Crazy Weather

My Last Post of 2007

I'm not exactly sure what this post will be about, but as the clock ticks toward the end of my Christmas break, and the end of my continuous access to Verizon FIOS, I feel that any failure to post would be a waste of opportunity. Furthermore, I've finally gotten back into reading David Copperfield after a woefully long period of reading nothing at all, and there's something about Dickens that inspires me to put my fingers to the keyboard and write away, [Merrill].

Maybe I should just talk about Dickens. Basically, I love him. He has such an amazing way with words! His characters are so colorful and enjoyable, and he conveys David's thoughts in such a clear and insightful, yet amusing, way. There's a tremendous thrill of satisfaction that comes from reading about Aunt Betsey Trotwood telling Uriah Heep to act like an eel if that's what he is, but otherwise to control his body. (At least, I personally was tremendously satisfied by that line, for it expressed precisely what I would have wished to say to that loathsome creature, had I the privilege of being one of the novel's characters.)

Even the most minor characters in the book have such depth. Mrs. Crupps, for example, is only David's landlady; yet her manipulative hypochondria, her careless attitude towards her duties to her tenant, her repeated use of the phrase, "I'm a mother, myself," her infantile habit of placing pitchers on the stairs in a vain plot to break Peggotty's legs, and myriads of other little, almost unnoticeable traits and idiosyncrasies make her into more than just some uninteresting foil. She, along with all the other personalities in the book (and they are many), is so alive that the story becomes alive itself. I have no trouble seeing why David Copperfield is one of the world's greatest classics.

In other news, we broke the December snow record. (I'm not sure why I say "we," since neither I nor any other human had anything to do with it, but I cannot think of an alternative that will leave the sentence in active tense.) I don't know any specific numbers for the amount of precipitation in my town, but Concord exceeded 1876's 43-inch record just this morning. Last year, we had 1.8 inches, according to the website I consulted, but I don't even remember getting that much. It would appear that all the snow last December deserved was donated to this year's December on top of a normal amount as a kind of consolation prize for the month that really ought to be white.

I can hardly believe that 2008 is now less than thirty minutes away. It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to get used to the new number. I don't think it should be hard: I hate writing 7's, and "2008" has fewer syllables than "2007" anyway. Pitiful though it may seem, I think I'm going to head to bed now, just minutes before the calender changes. I am quite tired, and there will be plenty of 2008 to enjoy come tomorrow (and the following 365 days).

EDIT: I got distracted and stayed up after all. It's now 2007 2008!!!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Snow and Ice

All I Want for Christmas...

...is a roof that doesn't leak!

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. Since writing that first sentence I have spent half an hour in the dripping cold because my wish was not granted. At least not yet. Of course, Christmas is still twenty-three hours and forty-three minutes away as I type, so I can't complain too much for just a LITTLE bit longer.

But seriously folks, this leaking business has been pretty extreme over the past couple days. It started in the addition, where we had to cut a hole in the ceiling to let out the rivulets freely flowing through the insulation over our heads. ("We" are my dad.) There was a pretty bad ice dam on the rook, so "we" shoveled it off and I went to town in treacherous weather to get us some Potassium Chloride (or something like that, a.k.a. ice melting granules) from Aubuchon Hardware. Daddy and I (but mostly Daddy) have sprinkled the stuff on the gutters by the addition several times, and most of the leaking there is taken care of. Just in time for tonight....

As those of you in New Hampshire already know, it's relatively warm and quite rainy this evening in the Granite State. While this is good for our skating prospects (which excites me to no end), it is only the silver lining to a very, very dark cloud.

This seemingly harmless, gentle drizzle combined with the rising temperatures have sent gallons of water sloshing down our various roofs. With our gutters full of ice, we somehow ended up with leaks in our basement and laundry room. More shoveling and sprinkling of chemicals (by "us," of course) ensued.

Lest you think I was lazy, a certain influential member of my family would not allow me - or anyone else in the family except my dad, for that matter - onto the roof. I mostly shoveled the deck, found flashlights and chemicals, and emptied buckets.

Right now I don't know of any more leaking going on, thank God, but you can feel sorry for us all the same.

O! now you weep, and I perceive you feel
The dint of pity; these are gracious drops.
Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold
Our [household]'s vesture wounded?

Glad to hear it.

Quotes from Julius Caesar

Snow: Good or Bad?

