Have I mentioned how much I hate this weather?

Back in October, I was already complaining about the cold. Of course, now that it's January, I'm wishing for the warmer days of late October.

The last month or so has been miserably cold. My heating bills have been stupidly high. My hands are chapped raw. Every morning I end up being even later to work because I'm scraping ice off my windshield. I've got to lug extra clothes to the gym so I don't freeze when I leave. My nose keeps running. The dry air of my house has made it electric, so everything I touch - especially Nibbler the cat and and her thick layer of conductive fur - gives me (and her) an electric shock.

Also, I can no longer walk up my front stairs. I neglected to clean the gutters this year, and so melting snow has overflowed them, leaked onto my stairs, and frozen, making it a sheet of ice. I've been getting into the house of late by walking accross the lawn, which is icy but not as slick, hopping onto the raised flowerbed, and then hopping onto my stoop. I plan on attacking it tomorrow with ice melt and a shovel, and hopefully most of the melted snow drippage will be done by then.

I do need to deal with my gutters. Two years ago, I also neglected to clean them or have them cleaned, and the same thing happened. Last year, I paid a random guy with a ladder and a pickup to clean them. He did a good job of getting shit out of the gutters, but also broke off a chunk of the soffit in the back of the house. So I'm thinking come spring/summer I'm going to have Gutter Helmet, or some knockoff installed, and also get the soffit fixed. That's going to mean doing two things I hate doing - spending money, and probably taking a day off from work while it gets done. But I suppose I don't really have a choice.

I keep telling myself that spring is getting closer - by mid-march it should be downright decent outside. But to get there means getting through the cold, grey, icy mess that is February, and they are predicting more snow/ice next week. Joy.

I've gotten to the point where I don't even care about snow days. I usually seem to waste them anyway, sleeping and doing nothing productive. Besides, I've got a ton of projects at work I need to work on, and they have hard deadlines. If work is closed for a day or two, it doesn't change the deadlines, it just makes it harder to meet them.