Another Turning of the Wheel has started, and fittingly it's the coldest day in recent memory here at home-- midwinter darkness, indeed. Single digits this morning. Brrrrrrr....
Sunrise was at 7:10 this morning. The sun will set at 4:15 p.m. We live in darkness in Massachusetts in winter. Beh.
The INTERESTING thing is that today is not the date of the latest sunrise nor the earliest sunset here in eastern Mass. The latest sunrise doesn't come until New Year's Day, when the sun will rise at 7:14. The earliest sunset was back on Dec. 13th, when it went down at 4:12.
I'm not doing all the math to see if today actually is the shortest day, based on that. We're talking a matter of sheer minutes. Let's just round it out for Massachusetts and say that December and early January are entirely too dark around here. I can't fathom how people survive in Alaska. I really can't.
No real plans for the holiday today-- since I also celebrate Christmas as a family holiday, I usually just wait until Christmas Eve to celebrate. Besides, the Polish traditions of my grandparents are far richer than anything I can cook up myself. :)
But for my fellow Pagans who celebrate Yule-- a Blessed one to you.
21 December 2004
20 December 2004
Slip-sliding away
I live in Massachusetts. It snows. It snows quite often this time of year. Which is why I can't fathom how absolutely stupid so many drivers are in this state.
People react to snow around here in one of two ways-- they drive at a complete crawl (read: 10 miles an hour... even on dry pavement) but ignore all things such as lane dividers, stop signs, or other drivers. These are the really dangerous folks, because they move so slowly out of sheer cluelessness that they will follow you to purposely run you off the road.
The other type of driver in snowy Massachusetts is the person who is oblivious to slick pavement and refuses to slow down at all, being an asshole to the drivers in front of him on the highway with flashing lights and getting about four inches from the tailpipe. In good weather, it's a common habit of Massholes in the left lane. But in snowy weather, they seem to think it's also acceptable to do this in the middle lane or even the right hand lane.
Fuckers.
Traffic, thanks to vacations and school closures, was surprisingly light today. But because I had to battle a combination of both psycho drivers, it still took me an hour to go my whopping 20 miles to work. I left at 9. I got to work at 10. I rescheduled the vet appointment for Gus that was at 11, because really-- I'd be doing a "hi, bye" here at the office to get back home, and I don't think my boss would approve.
And honestly, by slowing down just about five miles an hour on dry pavement and maybe 10 miles an hour on really sketchy looking pavement, you can drive just fine in the snow. It's good to be cautious-- but the extremes are stupid and honestly dangerous to the rest of us.
Fellow Massholes-- please drive with a shred of sanity. Please? The residual effects of my massage from last week really need to stay in place for a bit, given its cost. I'd rather not have my shoulders tense back up by stupid snow drivers.
On a better (and completely unrelated note), I got through a horde of mail last night-- all of my immediate need cards are done (including those who asked for cards). They're going out today. All of my "other need" cards are penpal letters, and I'll work on those throughout the week, intermingled with catching up on swaps and taming back the swapping corner. I only have a couple more gifts to get, and none have to be mailed, so I'm not stressing too much.
Tonight Erich and I plan to get our mobile phones replaced. Our plan is just fine for our needs so we'll just renew it, but our phones suck. I am training myself to use cell phones. I just need to remember to charge the damn thing.
Onward to work... more later.
People react to snow around here in one of two ways-- they drive at a complete crawl (read: 10 miles an hour... even on dry pavement) but ignore all things such as lane dividers, stop signs, or other drivers. These are the really dangerous folks, because they move so slowly out of sheer cluelessness that they will follow you to purposely run you off the road.
The other type of driver in snowy Massachusetts is the person who is oblivious to slick pavement and refuses to slow down at all, being an asshole to the drivers in front of him on the highway with flashing lights and getting about four inches from the tailpipe. In good weather, it's a common habit of Massholes in the left lane. But in snowy weather, they seem to think it's also acceptable to do this in the middle lane or even the right hand lane.
Fuckers.
Traffic, thanks to vacations and school closures, was surprisingly light today. But because I had to battle a combination of both psycho drivers, it still took me an hour to go my whopping 20 miles to work. I left at 9. I got to work at 10. I rescheduled the vet appointment for Gus that was at 11, because really-- I'd be doing a "hi, bye" here at the office to get back home, and I don't think my boss would approve.
