winter continues to flog us, especially in Fargo

I went to the vet clinic to pick the dog up from his grooming (and well-dog) visit. We picked a bad day to have the dog's hair cut. I think I heard him murmur f*#* you as he lifted his leg on the way back to the car and the stream of pee turned to a yellow icicle. Hey, I was blown down the sidewalk by a gust of wind and had to re-park in order to walk on the snow rather than end up on my hinder on the ice. A guy has to put rocks in his pockets and a pillow on his ass if he's going to travel in this weather.

I'm not complaining, though. My brother Bruce sent a picture (top) of his front door in Fargo after yesterday's blizzard. The snow was up to the middle of the door. Drifting or not, that sucks. And blows. When this snows melts in two days over the weekend, everyone along the Red River will need water wings.

Regis sent an email to the restaurant where we ate Sunday, just tipping them off that they might want to do a thorough cleaning. The response was, get this, a request for the name of our server so they would have some incite into the problem. You can get all the incite you want pal, and it isn't going to make your joint cleaner. Incite. Good grief. And let's blame the guy at the end of the food chain, shall we?

Peter works for a fast-food sandwich shop in Mankato called Subway. He makes a tiny bit over minimum wage and until last week, was able to eat a sandwich for 50% off while he worked. They have eliminated that program for all but the office staff so when he works he pays full price for his food. He and the other sandwich slaves have decided to pool their money and order pizza while they're working which isn't such a good marketing plan for Subway. Way to go, Corporate America. The office staff really need a break on the cost of food.

The new economic stimulus (Bless the President's heart; I know he means well.) amounted to 34 bucks on my check. I don't get it until Friday but I'm going out to spend it tonight. I want to get that money into the economy as quickly as possible.

When we stopped to drop our ES money, we ran into Mike and Erin, neighbors across the street and their sweet baby, Katherine Nova. We don't see our neighbors very often in in the winter in Minnesota. They don't have an attached garage either so the chances are greater as we make our way from snowy driveway to house. Katherine has changed since we saw her at the county fair: she's eating chicken strips and french fries with ketchup now.

I had an email from Mom today. She had company on Monday, Bob Bengtson and his wife Marilyn. Bob's my friend who is famous for his poems on sticks. His books of poetry are like talismans; I pack them into my bags and carry them with me when I go places. There's something about knowing the poet, or hearing him read his poems out loud, that makes the words more powerful. You hear, forever, their voices in your head. The written words are never just on the page after that.

It seems unnatural for it to be so light out at the same time that it's so cold... and 7 o'clock in the evening. Somehow it's more tolerable when it's dark.

I've used the word dork about four times today. That seems to be indicative of something. Maybe that I'm hanging around a lot of dorks. Now that's funny.