Whatever Next?

You know, Gate, snow looks lovely the first 24 hours after it has fallen. After that it is strictly from hunger. Right now the temperatures have risen to where the snow has begun to melt, but hasn't quite vanished, so there are large tracts of snow, melted at the edges like a frayed blanket, and peppered with spots where the ground has been exposed. It is no longer pristine and pretty, it's dreary at best and ugly at worst.

If the weather service is to be believed, we will have wind, rain and temperatures in the low 50s next week. Given the presence of mountains so close to the water, that notion could change on a daily basis. So I'm not trading dimes for nickels, you dig? A week of rain will allow me to wear my very stylish trenchcoat, a late Cold War era Czech border guard's trenchcoat, and I'm all for that!

Speaking of my trenchcoat, that reminds me of the time, several years ago, when my friend William came back to the area from Taiwan, where he teaches English, for the Christmas holidays. Just after Christmas we decided to go over to Victoria B.C. for the day. Now it had been overcast and mild all week long and that morning it looked dark and dreary, typical December weather ... but it didn't really look like rain. So neither of us brought an umbrella, but I wore my trenchcoat and he wore an overcoat of some kind. As soon as the ferry pulled into the harbour, it began raining. I remember we looked out the ferry windows at the rain and then at one another and said "uh oh." This wasn't just a light drizzle or sporadic shower common to December, this was an outright downpour which lasted the entire day. We were sloshing through near-flooded streets in down town Victoria, in that semi-soaked condition you're in when you've worn an overcoat but neglected to bring an umbrella or wear a hat ... it was actually a lot of fun!

I've found a rather nifty site ... 43 Things. You can register and set yourself 43 goals you'd like to accomplish, write a squib on the goal, and look at what others want to achieve. The goals range from "manage my money better" to "learn to cook" to "travel the world" to "write a novel." It's rather interesting. I've only got two goals down so far, but you can check those out here. I tend not to be a goal setter ... well, at least in the sense of "Go to Spain," say. There are immediate goals which I set and usually acomplish without much thought, but I tend not to set abstract goals or goals that involve "the future." I many respects I have been content to drift along. Now I find myself needing to set different priorities in my life, perhaps because I now realize how brief a time we spend Here.

I've added a new link for Ordinary Addictions. Perhaps it is because I once lived there that I have an affection for bloggin Dallasites. Her blog is a solid sender, so check it out, Gate!

For you pop culture mavens, I recommend Pitchfork Media. Although their reviews can be a bit over-written in my opinion, they're still quite good ... at least the reviewers don't come off as being condescending and ultra-hip ... and through them I've been turned on to The Decembrists and The Libertines. Worth looking at.