It's snowing like crazy in the Cascades. Again.

I am so done with snow now. But it sure makes flying over the mountains pretty...

But my concern is driving over the mountains. With the passes all messed up, I'm cut off from civilization.

By car, anyway.

Stupid expensive plane tickets.

It takes me 5 minutes to drive home. I ended up stopping half-way because the snow accumulation on my windshield was so thick that the wipers stopped working. That's pretty bad. Then again, on the way to work I saw one car in the ditch and two others smashed on a street corner. That's really bad.

Once I finally made it home, I was done with snow.

Until I decided to walk to the cemetery and see if there was enough light to take a few photos...

And now I'm done with snow.

Well, apparently it's totally winter now.

Don't you hate it when it's snowing so hard that by the time you get to cleaning off the back-end of your car, the front-end where you started is covered in snow again?

Yeah, me too. But that didn't stop this from being my post-work super-fun activity this evening...

Snow blows. But it sucks too. It pretty much sucks and blows.

Which, unfortunately, doesn't cancel each other out as you'd expect it too.

I don't want to live in a universe where stupid snow doesn't adhere to the laws of physics.

Despite living with snowy winters most of my life, I can never seem to get used to that first snowfall.

Eventually I become accustomed the weather and it doesn't bother me that much. But today?

In the morning when going to work...

   
At night when going back home...

   
I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

Why can't they make no-stick snow coatings for cars?

When I woke up and looked out the window this morning it was snowing. This was disappointing, because I was hoping to participate in One Day Without Shoes (helping to remind people of kids living in poverty who can't afford footwear). HELPFUL HINT TO ORGANIZERS: Might have been a good idea to pick a date closer to summer so those living in North North America can participate.

And so my day was already off to a bad start with the weather, but that wasn't good enough. Irony had to rear its ugly head. My body decided to have an angioedema attack for the second day in a row, where the bottoms of my feet had swollen so badly that getting my feet into shoes was a painful prospect. So, to sum things up...

• Didn't want to wear shoes.
• Had to wear shoes.
• Couldn't wear shoes.
• But still really had to wear shoes...

And so I overdosed on antihistamines (again) which ended up giving me an upset stomach, which resulted in me puking my guts out, which meant I ended up having to take more antihistamines, which made me sleepy, which meant I had to drink Red Bull, which caused me to have an upset stomach. And so on.

My entire day ended up being a vicious circle of cause and effect.

And here at the end of my day, it's no different. The never-ending battle to stay healthy enough to work while staying awake enough not to drop into a coma has taken its toll, and I'm pretty much dead. Whether I'm dead enough to get a decent night's sleep remains to be seen. But I'm hopeful.

It's Bullet Sunday on the second-shortest day of the year!

   
• Weekly. I know it's not a special number or anything... but I've done A HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO of these things? Holy crap, WHY? Surely I have better things to do on a Sunday? Okay, I probably don't... but I really should. Shouldn't I?

   
• Sadly. Brittany Murphy died today. I know that she was made fun of quite a lot... they even had a parody of her on SNL... but I liked Brittany. She had a character type she was good at playing, and she played it very well. I loved her as "Tai" in Clueless. I really loved her as "Luanne" in King of the Hill.

I find it sad that she wasn't appreciated a little more as an actress while she was alive. She had some great roles. And yet the only press she could get recently was rumor-mongering about her getting fired from a movie. And few people seem to remember that she was also a singer who had a hit single with Paul Oakenfold...

Of course, much of the stuff I've heard from Oakenfold sounds exactly the same, but I think she did okay with her part.

I wish she would have stuck around and done more. Rest in peace.

   
• Slowly. Why won't this douchebag just die already? Slowly. In an agony equal to that which he has inflicted on an unwilling populace. I know I'm only furthering his cause here, but holy shit! Exactly how much of this joke can we be expected to take? When Chelsea Lately christened the wanker and his equally ridiculous wife "Herpes Simplex One" and "Herpes Simplex Two" I thought it was a funny gag. But Chelsea totally nailed it. They never go away. They just keep hanging around and infecting people with their stupid antics. And now he's got an album coming out?

It's incomprehensible how anybody could still be giving a shit about morons like this.

Myself included.

   
• Barely. It didn't snow today like it was supposed to. In fact, I think it drizzled rained more than it snowed, and there was barely any precipitation at all. I think that New England took it all instead. While I'm sorry for everybody who's having to shovel their way out this afternoon, I am grateful it's not me this time.

   
Annnnnnnd... I'm spent.

The winter storm that was promised yesterday finally arrived this morning. It didn't end up being as bad as forecast, but I still had to scrape 5-inches of snow off my car when it was time to go home tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to taper off to "Wintry Mix," which is not as fun as it sounds. The rain/snow combo piles on the streets and makes driving a nasty business. It's all too easy to get trapped by the slush accumulation and find yourself being pulled off the road. When that happens your brakes are practically useless, so your only option is to hold onto your balls, enjoy the slide, and hope you don't end up in a wreck. I'll take snow over "Wintry Mix" any day...

And right now I'll gladly take sleep over insomnia, but I have about as much a chance of that as I do controlling the weather.

If only I had an off-switch, my life would be so much easier.

This morning after waking up and working for a couple hours in bed, I took a shower, got dressed, and started packing up my crap to go into the office. Then I walked by my window, saw it was snowing, took my laptop back out of my bag, and sat down on the couch. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with snow on a Friday. Especially Friday the Thirteenth.

After an hour of winter denial, I scraped off my car and headed out into this snowy wonder bullshit.

Though I should probably clarify that it's not the snow that bothers me. It's the cold that comes with it...

I just don't like being cold.

But even worse than the cold is having to travel in the winter.

Last year I was stuck in Seattle for a full week after weather shut down the entire airport, and busses and trains couldn't run.

Time to mentally prepare myself for my upcoming trips while trying not to freak at the thought of getting stuck. Again. As usual. Because going back through my blog, it seems to happen every year.

Waaah!

When I went out to my car this morning, it was snowing. I want my summer back!

Time for a nice sunny orange...

   
Nothing brings back a warm summer day like a ripe, juicy orange.