tried numerous times with Safari but blogger was bugging out, so I switched to firefox and it seems to be working. Word! New Year, must have new blogs. Preferably about something besides the weather, yes?
On the bright side, my friends are throwing a New Year's party this weekend because the general consensus has been that new year's kind of sucked this year for most people (I spent much of mine stuck in the snow in the boy's car, which definitely sucked).
OK, my head hurts and I have to work on my December budget... (work, not personal, I wish I had a personal budget). That will likely make my head hurt worse.

the iceman cometh

The most serious problem with blogger 2 is that I can't seem to use it from my Sidekick, which was the only means I had of communicating for the last... um, several million hours. Being snowbound, quite literally, gave me lots of time to think. Thinking, it turns out, is not really my strong suit. And being a shut-in, though novel on day one, became rather gruesome by day, um, 7? Prompting this interchange between the boy and myself.

ME: Why do I feel so gross?
Boy: Because you've been wearing the same sweatshirt for three days?

Other thoughts:

1. Not having Internet at home because you have it at work and how much Internet does one person need anyway is a reasonable position during normal times. During a blizzard it becomes the stupidest idea in the world and results in trying to read the local papers on a telephone, which results in a blinding headache.

2. Reading the local papers (on the phone or not) during a blizzard is a waste of time because they have no information of any use in them anyway.

3. Watching the local news is of no help whatsoever because apparently Santa Fe doesn't have any news since there was no information about anything in Santa Fe for the last five days.

4. People who drive SUVs without any care about the environment are smarter than the rest of us.

5. People, like myself, who drive sports cars are idiots and deserve to be trapped in their houses (save a rescue visit from Samia yesterday who took me to a restaurant, thus prompting me with a reason to take a shower).

6. People who are trapped at home for days on end and manage to do nothing besides read and knit are, clearly, very very lazy.

7. The city and county have done such a poor job clearing the streets it's unfathomable.

8. For all the talk about emergency preparedness, we are clearly not prepared for a snowstorm, let alone a terrorist attack. In fact, terrorists could attack us with snow and we'd be pretty much screwed.

9. Holiday vacation seems to have stressed me out more than normal coming to work.

10. Miss summer.