The Woes of Winter!

I know a lot of people here in the Northern Nevada area are very excited for the winter season. They are all in a twitter over the snow and fantasies of ski slopes and snowshoeing (or whatever else people like to do in the snow). But for me, winter and the weather that comes with it, is nothing but a bleak dismal hassel. Let me describe my morning to you..

I get up at 5:00 and take a shower. I open my bedroom door and step out into the morning elements. My room is a shed in the back yard. True story (see figure above. Yes, this is my shed. Yes, I live in it. Although, it is painted white now and there is no turkey on top). So if it snows then sometimes it is hard to open my door. Then I have to walk through the snow all the way across the yard. Lovely as fresh fallen snow is, it loses it's ethereal beauty and pristine quality when you have forgotten your boots inside and the only protection your feet get from that lovely snow are a pair of flip-flops. SO, quick like a fish, I dash inside, my night gown fluttering out behind me.

Now it's shower time. That helps defrost the feet. But the down side is, I have to come back the way I came to get back to my room/shed. I forgot my clothes, so I have to make a mad dash for it in just a towel! Not as fun as it sounds...let me tell you. So after getting dressed, I have to go outside again and shovel the snow off the grass making a path to the deck. Now there is only one little narrow corridor that allows passage onto the deck. Right next to it is a divot about the size of a basketball. The hose is also there for some reason, coiled up like a constrictor. I tripped on it the other day and fell on my face (luckily the was no snow then, I just got sliced by frozen blades of grass). We can discuss why I haven't picked it up or filled in the divot, another time. My point is that they are there and they are dangerous. The back yard lights are also burned out so I have to do all this in the dark. I have developed somewhat of a spidie sense about it and usually it isn't a problem. But the snow throws me off. So anyway, I have to shovel a path on the grass from my shed to the house, from my shed to the chicken coop, from the coop to the bunny hutch, and from the bunny hutch, back to my shed.

I have to clear the grass for a few reasons. One is because I don't want the snow to pack down and make an ice path. I slipped several times last years and it hurt. Also, I shovel the grass for my dog's benefit. She is a little lhasa apso/mini poodle mix (we call her a Lhasa-poo in the biz). Her nose stands a towering 8" off the ground. She can't find a place to go potty when there is a lot of snow and she hates the snow rubbing on her tummy. I have a little aviatrix jacket that I put on her and that helps, but...

Anyway, my day continues with the feeding of the bunnies. I have to get a jug of hot water from the house and pour it in their water despenser. Then I have to find the food bin under all the snow. Once fed, I proceed with the left over hot water to the coop. I have a narrow walk way about 1 foot across and 4 feet off the ground that I must transverse to get to the coop. Once there I try to defrost their water with the left over hot hot water. But it's been so cold lately that the water doesn't melt, and just freezes so the water (ice) level continues to climb. I will have to bring the whole thing in tonight and melt it in the tub. I have to climb back down and get a scoop or two of scratch for them and climb back up to pour it just inside the coop. My lucky-cluckies don't want to walk around in the snow so they have been hanging out in the coop. I open the door for them in the mornings but they don't come out. So now that everyone is water an feed I can finish getting ready for the day.

Well, isn't that a hell a morning! I don't want to seem selfish, I know we need the moisture but I am ALWAYS relieved when spring starts breaking through the ice.

Pain

I've been thinking a lot about pain. Pain is an interesting thing. There is physical pain and then there is emotional pain. It is my opinion that emotional pain is harder to bare then physical pain. It can be so hard to take that some people even resort to inducing physical pain in order to find respite from their emotional pain. People cut and burn themselves to release emotional energy, pain. When one is in emotional pain, it is the waiting for things to get better that becomes the real torture. The pain weighs on you. Chronic pain, both physical and emotional wears you down. However, pain is a blessing. It helps protect us and keeps us from destroying ourselves. In the irony of it all, pain is life preserving as opposed to life depleting. People who cannot feel physical pain, can batter their bodies to oblivion. The same with those who cannot feel emotional pain, they are self destructive. The real trick is finding a way to deal with the pain so as to turn a hindrance into a benefit.

Virtually Limiting

Let me just start with saying that this is not meant to be anti-technology. I'm grateful for technology. I relish in my technology. I use it everyday. It helps our lives be more efficient and frees up our time to allow us to focus on even more creative endeavors. One of the best things about it is the way it can connect people from all over the world. But in the same vain, it can have an isolating effect that I find very alarming. It becomes very easy to slip from the world of reality to the world of virtual reality. I think that virtual reality separates us from real things and therefore, real people. Video games are a classic example of this. You can sit at home and even talk to strangers that are connected on the "interweb". With this, there is a distance between individuals. It's not just a physical distance but emotional distance. Even text messaging and chatting on Facebook (or the the like) is limiting. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou writes, "Words mean more then what is set down on paper. It takes a human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning." So much is lost in the written word alone. When we are so removed from others, it leads to cruelty and inhumanity.
Now, I'm not saying, "Never text again!" or "Death to all Halo players!" I'm just saying I think it is important to assess the reasons behind their use and to what extent they are being used. There is a hierarchy of meaningful and personal interaction and something lower on the totem pole should not replace or over power the more important and meaning ones.

P.S. I also think Anime is a way of avoiding reality (or suspending it) but that's for another time.

And now for the quote of the day: "I will lick the brain..." -one of my students wrote this and only this instead of doing his storyboard assignment. Go figure.

Measure Down

I tried to calculate the density of the air between us
But I couldn’t get the conversions balanced
I figured that would happen.
What’s the matter? Nothing. It always has been
But there can be something from nothing, if you have enough energy;
I’m not sure I do.
Molecules of love smatter into atoms of trust.
Nuclear fusion within such a frail organ, A melt down is inevitable, the radio activity unstable
In a furnace hoping to create a reflection of purpose, of worth.
A polarized pair, one of us constantly pointing north; can’t say which one, the
Data is inconclusive.
But even as we continue to test the hypothesis, entropic gravity pulls us to the
Earth and spreads us thin
Becoming an alkaline crust over the soil.
Over spending, energy seeps out, our heat displaced.
No one notices the frightening expulsion.
We are very warm to the touch still,
Continuing exothermically unnoticed…………..toward absolute zero.

a word on blogs

Well I'm starting a blog. I have to admit that one reason I have not "blogged" in the past is because I absolutely can not stand the word "blog". It is a horrible sounding word. Blog. I wish there were a more elegant term like "open journal" or something. Also, I have wondered, "if I were to write anything, who would want to read it?" Well, I like reading my own writing so if I have an audience of one, I guess that's okay. I believe it's important for one to have something sensational to read while online.