Snow - old news

Ok, I know that snow is kind of old news but this morning when I woke up there was a dusting of snow on the world. About an hour later, when I was ready for my walk to work, it was coming down fast in big gobs of snow. So, whatever, snow.

The real news (mainly to non-Coloradans) is that it looked like this at 8:00 AM:

but it looked like this at 7pm!Crazy Colorado weather but don't tell anyone that the snow goes away so fast.

the morning after

It's old news but these are some photos from my walk to work this morning. It was still snowing but the sun was actually peeking out. I think we ended up with the low end of the predicted range - about 10" of snow.

Spring in Colorado...

Exercise

Ok, so I've discovered some depression relievers: exercise, good beer, healthy food. I've just gotten some honest to goodness exercise for the first time in about 3 weeks and it has done wonders for my outlook. I followed it up with a quasi-healthy dinner of a salad, garlicky hummus and low fat wheat thins, and 10 oz of a tasty "rather serious English double ale" called Seriously Bad Elf. It was on sale at Marczyk's, you know post-holiday holiday beer sale.

In other news the weekend was long in a dreary sort of way. I did finally get the bathroom cleaned and the laundry done. I also saw a movie. Per the excellent advice of H, I saw a movie to sort of escape from the mental state I had at the time. We saw Duplicity. Definitely not a great movie but it was somewhat fun and served its purpose. Also, Clive Owen is always worth watching.

Before the movie there was a bit of advertising that appealed to me because of it's inclusion of hamsters. Now, before you watch it you have to understand that I'm not a car person but enjoyed the ad because of the hamsters. I had many hamster pets while growing up and loved them all dearly. Anyway, see below.

All this virtual communication

I've been wondering in the past few days about the value of personal (i.e. non-news) blogs, facebook, twitter, etc. Are we training ourselves in the art of superficial communication?

100 years ago people were still putting their thoughts down on paper - pages and pages of paper. The writers of these letters wrote paragraphs and not one line status updates or links to news articles that convey their politics. I do all of these things so I'm not persecuting anyone but just pondering. I guess this really came to mind because I want to blog about Dave's death and the idea of family and the concept of home and my experiences with these things. I want to go on and on and let it all out but it seems it's never appropriate in our society, a society that puts on a happy face and expresses rage on the road.

Status update: Genevieve is feeling depressed.

Sort of the south

We're back in Fredericksburg just about two months after Sandy's Grandmother's funeral. This time it is for Dave Crain's funeral. Dave was a friend to Sandy for 20 years, almost a brother, and I've known Dave for about 15 years. His family is like the family I never had. So, we're here in Fredericksburg and glad to be helpful by running errands and getting things coordinated for the service tomorrow.

But (!) while out we've seen some typical (or what I think is typical) southern Virginia items.

I didn't even know Virginia had an "anti-terrorism" license plate!


And of course the classic:

So it goes...

Very little

I'm posting here just to let anyone who might follow this thing know that I'm alive. If you're a friend on facebook then you already know that.

I made it back from Phoenix and rested my sick self for two or so days. Now I'm back! Healthy! Well, except for the pesky dry cough that drove me from yoga tonight. Ready to spend hours of my waking life at work digging myself out! Yeah! Thankfully I like my job.

When I got back from Phoenix I did take a class, which I had signed up for about a month earlier. Now, I read pretty slow - not sound out the words slow but not as fast as I'd like. So, I took one of those speed reading classes. I had always thought about it but never done it - I don't recommend it. Such a racket. Sure you learn some tips but you're not really going to improve unless you by the $400 dvd set.

Other than that I finished a book I would recommend: Alice Munro's Runaway. A book of short stories that captures you in the lives of the female main characters. The detailed yet every-day style with which she writes is very compelling. I also read The Suicide Collectors. You could probably skip it unless you're a voracious consumer of post-apocalyptic fiction, which I am. This book had elements of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, The Lord of the Rings, the movie The Happening, reminders of the Mormon religion, and hints of the movie Omega Man. It was also the first book for this author.

Anyway here is one of the three non-transit pictures I took in Phoenix - public art - a centipede:

Phoenix - ugh!

Phoenix sucks. My apologies for the vulgarity of that statement but at this moment, there is no other way to put it. I will admit that I feel this way in large part due to the fact that I'm sick. Even though I had a temperature of 101.1 this morning, I got on the plane to Phoenix for a work training. In addition to the fever, I have a burning cough (which is thankfully infrequent), it feels like someone has a lighter to the back of my throat, and slight body aches. And guess what? In my first session this afternoon my nose started to run uncontrollably as if I were having an allergy attack. I mean the stuff was literally running out of my nose and I could barely get to it in time.

So, I've retreated to my hotel room to let my nose run in private and to lay down. I thought I'd watch some TV (a treat for me) but guess what? The batteries in the remote are dead and the on-tv controls don't change the channel. The front desk said he'd send his guy up about 20 minutes ago. I'm watching previews of "Marley and Me" and "Yesman" over and over - without sound (thankfully the volume control works on the tv).

I know these are yuppie problems. I mean I"m not being held captive by the FARC in Columbia or anything and the room service actually has some tasty items. I just have to wait until 5:00 pm.

Here is a view from my Phoenix hotel room - pret-ty posh! :|