Frosty the Snow Bloke

First off, apologies for yesterday's post, which was probably the worst sample of writing I've ever produced. I haven't even read it for embarrassment, but I just remember feeling mentally retarded while writing it. This could be for a number of reasons:

(1) I was watching the Super Bowl and the combined exposure to both American sports and John Madden's speech probably were not conducive to writing coherently.
(2) I got what amounted to temporary brain damage in December - was this an aftershock?
(3) Being in an English-speaking country where they speak slightly different English than the US has actually screwed up my English more than being in a completely foreign country.
(4) I'm stupid.

And while we're at it, a couple notes on the Super Bowl:

(1) Jennifer Hudson's national anthem was one of the best I've ever seen. Her voice is like field artillery.
(2) The Cardinals probably should have won - fade to Fitzgerald! Come on!
(3) Mike Tomlin winning is awesome.
(4) Troy Polamalu was playing like a rabid dog. In every shot, he just like slashed by, missing tackles and landing on the wrong people or face down on the ground. Calm down, Troy!

So the snow from yesterday continued HEAVILY throughout today and might continue tomorrow (even though the news was predicting a big storm hitting tonight, that prediction fortunately didn't come true). Now, last month I took Chicago's weather with me to LA (the temperature dropped below freezing every day I was home for Christmas), New York (whose temperature just completely plummeted as soon as I arrived there, culminating in a New Years's Eve that was reproductive system-damaging-ly cold), and then, strangely, BACK to Chicago (Chi had warmed up when I left the city and froze solid the moment I got back). Now I dragged it here to London - to record setting levels! It's been freezing all January and it culminated with a snowy start to February that was the most snow this city has seen in EIGHTEEN YEARS. And considering about half the Underground shuts down every weekend for "improvement work" (a funny joke since your weekend was inconvenient and the tube is just as shitty come Monday as it was Friday), I didn't think this was going to be pretty. And sure enough - about 90% of the trains that service London were down and ALL the buses. So there was no transportation. It took me an hour to get to work, and that was lucky considering I have multiple friends whose commutes took 3+ hours. It of course was so jammed in one train I transferred onto that I was practically suspended in air, but at least I made it. According to one Bloomberg statistic today, 80% of the city's work force just chose not to go to work (which initially seems strange considering the Northern Line stop at Kings Cross had so many people waiting in it that the crowds were backed up into the tunnels leading to the platform, but makes sense when you consider the math of "20% of people working + about 3% of the city's total transportation system functioning"). That's the difference between here and Chicago - in Chicago, you get pounded by snow and the lake freezes and you're expected to be on time. London, 4 inches of snow falls and the entire city shatters into a million little Keystone Cops fragments

I went outside mid-day to get a coffee with the girl who sits next to me (well, she got a coffee; as usual, I watched) and dozens of grown adults who were only in the neighborhood for work (our office is in the area analagous to Wall Street or the Loop) were building gigantic snowmen everywhere. The Norwegian I sit across was not impressed with the snowmen until I reminded him we're in the middle of the effing city, but he brought up the snowmen from Calvin and Hobbes as impressive snowmen. Except in Norway it's known as Tommy og Tigern. Yes, Tommy and Tiger. After I explained why it was named Calvin and Hobbes, he said "we don't know about your philosophers." fair point. but I digress ... the point is, even the people who made it into work weren't working! One guy I saw walked by with a snowboard!!! In the middle of the city! When it had snowed 4 inches!!

I really admired and was entertained by all the fun everyone was having, but let's say it all together now - and these people wonder why they lost their global empire??