Snow Snow go Away

Yep. Its a whopper. The storm I mean.

I got up this morning, took one look out the window and crawled back under the covers. I was going nowhere for a long time.

Then the earthquake woke me up. At least it sounded like one.

My roof is made of out this really cool material which is installed like slate tiles. The beauty of this is that the roof doesn't need to be shoveled because the material allows the snow to just....slide off.

Unfortunately, it doesn't slide off as its snowing. No. It will accumulate like a most roofs and when the weight increases OR, the temperature warms up a little....the snow will come crashing down and I mean CRASHING.

The first time it happened I thought the house was caving in. It was so loud that I could only imagine what an avalanche would sound like. My dog makes a beeline to hide under whatever.

Try having THAT wake you up out of a dead sleep.

It will snow for the better part of the evening and possibly into tomorrow. Joy.

It will take me 15 minutes to unearth my car. This time I will do it with gloves on. You'd think I'd have learned by now.

So. It is cold though not as cold as it was. Snow is beautiful but can be annoying to deal with.

I'm looking forward to the 2nd to see what the groundhog says. If is 6 weeks of winter...is that the good or the bad prediction?

Well, that is it for the weather report. And now back to you....

This and That

So much for posting everyday.

I do write, but working on something else so sometimes this gets put aside.

We're about to get another whopper of a storm. Damn. Makes it impossible to do anything that requires driving.

I have a class tomorrow morning and besides fighting a cold, my guess is that I will not be attending. My lax-ness appalls me. The last time the roads were bad it took me 1:15 to get to school. A ride that typically takes 35 minutes.

As for work...that's 43 miles away. It'll take me 2 hours of hazardous travel time. Me thinks a call out is in order. The company has an incredibly detailed corp number to call for absences and 'tardies'. Now there is a word I bet you haven't seen in a LONG time.

Tardy.

Who says that anymore? Once you get through, you have to work your way through a complex menu of options requiring the pressing of 1 or 2 depending on your circumstances.(If anyone has ever wondered what became of the moviefone guy....I have my suspicions). By the time you've finished, you've forgotten why you called and are well on your way to being over whatever ailed you in the first place. I think its a ploy.

What happened to the days when you called in and talked to a human?

Technology is wonderful. I am addicted to my computer and my cell. I misplaced my cell for a couple of hours one day and had an anxiety attack.

I recently switched Internet services from DSL (HORRIBLE) to cable which I much prefer. When asked by the phone company why I was switching the words "because it sucks" were just about to be released into the atmosphere. As it were I merely said "because I am not happy with the service." After all, I am foremost a lady.

Them: "Is there anything we can do to make it better?"

Me: "Yes. Cancel my service so I can switch to cable."

I asked for it to be terminated at month end (giving me time to receive my cable modem and connect) and instead, unbeknownst to me, they terminated me that evening. The next day I had NO service. I didn't know when I was to receive my modem so I contemplated going to the local bookstore for wireless access. How could I keep up on the (g)ripping entertain news regarding the newest baby bump sightings? How could I find out how badly my investment account was doing? How could I Ipost my blog entry? And, most importantly, how could I read my EMAILS!!

As it turned out the modem arrived the next day (they knew) and I had it installed within the hour.

Whoa. That was close.

I recently found a journal I was keeping in 1998. There was an entry regarding my newly found email capabilities. The entry was about something that I had taken part in and was so psyched I was off to email the news to all my friends who had email at the time. And I did. I sent an email to all four of them.

Times have changed. I now have 12 friends on email. (kidding)

Cold Cold Go Away

Don't you hate it when you know you're coming down with 'something'.

That elusive 'something' that when someone else has it you're thinking..."Thank goodness I don't have that."

Well, I think I'm about to have 'that'.

Everyone has the little tell tale sign that alerts them to the impending feeling of getting sick.

Mine is the way the roof of my mouth starts to feel. Ugh.

I hope I'm wrong.

Moons Phases and Retrograde Planets

There are times when it feels as though I am beating my head against a wall. Nothing, and I mean nothing seems to go smoothly. No matter what I do, no matter what I need to do, it seems like it is a struggle full of petty annoyances.

I used to think that perhaps it was just a phase but now I know the truth. Apparently it is planetary action that wrecks havoc on my simple existence.

Being a Virgo I am classified as a perfectionist so when things don't go as planned I tend to get pretty peeved. I don't throw tantrums, certainly not my style, I'm too much of a lady. But lest you think I let things just roll off my back no one has ever accused me of not speaking my mind.

What seems to be the culprit in the short term is that Mercury (ruling planet of Virgos and Geminis) is in retrograde...simply meaning that it seems to be going backwards. That is what is going on, forward motion seems to have been reversed and it is like hiccuping your way through life. Luckily this charming phenomenon will only last another week but I can certainly look forward to it a few times a year.

