Homeward Bound

The trip home has been quite a bit less dramatic than the trip out. Clear skies, no precip. I'll be home tomorrow afternoon.

Back in Ohio

Now I wish I had taken some photos, but this morning the six inches of snow didn't look so pretty to me. I left New York on Tuesday in advance of the snow, heading toward Ohio.  All was well, and I was patting myself on the back for being so smart by driving rather than sitting at LaGuardia. But then about 90 minutes away from my hotel for the night, it started to snow.

I was in the moutains of Pennsylvania (cue dramatic music), it was dark, and I mean dark. Never realized the Pennsylvania Turnpike has no lights. It was foggy and snowing. Then there were the usual massive trucks that won't slow down ever. The driving wasn't bad; it was the visibility and trying to keep my windshield clean. Luckily the rental car place had the washer fluid full but I was really trying to use it sparingly because I didn't want to run out.

Got to my hotel and was told the snow was supposed to stop with about 3 inches of accumulation. Fair enough, I thought.. Except it snowed all night and was still snowing when I woke up.

I studied the en route weather, but no one was leaving the hotel. There was supposed to be a break in the snow around 10 am and then it was going to start again. I knew I was driving into better weather, but it was still scary.

Got dressed, and was making a plan as to how to clean off my car with no brush. When I got to the lobby, I asked if someone could help me and they got this great maintenance man and he was like my guardian angel/personal valet. He cleaned off my car, put my suitcase in, started the car, warmed it, the whole bit. I gave him $20 and he was pleased with that.

Took off like a herd of turtles, as my mother used to say, and got on the turnpike. Like the previous night, the problem was not skidding or sliding -- it was visibility. Every time a truck passed (as they did) slush and mud got thrown up on my windshield, and I knew the wiper fluid was even lower.

So eventually I bought a gallon of the stuff, got gas (for the car that is), got something to eat and kept going through flurries, blizzard, nothing, flurries, sunshine, showers, blizzard, nothing... it was weird. Got to my Ohio hotel about 530 and will go to work tomorrow.

"For Your Convenience"

This is my complaint for the week --well, it's actually ongoing. My complaint is when companies change things for their benefit and then want us to believe it's "for your convenience."

I couldn't find my mortgage invoice this week, until I realized the invoice had been redesigned for your convenience so I didn't recognize the envelope and wasted time searching for it.

Then I grabbed at (what I thought was) a half-gallon of orange juice. I can't get real excited about pulp, light pulp, heart healthy, calcium pulp no high pulp low pulp...it makes my head spin. When I had the container in my hand, it felt funny and looked odd, and then I noticed that it's actually 59 ounces of juice, not 64, not a half gallon. When I was pouring some this morning, I noticed that the 59 ounce size is for your convenience because it's now an "easy pour size"! Wow. Had anyone really ever complained about a half gallon of juice being too unwieldy?? You know they start out charging slightly less for 59 ounces vs 64 ounces but then the 59 ounce price will creep up too.

And while I'm complaining, why is my favorite bra model always being discontinued? And I still haven't forgiven The Body Shop for discontinuing this soap that made me feel as if I were showering outside on the beach. It was such a great ocean smell. I remember the clerk at The Body Shop selling me a few extra bars from her personal stash. She said customers couldn't believe it was being discontinued. I will sniff and smell every beauty product that's either blue or called anything marine- or ocean-oriented just to recapture that smell -- with no success. I loved that damn soap.

Furthermore, do I really need daily emails from retailers? Am I impressed that I know about "secret sales" before the great unwashed? I go on these unsubbing rampages, but like lopped off starfish legs, the emails just grow back.

Hagen Dasz is no longer a pint, but rather 14 ounces. I complained at the grocery store that they still refer to it on the receipt as a pint, when it's not, and they looked at me like I was the old crazy lady which I am probably morphing into as we speak.

Holidays come to an end

Mary sent me this photo which she calls the "last look at the wreaths for the season" -- this is Union Station in Washington DC.

GARBAGE!

We are stuffed with garbage all up and down the block. Those black mounds are those oversized industrial strength plastic garbage bags.

Back to Maz

Stephanie and I returned for our post-surgery dinner at Maz, and had a great time. We even got our frozen margaritas comped with "VIP" indicated on our check. Yes, that's right. We are VIPs.

This is the chips and salsas that Maz supplies. It's tri-colored chips with plain chopped tomato/onion salsa. The green one in the middle is typically hot, and the red one is mild to medium in strength.

Going home, facing the end of the winter holidays, I was thinking how much I enjoy the everyday Christmas lights and how much I will miss them. So now it's back to reality, back to work, back to five-day workweeks!

What I'm reading

I was an early fan of Stephen King's and read every book as soon as it came out. When I was reading It, the book so scared me that I had nightmares about it. One of King's talents is to make the terribly ordinary terribly frightening. In It, what was so frightening was a clown holding a bouquet of balloons.

So I had a restless night where I was scared and having truly frightening dreams -- it's finally morning -- and where I was living at the time my bedroom windows faced out to the back of the building where a square of four blocks created an interior courtyard, so to speak, filled with yards and trees and there was a big tree right outside my window.

I got up and went to the window, and there, caught in the tree was a bouquet of balloons. I just about fainted. Sane me knew it was just a coincidence, but it really was scary.

So I swore off King for a while, but now this collection of four short stories has been published. I believe this is his second collection. I had read the first -- four stories in a book called Different Seasons and two of those -- actually he calls them novellas, not short stories, were made into movies: Stand By Me and Shawshank Redemption.

I started the first story today and have learned a new word. I know: if I had a Kindle, I could have looked the word up right then and there. The word is ratiocenative and I'd never to my knowledge seen that word.

Meanwhile Fran called and she looked the word up and ratiocenate (as a verb) means to think logically. How it was used in the King book is that a man is looking at the body of the woman he killed a month earlier and she appears to be alive -- but it was his imagination and he says his "ratiocenative ability returned."

Haven't been scared yet, but I've only read about 30 pages!