Books and the weather

Because I am a Midwesterner, I seem to want to open a conversation by talking about the weather. I contend that this is because the weather matters, and everyone experiences it, so it's a kind of nice, inclusive topic, but I also don't quite understand why it's my default. I love it when it snows, I appreciate a nice California-style sunny day, and really cataclysmic weather is just, well, interesting.

Today, however, everyone is talking about the weather. It is very, very cold. The kind of cold that makes you aware that your socks are not covering that quarter-inch of exposed ankle, or that, alternately, hurts to breathe too fast. Valya just told me that she knew it was godawful cold here. Very early this morning, when Kolz was walking me home from the library, we literally got to the point where he had wrapped his scarf around his head like a plaid Lawrence of Arabia, and I was totally zipped & hooded into my puffer coat and I felt like we were talking loudly to keep from yelling about the cold. And we still sprinted the last half block when the wind started to blow hard. My teeth hurt. Come to find out it was the coldest it's been for two years, with windchill. At least my cold-sensor hasn't been wimpified from our wimpy winter. I knew February would kick our asses.

In any case, I am taking a break tonight, ladies and gentlemen. It has been a productive week, and I am going to go and eat a burger and drink some beer. Maybe even watch some of that teevee, play some of them video games, in Lau & Joe's downtown hideaway.

But before I can do that...

Lidtke, Alternative Culture (done)
Jarausch, The Unfree Professions (reading)

Didn't want to disappoint you. ; )