llcoolvad | Entries tagged with weather

Thanks to Hercules, I haven't left the house since midday on Wednesday. Bought a few things at the grocery store and I've hunkered down since. I can work from home whenever, basically, so I did that. The landlord cleaned the majority of the snow off all the cars, but tomorrow (since it's supposed to make it into the 20s, temp-wise) I'll go out and do the rest on both my car and mom's.

I'm also going to hang out with S&V tomorrow night; they have a place in Lynn, right along the water, so it should be pretty dramatic there in the aftermath of the storm. They showed a lot of impressive pounding surf footage on the news all day long from various beachfront locations, and Steve said that you could see his house in some of them. I didn't ask if the entire front of his house is encased in ice. I guess I'll find out tomorrow!

It was cold enough out that I finally watched the final episode of "Treme" tonight, hoping it would make me feel warm. That worked, but I also spent the entire 80 minutes weeping that the show is now over and I'll never see new scenes from those characters. It was SO very good. Between "Treme" and the James Lee Burke "Dave Robicheaux" series, I feel almost like a New Orleans native. I guess I really need to at least visit there sometime. Take in the music and the food, beignets and etouffee and muffulettas and po'boys and gumbo and jambalaya.

I've also spent the past few days watching the first 2.5 seasons of "Being Human"* (US version), which is fun in a vampires/werewolves/ghosts kind of way, but watching it all at once with no buffer of time makes you want to smack the characters a bit—stop making bad decisions!

* Not to be confused with "Almost Human", which is way more fun but has only aired half a season.

Two days in a row to make up for the missing day. Today P and I went to visit our friend Jenn. She lives in New Hampshire, so visiting is a deliberate and not a casual thing. We went up for lunch, and got to meet her new cute kitty, currently named Harlow. Apparently Harlow is in Witness Protection, as it was impossible to get a picture of him. (I apologize for picture quality. All from my 1st gen iPhone, not good!)

"No Pictures, Please."

Here he actually reached up and pushed the camera down. Seriously, talk about diva!

Because I have nothing else to report, my book list so far for the year:

1. Gone Tomorrow, Lee Child (13th Jack Reacher book)
2. 61 Hours, Lee Child (14th Jack Reacher book)
3. Worth Dying For, Lee Child (15th Jack Reacher book)
4. The Monkey's Raincoat, Robert Crais (1st Elvis Cole book)
5. Stalking the Angel, Crais (2nd Elvis Cole book)
6. Lullaby Town, Robert Crais (3rd Elvis Cole book)
7. Free Fall, Robert Crais (4th Elvis Cole book)
8. Voodoo River, Robert Crais (5th Elvis Cole book)
9. Sunset Express, Robert Crais (6th Elvis Cole book)
10. Indigo Slam, Robert Crais (7th Elvis Cole book)

And I'm currently in the middle of, yes, another Robert Crais, L.A. Requiem. I am clearly in a reading jag. Crais is pretty good. I can't imagine why I never picked him up before. Maybe I glanced through one and thought he was too derivative. Maybe I was still in my "read mysteries set in Boston only" phase, I dunno. But he's a page-turner, with good dialog and good plotting. Elvis Cole, the main character, is a fairly typical hero: he's selfless and true, he's fiercely loyal, even the cops respect him, he's got mad skillz, yo, and he's got a mysterious sidekick. Bad guys frequently die, good people mostly get saved, and there's a bit of action of the female persuasion from time to time. Perfect escapism for dreary winter days.

And clearly I need it. Here's the result of a week's worth of almost non-stop melting: ( more pix within )

The boys spent a lot of time yesterday clearing more snow and ice from everything. The back deck is now totally cleared off! I can only imagine how much work that took. I was blissfully at work during the whole thing. But our rainspouts and deck and oil fill pipes are all cleared now. Poor lads. Brian assures me it was mostly Patrick, so poor Patrick! We went out to dinner last night so no one would have to do extra work like food prep. We were ravenous, so we went to Longhorn for fat steaks — and oh no! the wait was going to be 45–55 minutes — but lo, Brian spotted a table available in the bar. No waiting, thanks, we'll have some warm bread STAT.

A good time was had, and then P and I hunkered down in the living room to watch This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which was decent. Not a lot of payoff at the end, but the middle-aged lesbian private investigator was pretty fun. After P left I watched a couple episodes of "Jekyll", a British update on Jekyll and Hyde, set in modern-day Britain. It was good — quirky and fairly quick-moving. The lead is great in both parts, but really comes alive during his "Mr. Hyde" episodes. The actress who has the "con" part in "Leverage", Gina Bellman, plays his wife, and there are other familiar faces here and there. And hey! The show also has a middle-aged lesbian private investigator. It's like I planned a theme night. AND! Can someone please explain to me why the series would be called "Jekyll" when in reality the problem is Hyde? No matter. Still good.

