The snow isn’t melting very fast. Everything that I’ve shoveled clear is dried out and the snow is slowly trying to melt off of the house, but in general it’s not going anywhere. The roads are still piled high with snow and the buses aren’t even running on full schedules. So I’m still stuck inside and still watching DVDs. I tend to buy things and let them sit for a while. I bought Blue Velvet and didn’t get around to watching it for three or four years. When I did, I was laughing so hard I had to stop and call my buddy Il to see if it was really supposed to be that funny. I’d always heard it was disturbing, but I also remember my sister saying that after repeated viewings the absurdities start to pop out and become funny. I found it funny from the first time I watched it. In any case, I had the season of Wonderfalls for a year or more and the season of Firefly since this summer. Now’s as good a time as any to watch them.

I also watched Empire Falls which was made from a book by one of my favorite authors, Richard Russo, and (finally) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. They were both great, but I had to stop Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to call Il and confirm that the whole movie wasn’t as sad as I found the first half. I’m stuck in the house surrounded by snow and I don’t want to watch sad movies.

The two things I guess that usually cheer me up, cheesy dance music and alcohol, are missing the alcohol part. Coincidentally, I found an old bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream that my dad had squirreled away. It had turned into Bailey’s Irish Cheese. Good for a science experiment, but bad for drinking.

I did make it to the gym today, and it was surprisingly crowded. Well, not that surprising because I’m pretty sure everyone is getting cabin fever. I’m going again tomorrow morning, even though THMFIC was looking at the workout he wrote out and was laughing in a sinister fashion, calling it a “Festivus Miracle”. Perhaps I should take a shovel with me.

It snowed yet again last night and this morning it was too deep on most streets for any car with a normal to low clearance. Even the buses were getting stuck. My friend waited for hours for a bus to arrive so he could get to work but he eventually gave up and decided to work from home. I found out about this because he called to complain about the buses.

I didn’t try to get anywhere and my biggest exertion was to shovel the walk again and dust off the heat pump. The heat pump is only used when the outside temperature is above 40°F (or was it 50°F) so I didn’t have to clear the snow off of it, but I had to have some reason to get out of the house.

I guess the gym was open for some period of time in the morning, but it was closed in the evening when I usually attend. The roads were clearer later in the day, but still in no shape for most people to be out. It’s just as well, because I was accused of being a “blog hog,” doing silly things to get my picture on the blog. Which doesn’t make sense because a lot of the things are suggestions from THMFIC.

And really, getting my picture on the blog just means that Nurse Tiff’s picture isn’t, so where’s my motivation there?

I’m really ready for cold and clear, or maybe even not so cold and even a little rainy, but this icy and slippery crap is getting old. The sledding is still an annoyance late into the night and I’m really wondering why people have to yell, “Woo-hoo,” while they’re sledding, especially down such a short hill at 2AM.

In any case, it snowed several more inches and must have been windy because it piled up in drifts. Sometime in the middle of the night, it also started raining. The temperature was still in the 20’s so that just put a nice crust on the snow.

I did get out the shovel and decided to move some snow around, but I spent most of the day watching The Big Bang Theory and, finally, my copy of the only season of Wonderfalls. I really liked that show and so, of course, Fox decided to cancel it. They only broadcast a few episodes so I had to buy the DVD to see all the episodes they made.

It doesn’t take all that much brainpower to actually watch a TV show, so my mind wandered over the course of the day. I realized that I only have a week and a half to make this a non-dateless year, but I thought I’d just try some more predictive math to see how many dates I should be trending towards. My prime assumptions were all the dates I had in the past seven years.

So, the green line is a linearization of the data, and eyeballing the graphs this kind of shows that this year I should have negative 30 dates. I’m not really sure what that means but I’m guessing this cuts way back on the money I need to spend at eharmony.com.

It’s been a little icy and snowy, but now we have several inches of popcorn snow. Lots of people were out sledding, but I was inside watching the first season of The Big Bang Theory. Geeks represent! I did see a guy drive onto our lawn trying to turn his SUV around. I didn’t go out and say anything to him, because it would have included words inappropriate for his small child to hear. Whatever.

Tomorrow, it’s supposed to sleet and then Monday, in true Portland fashion, it’s supposed to be above freezing during the day, creating slush, and then below freezing at night, creating a giant ice rink. Actually, it sounds like hail is hitting my window already.

