It is risen

I got me a fresh sheet of virtual paper and I roll it into the carriage...

I think I’ve been sick of typing. I’ve even found it difficult to effectively do e-mail, and that is one of the few ways to reliably get ahold of me. The FaceBook, 2-3 sentences and I’m out, has been de rigeur around here.

It was a really harsh winter around La cerise de chateau, maison du fumeur de detente. So right now forsythia is like the breath of the atman made manifest on earth.

I had a really, tremendously, bad bout of infection that started just before Thanksgiving. For the most part I missed all the holidays. On Thanksgiving itself I was too sick to even walk next door. About a week of 104 fevers. Since then it’s been a long, slow, road back.

I popped into UBU’s one of the very first good days, that was a good thing, getting out, into town, having lunch. Now I have have to pop back and give him back the books I bought as well as a few additional. I find myself in the market to get rid of, in some cases sell, books. That is something I’ve never been good at at all. It feels pretty free to be in a place where I can let a book go deliberately as opposed to losing it.

I’m ready to let more things go.
I have started sorting out anything I don’t have a pretty legitimate claim on to be sent back. I’m watching the hoarders and I don’t want to be there or leave that for someone else to deal with. Keep the precious and let the chaff blow away. That’s the new mantra. There will be a porch sale this year.

Chemical Castration

I’ve been having a bit of a “flat affect.” You may not have noticed.

So “we” are trying some new things. Massive doses of vitamin D3 is one. Three weeks after taking 5000 IU’s a day my levels are up into the bottom ranges of normal. Therefore I assume, that there was in fact, a previous deficit. Even though it’s one of the least expensive supplements I’ve ever gotten I am glad to say I can now drop on down to 3000 IU’s. Every little bit it helps.

Also it would appear that somewhere a hypo-thyroid thing appeared. I am being told that this nifty new pill will put some zippy in my pip. Am I pzipy yet? You tell me.

Then there’s the perennial favourite, which is that it is no longer February and early March in Michigan. This winter was a straight out bitch. What a long drawn out drag.

And there is the slow burn, subtle furious-ness at government and their insistence and propaganda that as a fat smoker I am THE embodiment of THE problem. Slow burn hatred is never good for my productivity. But again, I’m sure noone noticed.

And there you have it, the word castration is coming from the Greek word kaezein.
And that’s a cheesy movie reference, if you don’t get it it really can’t be helped.

Triumph of the fat girl

“Oh my god aren’t you freezing?”
“Are you going out like that?”
“It’s so cold in here, aren’t you cold?”
“You’re kidding. You’re walking home in a sweater?”
“arrrgghh I’m fucking freezing.”
“hurry up and get the door open”
“Don’t you think we should let the car warm up for awhile?”

Or as Mom used to say - “put a sweater on, I’m cold”

To which I say “HA bitches, just wait till the food runs out too”.

Finally Pah*

As far as I am concerned, today is it, the first day of spring. This is my method of getting through Michigan winter w/out sticking a fork in my forehead and to keep passing the (at this time of year, in this location, closed, but could be, opened) windows.

See, I judge that November is not really too bad. Maybe a little snow, grey, but not too cold, and most importantly, psychologically manageable if you stay in the moment and don’t start projecting out over the long, dread, expanse ahead.
So winter really starts on Dec. 1st. Now, I realize I could try to fool myself with the whole solstice = late December part. Thereby giving myself an extra 20 or so days before panicking. But I am just not that gullible. As Hitchcock says (R. not A.) “It’s the darkest time of year”. Add the next 20 days coming out and that is a fairly biblical feeling, 40 days of darkness. Then late January and February are just ass bite cold. I don’t care at that point whether it’s getting lighter. I am just not going out in it if I don’t absolutely have to. Fuck all you cheery sledders, skiers and skaters. You’re just whistling in the dark. And we all know that all that really does is make you a target.

So basically I view winter as a 90 day stint. December, January and February. And as my old hard-core, felonious, braggart, friends used to say, “I can do 90 days standing on my head”.
Well I can. Except for the, my skin drying up and turning into dust part. Or the 9 day cold I just got over. With the residual perpetual sore throat. Or the voracious, I apparently now live in the produce section of Busch's, filling and munching through my fruit basket over and over. The other day I craved greens so badly. I almost peed myself when they had beets with greens intact. I rushed home and resurrected the wilting kale in the rotter drawer and made up a big ol’ pot of sweet and sour greens, all tender and Xmas coloured, with shallots, Chinese vinegar, agave nectar, salt and fresh ground pepper, and both bacon and prosciutto. Oh man. Just thinking about it makes me need to go find the leftovers right now.

* The ASL sign for finally - Both hands in pointer finger shape. Starting at both sides of the mouth draw a C shape up and out to the sides while saying “pah”.

42 hours

Whoot! I saw the first salt truck at 9 this morning. And the snow started when? Was that about 3pm on Tuesday? Wow, that’s what I call a great response.
The neighboring towns are laughing and/or cursing at us.

I blame bi-pedalism

This cold thing has hung on for way too long. I am simply not accustomed to this level of sneezy snottiness. There may be a lot of other things I deal with, but on the rhino-V front, I’m used to 10 to 24 hours of discomfort and bitchiness and I’m done for the year.

I remember seeing some show or reading some article which showed how our sinus cavities hadn’t really evolved with us when we finally stood up. It implied that that is potentially the cause of much of our misery in the schnoz dept. in this life.

Would I crawl around the house for a day if I thought it would help? Probably yes.

I need a final solution

OK here’s the deal.
Last Weds. I got on the (late) bus home from school at 5:25pm. That bus got me downtown at 6:40pm.
Today I got on the (very late) bus home from school at 4:10pm and got off at State and Catherine at about 6:38pm and walked the rest of the way. In the snowstorm. I got home at about 7pm after walking out of the school at 3:35pm.

The traffic situation in this town is completely out of control. There is absolutely no reason that a snow storm, in Michigan, which was heavy but not that bad, that’s been anticipated for 2 or 3 days, should cause the insane amount of snarlage that I have been seeing.

This is just crazy. I saw not one, single, city truck out plowing or salting.

My Blanket's best

The cats decide that all other, regular, spots can go hang when a blanket is pulled out. After a short struggle for supremacy they just settle in together.

Oh my fricking God!

I am so over this weather. I am so over winter. D’ya hear me? I am O-V-E-R it!!!

And here’s the rub and the bitch about group work in school - I told the two freaks I was paired up with in lab, who were both sick, that they had better not give me their plague. And they did.
I mean I gave them each a packet of Emergen-C and every thing. And I get this nasty cold for returns. Argghh. I’ve been totally Charlie Browned. Tomorrow I get to stand at the bus stop in 10 degrees with this fucking cold. Oh, just, double F you, Mama Nature, you are so workin’ my last nerve.

21

I counted. That’s how many articles of clothing I had on today at the bus stop. Yet I was still freezing me yarbles off. I really like “5” weather. When that’s the max I have on. The car is dead at the moment. We’ll try again tomorrow.

Soup -n- Stew day

French Onion Provencal (my own invention)
Beef Stew scented with burgundy
Because it's serious winter here and all I seem to want to do is drink Emergen-C and eat clementines and soup.