“What is that?” you ask? Well, that a look outside my window at about 4am or so Monday morning. It was so foggy and misty out that I wanted to snap a picture just for reference. I got this mess instead. So I tried again a few times and pretty much got the same result. Yeah, it’s not art or good photography, but what can I say? I was about to go to sleep and pop up less than two hours later to hit the laundry and get it over with before the cold snap hit. The weather has been getting pretty unusual over the past few years, but I can’t recall so many extremes in such a short time around here.

It was 75 degrees about a week or so ago and in the space of 24 hours here, the drop from the low 50’s to below zero is making news (and news reporters stupid). Granted, this stuff does happen in many places, but usually when it gets cold like this it stays like this for the better part of a week. As it stands, the snap here is just that, as temperatures are zipping up to about 40 in a day or so (it’s a regular heatwave!) and as usual, people are going into winter shopping panic mode, stocking up on things they stocked up on already as a form of exercise and protective paranoia.

Granted, I’d prefer if some of those running around doing the headless chicken stayed the hell home and stopped coughing and sneezing around me and at least some of them would remember to bathe more regularly (seriously, there’s nothing like the scent of the great unwashed as you’re sitting in a public spot trying to write only to be distracted by a punch in the nose from a smelly person in smellier clothing who’s NOT homeless, mind you). But what can you do but hold your breath and perhaps raise and eyebrow in the general direction of someone offending. There’s no thrill quite like telling a total stranger to cover his nose and mouth as you’re covering your own from the germs and odor wafting your way. Yuck.