Good thing I have books to read. I’ve been spending so much time doing other things that my mysteries have piled up a bit. I can read several a week, so I’ll be done soon enough. What an expensive habit.

Yeah, a Japanese horror film that is an allegory for alienation and loneliness in society was NOT what I needed tonight. Do I need to go sorting through my DVD collection or do I watch Undercover Brother? I wish I still had Next Stop Wonderland.

The woodworking equipment is all out of my house now, but that still means the painters are coming as well as the electrician, plumber, and the tile guy to finish my counter. The carpet guy is coming tomorrow as well. I haven’t taken any pictures because it’s kind of half-done.

Ah, well, I still need to find some sort of antidote to this movie which, by the way, was Kairo (mistranslated Pulse in English).

I decided it was bad 80’s music night. I’m partial to British dancy music, so I listened to “Living on the Ceiling” by Blancmange, “Einstein A Go Go” by Landscape, “Let Me Go” by Heaven 17, and various songs by Bronski Beat, Duran Duran, and Spandau Ballet.

Watching music videos on YouTube is a serious timesink for me and I get really sucked in quite fast. I started out listening to Bhangra Knights vs Husan “Husan” and Snap “The Power of Bhangra” and it just devolved from there.

I should backtrack because I was watching a video even before all those that relates to the new goal I have at the gym. Most Crossfit gyms stick to very macho goals, like sub 3-minute Fran, or some other feats of strength and endurance that would make most people want to throw up. Our gym has people that do that, but also has people with other pursuits such as ice climbing, jiu jitsu, knitting, and burrito eating. So, in that spirit, I want to take the Cossack Lunges and other legwork and ab work and see if I can ever work up to any Cossack dancing. Check out this Basement Jaxx video and see if your quads or abs could put up with any of this.

I also decided I want a New Romantic costume like the one Simon Le Bon wears in the “Planet Earth” video and a desert uniform like the one the guys in Madness wear in “Night Boat to Cairo”. Yeah, I know, “Put the mouse down, and step away from the browser.”

One of the blogs I read is for “special deals.” Unfortunately, those special deals are always so popular that as soon as I see them they’re expired. Just what I need, something else I can’t have.

So, I found a way to get myself even more tired at night. First, have one of your co-workers “throw you under the bus.” (Like getting asked to find something for a key customer who needs that thing TONIGHT, being told that it will be easy to find, and then having to call various co-worker’s cell phones until you find something that may or may not be right. An hour-and-a-half of frantic phone calls in fact.) Then, get to the gym late, wanting to kill something. This can make you work harder, and make you much more tired.

I did, however, get another Xmas card today. The other one said, “If you had a girlfriend you’d have to so much more creative in your whining. would it be worth the effort?” I don’t know. It’s like my attempt to be a doctor. My friends who made it tell me it’s awful and I’d hate it, but how would I know when I never got the chance? Instead, I get to work with multinational corporations who take great pleasure in making all their problems into my problems. Sort of like how I imagine a hospital to be, but with individuals rather than corporate entities.

Well, at least I don’t have to listen to a lot of coughing if I work from home. I bet doctors don’t get to work from home much. I can even click on links that say “NSFW” and take naps and no one is in line to use the bathroom. Wait ’til the new bathroom is finished. Working from home will be glorious.

I worked from home yet again and people were telling me I was a wimp for not driving. Then, of course, they’d tell me that the roads were still icy. On my way to the gym (the only time I left the house today) I had people ACCELERATE towards me when I was crossing the street. I also noticed that the freeways were packed solid with traffic and the news helicopters were capturing the event to show on TV. I think I made the right decision to stay off the streets.

I was about as productive as I could have been at work, though my internet downloads were fairly slow, thereby delaying my Linux experimentation. The weather reports indicate impending doom and I’m going to be home tomorrow as well.

Jason the Contractor came by in the afternoon and finished putting in the bathroom Marmoleum. It looks great. He also brought by the toilet and we totally geeked out on the assembly instructions. We were about to do the same for the Washlet when he realized he had to get home before his wife got mad. This is why we get along: he’s a gadget freak, too. Every piece added to the bathroom makes it look even better, but also reminds me how much I owe him. It also reminds me of how much work we need to do to the rest of the house. Oh, boy!

