MY LIFE - NOVEMBER

Saturday, November 25, 2000

The weather around here in fall and early winter can be very strange. Earlier this week, the area was getting plastered by lake effect snow and very cold temperatures. Snowfall in some areas was up to 19" and a windchill that was sometimes below zero.

So what does the weather do today? It rains with a temperature in the low fifties.

It's been three days and it's already warmed up again with rain and it's going to be like this for about three or four days before it snows again, then goes back to rain.

The outsider might be wondering what the hell is going on? Is it going to snow or is it going to rain. For those of us who've lived up here for a while though, this is pretty much the norm up until early December. It wouldn't even surprise me if we saw another sixty-degree day before things really chill down for the winter. It happens every year this way too.

We'll get an early snowfall, sometimes as early as late September, then it will moderate for a while, then another blast of snow is possible before it moderates again. Then come December, we usually see nothing but cold weather and occasional snowfall. It's nothing unusual and is nothing too terribly difficult to cope with if you've lived here for a while.

Judging by last week's traffic problems, a lot of people still don't know what to do if it starts snowing even in November. A lot of people don't know how to drive period, much less in the snow. The simple rule of thumb for intersections is if you can't make it through before the light changes, don't start into it. Too many times I see this though, a car blocking traffic because the asshole (or bitch) didn't want to wait another cycle when it actuallity, they're not going anywhere for a while to begin with.

Driving on the freeway seems to be a problem in the snow too. I do not drive more than 50mph if it's snowing pretty hard or if there's a build-up on the highway already. Yet I watched people fly past me the one morning going 75 right into the middle of the snowstorm without a care in the world. The other thing I'd like say is for all you who drive SUV's out there. They do not make you invincible, so stop acting like god because you have four wheel drive in winter. If you can't get traction, it does you no good.

Alas, people will continue to do dumb things in winter weather though. It's a staple of living around here. For every five good drivers, there's at least two bad ones.

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Today was a pretty decent day. Work went okay. We were really jumping early on but slowed down considerably during the afternoon and evening when we did next to nothing. It was a nice pace though, especially for Steve since there was only one other tech besides me working between 6 and 7 when Velvet came in to help out.

I got home around 8:30, only because I took a slightly longer route home than usual. I got home, went upstairs, and just relaxed the rest of the night. I talked to a couple people online, but there wasn't a lot to talk about before everyone signed off and never came back on. One person said she was going to be back on later, but she never came back on.

So it was a quiet night. I talked to my mom for a while and we ate some leftover turkey. I told my mom I was going to take this turkey toy into work since it makes noise and make it my Sunday prop. I think anytime we have a customer who's doing something stupid, the moment they leave, I'll squeeze the toy and let it say "Gobble" a few times to make it clear what I thought.

I haven't really brought any props to Berea since transferring, although my stress tomato and my fake spider have homes in the pharmacy. The tomato is next to a terminal and the spider's sitting in front of one of the baskets that contains some vials at the filling station. One of the techs, Peggy, likes the spider there and won't let anyone move it out of the area.

Anyway, I think I'll bring it with me tomorrow and use it as my prop. If nothing else, it will get a cheap laugh out of someone and god knows some of those people need it. I haven't been an instigator over there, mostly because I'm still getting a feel for how people will react to certain things. It's only a matter of time before I start causing trouble, but I don't think it will be on the level it once was at my old store.

For one thing, it's often too busy for me to even think of coming up with something. A lot of the people I work with also seem to be on a different humor level than I'm used to. It's not like there's anyone there that I can just flat out pick on like I had with Mike or any of the associates I worked with. With the people I work with now, I run the risk of pissing someone off and that won't help me out.

Jim seems like he'd be up for some silliness however. I know Steve will help me mess with someone if the situation comes up, but I'd rather err on being safe than sorry. I've seen the backstabbing and how things go when someone doesn't like you there. I'd rather avoid that if possible.

We'll see what happens though. If a situation comes up, I'll take advantage of it. Otherwise, I'm laying low until my moment comes.

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I do have pictures of my car and some pictures of our cats, but I have to scan them yet so it may be a while before I get anything like that done....For anyone I talk to, I will not be online before 10:30pm Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday this week since I work until 10pm those days. Wednesday and Friday I'm off, so I may or may not be online early those days. Who knows what will happen Saturday since I work until 6....Once I find some spare time (like, in fifty years or so), I'll get back to updating the archives and digging up what I can find on my computer both up in my room and downstairs. There may be some entries down there that I might have forgotten about, although all recent ones are on one floppy disk. I was dumb and erased the first floppy that I had been using.

For those who talk to me, you can e-mail me at wservo9@netscape.net if you wish. Those who I already e-mail can ignore this since I'll probably be sending you e-mails periodically throughout the week. Catching me this week will be hit and miss. If you're not sure about my work schedule (wake up people!), you can go to Updates to view it. It is updated every week either Wednesday or Thursday depending on when I work.

I've considered more than once taking the weekend off from writing for this site. This comes about for one reason only and that's because I'm actually writing on a regular basis. I've thought about it simply because it would make it easier on me and take away the chance that I'd burn out, move to Colombia, and join rebel forces and smuggle cocaine in.

Okay, so that's not going to happen. Anyway, two things keep me from doing so. Number one, when I get on a roll writing, I don't like to stop. Taking two days off of writing in a row would make it more difficult for me to write during the week. Also, I do my general updating on Saturday or Sunday. Not updating on weekends would mean having to change the general update day to a different day, however my shifting work schedule doesn't allow me to set up a permanent day.

Consequently, it looks like I'm stuck writing on weekends for now, not that it's a bad thing. I'm surprised, like many of you, that I've been writing on a consistent basis to begin with. Right now is not the time to end that string, even if it looks like I might want to take a break.

Anything else will posted as it comes up. That's the latest I can give you right now since it's getting late and I don't feel like sleeping until 2 in the afternoon tomorrow even though I don't work until 4. This shift should be interesting.