Today was a lovely 47 degrees (at one point, anyway) and things started to melt a bit. It's supposed to be cold again overnight, but at least a little of it got knocked down. Went out to lunch (I am feeling the after-effects of being frugal for such a long time. Two meals out in a row?! HORRORS), then hit Costco and picked up a lot of meat. Did some other shopping, then skipped going to the movies to come home to get everything safely in the freezer. After all, it was 47 degrees! It might SPOIL! (I know, I am probably insane.) Headed over to bring Mom some stuff, and her driveway was just a nightmare. I hated it when I lived there, I hate it still. It's pretty long, and it gets very few hours of direct sunlight. Usually it spends the whole winter icy, and today was especially bad as it was icy, but the top was melty, so it was as slippery as it's possible to get. Bah. Of course I had to make five trips back and forth from the car to bring in some stuff I'd picked up for her. I had to make the first trip empty handed to get the ice melt she keeps on her porch and I almost fell on my butt three times. I will be SO GLAD when winter is over.

I think tonight is going to be some more Netflix streaming viewing. I am no football fan and could give a rat's ass about the game. Since the commercials are all online now, and since they replay them endlessly once the game is over, I don't even care to watch for the commercials. I think avoidance will be key. Maybe tonight I will watch more "Blood in the Wire."

I didn't update last night. Ooops. The brief: Worked from home Wed, went in Thurs. Did some shoveling on Wed, after it had rained a lot so everything was heavy and wet. Shoveled out all around my car, cleaned it off, etc. Sore now (still) from either shoveling or sitting at my desk for hours, not sure. My L4/L5 back issue is flaring up. There's just one spot on my spine that if you touch it, makes me go through the roof. And of course the waistband of all my pants sits right there. I iced it up last night and have been swilling ibuprofen. It sorta feels maybe a little better today? I might be kidding myself.

Spent the two nights reorganizing my music files and iTunes folder and stuff. Pulled in files from many sources (several external hard drives) to my desktop computer. Also updated my spreadsheet. Not done yet, but if I can keep up this momentum the end might actually come! Be nice to be able to cross that off my list and stop giving it any mental space at all. Plus be nice to have all my tunes on my iPod.

So basically nothing interesting to report. It's supposed to snow again tomorrow (only 3"–6" this time) and there's going to be a "really bad one" according to coworkers next Thursday.

I think I've gotten to the acceptance stage. Here's hoping the house keeps standing!

My weekend was so cold, I felt like I was hiding from it rather than enjoying it. Yesterday I got up fairly late, took a quick shower, and went over to mom's to fix her internet connection (the power strip was off, sigh). Afterward, Patrick suggested a ride to Maine to pick up his sister-in-law's grandmother's car so he could take it for a week-long test drive. Ok! I'm always up for a drive.

I got to meet the entire extended family. At one point they ranged from about 1.5 years old to 90 years old, so there were four generations all in the same room. They're super nice, all of them, so the visit was very pleasant. And the Nanamobile is very cute. On the way home, I stopped and picked up Mom's groceries and brought them over to her. And by then my car's thermometer said it was 10 degrees. BRRR. Fled home, where Patrick offered to take us out to dinner as a ride-repayment. Off we went to the nicer of our local Chinese places, got the buffet, and then home again. Hung out doing my usual for the rest of the night.

Today was much of the same. Brian and I got lunch, then went grocery shopping, then basically I napped and watched tv and rearranged my bedroom a little (trying a different location for a bureau and lamp, mostly). I have got to get serious about these boxes of papers in my bedroom. They're starting to seem like fixtures rather than temporary guests, so I really need to do them before they're just more furniture. I also still haven't hung the two newly framed pictures, so I need to get to that, stat! I think once I get the pictures up I'll feel a little better about the bedroom. I need to decide which ones come down, though, so I am procrastinating.

So the day wasn't a total wash or anything, but we had intended to have a more external type of day; maybe go shopping, watch a movie, play some pinball, something, but it was so cold neither of us felt like being out in the world. Back home to warmth and kitties and blankets, and ahh, much better. Figured we had to get the groceries, because our weather is supposed to be sketchy for the rest of the week. I need to drive in tomorrow, but Wed is my WFH day and Thursday I took off. So just tomorrow, then a couple days of relief, then it's supposed to be reasonable on Friday.

When will this winter end? I don't ever remember feeling this depressed about weather this early in the season. This is feeling like February desperation. FEH!

On the upside, the temps are rising! It's 13 degrees right now. Balmy!

It is 2:04am. It is 4 degrees. That is all.