The streets outside are a sheet of ice. I guess you can drive on it (people made it to the gym OK) but I also saw a guy in a Jeep Cherokee doing 35MPH on a residential street while talking on his cell phone slide through an intersection when he couldn’t stop in time. Guys like that are the reason I don’t like going out in this weather.

It’s a lot colder than it usually gets here, and windy as well. There haven’t been as many people sledding because of that so I didn’t have to hear them all night. I did end up with a broken beer bottle in my driveway so the responsibility level hasn’t gone up much. In fact, the kids are getting more speed sledding down the icy street. Jay the Contractor tried to drive up the street and quickly honked at a kid and got flipped off by one of the parents. I mean, really, Jay is trying to get to work. Get the hell out of his way. The contractors next door were there all day as well. This is one of the reasons I never wanted to work for myself.

It was a ☆☆☆SNOW DAY☆☆☆ and you can just see the glee in some people’s eyes as they say it. I’m much more curmudgeonly about it because I live across from a sledding hill. The problem is SNOW DAYS change a lot of adults into idiot children with no thoughts of responsibility. 2AM and there are still people outside whooping it up and sledding.

Just coincidentally, snow days also seem to fall on garbage days and I’ve caught people stealing our garbage can lid for sledding (it doesn’t work for crap, by the way) and I even had to ask a guy to give us back our recycling crate because he wanted to use it for transporting snow. His answer was, “But dude, it’s a SNOW DAY.” Nice. Don’t be your kid, be the parent. I also have had to clean up all the cardboard people bring to slide on because they usually can’t be bothered to take it back home. That’s why I find snow days more work than they’re worth.

Today was kind of a special snow day in many respects. Usually it barely gets cold enough for the snow to stick but the local news channels start going nuts every time there’s the slightest chance it might snow, but nothing happens. This time I don’t have the luxury of watching TV and it’s actually in the 20’s and snowing. I was invited out to dinner with some friends and the old Todd would beg off because of football games on TV or something but this time I HAVE NO TV. Well, actually, I was able to watch a very jumpy version of Sunday night football over my intarweb but it really wasn’t worth it.

Look at me! I’m being social! And I was getting eyed by a redhead on the streetcar on the way out. She was too young for me and really looked like she wanted to carve me up like so much prosciutto, but I don’t have to mention that part, right?

Nothing good happens after 2AM, right? I just left a holiday party and everyone else is going out dancing. But they’re all in their 20’s and I’m not. I should probably get to sleep earlier than I did last night, but it’s already getting close to 1:15AM again. One of these days I should try to get a decent amount of sleep.

These holiday parties also mean lots of eating and drinking. I did a lot of work to get into better physical condition and I could blow it all this month. Sure I feel better and I look better but it’s not really getting me anywhere so why not offset it with some more holiday merriment?

I finally canceled my cable TV service. So much for my primary form of entertainment. I live in a neighborhood that is at the base of the hill where the TV antennas for the city are located, so we can’t get reception at the house unless we have cable. There’s a chance that we could get satellite TV, but we’re on the north side of the hill so we might be out of luck trying to get a satellite signal. In any case, I’ve been having trouble with the cable lately, mainly with ingress, where I see both the cable TV image and also the image from the local TV station. Basically, it looks like hell. I got tired of it and decided to try to live without TV altogether.

I’m surprised how little grief I got from Comcast for canceling my service. I keep hearing how they’ll give you great deals to keep you as a customer but I got bupkis. Which is fine by me, really, until the bowl games start. I may feel kind of odd tomorrow when the football games are going on and I can’t watch them. Oh, well.

Somehow it seems that running my narrow Asian ass off in the gym kind of wakes me up because I’m usually wide awake this time of night. I’m dragging today. It’s just as well since I should get some more sleep than I’m getting. I keep waking up in the middle of the night and the upstairs bathroom is yet to be finished and the slog downstairs is getting old. Last night my calves were incredibly tight, probably from the leg circuits and rowing at the gym.

I also need to learn how to read a calendar. Not only did I forget what day it was like I always do, but I thought I was invited to two holiday parties on Saturday. Not so: there’s one on Friday and one on Saturday. I always tend to make a resolution to go to everything I’m invited to because I tend to be lazy and sit at home with the TV.

Now I’m thinking of canceling my cable subscription. I’m guessing that’ll just mean that I’ll catch up with all the movies and books in my queue and then I’ll be bored. I may end up finding new expensive hobbies that make me look even nerdier than I am now. Oh, well, I still think the cable needs to go.