And honestly, by slowing down just about five miles an hour on dry pavement and maybe 10 miles an hour on really sketchy looking pavement, you can drive just fine in the snow. It's good to be cautious-- but the extremes are stupid and honestly dangerous to the rest of us.
Fellow Massholes-- please drive with a shred of sanity. Please? The residual effects of my massage from last week really need to stay in place for a bit, given its cost. I'd rather not have my shoulders tense back up by stupid snow drivers.
On a better (and completely unrelated note), I got through a horde of mail last night-- all of my immediate need cards are done (including those who asked for cards). They're going out today. All of my "other need" cards are penpal letters, and I'll work on those throughout the week, intermingled with catching up on swaps and taming back the swapping corner. I only have a couple more gifts to get, and none have to be mailed, so I'm not stressing too much.
Tonight Erich and I plan to get our mobile phones replaced. Our plan is just fine for our needs so we'll just renew it, but our phones suck. I am training myself to use cell phones. I just need to remember to charge the damn thing.
Onward to work... more later.
19 December 2004
Lights of a different color
Given that I only have about ten feet of deck to work with (and no yard), my options for outdoor holiday decorating are extremely limited. However, the following things will never, EVER be found in my yard for the holidays:
1) eight foot high blow-up creatures. I don't care if the Santa!Homer is kinda funny. They're tacky as all hell.
2) lighted deer with moving heads. (Do they realize how creepy it is to see those while driving)
3) Those 1950's plastic figures that are the Christmas equivalent of garden gnomes
4) Spotlights on my garage door with some weird decorative frame over the light to say "Happy holidays"
What you will find in my decorations are completely unconventional colors. I try to avoid white, red, and green. They're too common. Multicolored lights? Nah. I did that in college. Again-- too common. I'd like to be somewhat original, even if it's a sloppy mess of original.
This year, we went for unconventional colors, and unintentionally came near-Mardi Gras with our choices. :) Since we are on a high, open balcony, the icicle stringled lights do look really good. We selected blue ones (avoiding traditional white). They're more of a cyan blue than a deep blue, though.
To make sure they're straight (because nothing says ghetto like sloppily hung icicle lights), we wrapped a beautiful purple string of lights around the entire top rail of our deck fence. It's very bright, looks good, and is a more unusual combo. I like it. :)
On the inside of the doorframe to the living room, we hung a string of gold (and these are the warmest gold lights I've ever seen). Since we didn't put up a Yule tree this year (we'll be out of town), we needed something small to decorate. The gold gives a very soft, cozy glow to the room.
And I've heard rumors that it's supposed to snow tonight. White Christmas, perhaps?
1) eight foot high blow-up creatures. I don't care if the Santa!Homer is kinda funny. They're tacky as all hell.
2) lighted deer with moving heads. (Do they realize how creepy it is to see those while driving)
3) Those 1950's plastic figures that are the Christmas equivalent of garden gnomes
4) Spotlights on my garage door with some weird decorative frame over the light to say "Happy holidays"
What you will find in my decorations are completely unconventional colors. I try to avoid white, red, and green. They're too common. Multicolored lights? Nah. I did that in college. Again-- too common. I'd like to be somewhat original, even if it's a sloppy mess of original.
This year, we went for unconventional colors, and unintentionally came near-Mardi Gras with our choices. :) Since we are on a high, open balcony, the icicle stringled lights do look really good. We selected blue ones (avoiding traditional white). They're more of a cyan blue than a deep blue, though.
To make sure they're straight (because nothing says ghetto like sloppily hung icicle lights), we wrapped a beautiful purple string of lights around the entire top rail of our deck fence. It's very bright, looks good, and is a more unusual combo. I like it. :)
On the inside of the doorframe to the living room, we hung a string of gold (and these are the warmest gold lights I've ever seen). Since we didn't put up a Yule tree this year (we'll be out of town), we needed something small to decorate. The gold gives a very soft, cozy glow to the room.
And I've heard rumors that it's supposed to snow tonight. White Christmas, perhaps?
I've been what?
Apparently, I've been "slurped."
