New Car

Bought a new (to me, anyway) car over the past weekend, a 2006 Suzuki Aerio. So adorable. It even behaves itself pretty decently in the Chicago winter, with the exception of a couple of ice-related glitches. Next investment is definitely one of those little scraper doohickies. Paid for part when I got it on Friday and the rest today. It was no easy job, either; the roads and the sidewalks are extremely treacherous today.

( continued the following day )

The roads have been cleared mostly so I think tonight is a good night to go to Fry's and buy a new hard drive for Biscuit. I need one of those doohickies for clearing snow off your car first though! Little Suzi's pretty well buried out there and I dunno if I can dig her out by hand so effectively.

Already having a car has afforded me a level of freedom that, honestly, would have been totally worth the hassle of keeping my Mercedes in the first place. C'est la vie, I guess, and many lessons learned. Living in a city is absolutely wonderful until the Winter hits. Chicago's winter is a grand equalizing force in that she inconveniences all of us the same no matter where we live. The hardest parts of your commute are always getting to and from that train station, and you either trudge through snow or make your way across vast sheets of ice that seem to love to cover sidewalks especially. If someone were to make a sort of "urban crampon" for urban exploration on ice, they'd make billions probably, 'cause nobody ever salts the sidewalks. Worst yet, a lot of people salt them and don't clear away the dirty melty snow byproducts. Chicago's winter has already claimed at least one pair of my shoes (my first pair of Doc Marten boots, being not of the steel toed variety, were far weaker).

Here in the Chicago winter only the strong survive, and it's only just now beginning. Stay warm, space cadets.

Seasonal Affective Disorder or just general-purpose malaise?

Now that I'm back to working from home this past month, it's been really weird for me. Much as I hate commuting it forces you into a daily routine, which is somewhat comforting particularly in the winter time. Ironically that's also when I hate the actual process of commuting the most. The combination of working by myself in my apartment and being really unable to get anywhere except by bus makes for a pretty depressing situation sometimes.

I mean I'm here... and I'm working. I could work elsewhere but that means trudging through and then standing in the cold to go to a café where I could maybe spend 2-3 hours without severely overcaffeinating myself, then I'd need to trudge home. It doesn't sound like a big deal but being out in the cold can seriously tire you out. Just the process of being out and staying warm is exhausting sometimes.

I've been working too much and being lazy too much, and my apartment's still not fully organized. Having a car will help because I can go pick up some essentials that are missing, but even the process of looking for a car is made more difficult by my location. Being far from public transit and not already owning a car, it's difficult to go searching for one by my usual means (craigslist), and I refuse to go to a lot. 

The overall result is just this general-purpose malaise that the weather certainly isn't helping. During Chicago winters I usually stay in as much as possible, taking occasional breaks to go out and drink alcohol to keep myself warm. I fear this winter won't be too different from that. We'll see.

Hibernate 'til spring, space cadets.