& OTHER VITAL SUBJECTS

I no longer press the "New Post" button on the Blogger Dashboard with the same freeness or frequency as I once did. That's a fact. Looking back, I am amazed by how much more rarely I undertake that nudge of the index finger. My blog used to be my LIFE! Now I'm a typical Bible school blogger: I post every couple of months. Or not. But I'm here now, anyway. And since I told myself I wouldn't indulge my habit of writing about how rarely I write, I will now cease to break my self-promises.

I actually did write a LOOOOONG post over Thanksgiving break: "A Day in the Life of a Bible School Student." I had fun writing it, and I think it could be interesting, but I lost my inspiration after writing for HOURS (don't worry, I'm a slow writer) and still having a number of paragraphs to go. I'll finish it later, but I decided recently that working on the same monolithic post forever and failing to actually PUBLISH anything was anything but productive.

There I go again. Writing about how I never write. It's an addiction, I tell you! On to something else:

This is a risky subject, because nearly everyone who still blogs at ALL and who lives in the glorious New England area has already said something about it. But risks are to be taken, and now is as good a time as any.

Snow. There is a LOT of it. So far, to my recollection, we've had three large snowstorms in New Hampshire. It may have been four or five, really, but certainly a minimum of three. And theses are no light dustings either. Mais non, mes amis: we're talking about the clouds dumping DECIMETERS at a time! Is this a good thing or a bad thing? That is the question.

The bad thing is that driving has been made far more difficult than it ever was last December (remember how we had no snow at ALL last December?). I've finished my shopping, fortunately, but not without my fair share of sliding about on the roads between stores. Right now I'm at Grandpa's, on the top of the famed Hill of Chestnuts, and that hill is not a hill for the light of heart right now. No sirree! It was all I could do to get to the top, and it was almost more than I could do to get up my grandfather's driveway! I actually had to get out and - get this - SHOVEL!

Speaking of driveways, my family's driveway is not really for the faint of heart right now either. Nor is it for the poor in driving skills, however stout the condition of their hearts may be. To successfully reach the S. abode, one must first back into the park across the road and then accelerate forward like Jehu. You see, a running start is unarguably necessary in order to reach the top of the first hill; one cannot get sufficient momentum turning into the driveway from the road.

EDIT: I managed it without using the park this morning, but LAST NIGHT it was impossible, and it still may be with some cars.

The rest of the operation is pretty straightforward: drive like Jehu the rest of the way, too. Once you get the hang of it, it's wicked fun. Some cars slide more than others, and those are the best, but even with AWD and snow tires it's great to have any excuse to drive in a manner that would be reckless any other time of year.

(This is not meant to imply that I am ever reckless. I am a cautious soul to the very core of my being.)

Snow also means shoveling. Lots of shoveling. And snowblowing. And leaky roofs. It is, in short, a maintenance nightmare, at least when so much comes at once. I was lucky in that I was sick for most of this last storm, which exempted me from manual labor, but now I'm on the mend and the snow's still coming down. Shoveling is starting to look like a part of life.

I must note here that I do not abhor shoveling, really. It's good exercise, and that means it's good for keeping warm despite the cold. It is also productive exercise, which I far prefer to "unproductive exercise": push-ups, treadmills... basically any exercise for exercise' sake. Shoveling, on the other hand builds your muscle and gets other stuff done at the same time. It's just hard to break the psychological barrier. You know, the voice that says, "You are warm and cozy inside. It's cold and uncozy outside. Cuddle up, be warm. Make yourself happy. That's it. You don't want to spoil the beauty of the undisturbed landscape, do you? So what if no one can get to your house? They should stay inside too; inside where it's warrrrrm, warrrrrrm, warrrrr...."

Yeah. That voice.

Now for the positive sides of the snow: beauty, Christmas spirit, and snowballs. That pretty much sums it up. No explanation needed.

Conclusion:
Snow is good. Snow is fun. Snow is beautiful. However, I believe we now have enough to last us until January at least. Meteorologists, take note.

The Wind

Today's weather has been rather too hot and humid for my taste, but as evening approaches, things are starting to cool down and a delicious breeze has picked up. There is almost no sound I prefer to that of the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. Right now especially, it reminds me of the approach of another cool, crisp, beautiful New Hampshire autumn, and that makes me very happy indeed.

Cape Cod!