Sometime yesterday, yahoo's webcrawler went in and read over 200 of my entries, using a robot that they named "slurp." Ewwwww.
I just feel so... violated. In a weird digital way.
It surprised me for a moment to see 171 individual readers in my stats. I NEVER get those types of numbers. Ever.
It's about noon, and looks to be a beautiful day out there. I have two loads of laundry in the machine and a bit over two more to get done today. Erich and I will hang the lights on the deck at some point this afternoon-- we have purple, blue, and gold ones (to be a bit more original). Our deck is only about 10 feet wide and four feet deep, so getting them on the rail will be a fairly fast project. The larger part will be cleaning the carcasses of my summer garden out of the pots so the lights aren't obstructed. I have dried tomato vines everywhere.
Along with that, I'm going to be doing a lot of penpalling stuff today. It's an easy thing to do as I get laundry done. And maybe I'll play some more Sims 2 and have guys get abducted by aliens. It's sadistic fun to get the male sims probed and impregnated with alien babies. Granted-- now I have a lot of green Sim children running around my neighborhood (including three sets of alien twins), but it's still amusing.
Okay-- time to change laundry over. Photos coming in my next entry, once I uncover my hookup cable for the camera.
~ Mel.
Sometime yesterday, yahoo's webcrawler went in and read over 200 of my entries, using a robot that they named "slurp." Ewwwww.
I just feel so... violated. In a weird digital way.
It surprised me for a moment to see 171 individual readers in my stats. I NEVER get those types of numbers. Ever.
It's about noon, and looks to be a beautiful day out there. I have two loads of laundry in the machine and a bit over two more to get done today. Erich and I will hang the lights on the deck at some point this afternoon-- we have purple, blue, and gold ones (to be a bit more original). Our deck is only about 10 feet wide and four feet deep, so getting them on the rail will be a fairly fast project. The larger part will be cleaning the carcasses of my summer garden out of the pots so the lights aren't obstructed. I have dried tomato vines everywhere.
Along with that, I'm going to be doing a lot of penpalling stuff today. It's an easy thing to do as I get laundry done. And maybe I'll play some more Sims 2 and have guys get abducted by aliens. It's sadistic fun to get the male sims probed and impregnated with alien babies. Granted-- now I have a lot of green Sim children running around my neighborhood (including three sets of alien twins), but it's still amusing.
Okay-- time to change laundry over. Photos coming in my next entry, once I uncover my hookup cable for the camera.
~ Mel.
18 December 2004
Holiday Party Goodness
More is coming on the Phoenix trip-- I want to include photos, and I can't find my cable to upload everything from my card... so hopefully that'll be coming tomorrow, along with my gift preparations, holiday cards (I have sent like... two), two weeks of laundry, stringing lights on the deck, cleaning out my email, shopping as needed, maybe seeing Alexander with Erich, and cleaning out the penpalling corner a bit.
Nah... I have NOTHING to do! Can you tell?
*sigh* Holidays, gotta love them. I'm in denial that Yule is here on Monday. I'm in bigger denial that Christmas arrives this coming weekend. Where the hell did the time go? I swear, my brain goes into denial of the holiday season until about a week before. By that time, I've rememorized "Do They Know It's Christmas" during my commutes-- even though I always catch the song where Bono starts singing-- and gotten so sick of Annie Lennox's version of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" that I'm ready for the holidays to be over.
But what REALLY makes me realize that Christmas is almost here is the company holiday party. Ours was yesterday afternoon-- during work hours so everyone can make it, and spouses don't come (and no babysitters required). My company rents out the ballroom of a local hotel since we have 200+ people at the thing. There's a yummy lunch, open bar for a couple hours, and the best part of all-- the silent auction.
The very cool thing that my company does during its holiday party is the silent auction. Coworkers donate items, which range from small handmade earrings to bottles of liquor to gift certificates to their own works of art (and everything in between). They're displayed on tables, and for the first two hours of the party, people can write their bids. Some items get pretty fierce-- one of my department co-workers bakes baskets of gingerbread cookies every year that fetch a good penny. And two others in my department put their own original oil paintings into the auction, both of which I know fetched over $350 this year.
