HomeMarch 31, 1997
Oddly, snow is not on my list of reasons it is insane to live in Massachusetts. Freezing rain is, but not snow. As I'm watching the biggest storm of this winter swirl around outside my window and jumping every time the lights flicker, I am reminded of ______________.
Today's storm was predicted well in advance. Forecasts ranged from 6 to 12 inches in the Boston area to 20 inches north and west. Billy mentioned the 20 inch forecast several times yesterday at the family gathering for ___________. He even told Bobby in Bosnia about it on the ___________.
When I was a kid, we used to play a game on long car trips. It was called "Fill in the _______."
I think the snow is dementing me.
The streetlights outside went out but my lights are still on. The window is so caked with wet snow that I can't see any details other than that the streetlights are on. Can't see the tree across the parking lot or the car that's blocking my car - right, like I care - where am I gonna go in this? If that car is still there in the morning (or afternoon - whenever the storm ends) when the plow comes there'll be hell to pay. If it's the "Russian son-in-law" car, there'll be more than hell to pay.
The new people next door are noisier than the drunken biker chick. They ...
..the phone is ringing...
The phone call was from Mark. If the snow ever stops we'll meet to see the Roy DeCarava exhibit at the Addison Gallery.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, the new neighbors. They cooked a pot roast on Sunday. I could smell it throughout my whole condo when I got home from dinner at Mom's. Wilbur could smell it too. He went from room to room sniffing and meowing pathetically. I could just see his little feline mind mulling it over: "Pot roast. Meat! And I can't get it. Where is it? Where is it? Why does she make me eat Feline Maintenance Light when the neighbors are having pot roast? Where is it? I want it."
They also were visited by a crying baby for the weekend. The crying baby never stops. I can hear it in every room of my unit. I 'm gonna have to get a white noise machine. At least the drunken biker chick with the pit bull was only noisy on Saturday nights! These people are noisy all the time. They shake the entire building when they close the back door. Things fall off shelves in my unit! I thought there was an earthquake but it was only the Beans of Egypt Maine closing the back door! Well, at least they don't have a pit bull, and so far they never come home to the wrong unit. The drunken biker chick had a little trouble unlocking my kitchen door with the key to hers. Fancy that. Hmm, she had trouble opening doors and they have trouble closing them... a certain symmetry...
Once I was teaching a quality improvement class and to illustrate that "zero defects" was not impossible I was supposed to use the example "Did you ever go home to the wrong house?" So I asked that in class. And a couple of people said yes! I asked "Were you sober at the time?" I changed the lesson plan for the next class: "Did you ever go home to the wrong house while sober?"