Un Post Senza Un Titolo

As this picture should make clear, green is quickly becoming - as it should - the dominant color here in New Hampshire. Spring has absolutely and irreversibly arrived! Of course, it isn't yet late spring here, as evidenced by the fact that Eagle Wings remains placidly parked in the driveway.

Other signs of spring: peepers, beavers, open windows, open doors, sprouting lilies, later sunsets, and (gulp) mosquitoes. (Say it isn't so!) Fortunately, the last item in that otherwise happy list has not yet become a nuisance. So far I have seen about ten of the little bloodsuckers and have killed about five. If I can maintain that ratio of mosquitoes killed to mosquitoes seen (or is it the other way around?) throughout the summer, I will be very, very pleased with myself.

One of the ways I have been taking advantage of the relatively, and sometimes indescribably, beautiful weather we have been enjoying of late is to go rowing in the morning before I do school. As you can see by Exhibit B (at right), the pond is currently clear, glassy, and full. Alas, before long the algae will have significantly marred our view to the west, but so far so good. Several times now I have been in our boat when one or more beavers have come out of their lodge and swum around the pond. One time, while I was enjoying the breeze and reading American Literature, I tied the boat to a tree at the end of the pond. I was just lazily studying (there's a paradox for you!), when two baby beavers swam out of the swamp, right by my boat, and into their lodge. After a while, a big one came out, swam around for a while, and then returned.

The more exciting time was when I was actually rowing. As I went from one side of the pond to the other, the beaver would swim to the opposite side, swim around for a bit, and then dive under with a terrific smack of its tail against the water. 'Twas cool.

And now for a confession: after writing my last post, I have only read about seventy-five pages of Les Mis, and most of that today. At first it was from lack of time, but as the week went on and the book remained untouched, I was struck by this observation: sometimes the less you do of something, the more tired of doing it you feel. Now I have resumed reading it and am enthralled once again.

Upon the Return of Winter

Wherefore, once we the taste of spring had known,
Didst Thou, O Lord, deem right another storm?
The snow, whose ceaseless falling does transform
The scenery, has over flowers blown;
The vernal sun, which just so brightly shown,
Is hidden: sunshine is no more the norm,
And infant buds, perplexed it is not warm,
Must once more wait for south winds to be blown.
Is it to make the springtime fairer still?
I truly yearn for verdancy the more
Now that the white of winter has returned;
If this surprise was sent by Thy pure will,
‘Tis worth the wait; the spring for which I yearned
Will come, and I'll be gladder than before.

- The brilliant Eric Snadforth

Che Bella Giornata!

...as we who are almost fluent in the Italian tongue are wont to spout on days such as this; for today was undeniably beautiful. Spring arriveth!

I enjoy a merciful amnesia throughout the winter months that permits me to enjoy the snow and the cold without actually realizing that I am simultaneously enduring them. Once I get a taste of spring, however, I look back on the months and realize that winter isn't so hot after all. The sunshine, the smell, the sounds of water and of birds - all these and more take the days of spring and set them in a different league from the days of the rest of the year.

Today was such a day. As I walked down to get the mail, it struck me that I had forgotten how much FUN it is to be outside and comfortable at the same time! I had to do school, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the great outdoors. On the contrary, I simply moved my classroom! (The joys of homeschooling...) I did most of Calculus outside, enjoying the relatively warm breezes, the cooing doves, the radiant sunshine, and the tinkling of the melted snow running into the gutters. I had a great perspective of all these things from my perch on the roof.

Yes, on the roof.

Kids, don't try this at home.




The skylight made a terrific table, but I must say whoever invented roofing shingles wasn't thinking about comfort. It's not bad on some roofs, I'm sure, but ours is a bit steep. Nevertheless, the fresh air and the view were nice while they lasted.



Now I'm off to cogitate on the symbolic role of the one female character in Call of the Wild...

A Sagacious Perception

I have been reluctant to write a new post recently because I have been doing so much writing for school anyway. (Or at least THINKING about writing; half the time has been spent dealing with technical difficulties.) Every time I sit down to write a post I feel like I don't have a clear enough outline. I don't have organization of thoughts. I don't have a clear purpose. But then, a blog doesn't have to be purposeful and organized, does it? A blog can be random! A blog can be about my incoherent personal thoughts and experiences! Suddenly I feel free! I will update! I will not be considered a blogger manqué!

Disclaimer: From here on, the rest of the post is not necessarily sagacious, although perceptions continue to abound.

