Little Things

I was reminded again yesterday morning on the way to work how significant little things can be. All I did was put new wipers on my car, but it brought me pleasure.

God that sounds pathetic.

I still can't find myself into the writing groove. I am going to blame winter for it. I don't know if it's the lack of heat, the lack of sun (for sunbathing and Harley riding) or just the plain lack of daylight hours. Whatever the reason, I'm holding the season in general to blame.

This year we experienced more snow around here than we have in recent memory, but the most recent one has pretty much finally melted away. You know what? It's funny how people are about snow around here. "Cool, we might get snow!" "Wow, I hope we get snowed in tomorrow morning!" "I love the snow--It makes everything look so beautiful!" You get the picture... A few days later though, and things change. Let them experience the slippery roads, the stuck or wrecked cars, the school closures, the falling down on sidewalks, and the disruption to their lives in general, and it's more like, "I can't wait for this shit to melt." "I hope it never snows again." "I can't wait for summer."

I'm very pissed about whatever they've been deicing our roads with this year though. My truck has surface rust over every square inch of any bare metal now, and both it and the car have horribly streaked and nasty paint now. Who knows what kind of stuff might be in that crap? We have a lot of rivers around here that all our drain water runs off into, and what is the stuff doing to them? I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Seattle Times last night about that very subject. I hate that stuff. We've existed here on just sand for decades... Why change now?

Sunday is Sarah's 16th birthday. I have some small gifts for her, but what kinda worries me is that when pressed, she doesn't know what she wants to do for her birthday. Does that mean that she wants me or her mom to surprise her with a party? Does that mean she wants a party but doesn't know how to have one without parental interference? Should I host one here? I'm so confused. I'm a little late to be coming up with this sort of pondering, but it does bother me. After all, a 16th birthday only happens once. Evidently nothing of consequence happened on my 16th other than my driver's license or I would have remembered it.