Having something to blame for the inconsistencies that are occurring cuts me some slack. After all, its not really me, its my planet.

The other truly fun period is during a full moon. I wonder if I have werewolf in me somewhere. The next time people are acting this side of odd, pay attention to the moon cycle. For me, I tend to stay home and hibernate in order to avoid craziness. I for one noticed I get fairly moody and all those years I thought it was PMS it was actually the moon.

So I'm going with the flow knowing that in a few days things will go back to normal.

I hope

I Should be Doing......

The decorating frenzy has hit me again.

Early last year, when I moved up here permanently, I put all my 'other' worldly belongings in my finished basement which up until today looked like the aftermath of a UPS truck explosion. Boxes and boxes of this and that strewn all over the place. It would give me a headache just passing the main room to do laundry.

The boxes didn't really have anything important in them, as I found out when I painstakingly went through each one. Mainly they were the catch all boxes. You know, the ones that you wind up tossing all the stuff you have no idea how to categorize, yet aren't quite willing to part with at the time of the move.

Amazing how that changes when you are forced to make a decision.

Oh looky, a cork from a wine bottle shared with that special guy. If I remembered who, I may have saved it. But, be that as it may, it is now in the trash where it probably should have gone the day after consumption.

So I've spent the better part of my day clearing the clutter and preparing a now empty room...for more 'stuff'. George Carlin would be proud.

All this, by the way, to avoid my homework which requires that I write two poems in different styles. Like any major procrastinator, I do my best work under pressure. Hopefully that will still be the case as I ponder the words which should follow:

There once was a man from Nantucket......

Tick Tick Tick

What is one's time worth?

That is a question I've been asking myself for over a year. When doing something I truly love, it doesn't much matter.

But, when doing something that isn't at all fulfilling...well, that is when that annoying little question creeps in like an unwelcome water leak.

It drips into your soul until you can hear nothing but that.

So that question is finding its way back into the forefront of my intellect. Time is everyone's best friend and at some point we acknowledge that only time will allow us the chance to make the choices that best suit us in the long run.

Maybe then we determine what our time is truly worth.

In the Mundane

I'm a little late in getting in my daily musings. I'm not even sure I have much to add today but the point is to just write something.

Some days things are as dull as dirt. Today was one of those days. There is pressure sometimes to scribble something of value, something life altering.

But not today.

We have been blessed with lots of snow. That white stuff that finds its way onto the ground and is beautiful to look at from behind the safety of a window or photo. Living in it is quite different. The illusion of snow is deceiving. Blanketing the horizon it transforms the landscape in natural beauty. Driving through it is an entirely different experience.

Everywhere you go takes that much longer. No matter how able your car, caution is the name of the game. You can't afford daydreaming even as you marvel at the intoxicating beauty around you. All it takes is a slight misjudgement and life can be upset in an instant.

As I spun into a slide on a back road, time seemed to slow down or even stop. The only thing I was aware of was the unrelenting pounding of my heart. Speed, or lack thereof meant nothing as the tires tried desperately to grip the ice. Skill alone is not enough.

It wasn't my time.

Those who take mother nature for granted soon learn that lesson the hard way. Within all beauty there is a danger. Sometimes imperceptible. Those are the moments that remind you that you can't just coast through life. To make it worth living, you have to be aware of the nuances, ignoring those can lead to damages that cannot be undone.

And This Little Piggie Went To....

When I made the decision to leave the financial industry behind, (and the income that went along with it) many of my friends and former co-workers were extremely concerned.

"How would I survive in Vermont?" they asked. Its not like jobs at the higher end of the pay scale were growing on trees. After all, this was the world of hourly wages.

One very concerned friend wondered how on earth I would ever again afford a pair of Jimmy Choos.

For one thing I've never owned a pair. It wasn't because I couldn't afford them at the time, but rather because I had become particularly fond of my pinkie toes.

Like most women (and dare I say some men), I love high heels. This relationship has been the longest standing of my life and began when I was around 7 years old. Back then they sold plastic high heel sandals with a simple elastic strap made for little girls which could be counted on to crack in half around the second or third wearing.

As I grew older, the shoes I wore were no longer made of acrylic but of fine leather and of course the heels got higher. They gave me the extra 3 to 4 inches that my 5'2" frame desperately needed. Throughout my life my love affair with stilettos flourished but never did I buy Choos.

There is an ugly Urban legend that is probably based in some reality that women were so desperate to wear these unusually narrow shoes that they would part with their beloved pinkie toe in order to do so.

Not me. I'd become attached to my little piggies. As much as I would have loved to don a sexy pair of these shoes, somehow foot mutilation didn't sound appealing even if the shoes promised to give my legs the illusion of appearing longer.

