Worcester Winter... Wonderland?
Good morning, Worcester.
The snow is back; the weatherman is calling for between 6 and 10 inches today by the time it's all over. I just got my car dug out from the snow dropped by the last storm; it will be buried again by the end of the day. Fuggedaboutit. I have strong legs, a pair of waterproof military-issue boots and several layers of clothes to keep me warm. I'll be using glucose-powered transportation as much as possible for the next few days, I think.
I just walked to the supermarket and back; I needed razor blades, shave gel and cigarettes. The hill was a good workout both ways; there's a good deal of ice mixed in with the falling snow. I could feel it stinging my ears, the only exposed part of my body. The only other customer in the store was trying to sell the cashier his tickets to a football game (I guess the Patriots are playing today). Neither he nor the cashier wants to go to the game figuring on cold and wet and not being able to see much of the field, anyhow, not to mention having to drive all the way to the stadium on a day like this... or even to the train station, I suppose. How do they keep the trains running when we get heavy snow here, anyhow? I'd never thought about it before.
On the hike home, I met up with a fellow walker from the neighborhood. He told me about his experience living in the house right next to mine. His landlord had hooked up his electricity to the walker's meter, so the walker had been getting $300 electricity bills while living in a two-room basement apartment. Then the place had flooded and the landlord wouldn't pay for the damages and my companion hadn't any renter's insurance so he had to replace all of his stuff, including most of his clothes, at his own expense. Not good.
Main Street was deserted, which is as it should be. I saw maybe a dozen SUVs during my walk. A couple of people, a man and his daughter, I think, were trying to shovel a pathway up to the doors of the big Catholic church around the corner. Can't people just stay home and pray on a day like this? I'm sure Jehovah or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Ceiling Cat or whomever would understand. The wise man stays off the snowy road when travel is not needed; the fool rushes to church and prays to get home again safely.
I don't expect to be going anywhere today, not being a fool and feeling no need to pray. Tomorrow, however, I have to be on campus before 8 AM to proctor the Bio 101 final exam; I'm sure there are a few students praying about that. Hopefully, more of them are studying than praying. I'll almost certainly walk to campus tomorrow rather than driving and after the exam I'll be there grading for a couple of hours. The exam will be all multiple choice, so grading will be easy and I won't have to be concerned with fairly doling out partial credit. After that, I'll probably get lunch with the professors and other TAs to celebrate the true end of the semester. I'm going to take a day or two off next week before I dig into whatever I'm digging into next. LL's not working and maybe we can spend some quality time together. If I can get the car dug out again, who knows... maybe we'll go check out a movie. It's been awhile since we've done that.
I still owe her a snowball, too.
