Midweek

The thing about visiting up here in winter is that it's very cold, but not very snowy. Temps are about the same as back home, which is to say the mercury hovers somewhere from zero to just below freezing during this time of year, but the air is dry and the snow is nowhere to be found. Well, scratch that. It's on the mountains, as one can easily see from anywhere in Helena, but it usually stays far away from the town itself. My wife's stepdad says it has to do with the mountains around town sort of choking off precipitation from the clouds as they roll in from the west, which sounds logical enough. In any case, it's nice to have a change of pace for a little while during mid-winter. When we got back from Lincoln last week our other car, left in the parking lot of our apartment for the duration of our brief sojourn, was covered with nearly a foot of snow.

So far, 2008 has been much the same as 2007. We went to a New Year's party on the eve of the calendar's yearly iteration, which was hosted by a friend of my wife's parents who lives just down the block. We had a few hours of good conversation and excellent food, though we left two hours before the new year was actually upon us. Instead, we rang in 2008 with some Star Trek DS9 and a few glasses of water, or possibly pop. I can't remember. Either way, it was a nice time for someone like me who isn't always up for grand parties and celebrations, and often (but not always) prefers to spend such temporal landmarks with a few close friends or family members.

Today we have to run a few errands, one of which is going to be a trip to a computer store to snag a pair of Logitech 2.1 speakers for my wife's parents' Mac Mini. We saw them a few days ago, and while they won't blow the walls down like some other 2.1 setups, these should be plenty good enough for what her parents need. I also hope to make more progress in combating my cold, which has been plaguing my sinuses (sinii?) since we got here. I am rather averse to ingesting cold medicine, because I figure if my nose is plugged up it's because my body is trying to rid itself of the cold by any means necessary, and stopping the symptoms of a cold will only prolong its overall duration. So I have been drinking water and juice by the gallon, and taking lots of Vitamin C to boot. Although, last night I took some Mucinex, which helped me sleep exceptionally well. When you can't beat 'em, well, you know...

Oh, and one more thing, mostly for my brother Phil: At the New Year's party I was talking with this lady who was from, honest to goodness, Lynwood, Washington. When I told her who was also from her hometown, she about freaked out. :)