My friend needn't have been concerned. Turns out I didn't miss out on much. There aren't a lot of reasons to be wearing 4" heels up here anyway and certainly not with over 4' of snow on the ground.

So the the next time I sit with my 4 year old niece and say that little nursery rhyme, I can rest assure that my little piggy won't be crying 'wee wee we...all the way home'.

Calling Rod Serling

Its pretty annoying to get at phone call at 7:00 a.m. when you aren't expecting one. Thank God for caller ID.

It was a business I did not recognize and what business calls at that time anyway? Curiosity getting the better of me (and probably boredom) I looked the company up online and it turned out to be a construction company located in a town some 60 miles north of Ludlow.

A mistake for sure since I'm not building anything at the moment.

I find pop up ads incredibly annoying and Iusually ignore them but in the midst of looking up this company an ad did catch my eye. A search service that allows you to reverse search phone numbers. Who knew? (I'm sure you'll all be doing this now).

I would imagine that most people know that if you 'Google' a listed phone number, you will get information pertaining to that number. (I will stop for a moment while you Google your number and that of your friends). Since my phone number is unlisted I wondered if any of my information would appear. So I did a reverse search. (I told you I was bored).

A name did come up, as did an address but it wasn't mine. The best I could guess is that the information was that of the previous owner of said number.

So what?

The name meant nothing but the address caught my eye. Twilight Zone's theme music started playing in my head. My phone number belonged to the woman from whom one of my closest friends bought her house meaning that my number was previously connected to my friend's address.

Lest you say...well its a small town, yeah, but we do have more than 12 phone numbers to go around. Even though I worked with numbers over the past 30 years, I was never much of a mathematician yet even I know that statistically this is an outlier.

Really now.

Imagine what an episode that would have made.

Dance Along Your Path

I am taking this opportunity to wish you all a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous New Year.

The past year has been a study in turmoil, transition and perseverance. I've made it. I'm still here and still kicking. As I continue on this journey called my life, I am slowly shedding the skin I lived in for the better part of the past many years. My old life is still a part of me, albeit getting smaller. I have learned it is impossible to completely toss aside what was and I'm not even sure that I'd want to. Do I miss the old? Sometimes. But I would never give up the experiences that have come to pass in the past 12 months.

I've come to the point where I do not question things much anymore. Answering the 'whys' no longer appeal to me. I'd rather spend my time appreciating each new experience and with that the new energies that flow because of them. Sure, I'm like everyone else in that I periodically get caught up in the mundane, but the strides away from that are getting wider.

The promise of a new year always brings with it a promise for change. We just have to remember that the journey never ends with an intended goal, rather with enjoying the steps along the way. Everyday strengthens my conviction that the signs that point us in the direction we are to follow are everywhere. Being aware is the first step to finding the pace that works and even that can only happen when we are ready.

It is like dancing. We get to choose whether we are tangoing or fox trotting our way along.

Back in the Saddle Again

The decision has been made. But for completely different reasons.

Keeping my love of writing in mind, this week I went back to school...or at the very least I'm taking a class at St. Joseph's College in Rutland,VT. Funny thing about that is the very first college I attended in 1979 was St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, NY. This, after having graduated from a high school run by the sisters of St. Joseph. What are the odds? I'll have to find out what St. Joseph is the patron saint of.

So I am back in the classroom setting some 25 years after my first experience (when I thought I already knew everything..HA). There is something about the smells in a school building and specifically a Catholic one. I closed my eyes that first day and the past rushed to become my present. It made me smile. I was such a geek. Anyone who has ever gone to a Catholic School can relate as I found out when I sent a text to a friend commenting on the 'smells'.

She replied with "OMG, I remember".

How I got here is in and of itself an interesting series of coincidences...and those you know me know I do not believe in coincidence. After a severe ice storm in December, I had to have my car unexpectedly serviced. CNBC talking heads were merrily droning on about this or that on the TV in the waiting room and instead of watching it like someone would the numbers ticking off the floors in an elevator, I wound up chatting with the only other person there. The conversation centered around business and the stock market. (I've been running from this for a year now). Turns out this person is a business professor at St. Joseph's. We talked about the school and its programs and he told me about the class I am now taking.

So, in keeping with the spirit of my blog, I'm letting life lead me to that next step. The class will give me a new way to approach writing and a much more structured format so that my brilliance can shine, or at the very least better work habits as I continue to work on my 'book'.

And who knows? Maybe there is a book signing in my future.

The experience will be terrific since now I'm in class because I want to be and not because I have to be but I don't expect it will be in any way, shape or form like Rodney Dangerfield's...after all...Kurt Vonnegut is dead.