Snow Days

The weekend got off to an early start. Ashley and I went to work Friday morning. Roads were damp, but nothing scary. We agreed the weather forecasters had erred again—the night before, they were predicting severe snow. Evidently they were correct, but off by a couple hours. Around 10 am, I received a call from Ashley. She was grabbing her laptop and heading home. I looked outside and saw snow piling up and realized this new snow atop the already wet roads would mean treacherous driving conditions. I made a command decision and left work. I figured the base would close soon enough (eventually they sent everyone home at 1 pm; it is still closed), and wanted to get on the roads earlier rather than later. Thus, Ashley and I spent Friday at home, hanging out with the little man. Well, I hung out with Bode; Ashley worked (she’s more dedicated than me). Bode and I had a great time, and I think I tired him out, as the following picture shows.

It is still snowing. I’ve shoveled the driveway three times already, and am anticipating having to do it once more after lunch. I can’t believe last weekend I was outside in jeans and t-shirt raking the yard and putting down fertilizer. Sort of reminds me of Colorado weather. Needing something to do, I ventured outside and took these pictures.

I measured the snow pile on top of the table; it measured 10+ inches. When it’s all said and done, we’ll probably get a little more than a foot of snow. Ashley is managing to stay busy. She’s been putting up tile in the kitchen. She does good work, and if she ever needs a third career (career 1: engineer; career 2: professional framer), she could probably earn a living as a tiler. I’m trying to write (‘All work and no play makes Jeff a dull boy’) and Bode is sitting in his swing gurgling (‘Redrum! Redrum!’) Hopefully the snow stops soon so we’re able to get out and do something (maybe a fun land-maze or something). Why must winter storms happen on Saturdays? We’re stuck at home, and probably won’t be able to get out until Sunday; I’ll bet the roads will be all cleared so we can all get back to work first thing Monday morning. Oh joy.

I had another interesting thought today (yes, two in one month; gotta be a record for me). I was rinsing Bode's bottles. For some reason, I always feel strange washing bottles that contained Ashley's milk (she pumps). It's not like I get queasy, but I know I do wash thoroughly if I get any milk on my fingers. Funny that I feel this way about milk from my wife's boob, yet I'll take milk from a cow's boob and pour it over cereal, I drink a glass or two of cow's milk every night with dinner, and is there a better dessert than dunked oreos? It's odd how we take issue with some things for no real reason. Take people and dogs. Most people can't stand to be licked by a dog. My brother is one such person. A dog licks him and he's immediately washing like he's preparing for surgery, yet if his kids kiss him, he has no issue. From a medical stand point, who has the cleaner mouth, the dog or the human? By far, it's a dog, but for some reason people think dogs have filthy mouths (granted the constant butt-licking might have something to do with that). Some people also have a fit when they travel on an airplane and hear someone coughing a few rows up. Immediately they think they'll be getting sick. They reason they're breathing all this circulated air, and the germs the sicko is coughing up are being spread throughout the cabin. This is entirely untrue. In fact, the air you breathe on an airplane is thoroughly scrubbed before it gets recirculated, and is actually must cleaner than anything you breathe on the ground.

A book that discusses unwarranted fears is Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. It's a great read, and it gets the McGuirk Seal of Approval. I'm currently reading The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan; not yet sure if I'll continue with it or not. If you need a good TV show to watch, Breaking Bad is a must see--you can read about it at http://www.amctv.com.

Pleasant day, and happy sledding,.