November 10: The Weather Outside Is Frightful, Storm, "Web" Dip

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful."

Yes, it is.  Starting around noon, the day has slowly turned to crap.  Wind.  Snow.  Drifting.  More snow.  When I got home from work, I spent an hour snowblowing.  For my disciples from southern climates, that means that, for sixty minutes, I was pushing a snowblower up and down my driveway.  By the time I was done, I was head-to-foot ice and snow.  I looked like Big Hero 6.

And it isn't over yet.  The National Weather Service is now predicting between 24 and 36 inches by storm's end.  Three freakin' feet of snow!  That means that I will be up at 5 a.m. tomorrow, hip-deep in drifts, digging out my car.  I am already tired of winter, and it hasn't even started yet.

My daughter just found out she has no school tomorrow.  She let out an audible whoop and then started texting like crazy.  I'm sure the substance of her texts went something like, "Suck it!  I don't have school tomorrow."  We have mac and cheese, ramen noodles, hot dogs, and Doritos--all the supplies required for a snow day in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  I'm a little jealous.

I wouldn't mind this storm if I could just stay...stay in bed.  That's the best part of a blizzard.  Letting everything go to crap outside while sucking down hot chocolate inside.  Unfortunately, I have to be on the road by about 7 a.m.  Which brings me to my Web dip question:

Are we actually going to get three feet of snow?

And the answer from Charlotte is:

"That remains to be seen.  But I am going to save you, and I want you to quiet down immediately.  You're carrying on in a childish way.  Stop your crying!  I can't stand hysterics."

That remains to be seen?!!!  That's not very definitive.  That's like an answer I would give my daughter.  Her:  "Daddy, can I have an iPad for my birthday?"  Me:  "That remains to be seen."

Saint Marty's going to keep his fingers crossed.  Maybe his legs and toes, too.

Me, after snowblowing

January 30: Pizza Night

The pizza is here, and it's time for American Idol.

I'm beat tonight.  I'm not sure if it's the weather or just my body telling me to get to bed early, but every muscle in my body feels like it's sliding off my bones.  I still have to finish my devotional reading for the night, and I have to read some more of 11/22/63.

The snow has finally stopped falling outside.  It's been storming all day long.  My daughter is hoping for a snow day tomorrow, and I don't have the heart to tell her it's not going to happen.  There still may be wind howling through the trees, and Randy Jackson may be dawgin' some contestants, but I don't foresee any cancellations coming in the a.m.

I don't have much more to say tonight.  My daughter wants me to braid her hair now.  It's one of my favorite things to do.  I've loved it ever since she was a little girl, her sitting in my lap after a bath, her hair thick and wet in my fingers as I pulled and wound.

Saint Marty's getting a little sentimental.

I'm not feeling it, dawg

January 12: Snow, Another Car Appointment, Drop of Water

Snow.  We have snow this morning.  When I went to bed last night, I was expecting to wake up to a full-blown blizzard.  The weather reports were predicting over a foot of thick rain.  I woke to a couple of inches on the ground, and the wind was non-existent.  I was shocked.  Instead of a white-knuckle drive to work, I had a mildly slower drive than usual down the highway.  Not too bad.

I drove my wife's Subaru to work this morning.  I dropped it off at the garage for an oil change.  We'll see what catastrophic repair the mechanic says we need this time.  Each time I've dropped off one of our cars for an oil change in the last year, the mechanic has called to tell me of some major problem with the vehicle.  I'm not buying what the garage is selling any more.  I'm a big believer in second opinions now.

This early a.m., I opened my copy of A Christmas Carol randomly to this famous speech from Jacob Marley:



Preach, Jacob

 "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again.  "Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolance, were, all, my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

The reason this passage spoke to me was because I was listening to my local public radio station.  It was a news report about the contenders for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you already know I like Republicans about as much as I like ingrown hairs on my ass.  However, this news report irritated me more than usual.

Coming off the New Hampshire Republican primary, with Mitt Romney pretty much stomping his competition, blood is in the political air.  All the Republicans are going into a feeding frenzy on each other.  Usually, I wouldn't have a problem with Republicans tearing each other apart.  I actually enjoy it.  But these guys, instead of focusing on unemployment, hunger, poverty, foreclosure, bankruptcy--you know, all the things that normal people are worried about--are talking about each other's shady business dealings.  They're talking about what a shitty job President Obama has done.  They're talking about the "drop of water" instead of the real business of humankind.

What a different country we would live in if the people in charge made "mankind" their business.  What a different world we would live in if everybody made charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence our business.  Jacob Marley had it right.  Charles Dickens had it right.

Saint Marty wishes all human beings (and Republicans, which is a stretch) would get it right, too.