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snow

since i'm new to the Northeast, snow is a novelty that is to be enjoyed until it gets tracked into the house, scrapped off the windshield, etc. today it started to snow in earnest. my boss called and told me not to come in. i didn't think it would be that bad but in hindsight, i'm glad i didn't go in. driving over Avon mountain would have been a treat and by treat i mean a pain in the ass. so i'm sitting in my warm apartment trying to get my cat to play in the snow. that didn't work so well. i'll take the dog out and take pictures while this snowstorm lasts.

what's what

so let's see here. what have i been up to lately? after a month of sitting on my ass (literally most of the time) i went completely broke and entered into Sugar Mama phase. now that's getting old and i have two jobs to get me back up to the lower poverty level.

i work selling computers and computer accessories but my main gig is wrenching again. since it's the off season for bikes here in the frigid Northeast, i have to maintain both jobs to make ends meet. the sun sets at 4:30pm, so i feel ok to work whenever for however long. it looks like six days a week for now.

the funny part about it is the contrast in jobs. on one hand i work in a happy-go-lucky mall retail store where people high-five each other and are enthusiastic about their work. on the other hand i have the grumpy, moody, cuss-happy, kick and stab bike shop in the basement. i'm used to the later so giving people high-fives is gonna take some getting used to. i generally don't do high-fives.

let's see. aside from the work, it's been cold. temperature-wise, nothing too much colder than what we got on occasion in Texas, but it's been that way every day for a couple weeks now. it's snowed already with accumulation, and it's been freezing ice for the last couple nites. i did something stupid and went riding in that weather sans ice and thought my toes were gonna fall off. so yeah, it's kinda cold and getting colder.

um, other than that, it's just getting used to things like over-priced everything, crappy groceries, deposits on bottles and cans, Dunkin Donuts that seem to populate every street like roaches in East Texas, and ugly girls. boy, the dump trucks have splattered good on the gene pool around here. bad hair, bad shoes, bad makeup, bad piercings, and bad tans. c'mon, if you're gonna go for a tan in Connecticut in December, don't come out looking like a fucking toasted pumpkin. the sun doesn't turn your skin orange and for that matter the sun doesn't shine much around here. buy a mirror dammit.

the people are friendly for the most part. one state over in Rhode Island, people suck. except my girlfriend's family. they're super-nice but they also live in the woods away from Providence. they're not too outgoing here, but polite at least. strangely, i've come across a lot of people afraid of dogs. eh. this ain't Texas with dogs running all over the place.

i noticed drivers are always in rush to get somewhere and things seem to start earlier and end earlier. our part of town pretty much dies around 9pm. if we don't go out to eat by ten our choices are fast food only. we've found a couple places open til midnite and a 24-hour joint to replace Mama's Cafe for our past-midnite meals. but back to the drivers. aside from the tailgating and swerving around you on streets, i noticed that a lot of drivers like to cut left turns really shallow. they cut across both yellow lines most of the time and i don't know why. i'll try to find out why someday.

time for bed. more soon.