The creeps...

Sometimes I like things that creep me out. But only when I am totally sure I may change the channel or close the book and sleep with my light on do I allow myself access to the things that go bump in the night.

I am a chicken [yes, I freely admit it.] I slept with all the lights on in my apartment for a week after I saw The Blair Witch Project. I haven't walked over a storm drain since I was 14--courtesy of the Stephen King novel It. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4 Episode 10 "Hush" freaked me out a bit more than I would have liked--the Gentlemen...creepy!

And, now on Neil Gaiman's site I find a trailer for Coraline. Some of the trailers are cute and some are a bit eerie, but the trailer he is in begins the chilly thrills....

I'll admit I'm a Gaiman junkie...I adore his work. He makes me think in directions I would never have before considered. That impresses me.

Late last year I listened to his book tour for The Graveyard Book in which he read a different chapter at each stop. I opened a tab and let it play while futzing around on the Internet. Each chapter is a separate section (roughly 40-50 mins) so listening to a daily chapter is easy. Oh, and it just won the Newberry Medal!

Only the Literary...

Moon Report: 2% of full. waxing crescent.

Notable Passing

Today, John Updike, author of The Witches of Eastwick, died of cancer. There are some lovely pieces at NPR, BBC, and the New York Times.

Blizzard!

Moon Report: 3% of full. waning crescent.


Today is the anniversary of the 1978 blizzard that still holds the snow record here. It started late in the evening of Jan. 24 and continued until Jan. 29. The snow was recorded at 41". The snow itself probably wouldn't have been as ghastly (other than just clearing the roads) if all that snow hadn't come with tons of wind. Some drifts were 15 feet high!

I remember my dad dug a tunnel from our door to the neighbor's across the street so we could share supplies if anyone needed anything.
I remember my dad picked me up and swung me around and let me go sailing into soft snowdrifts.
I remember some houses had drifts up to the roof and the older kids would climb to the roofs with their plastic sheet sleds and slide down.
I remember my dad being home because he couldn't get to work for several days.
I remember a lot of wet mittens and soaked snowsuits and hot cocoa and soup.

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp

if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.

--Doug Larson

I don't chuck snowballs since I got hit and had a nasty bruise on my forehead--I was about ten. I do however love snow angels--which I still make on occasion.

lolcats

Ok. I just thought it was funny.

Vocab lesson on "cold"

To say it is "cold" is a mistake. Cold is somewhere near 32 degrees. Ass-cold is something near 0. However, we're in the range of -18 at almost 9am. We're also under a windchill warning because those winds rushing upon us (as a light breeze) are between -40 to -45. So when I ammended the weather yesterday to say we were approaching the 9th Circle of Hell, I came close.

But, damn, the view is picture perfect! Imagine a clear morning sky with pink yellow light hitting the trees and casting blue shadows over the snow...

According to my thesaurus (Roget's International Thesaurus, 5th ed.), the listing for non-formal epithets for "cold":

cold as a welldigger's ass

cold as a witch's tit (or kiss)

cold enough to freeze the tail/balls off a brass monkey

cold as a bastard/bitch

colder than hell (or the deuce/devil)

These are common around here during the winter. I'm sure there are more colorful ones as well. However, the regular use of "cold" as an adjective produced little in the way of good description. They were usual, commonplace. I didn't like them (as I hear them daily on the news). A few: sharp, bitter, keen, frigid, icy, nasty, chilly, cutting. Sometimes I wonder if the English language is limiting or we are just too lazy to explain ourselves properly.

*****

God bless all the poor trash collectors who have to be out today as it is trash day for many in our neighborhood. All the schools in the area are closed today--buses don't run and they don't want kids outside waiting for buses or walking to school. Heck, even my dog won't go out. [I've been on the computer about an hour this morning and I haven't even seen one car drive past.]

I know the weather is terrible when I have to bundle myself up in the same manner my mother did when I was five. It almost makes me wish I had snowpants. However, I must make due with thermal leggings under my jeans and two pairs of mittens and scarves and two hoods (one a hoodie sweatshirt and one on my coat). Then the shivering commences as I step out to shovel half the driveway before I come in to have hot cocoa and warm up. But today, I say bugger the driveway. It can stay snowy and I'm going to sit inside in a blanket and be lazy.