mad anthony

Rants, politics, and thoughts on politics, technology, life,
and stuff from a generally politically conservative Baltimoron.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Musings from the snowpocalyse..

So except for about an hour spent shoveling my walkway and clearing the two feet of snow off the top of the heat pump in the hopes of keeping my electric bill below what my car payments used to be, I haven't left the house in 36 hours - and except for cleaning off the truck tomorrow, probably won't for the next 36, or more if school is closed on Monday.

So what have I done with my time? Probably not as much as I should have. I got some little things done - set up a laptop for one of our directors at work (it's been backordered, and finally came in 10 minutes before our early closing on Friday), straightened up my home office a little, got some stuff together for a swap meet next weekend, did the reading for my classes, typed up some eBay descriptions, paid some bills, and installed all the OS updates on 3 of my computers. I also made a crock pot of chili and a dozen muffins. If I'm off Monday, I'm baking a cake. Because I have a box of cake mix that's been sitting in my pantry forever, and because I'll be bored. And because I like cake.

Which brings me to one of the perils of being snowed in. When I'm bored, and home, I eat. I also haven't exercised much, since the gym has been closed on account of snow. Which is especially bad since I entered our work "biggest loser" competition. I wasn't planning on putting a whole lot of effort into trying to win, because that would require me to pretty much not eat anything that tastes good and spend all my free time working out. But at this rate I think I'll actually end up gaining weight. I've put in some time on my basement treadmill, but not as much as I would have if I'd went to the gym.

There are plenty of things I should do but haven't - cleaning, starting a paper for one of my classes, figuring out how to move this blog since blogger is shutting off ftp usage at the end of March. But there is something about being snowed in that makes me even lazier than usual, and I've spent most of my free time watching stuff off my DVR, obsessively checking my email and facebook, and letting the cat nap on my lap.

I've lived alone for the last couple years, and most of the time I like not having roommates - I don't need to share freezer space, or clean the bathroom, or wear pants. But on days like today, where the closest thing I have to human contact is facebook, I kind of miss having someone to talk to. It's also one of the times I most hate being single - being snowed in with someone you love would be a whole lot more
enjoyable.

One smart thing I did was actually go grocery shopping on Wednesday night, as soon as I heard the threats of Snowmegedon. I had needed to go soon anyway, and figured if I was going to be snowed in I might as well pick up the ingredients to make chili and muffins, and make sure I had enough kibble for Nibbler, my carefully trained attack kitty - plus Diet Mountain Dew was on sale, and I was down to my last 5 or so cases. My 9pm trip to the Weis was surprisingly calm - unlike the stories I've heard of people who went Thursday night. Normally, I suck at planning ahead, so I'm proud of myself for actually doing it for once. If only I could plan my career or my interaction with the opposite sex as well.