It rained last night. And was still storming this morning. (member when I talked about the blizzard a few days ago…yeah OHIO!)

Anyway, the news is all “The appocalyse has come” “Dams are breaking, the world is ending” “The zoo flooded, lions are gonna eat your babies” Etc.

All I could think about was that if my life was half as awesome as it should be, I would spend today building a popsicle arc and send it down the cuyahoga filled with these

Additionally, if there is a Lion and and Elephant hauling ass down 77 right now, someone better take some banging pics.

It’s still February, so waking up to a foot of fresh snow shouldn’t be all that surprising I guess. But really, this winter more than any other I can remember, has been a complete and total asshole. All the BIG storms seemed to hit right at rush hour when everyone needs to be out in the thick of it. There were few (none that I can think of aside from a few days last week) moments where winter backed off a bit and let mother nature be tolerable. It was a constant flurry of piercing cold, gray sludge and hellish snow. It’s enough already.

But all that is kinda obvious. Ask anyone that lives in a place like North Eastern Ohio and they will say the same thing. Winter is an asshole, and I’m ready for spring.

This morning, as I’m snowed in and grumbling about how much I HATE winter, something dawned on me. The realization hit as I listened to a neighbor curse his way through snow blowing his driveway. It struck me that almost exactly the same sounds could be heard in summer. Just replace the snow blower with a lawn mower and the cursing of snow to the cursing of the perpetually growing weeds and such.

Every season it seems is kinda an asshole in it’s own way.

When spring finally does arrive, everything will turn to mud and/or be completely flooded. (Personally, neither of these really bother me all that much…but to some people it’s worse than the snow). Ask anyone with basement issues and they will tell you spring is kinda an asshole. But it compensates all that by revealing the rainbow of life that survived the arctic winter. The grass comes back to life, trees bloom and spring bulbs pop outta the ground like magic.

But then comes Summer. Ah, summer.The harvesting of delicious local produce, bright sun and blue skies. Sounds like heaven. Come July when the temperature hits 90+ and the humidity is so thick you feel like your swimming rather than breathing…even summer can feel like an asshole. But being outside on a breezy day eating fresh fruit makes up for it.

And Fall…okay, I have nothing bad to say about Fall except that it never hangs around long enough. Fall, you are not an asshole and I love you.

And then it’s back to winter…

I guess what I’m saying is, it isn’t SO BAD. And as much as I am ready to move past winter and head into spring, winter has it’s moments too. There is nothing like sitting in the perfect silence watching the snow come down slow and soft making everything glitter.

Winter is an asshole, but it’s had it’s moments.

Have you been outside yet?! It’s SPRING out there. The snow is gone. There was a big shiny thing in the sky which has turned a crazy BLUE color. It isn’t even a little gray. Seriously. How did this happen so quickly?!

I know. I know. It’s just temporary and a few more rounds of that asshole winter are lurking around. But generally speaking…the seasons are a changin. And not a moment too soon.

Fresh air.
Sunshine.
Walks outside instead of a treadmill.
It’s FINALLY happening.

Ah! I feel more awake today than I have for months.
That mental/emotional hibernation shit is for the birds.

I’ve just finished reading both Steppenwolf and Siddhartha. I’m planning a post on the two and how amazing I think Hermann Hesse is. Until I can really get my head around it all a bit more clearly…I’m planting some of my favorite quotes from Siddhartha here.

“Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good – death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. Everything is necessary, everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding; then all is well with me and nothing can harm me…I needed lust and to strive for property…to learn not to resist them.”

“The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth…in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present on exists for it, not the shadow of the past, or the shadow of the future…Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man and Siddhartha the old man (are) only separated by shadows, not through reality…Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence.”

Siddhartha is the beauty to Steppenwolf’s beast. Both are equally powerful and beautiful.

I NEED to see Black Swan as soon as possible.

Mainly to get ideas about ways of incorporating a tutu into my wardrobe. Because based on recent award season red carpet fuggery, it is NOT as easy as one would think. Also because, regardless of what the whiny ass official movie costume designers are saying, Rodarte made the tutus and that is enough to get me to the theater.

What’s that you say? This movie has been out for at least two or three lifetimes as far as movie releases go?

Yeah, I know,  it’s sad. The movie has been out for FOREVER now.

I need to hop to or I’m not going to get to see it till it is released on DVD via the Red Box at my local Walgreen’s.

I do this all the time. See a happening, or something I want to do, make a mental note and then ignore it completely until the day after the whole thing has gone down.

I believe I have a goblin living in my brain that eats good intentions.

So, I’m trying to do that whole “get healthy, drop weight, be happy” thing. Yawn, who isn’t. That is what January and February are all about. Anyway,  I’ve been reading as much as I can about health and ish. Mostly blogs. Mostly boring.
I also restarted my account at SparkPeople to help track my nutritional intake (not just calories, but the types of calories etc.). It’s handy because it breaks it all down in a few different ways. You can look at the food you are taking in, when you are taking it in…what types of food you eat more of than others. What types of food you should incorporate…blah blah blah. They will also set up a work out schedule for you and help you set goals. It’s pretty limitless in the ways you can use it. Because of that, the site is a little overwhelming. Once I stepped back and stopped trying to hammer every detail of everything all at once, it seems much more manageable.  And so far, so good…

Anyway, I read on one of the blogs today about what a calorie really is and where those numbers come from. It’s strange, but I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about what a calorie is aside from a basic unit of energy. Here is what I learned:

A bomb calorimeter is a special instrument used to measure calories in food. The food is first dried to remove water and then placed in a special container that rests in water. When the food is burned, heat is transferred to the water. The amount the burning food heats the water is the measure of calories. One calorie is the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree centigrade.

The energy values of the 3 calorie-providing nutrients are as follows:

• 1 gram of carbohydrate

  =

  4 calories

• 1 gram of protein

  =

  4 calories

• 1 gram of fat

  =

  9 calories

Calories may also be added to food intake by consuming alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is not a nutrient because it cannot be used in the body to promote growth, maintenance, or repair. It is a toxin that is broken down as an energy (calorie) source and can be converted to fat.

The more you know….

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