I am doing ok with posting at least every other day, so far. I don't think my life really bears more scrutiny than that, so I wouldn't count on daily entries unless I suddenly join a circus or become polyamorous or have my spleen removed or something.

The weatherpeople were just about spot-on about our stormette. Started and stopped when they predicted, got totals at the far end (about 6"), and suddenly there was sunshine. The sun was a bit earlier than they said (2p instead of 3p) but pretty good!

I worked from home during the worst of it. Had to go in for second half of day due to boss mini-freak: everyone was home, and GASP! the department might have been untenanted for an hour — with phones being remotely answered, mind you — but I guess it's ok. Brian shoveled us out, and I managed to get in by 2:30p. At least I get brownie points for showing up. The main reason I had to be there at all was because of my supervisor Mike, who is, shall we say, a bit unpunctual? He had managed to get to 1p (for a 10a start) shoveling his driveway, and THEN went in to get his brakes done. Since he was going to be the entire night crew and the day crew wanted to go home, someone needed to be midshifty-transitiony, and that someone was lucky, lucky me. I was busy, but with things I could as easily have done at home. Stayed a little late to let traffic ease out, then headed home for dinner and hanging with my boy.

Today Mike needed to leave for half the day to go make prosciutto. Well, to hack up a pig and cure it and hang it up in a cool dark place for a year. He also picked up last year's attempt and brought it into the department to make me shriek. I'm no vegetarian, but aged pig with mold is not ... appealing in any way. And it was a huge hock of pig, too. Poor thing. ALMOST enough to turn me off meat altogether. Almost. That Mike. He's quirky.

And then I came home and Patrick had brought home the spoils of his mother's birthday party, so we had delicious Italian foodstuffs. The rest of the night was bad SyFy disaster movies and internet surfing and reading and now posting. My life, she is not so exciting sometimes.

...think it'll work? Trying to chant. I canna take much more o'this!

The weatherpeople are claiming 4"-7". Supposed to start around 2am and be done by 11am. Sun out by 3pm. I just don't know if I'll do a late start or maybe stay home altogether. The governor would like everyone to do a late start at least. Bleah. Tired of snow! And yes, I know, I live in New England and I should just man up. But there's still a couple feet out there. It hasn't melted at all. It's been way too cold. There was rain a couple days ago, but it really just took a tiny bit off the top, mostly what it had already put there slightly earlier in the same day. And now more? And next Wednesday even more! And this weekend in the single digits for temps.

2011 blows, so far!

Worked extra today. Made up three of the missing four hours from yesterday, so my PTO remains intact (assuming I can make up the other hour between tomorrow and Saturday. Easy-peasy). On the way home I picked up some soft stuff for Brian — he had dental work done today and is on softs for a couple days. Also picked up some snacks for me. So, what I'm saying is if I need to stay in tomorrow...we're good.

Naturally I picked the wrong line at the grocery store. I know we all think we do that, but honestly I really have a knack for it. Tonight's person in front of me was probably 4'8" and elderly, wearing a pink track suit with a faux-fur lined hood, which she had up tight around her head and face. She was carrying at least four plastic bags, and clutched them to her in one hand, then the other, all the while pawing through them looking for something and muttering. She bought a box of saltines with a check, for which they had to give her change. She told them exactly to the penny how much change there would be, and when the cashier started to count it out for her, the customer asked for the newest bills the cashier had in the drawer. That's when I noticed that she had a clear plastic bag over her hand to accept the money. She held it over her hand to sign the check, too.

I am an impatient person at the best of times. It is one of my flaws, I know. And I started to get really impatient and angsty when she shuffled around looking in each plastic bag for her check (which was in her pocket), but once I realized she was actually mentally ill and not just annoying, I sort of let all the anger go. It would be like being mad at the sun for rising. No point at all. So then it was just sort of interesting, watching all her coping mechanisms. The cashier apologized to me after, but I was already fine by then. There but for the grace...

Watched CSI tonight and it was just plain silly. Watched Bones and it was also fairly silly. Watched the Mentalist and it, too, was silly. The common factor might be me, but I'm thinking there's a little too much quirk on tv right now. Are they going out of their way to combat the weather/political scene/overall gloom? Or has it just taken me this long to notice that I watch a lot of quirky shows? There was a character on The Mentalist that might as well have been Temperance Brennan from Bones (and the killer was a pair of women who were making all natural sodas), there was a plotline on CSI that was straight out of an overwrought noir drama complete with burlesque dancer with feather fans, and Bones had Temperance suddenly speak Mandarin and the forensics people use hair conditioner to recover some evidence. Quirky! After the third show I just shook my head and turned off the tv. Too much!

If I'm home tomorrow I'll have to find something gritty to have on while I'm working. Maybe a kids' show?