Speaking of technical difficulties, I'm sure most of you have noticed that my Link Gallery has stopped working. (I know that Claire, Jenna, Andrea, Derrick, and anyone who reads Andrea's blog have noticed, and that probably covers most of you.) I assure you I had nothing to do with the problem and I've spent enough time trying to fix it to write seventeen or so posts so glorious that you could not but dance for joy. However, all my efforts have been to no avail as of yet. Perhaps the website (feedblendr.com) will remedy itself. Maybe I'll find some other way to blend a new terrific sixty-two-blog feed. But until then, I'm sorry for all the suffering you'll have to go through: the grueling agony of adding to favorites, the tortuous clicking of the mouse, link after link.... but, as some wise pirate once said, "Life is pain, Highness."

Those of you from the South may think that just because it's spring down there, and Andrea said it was spring up here, that it is spring up here. However, you would be wrong. I mean, it was spring up here, but it is spring no longer. Au contraire! It is fr-r-r-r-eeeezing! After a record warm start to the winter (and cries of, "HEEEEEEELP!!!! GLOBAL WARMING!!!!") it has now come to a record cold middle or end. You never know how much winter is left in NH; spring could be here tomorrow, or it could be put off until late May. Who knows? All I know right now is that the numbers the meteorologists are showing are in the single digits – without the major wind chill. And there isn't even any good skating! Ah, well, "If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant…." (Anne Bradstreet)

I... love…

Microsoft Word 2007! (You thought I was going to say "celery root," didn't you?) I haven't bitten the bullet and paid the hefty purchase price, but I did download a free 60-day trial and I love it! It's so easy to use and so graphically pleasing… and it comes set up for posting to blogs!!!! How cool is that? The best thing of all is that my trial doesn't end until I graduate, so I get to spend the rest of my grade school days writing in style! I feel so CTU.

Of course, if I really were that advanced, I would probably be able to fix the feed problem myself, but who said I felt like an O'Brien? I'll just content myself with being a Buchanan. Or maybe Josh Bauer. Except He wasn't in CTU. And my dad is actually quite nice, as is my grandfather. So I guess the analogy – if it was an analogy – really breaks down there. Sigh. Good thing this whole discussion is completely irrelevant.

Thus concludes my heart's outpouring to all ye, the faithful readers. I hope I provided you with a hearty boff or two, but whether I did or not I must now popple off to finish my Calculus.

Happy Valentine's Day II and MORE!

Happy Valentine's Day again! Don't worry I didn't eat more than one chocolate bar, although I did have a number of marshmallows, some angel food cake, chocolate-covered strawberries, whipped cream-covered strawberries, and ice cream.

Ahem.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, what better day is there in the year to play through a book of old "classic" American love songs? Some of them are really quite funny. It seems that sentimentality was pretty popular back in the nineteenth century. Some of my favorites are "I Love You Truly" (the very same song that was sung by Bert and Ernie in "It's a Wonderful Life"), "Just A-Wearyin' For You", "Down By the Old Mill Stream", "In My Merry Oldsmobile" (yes, the book is old), and "Gypsy Love Song." They're all so...so old-fashioned! And funny! Maybe some time I'll try recording a couple of them, but it's too late to do it tonight.

On to other, more modern, less soupy, and probably more interesting subjects. ADBLOCK! I love Adblock. If you have never experienced it, you don't know what you're missing! It's an add-on for the browser Mozzarella Firefox (as it has been recently dubbed by a member of our family who previously called it "Maxamilla Foxfire" but broke that habit), and it lets you right-click on any picture on the web and Adblock it. BOOM! No more ads from THAT website! It's so much fun ("Feeeeel the power!" "Whoa, I feel it!"), and there are hardly ever ads on the websites I visit anymore, at least after I've been blocking things for a while. Life is good again!

My final subject:

The Inaccuracy and Fickleness of Weather Forecasting

---

Recently the weather forecasts have been all over the place. First we were going to get a huge huge huge snowstorm. "At LEAST twelve inches, probably even TWO FEET!" cried the meteorologists. But they soon changed their minds: Weather.com declared yesterday that we would get two inches before the precipitation turned into sleet or rain. Fortunately, they were wrong. Then this morning it was "eight inches, or maybe more. Some sleet around noon." Good thing they inserted that little disclaimer: they needed it. We have at least a foot. Oh, and the sleet didn't show up until 2:30, and it lasted about thirty seconds.

