Middle Fingers

I don't have enough middle fingers for this weather.

Let me explain.

On Monday morning, I was sitting on the porch enjoying the cool breeze, drinking my coffee and smoking my cigarettes per the usual, and it was a nice and tolerable 60 degrees or so.

By that afternoon, it was barely 40. By dusk, it was about 20. In the overnight hours, it began snowing. Hard. And it didn't stop for hours. By yesterday morning we (officially) had 2.3 inches of snow, and everything was covered by said snow and ice. Everything was a mess. No, quite literally, a mess. People were getting into accidents all over town, cars/vans/buses couldn't get up or down hills safely (compared to living in Kansas, Omaha has many, many hills), and people were getting stranded.

Yeah. In 2.3 inches of snow/ice. Yes, I know.

We weren't supposed to get anything, honestly; the storm was supposed to track north, and the official forecast said there was a 20% chance of flurries, with maybe a trace to a dusting. Yeah, well...

Anyway. It snowed like hell again during the evening hours last night while I was at work, but this time around it didn't stick to the cars, structures, or roads. This is good, because with the sharp dip in temperatures (it was 12 this morning when I awoke) it's already miserable enough. It's 21 outside now, but the temperature -- highs and lows -- isn't supposed to get back above freezing for the foreseeable future. And we're supposed to get more significant snow accumulation on Saturday. How much? Who knows. The weather people haven't released numbers yet, but if they're predicting it this far in advance it's usually a bad sign.

My car does not like the super-cold snap. Don't get me wrong, the Monte Carlo usually loves and/or craves the cold most of the time, but not this time around. She wanted to fight with me a little both when I left for work yesterday and when I came home last night when I started her up, and because it's a short five-minute drive from the house to work and vice versa, she doesn't even really get a chance to warm up unless I sit in the car before I move for five minutes or more. Part of it, I'm sure, is because when I lived in Newton, I could put the car in the garage when it was this cold, or at least pull up really closely to the garage under the balcony so that the house itself would give some shielding and protection from the elements -- here in Omaha, at our apartment, I park in a wide-open parking lot with no protection whatsoever. Same at work, too, unless I have to park across the street under the trees.

Work, by the way, is work. We're getting a new third shift person, and she's in training now; I met her last night. We now also have the help we need on the weekends (for the most part) again, so unless we have some sort of crazy, unbearably busy days, we should be able to manage just fine without performing mock triage on the issues we have to work without being able to give said issues the attention they need since we're so swamped. I've also been told that the winter months are the quietest months at that job, to the point where people can actually breathe and function without a 20-point blood pressure rise due to stress.

Not a whole lot else has been going on as of late; Daisy and I purchased and set up our Christmas tree, and yesterday she even hung up the Christmas Board, keeping that tradition alive. Daisy, again, is waaaaaaay into Christmas. She's doing everything she can to make the holiday season (I hate saying that this early) festive and bright, and I'm just sort of along for the ride at this point. We don't even know what our plans for the holidays are as of yet; I know I'll not be working on my birthday or on Christmas Eve, but that's about it. We have no clue what our Thanksgiving plans are or what we'll be doing on Christmas Day aside from more than likely spending the vast majority of it with the parents/family. There's literally nothing else on the docket as of yet. Looking at the way the holidays fall on the calendar this year, I'll work the 23rd, 26th, and 27th that week, and as it's the week of Christmas I'm guessing it'll be stone cold quiet on those days, which I'm totally fine with. I've heard Black Friday is dead quiet at work as well unless a major retailer goes down/offline. I will be working on Black Friday, of course. It's a Friday. You didn't think I'd ever get a Friday off, did you? Oh, foolish mortal...

Anyway. To the grind again, out into the tundra. Wearing flannel today because I need it. I'm not looking forward to the cold again. Let's just say that I've drained my vapor pen in the past two days because I really, really don't like going outside in this.