December 8, 2003 - After the Snow

Una, suffering from cabin fever

It's the same situation with some of the sidewalks around here. Some people didn't bother to shovel, and so the snow has been packed down into a bumpy, icy slick. This isn't necessarily a problem for me, because my boots have good tread, but my dog, Una, sometimes gets snow between her foot pads and her feet get so cold she has to limp. I try to warm up her feet with my gloved hand, but it got so bad this weekend we had to cut our walks short.

I think I'm going to get her paw protectors, which are like doggie snow boots. My brother used to have them for his dog (Una's mama) when she was a puppy. He might tease me for coddling my grown doggie, but I'd rather not curtail our walks just because some people don't know how to shovel.

Getting around without a car is not such a problem in the city. On Saturday, The Gryphon and I took a cab to The Bridge at 40th and Walnut, an awesome movie theater with a retro feel where you can buy reserved tickets and then hang out in a lounge and order drinks until the movie starts. We ate at a terrific Thai restaurant we found nearby.

Of course, one problem with calling a cab during inclement weather is that everybody else has the same idea. We had to wait nearly an hour for our cab to arrive.

We saw "The Last Samurai," a Hollywood epic with an Eastern sensibility. There's been talk about Tom Cruise being nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. I wouldn't be surprised, but he might not win because, like Jack Nicholson's performance in "As Good as it Gets," his performance is so subtle.

We had better luck getting a cab coming back, because it's easier, on a busy night, to just grab a passing cab than it is to get a dispatcher to send one to your home.

Sunday we were homebodies. The Gryphon was very tolerant, hanging out with me while I went through several boxes of papers looking for some photos I'd misplaced. After all that trouble, I didn't even find them, though I found a couple other interesting items to share with The Gryphon, such as drawings I'd done as a child or newspaper clippings of me at various ages.

We also watched some videotapes that I'd taped off the television and hadn't yet had a chance to watch. The best thing about time-shifting shows is that you can fast forward through the commercials.

The streets were still all iced up, so for lunch The Gryphon very kindly walked to a nearby restaurant and got us some take out, and for dinner we ordered strombolis from a different place. The food got there within 45 minutes, just like they'd said, and I gave the driver a fat tip and told him to drive safely.

We also watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which was on NBC. I'd never seen it all the way through, and it's a movie I'd never bothered to rent. During the commercial breaks I worked on my web page, on a special project to be unveiled soon. The Gryphon didn't seem to mind.

It was a lazy weekend, but it felt good to have nothing to do after more than a month of weekends full of planned activities. Hopefully, the roads will be clear soon so I can get back to my normal routine. But I don't mind the slow down. Or, I guess you could call it a snow down.

 

Moral:
When Mother Nature says "slow down," listen to her.