the bright side. very bright. and hot.

Back in the Lou for a few days, and surprise! It feels like a million Swedes opened their sauna doors in my face the minute I step out on my porch. Some people call this summer, but I call this gulag. For me, and the rest of the civilized population up there on the 45th parallel, summer is a time when you get to wear bathing suits during the day and jeans and a sweatshirt at night. Glorious balance.

But! I am happy to be home. I missed my man and my cat and I need to get cracking on this baby room and oh yeah, also all of the schoolwork that for some reason didn't get done while I was up northing lolling around on the beach. So instead of whining about how the air here feels like molasses, I will simply close my eyes, think cool thoughts, and remember all the glorious watery-ness of the past week.

Also? We canned peaches! My domesticity knows no bounds.

cold rooftops

Just so we're clear, flurries do not equal snow either.

I want accumulation!

I've spent the entire day trying to rescue my laptop from the Great Hard Drive Slow-Down of '09. I know that the second to last week of a semester is not an ideal time to undertake this kind of a mission, but I have been putting it off for over 6 months now. It turns out that there is NEVER a good time to give up a few days on the computer when you are in graduate school. It turns out that the work never stops. And, since in order to finish this semester, it would be convenient to be able to say, save the paper that I am writing, I decided it had to happen now. Or, I guess the computer decided it for me.

This experience has reinforced my feeling that the people at computer stores (mac related places especially) have magical powers and are able to a) do the exact same thing you've done 80 times and yet the time they do it it works, and, more to the point of this endeavor b) put a hex on you if you appear too overly confident. You know, just to take you down a notch. It's like... a business strategy, to stay in demand. The minute I say anything to the effect of "no, you don't need to do that part, I can take care of that at home", I feel the slow creep of dread. Can I? Can I do it at home? There is usually a 50/50 chance.

Anyway, this is far more than you ever wanted to know about my disk space, so I'll just say that after 3 trips, but *only* $170 spent so far, I think I am in the midst of successfully reinstalling my operating system and restoring all of my files. By myself. onto a big gigantor 500 GB hard drive.

Also, it is blowing like mad out there, there are limbs down in my yard, every person I know is stranded somewhere in a blizzard, but all I get are a few measly flakes and subzero wind chills. STL is my winter purgatory, but at least I have a functioning computer so I can view weather reports and pictures from the great white north.

if you're going to do it, you might as well go all the way.

From: me

To: my dad

----

Oh, not too much happening around here.
maybe you've noticed, but it is COLD. everywhere. all the time.
i have cabin fever something fierce.
and it is the lazy-making kind of cabin fever where i am so antsy at home but i can't generate the will to go anywhere else b/c it is so cold and so dark.

wer're going to look at a couple of houses this weekend. i am torn between being excited and enticed by all the deals out there and my typical knee-jerk reaction to the idea of purchasing anything over $50-- which is stubborn refusal and an elevated heart rate.
anyway, i think A's biological clock is ticking. he is in nesting mode. he wants a house, wants 'to build equity', wants a workshop & new cabinets to hang.
i want to stick my head in the sand and rent for the rest of my life b/c it seems less risky & waaaay less responsibility.
I guess it is a good thing that one of us is aspiring to adulthood.

i just re-read that paragraph and realized how crazy i sound. ha. i think i might rip that whole passage off and blog it. but be assured, you read it here first. i'm not recycling blog posts into emails, just the other way around!

malaise

Dear internet, please tell me I am not the only one curled up on the couch at 6:30 on a Wednesday, trying to decide between continuing to nap, starting to drink, or eating myself out of house and home.  

Every year I go through a small bout of what I like to call my February Doldrums.

Only this year, it seems to have started in January.

I blame the cold.  And the dark.  

And the broke-ness.

But it is always cold and dark in January.

And I am always broke. 

So what gives?  Why do I have a persistent sense of dissatisfaction and mild grumpiness?

I have a whole list of little fun projects and big important work that I need to be attending to, but today I came home and it was so cold in my house that I had no choice but to sit down on my couch, with my jacket, hat and scarf still firmly in place, and watch the end of Charlie's Angels until I warmed up enough to make a cup of tea.  Charlie's Angles! I despise Cameron Diaz and her shockingly evident ribcage.

I'm not trying to be picky.  I'm not wishing for 70 degrees & sunny.  I just want it to be warm enough to take my dog for a walk in the park before we both lose our minds.  I was trying to take a bath yesterday and she kept barging in to the bathroom and sticking her head over the rim of the tub until she'd had enough of my dallying and threw her toy right into the water. Lovely.

I know it is cold where you are as well.  I'm wishing you warm thoughts, hot toddies and a seat by the fire until this cold snap breaks.  Then, we can all meet in the park.  I'll be the one running in circles with a jackrabbit on a leash.

snow is awesome

weather progression

day 1 : snow past your knees.
cross-country skied to pyramid point.


day 2 : fog covered the entire state of michigan as we tried to drive home. i wondered if it was some kind of conspiracy by the cyborgs to block something sinister from the view of the satellites.



day 3 : arrived back in the STL to temps in the 50s.


this is crazy-making.

storms a brewin'

No bike ride for me this morning.
The wild stripey morning sky quickly gave way to menacing clouds and then a torrential downpour.