She's coming down on her own, now

I'm fading fast. I should be in bed now.

My day started as every other work day lately when I woke up at 3:00 in the morning. Breakfast, shower, shave, all rushed because of the need to get out early due to the snow.

There wasn't that much snow this morning, but enough to make driving difficult. It was a long and harrowing drive in to work.

Work was OK. Busier than I would have liked. But I walked out with all my fingers and both hands sstill attached, though they are now dotted with callusses and burns and cuts and bruises. Most of those will heal in time. Some will leave scars.

The commute home was better. Temperatures were above freezing, so the snow had turned to slushy water on the roads, or had melted entirely.

I came into town planning to shovel and salt my sidewaaks first, and then go back and do my mom's. I have to drive past my mom's to get to my house, and the roads looked at least partially melted.

On the way across town to my house I saw several large objects dart in front of my csr. I missed them. Suddenly another object slammed into my car. Someone's recycling container had been upended by th ferocious winds that were blowing through Nanticoke.

Long story slightly less long: shoveled and salted my sidewalks, then did the same for my mom's - after first taking out the garbage and newspapers that I had had stashed just outside the garage. Dug out her car, just in case this stuff freezes solid overnight.

Then I put out new dry food for the "outdoor cats." Here's hoping they survive the Winter.

And then I ate.

I have fallen asleep nrarly a dozen times while witing this. I think it's time for bed.


UPDATE, 1/29/09: I actually spell-checked and corrected this last night. As you've probably noticed, I missed a few things. Spell-checking while passing out is only slightly more error-proof than writing while passing out. At least I got rid of all the aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas and uuuuuuuuuuuuuuus - there were several. I've decided to leave the remaining typos in place.


Title reference: Background line from REM's "The One I Love", sung by Mike Mills under some - but not all - of the "FIII-IIII-RRRE" choruses. Ever since I first knew that was the line (in July 1997, when I got an REM concert video that included Line 21 captions for the lyrics), I have assumed that "Fire" was actually a command given by a WWI artillery captain ordering his gunners to shoot down a dirigible which, in fact, is already crashing. I'm not sure why.

This was actually a back-up title for this post. I was originally going to call it "I'm coming down fast", but I realized I would have to include the "but I'm miles above you" line, which seems arrogant. The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" which this lyric is from, was referring to an amusement park ride - not a call to anarchistic revolution through mass murder. Sorry, Mr. Manson, you got that one wrong.