The meteorological community managed to keep from being totally wrong with the morning forecast, but they just couldn't stop while they were ahead. "The snow will taper off throughout the evening. It won't end until midnight, but we will get only one to two inches between 4PM and then." They may be right about the midnight part - the snow is coming down quite softly now - but it still is falling pretty steadily, and there is less than half an hour left before February 15th arrives - oh, wait, they just changed it to "light snow until 2AM, with some freezing drizzle." (Maybe it will end at midnight after all!) At any rate, I'm pretty sure we've had more than two inches since four.

I don't want to bash the weather-people; I'm sure they're all very nice, and I assume they do their best to get it right. But as Mrs. Banks would say (or sing), "Although we adore them individually, we agree that as a group they're rather stupid..." :)

Here's how our property looked like around 3:30 or 4:00 this afternoon:

Video: Ice Storm!

Well, folks, it finally looks a little bit like winter outside...and boy does it feel like winter, too! The temperature was 7° when I went to bed, and had risen only to 8° when I got up. If the ice isn't hard enough to skate on today, I'll eat my fur hat. (This is safe to say because I have no fur hats to eat. It is also safe because, after all, it was 7° last night, but I'm much too cautious to take even the smallest chance. It's part of my personality.)

The morning after the ice storm, Ryan and I went exploring a bit to see the results of the storm (besides that we had lost power), and they were fantastic! Every blade of grass was at least a half-inch thick with ice! Each pine tree looked like a giant wizard's hat, and saplings of every kind joined the birches in bowing to the ground. A glassy shimmer was visible in every direction.

Amazing as the surrounding beauty was, one of the best things about the storm, as far as Ryan and I were concerned, was the fact that our aunt's driveway was itself as smooth as glass. We had so much fun sliding on that little hill! I did wish that it could have been five times as long, but it's shortness was not enough to deter me or Ryan from having a blast!

HERE IT IS FOR WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER

More Elucidation

As another day of crazy weather rolls around, I have revised my theory. Now I think that there was a terrorist attack or epidemic that made everything and everyone get amnesia all at once, kind of like a mixture of Rip van Winkle and Sleeping Beauty. So even though everyone thinks it's January, it's really April or May. Isn't that weird?

Or maybe it's just a climatic cycle...

Elucidation

You know how we have ALL been wondering about why on EARTH the weather has been so very peculiar this past year? How it's supposed to be a record-breaking sixty-one degrees tomorrow, a day which is usually one of the year's coldest? How there was no snow on Christmas, and skating ice for only a day or two? How it was too hot and humid in the middle of July, too cold in September, and how there was actually a windstorm once when we went sailing? (I heard it even rained for some people...)

I've figured it all out!

Want to know? Of course you do!

Well, here's what's going on - and it isn't Global Warming! No, it's something much bigger than that over-hyped politicized hypothesis. Methuselah's age finally caught up with him!

On the off chance that you don't know who Methuselah is, or that you think I must be referring to a different Methuselah, allow me to inform you that Methuselah is Adam's great- great- great- great- great grandson. That is a claim to fame in itself, but he also happened to live longer than any other man in recorded history! Nine hundred and sixty-nine years! Wow!

Well, Methuselah happened to die 1656 years after the creation of the earth, and that also happened to be the year that God destroyed the evil inhabitants of the earth through a great flood, saving only Noah and his family. Of course, the flood effected drastic changes to the climate of the earth, and someone needed to be put in charge of making sure the weather worked properly. Methuselah was the obvious choice, since he had just arrived in heaven and was reputed to have had the most experience on earth.

Methuselah set right to work. God did the first job - putting the rainbow in the sky for Noah - but after that it was mostly Methuselah all the way (with God always over-seeing, naturally). People generally thought he did a good job, although a few unfortunates thought he made it too snowy in the northern US. He disregarded these people's complaints, however, much to the gratification of the more open-minded sector of the populace.

In the middle of the year of our Lord 2005, however, things began to change. Methuselah, getting REALLY old by this time, decided to retire, and the job was given over to his descendant Peleg, who was also old. Unfortunately, Peleg was just not as organized as his predecessor, and he kept messing up the weather files. His first big mistake was to mix up the 2005 and 2006 Atlantic hurricane files. He dropped them on the floor, and, not being very meticulous, he piled all the papers into the 2005 folder (except for one or two that wouldn't fit). If the people of Louisiana had known who was responsible, they would have been very angry with him. Instead, they blamed the government.

