Yay, Monday! I’ve always loved Mondays. The freshness that comes with a new week, a brand new set of possibilities, a rested body and spirit. Of course, back when I was working, it all fell apart as soon as the first meeting came about, but until then it was awesome.

On this particular Monday, things started well enough. Ran out a cup of coffee to get things started (only one – I was out of coffee beans after that), received my Christmas gifts from my brother (which, happily enough, included coffee), sat down to Josie’s Monday Morning Chat (always a good time), and cooked some breakfast. A nice, awesome morning.

Got cleaned up, then set to work putting together a loaf of banana bread. I think I need to refine the recipe a bit (I think it uses too much leavening, at least the way I put it together; it’s better fresh and warm than refrigerated and eaten the next day), so when I’m 100% happy with it, I’ll post it. While that was in the oven, I set to work cleaning off the driveway and the car.

The driveway was easy enough to clear, but to allow full swing with my door, I needed to move the bank of removed snow from the edge of the driveway. Two blizzards’ worth of snow plus some ice made for very heavy work (it was in layers – the light and airy “top snow” that was the last to fall, from Friday and Saturday, the heavier snow from the beginning of the latest blizzard that had been removed from the driveway on Friday, a layer of ice from melting and refreezing as well as the freezing rain that fell Wednesday, and finally a layer of heavily-packed snow from the first blizzard). This wall was at least 2 feet high, and I probably cleared a lot more than I needed. But, I won’t have to worry about parking at “that one specific spot” in the driveway to get my door swinging right.

With the banana bread cooled, sliced, and packaged, I headed off to the local coffee shop to meet with a friend. She wanted to talk about some projects she’s working on, air her thoughts, get some feedback and ideas; you know, general conversation. The conversation evolved from her project to a full-on chat between friends, which was great. We were there for like two hours.

Afterward, I went over to the folks’ house to see what was up with them. We sat around chatting for a bit, then I collected my Christmas gifts (deftly left behind Friday night) and headed home. I didn’t head straight home, I spent some time just driving around first.

The last football day of the year. There’s one more week next week, plus the playoffs, but those are all after the first.

Day started with some coffee and breakfast, then the standard Sunday fare of hours and hours of football. The roommates finally came home around the beginning of the afternoon.

Speaking of roommates, one of them insisted on digging into my tweet stream to post this reply:

Didn't know your roommates made you so unhappy. There's a solution for that.

Umm, yeah. That upset me quite a bit. The original post I had made was that I was “somewhat thrilled to be alone right now. Specifically, without roommates.” So, wow, I get to spend my first day completely alone since whenever their last vacation was, and suddenly that makes me hate my roommates? Well, no.

It wasn’t like it was my idea that she move in. But I knew that it didn’t matter if I’d said yes or no to her moving in, she’d be spending most of her time here anyway. The only real difference it has made is that her cats are here. Her presence has made my home become a room, my world continually shrinking for the last year.

But that wasn’t even what I meant by throwing in the “without roommates” comment. I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m a lonely man out here, and I was trying to make it clear that I wasn’t talking about that with my comment. Guess what? Everyone needs time by themselves. Time where they can just stretch out and not worry about anyone else. Even with all the time I spent on the road this summer, I spent none of that time just alone. There was always someone else I was going to stay with or driving time. When driving, I was too busy driving to really be alone. So, yeah, to have a day with no other people whatsoever? Where I had no obligations, no expectations, and was wholly unseen by the rest of humanity? That thrilled me. It’s not something I’d want forever, but it’s nice to have a day every now and again.

Maybe it’s time to end the bum life just so I can move out. Without the income, it’s tough to move anywhere but back to my parents’ house, which is far from alone. But there’s a lot of stubborn “I was here first”-ness that comes with living somewhere for six years.

But, hey, at least there’s still football on.

This was the first day in a long time I literally did not see another person all day. Unlike the first blizzard of the season, I was here alone. The roommates were out, all day long.

I started the day realizing I’d left some groceries out yesterday. This upset me, but the loss wasn’t too great (some eggs, a can of whipped cream, and a carton of buttermilk). Of course, I still wasn’t in any rush to go anywhere. I settled in. Cooked some breakfast, played some Rock Band, watched Doctor Who, and generally enjoyed myself.

Day 2 of the blizzard. More snow and wind.

Spent a large portion of the day in bed, relaxing and enjoying a lazy day. With about a foot of new snow, in addition to the half foot that was already on the ground, leaving the house wasn’t an attractive option. The car was buried, the driveway was blockaded by the street plows, and I haven’t really driven the car in this kind of weather yet. All of this adds up to me hunkering down, letting the outside world happen.

Around 7, my mother calls to see if I’m coming over. I told her I didn’t trust getting there safely. She offered to send a ride, but I said I thought I was better off at home. I’d never been apart from my family on Christmas before, and I was having no issue doing so this year… until she called. After I got off the phone with her, the guilt started wrecking me, and a little while later, I called back to ask if that ride was still available. It was everything I’ve come to expect from a family gathering.

