2000-01-25
Between last night and noon today it snowed 20 inches! That's a lot of snow no matter where you live, but it's unheard of for these parts; it was the worst storm in a hundred years. Being at home, with all our utilities and going to work not even a possiblity, was quite a luxury. And who knows, tomorrow may be a rerun. Good thing we just stocked up on food.
And where did the day go? I woke at 7:30, ate some fruit and watched the TV news until nine. Napped from nine to eleven. Bundled up with B and took the dogs out. Worked on revising the book for a while. Wrote a letter to the first agent I'm going to offer the book. Figured out why I was having trouble printing on our new printer. Reheated some leftover eggplant for lunch. Talked on the phone with Susan for a while. Spent 45 minutes on the treadmill watching an episode of The Practice I taped Sunday night. Long shower. Washed some dishes. Made then ate dinner with B. (I know there was more in there but I'd be hard-pressed to say what it was. Yet again I prove myself well-equipped to effortlessly fill unstructured time.)
You know what? Every night we eat dinner in the living room while watching TV, usually Seinfeld which comes on at seven (we tape it if we're running late). I sit on the couch and B sits on the floor in front of the coffee table. This is the cold (or brutally hot) weather plan, actually; when it's nice out we eat on the porch. Part of me thinks this is kind of scandalous, that civilized people eat at a table and have conversations.
On a recently-aired Seinfeld episode, Jerry was idly considering marriage and Kramer warned him against it. He said that when you're married, you can't watch TV while you eat, oh no, you have to eat at the table and talk about your day. He made it sound pretty horrific.
It's one of those things I don't feel all that strongly about. If I were to insist on the so-called civilized approach, B would probably go along with it, but I think I'd feel pretty silly. And it's not as though we don't have other opportunities to talk about our days. Though there's frequently not that much to say, and anything exciting gets covered in our brief phone calls. And I like Seinfeld as much as the next guy.
And on a more somber note, yesterday B sent me a link to HelpPuppies.com. If you go to their media center, you can see a video of dogs being euthanized. I accidentally selected the streaming version, wrong for the pokey connection at work, so it came through blurry and jerky. I'm glad not to have seen it clearly. The way I saw it was painful enough.
More than ever, I could not wait to get home to ours.
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