So it snowed. Did you hear? There was a lot of it.

Worked on Tuesday, came home to a house stocked with food courtesy of my honey, and then settled in for the big event. It was pretty much spot on, forecast-wise. Started around midnight, hammered down overnight, continued into the late part of the next day, and then got very cold for the next 2 days. I'm sure the weather-people were relieved to have finally gotten something right.

Worked from home on Wednesday, as did all my coworkers. Was surprisingly busy. Brian did a couple rounds of shoveling (as did Patrick later — he was working from home, too), and then I pitched in and cleaned off my car. As there was something like 20" on top of everything out there, that wasn't as pathetic as it sounds. Worked pretty late, then had some dinner and both of us sat around vaguely whiny about sore muscles and such. I actually hit my percocet stash (still left over from my sciatica in 2009) and slept through the night for a change.

The drive in to work on Thursday was pretty decent. As I got closer to the city the snowfall totals were smaller, so the drive was basically easy the whole way. There's a new Dunkin' Donuts on my way, and it's a drive-thru, so I hit it up. I think it was opening day. Very exciting. It was very beautiful out, sunny and BRIGHT. I need to get sunglasses of some kind, whether it's a clip on device onto my regular glasses, or full-on prescription shades. Gotta do it! Took some photos on the way, as it was too pretty to not.

( photos behind the cut )

It's a gorgeous sunny day. On my lunch break, walking over to the mall, I noticed that the geese were really kicking up a racket. Then I realized they were making the only sounds that I could hear. No traffic noise, no cell phones, no talking people. Pretty nice for 1:30pm on a weekday. Peace.

(iPhone pic, sorry for the quality or lack thereof)

Getting a little tired already of the SNOWPOCALYPSE. Did some grocery shopping Thursday night, left work early on Friday, and haven't left the house since. Landlord handles snow removal (and he's such a swell guy he even gets a lot of the snow off of our cars) so I've had no reason to move.

And I've got wicked cabin fever!

There's not even any television on, now that we've hit the Holiday Dead Zone! I managed to finally watch the three movies I had out from Netflix last night. I finished one book and started another. I talked on the phone. I ate. I read all of the internet (you people need to write more). I played with the cat. I napped.

I. am. bored. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

Staying inside all cozy and warm for a long winter's weekend sounds great in theory, but I find that when I know I CAN'T go anywhere I get restless and irritable. So that's where I am. Restless and irritable. And it's STILL SNOWING!!

How's your weekend?

Snow day. I am so ready for summer, mere words can not express...
( so I'll try this way )

We've gotten something like two feet of snow in the last seven days, over the course of three separate storms. I am eternally grateful to my swell landlord for his snowblower and his patience.

This was from the Sunday storm, taken on my way to work on Tuesday. I didn't take any pictures today because the sky was iron gray and dreary. Snow pictures are sad unless there is sun to balance it, don't you think? Although the branches of every tree were frosted white, so that was very pretty.

I live 8 miles from where I work, give or take. It took me THREE hours to drive home today. THREE HOURS. I left work at 2:22pm, got home at 5:30pm. Unbelievable. I hate every person who has ever so much as SAT in a car in this state. And I especially hate every person who becomes an instant 90-year-old the minute a snowflake hits the ground!

I am going to lie in bed sulking for the entire rest of the night. So THERE.

The aftermath of the blizzard...aimed at my head!

It's snowing a lot out. Earlier, it was sort of wimpy lame snow, with just a hint of wet annoying rain. Then it was just plain rain. Suddenly:

Tree in Snow

Other pictures here. Fun!

Thank god I can work from home on days like this. Back to it!

A pretty autumn day! I drive by this house on my way to work every day, and a couple of days ago the sun was just perfect, making the tree look like it was on fire (in a good way!).

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Page Summary

a little stir crazy!
books and cats. i am such a middle-aged female!
whatevs
busy-ish
i feel sorta cheated
*whimper*
brought to you by the country Italy and the letter cold
no more snow, no more snow, no more snow...
snowmageddon and beyond!
Tired of snow!
snowbound!
snow snow snow go go go
White Christmases are overrated!
Sulking!
icicle icicle where are you going?
Brrrrrr!
Autumn

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Page generated Jun. 24th, 2025 07:10 am

then she appeared

apple venus on a half open shell

Entries tagged with weather

a little stir crazy!

books and cats. i am such a middle-aged female!

whatevs

busy-ish

i feel sorta cheated

whimper

brought to you by the country Italy and the letter cold

no more snow, no more snow, no more snow...

snowmageddon and beyond!

Tired of snow!

snowbound!

snow snow snow go go go

White Christmases are overrated!

Sulking!

icicle icicle where are you going?

Brrrrrr!

Autumn