Vivek and I are going to Salt Lake City for the holidays, and for the first time ever, I have to leave Fritz in the care of strangers. In the past I always relied on friends to check in on Fritz while I was away. But now we have no local friends to take advantage of. It's sad, but true that in 3 months of living in Minneapolis, we haven't met anyone that we would feel comfortable asking to check in on Mr. Fritz while we're away. Oh well, there are always people who are happy to come by if you pay 'em.
To help assuage our guilt over leaving Fritz in the care of a perfect stranger, whom he only briefly met the other day, we gave him his Christmas gift early. I'm willing to say that he loved it, and if he doesn't forget about it while we're away, he probably won't even notice that we're gone. Why? Well...
In a way, I've also been in need of some preoccupation over the last couple weeks. I've been plenty busy, but when I come home my company is limited to Fritz and the TV. Vivek is now on a project that requires him to travel to Connecticut for four days of every work week. It's supposed to last until July, so I need to get used to our new "part-time" long distance relationship (thanks A, for helping me get the terminology right!). It's pretty funny how old habits return quickly, as in Vivek's absence I've taken to working through the evening and even into the early morning hours again. All of this is of course done with the TV on - it's like caffeine for me, but without the lasting effects.
I bring this up because we don't have cable so I've been playing old episodes of the X-Files. I got through season 2 in about a week and a half! I had forgotten how much I used to love! Love! the X-Files. I still think it's good, and better than a lot of shows out there, but watching all the episodes back to back really makes it clear how recycled the plots of each show are. I mean...it's almost always the case that Scully gets kidnapped and would die except for sheer luck. And if it's not Scully that nearly dies, it's Mulder. It's good that I ran out of DVD's to watch, because I think that if I watched many more I'd start hating the show.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Fun in the snow
Vivek's already posted about all the fun we had with the snow last Sunday, but since then we've had two more snow storms come through our area. Thankfully today's storm was just a dusting. The one last Tuesday, however, wreaked havoc on traffic in the Twin Cities. It wasn't a big storm, but somehow it shut this great northern city down for a couple hours. Click here for an article on it from the local paper.
The basic point of the article seems to be that there were two problems: the missing bridge and misplaced priorities of the traffic cops. Apparently, they were too busy issuing parking tickets and getting cars towed to bother with directing traffic through the first major rush-hour snowstorm without the I-35W bridge. Hmm...I wonder what motivated that decision.
Ok, I can guess. (It's rant time.) For those of you who don't know, Vivek and I have learned the hard way that Minneapolis is a tow-happy city. Early in October we noticed that Vivek's car was missing, and we eventually located it in the city's impound lot. That's when we learned that if you leave your car in the same parking spot for more than three days (and a friendly neighbor complains), they can tow it away. And the cost to you? ~$200. Then, early in November we learned that the city will also happily tow your car if you leave it on the street during street cleaning season. It would be hard to argue with that if it wasn't for the fact that they don't post ANY notices about street cleaning until 24 hours before they clean the streets. So if you don't drive your car to work, and don't walk by your car on your way to the bus stop and back, they'll tow it. Cost to you? ~$200
No wonder there were no traffic cops around to do their job - they had to go make a lot of money for the city and tow companies. Apparently they towed about 1400 cars in the first two days after Saturday's snow storm.
Since I don't drive this meant that I had to wait for the bus for a very, very long time Tuesday. One of the things that I like about this city is that tons of people take the bus. It's great! On Tuesday though it was a bit problematic, because when my bus showed up so many people got on it that there was no room for me (I should have been pushier). This is remarkable because the bus was a double bus - the kind that bends in the middle and has about twice as many seats as a standard bus. By the time the bus left our stop it was packed with people. People were even (gasp!) standing in front of the white line! Anyway, there was no room for me, so I waited another 40 minutes to catch a bus that could get me within a couple miles of home.
When I got to the bus stop there were so many people there that I had to take a picture (thanks cell phone!) I wasn't able to get all of the bus stop, so this should just give you a taste of what it was like. The other pictures are of the crazy gridlock on the other side of the street, and no traffic on my side of the street.
The basic point of the article seems to be that there were two problems: the missing bridge and misplaced priorities of the traffic cops. Apparently, they were too busy issuing parking tickets and getting cars towed to bother with directing traffic through the first major rush-hour snowstorm without the I-35W bridge. Hmm...I wonder what motivated that decision.
Ok, I can guess. (It's rant time.) For those of you who don't know, Vivek and I have learned the hard way that Minneapolis is a tow-happy city. Early in October we noticed that Vivek's car was missing, and we eventually located it in the city's impound lot. That's when we learned that if you leave your car in the same parking spot for more than three days (and a friendly neighbor complains), they can tow it away. And the cost to you? ~$200. Then, early in November we learned that the city will also happily tow your car if you leave it on the street during street cleaning season. It would be hard to argue with that if it wasn't for the fact that they don't post ANY notices about street cleaning until 24 hours before they clean the streets. So if you don't drive your car to work, and don't walk by your car on your way to the bus stop and back, they'll tow it. Cost to you? ~$200
No wonder there were no traffic cops around to do their job - they had to go make a lot of money for the city and tow companies. Apparently they towed about 1400 cars in the first two days after Saturday's snow storm.
Since I don't drive this meant that I had to wait for the bus for a very, very long time Tuesday. One of the things that I like about this city is that tons of people take the bus. It's great! On Tuesday though it was a bit problematic, because when my bus showed up so many people got on it that there was no room for me (I should have been pushier). This is remarkable because the bus was a double bus - the kind that bends in the middle and has about twice as many seats as a standard bus. By the time the bus left our stop it was packed with people. People were even (gasp!) standing in front of the white line! Anyway, there was no room for me, so I waited another 40 minutes to catch a bus that could get me within a couple miles of home.
When I got to the bus stop there were so many people there that I had to take a picture (thanks cell phone!) I wasn't able to get all of the bus stop, so this should just give you a taste of what it was like. The other pictures are of the crazy gridlock on the other side of the street, and no traffic on my side of the street.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Land of the Free(ze)
It is a delightful 9°F outside, which feels like -6°F with wind chill. I have seen these temperatures in the past when I lived in Iowa -- but we've had quite the cold snap here for the past week or so. The recent lowest temperature I think was somewhere around -5, which felt like -15. Anyway.
Khena and I spent a few hours today shoveling snow. We live on a designated snow emergency route, and the City of Minneapolis declared a snow emergency today. (A snow emergency means that there are special parking rules.) First, we dug out our cars so that we could get them off the main street. And after that, we cleared 2 spots on a side street so that we could park there overnight.
All in all, it was good exercise. I am starting to feel like a hardy Minnesotan already. I will soon be ready for ice hockey on Lake Calhoun.
Khena and I spent a few hours today shoveling snow. We live on a designated snow emergency route, and the City of Minneapolis declared a snow emergency today. (A snow emergency means that there are special parking rules.) First, we dug out our cars so that we could get them off the main street. And after that, we cleared 2 spots on a side street so that we could park there overnight.
All in all, it was good exercise. I am starting to feel like a hardy Minnesotan already. I will soon be ready for ice hockey on Lake Calhoun.
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