The best part? All of the money raised during the auction goes to charity. So while we're celebrating the holidays, we're also helping others to have a bit more cheer as well. Last year we raised over $7,000 in four hours. I'd imagine that it'll be close to that again this year.
Another good thing? I have a chance of finding things for my parents. I hate shopping for my parents-- they have everything. I have no clue what to get them. Ever. And I don't dare ask them, because Mom usually says not to get her anything (which would make me feel like shit, so I ignore her) and Dad gives me lists that have items out of my price range (because he forgets that unlike himself, his daughter doesn't make a doctor's salary).
Granted, the fact that I'm still on very wary and distant terms with my dad doesn't lend to lots of presents, either. I seriously doubt I'll be getting anything from him. BUT... I wanted to get him something small, at least because my internal guilt trips last year were too nasty. So... I bought him the official locker room T-shirt for the World Series, and an official baseball. Nothing expensive, but he's a baseball fan (Phillies), and it's something I know he can appreciate at least.
Mom's presents came yesterday by chance-- thankfully. I've decided to lump her presents, since she always protests, into presents for her and her doggie. As is family tradition, I bought her the yearly ornament for the tree-- this year I bought her a collie dog ornament (since Shanti is a rough collie). And at the company holiday party, I was lucky to win the auction for two really cute bone-shaped toys that were all Christmasey.
So the 'rents are done. Now I just need to figure out a couple others, and I'll be all done so I can go back to being in denial until we're on I-87 heading to Pennsylvania at the end of the week...
Nah... I have NOTHING to do! Can you tell?
*sigh* Holidays, gotta love them. I'm in denial that Yule is here on Monday. I'm in bigger denial that Christmas arrives this coming weekend. Where the hell did the time go? I swear, my brain goes into denial of the holiday season until about a week before. By that time, I've rememorized "Do They Know It's Christmas" during my commutes-- even though I always catch the song where Bono starts singing-- and gotten so sick of Annie Lennox's version of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" that I'm ready for the holidays to be over.
But what REALLY makes me realize that Christmas is almost here is the company holiday party. Ours was yesterday afternoon-- during work hours so everyone can make it, and spouses don't come (and no babysitters required). My company rents out the ballroom of a local hotel since we have 200+ people at the thing. There's a yummy lunch, open bar for a couple hours, and the best part of all-- the silent auction.
The very cool thing that my company does during its holiday party is the silent auction. Coworkers donate items, which range from small handmade earrings to bottles of liquor to gift certificates to their own works of art (and everything in between). They're displayed on tables, and for the first two hours of the party, people can write their bids. Some items get pretty fierce-- one of my department co-workers bakes baskets of gingerbread cookies every year that fetch a good penny. And two others in my department put their own original oil paintings into the auction, both of which I know fetched over $350 this year.
The best part? All of the money raised during the auction goes to charity. So while we're celebrating the holidays, we're also helping others to have a bit more cheer as well. Last year we raised over $7,000 in four hours. I'd imagine that it'll be close to that again this year.
Another good thing? I have a chance of finding things for my parents. I hate shopping for my parents-- they have everything. I have no clue what to get them. Ever. And I don't dare ask them, because Mom usually says not to get her anything (which would make me feel like shit, so I ignore her) and Dad gives me lists that have items out of my price range (because he forgets that unlike himself, his daughter doesn't make a doctor's salary).
Granted, the fact that I'm still on very wary and distant terms with my dad doesn't lend to lots of presents, either. I seriously doubt I'll be getting anything from him. BUT... I wanted to get him something small, at least because my internal guilt trips last year were too nasty. So... I bought him the official locker room T-shirt for the World Series, and an official baseball. Nothing expensive, but he's a baseball fan (Phillies), and it's something I know he can appreciate at least.
Mom's presents came yesterday by chance-- thankfully. I've decided to lump her presents, since she always protests, into presents for her and her doggie. As is family tradition, I bought her the yearly ornament for the tree-- this year I bought her a collie dog ornament (since Shanti is a rough collie). And at the company holiday party, I was lucky to win the auction for two really cute bone-shaped toys that were all Christmasey.
So the 'rents are done. Now I just need to figure out a couple others, and I'll be all done so I can go back to being in denial until we're on I-87 heading to Pennsylvania at the end of the week...
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