The Dennis/Emily/Katrina/Rita/Stan episode was the only real disaster of the Peleg administration so far, but it wasn't the last error the angel was to make. This year, he FORGOT ABOUT SNOW!!! At least, he did in New England. Methuselah made it snow once while taking over the job temporarily as a favor for his [n(great)] grandchild, but other than that one time, the New England earth has been basically devoid of its usual January brilliance. It's possible that Peleg mixed up the Midwest file and the Northeast file, but I am more in favor of the theory that he mixed up the January and June sections of New England's file. Then again, why speculate?

The point is, Peleg forgot the snow in New England this year, and we miss it! I'm thinking maybe we should organize a strike or something...

Donations to the Aaron H. S. and Friends Amateur Meteorology Association(AHSFAMA) can be mailed to me at any time. I will always accept.

Extreme Thrift

I just had the best idea for inexpensive Christmas gifts. You know how you can have a star officially named after someone? It's such a special thing to think that someone appreciates you so much that they'd name a nearly invisible light in the sky after you so that when they're lonely they can look through a telescope and thing about your name. But naming a star is not my idea; someone else already had that, and I can't stand to be unoriginal. No, as a token of love and appreciation, this year I am naming clouds after my family members! Think about it! No cost, no purchase process, no hassle for the giver, and the givee's heavenly namesake is so much closer to earth, where it can be admired on a much more intimate level. There's a really nice billowy purple cloud out my window right now that I might name after Bria...

On a more serious note, I am excited for Christmas, but it's SO weird having December 24 be warm and cloudy. This is New Hampshire, for Pete's sake! Still, it'll be Christmas no matter what the weather.

Now that Christmas is so close, I can't decide whether I want it to be here ASAP or to delay in coming JUST a wee bit. You see, I have SOOOO much to do (which explains why I'm taking fifteen minutes to write on my blog)! More time would be nice, but I can't wait to have it all done with. And I can't wait for Christmas. But the list IS pretty long. Sigh. Fortunately, I don't have to make a decision. If I were in charge of time instead of God, time would be so disorderly that everyone would always be confused. ("Wait, it's 2! No, it's 1:30! Oh, hold on, we just skipped Friday so Aaron wouldn't have to take his big exam...") Christmas will be here in 11 hours no matter what, so I guess I'll just grab some headphones and the Messiah while I work, and "Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice greatly... for unto us a Child is born!"

Merry Christmas, everyone!

This Day in History

Last year counts as history, right?

The Glass Was At Least Half Full Today

Today was pretty nice, athough the weather was a wee bit cool for July. Which is fine since it's the last day in November. Sorry, all you West Coast people, but I can't help but exult in the splendor of today's weather. The air smelled and felt WONDERFUL. My only regret is that I spent so little of my time today outside.

Now, to ward off all cries of "HYPOCRITE!" (see Andrea's blog...), I feel compelled to point out that I would have been equally exultant if we got dumped with a foot of snow. It would make the Christmas season seem so much more legitimate. On the other hand, even a cold, sunny, day would be better than the rain that predominated throughout the first half of the week! But since today's weather was positively vernally splendiferous, "I must shout to the world my excitement from the top of some place very high!" (AKA my fourth-story bedroom; quote from Cars.)

Another reason I have for being happy is that I found a deal on TigerDirect.com for a NEW PCI WIRELESS ADAPTER!!!! (Right now I have a USB adapter with a nominal antenna.) This is going to be AWESOME, because, as KJ and anyone else who has either used my computer or logged on to AIM while I was also on, assuming that said person has me on his Buddy List, and watches it - as any of those people know, my connection is bad. Bad, bad, bad. High-speed, it's true, and I'm grateful for that; but who doesn't get annoyed, high-speed or not, if every thirty seconds his computer resets the connection!? Who likes to likes to listen all day to "Welcome!" ... "Goodbye!" ... "Welcome!" ... "Goodbye!"? Who likes to see "Connection lost" and "Wireless Network Now Connected" repeated over and over and over at the bottom of his screen? I tell you, my blood boils even thinking about it!!! AND IT'S ALL HAPPENING THIS VERY INSTANT!!!!

Sigh. My fondest hope is that, come December 5th, all connection problems will be HISTORY! That sounds like heaven on earth....

...except I still have to write essays on Limited Omniscient Narrative Voice and how it applies to my life.

Sort of.

Jack Frost Pays a Visit

A Glimmer of Hope