Sometime around 2, I get a ride home, where I just call it a night and turn in.

Blizzard 2, Day 1. Let it snow.

I didn’t leave the house all day. Spent a lot of it in the kitchen. First, pancakes in the morning. Lots of hanging out on Twitter and such, too. Dinner was cheese fondue, which I followed up with some cookies made to be a present for my Dad. When I bring cookies to family gatherings, he tends to eat a lot. Not that I blame him, I’ve been known to polish a few off myself, but it always breaks into what I thought were going to be leftovers. So, to simplify things, I baked a whole batch for him (save one small experiment for me).

Weather-wise, the day started with freezing rain, which then became regular rain, which then stopped.

My day started with coffee and pancakes, as it often does. From there, I decided it would be fun to go out and take pictures of the ice. Unsatisfied with my porch and garage pictures, I set off to one of my friendly local parks. As long-time readers know, I have a fair collection of nice parks to walk through somewhat near my home.

Today’s journey was out to Jewell Park. The abandoned, cemetary-adjacent, reinvigorated as a dog park which also has a hiking trail through the forest. The snows around the area from earlier in the month still haven’t melted, though there’s been some effort, capping undisturbed banks in a layer of refrozen ice. On top of that thin layer lay more ice from the morning’s freezing rain. Accompanying me hiking up this very tall hill in the snow, of course, were my cameras.

Now, with everything wet, I knew I wouldn’t be switching lenses. I also knew there was a decent chance of seeing wildlife out in the park, between birds in the trees and deer in the snow. So I brought one camera for the wide-angle “landscapey”-type shots, and the other with the “arm’s-length” lens for trying to catch the wildlife. It wasn’t quite enough reach for the birds, and I wasn’t fast enough to catch the deer (they could hear me coming, crunching through the snow and ice). Occasionally, I needed to set down the one camera to take pictures with the other. That one’s made to withstand this kind of punishment, so I wasn’t worried about it. Plus, it gives some idea how deep the snow was.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. Shower, laundry, going out for hot chocolate, looking at pictures, trying to make homemade macaroni and cheese (it was okay, but nothing worth explaining here).

First full day of Winter! How did the weather celebrate? Well, of course, by being overcast and drizzly all day. Dear weather: this isn’t Seattle! (Don’t worry, dear readers; actual winter weather is on the way.

Today was a day full of other people. First, I met Renee for lunch. We caught up some, things that have gone on the last month, how her drive back down here was, that kind of thing. We parted ways, she to go off to finish her holiday shopping, me to go over to the camera store. A part had fallen off one of my tools, they had ordered me a replacement (it’s a plastic snap-in part, I’m sure it’s my fault the original fell out in the first place). After that, it was time to go home, snap my part in, and relax for a bit.

In the evening, I joined my friend Toad (long story; another time, perhaps), who is in from London, for dinner and trivia. We spent some time catching up on the goings on since I last saw him (at his wedding in November ‘08), sucked at some trivia, and headed back to my place for some Venture Brothers and Scrabble. My mom also came over and dropped off a plate of cookies and such for us.

It was a good day.

Three years until the end of the present Mayan calendar. Not sure that means anything, probably doesn’t, but fun to note.

Today started out simple enough, with coffee and chat. After that, it was time to clean up and go shopping. Shopping for supplies; groceries and such. That took a fair amount of the afternoon. After putting all the groceries away, I finally ate something (a bowl of leftover chili).

In the evening, I went out to dinner with Marcus. I gave him his present, and we sat there and chatted for a couple hours. We talked about TV shows, stuff that’s going on at his work, holiday plans, the weather; you know, the standard discussion topics.

Then it was time to go home and hit the sack.

Woke up somewhat early, considering I went to bed at like 5 AM the night before. Got up at a somewhat reasonable hour, got started making chili. Today’s chili contained ground beef, breakfast sausage, a diced onion, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, and a handful of spices (salt, pepper, chili powder, and I'm not sure what else). Browned the meat, cooked the onion, and combined everything in a big pot to simmer for a couple hours. Then, it was time for football, eating, football, cleaning dishes, football, leftovers, and more football. Just another Sunday.

The day started out explaining some dreams on the Twitter. No real details, but enough to realize that something odd was up in my sleep. Also, my sleep was very broken, which left me fatigued. So I spent much of the early part of the day resting: laying around, watching TV, trying to sleep, etc. When I did decide to get up, it was time to cook a very late breakfast. And that’s about as far as I got before going back to the resting plan.

The evening, on the other hand, was far from restful. First was the latest Doctor Who special, then I headed out to the Dundee Dell to hang out with some new friends from Twitter all night. After we closed the place down, I headed home and stayed up for a few more hours catching up and checking on things.

That kind of day.