Snow Day

It brings joy to every kid under 10 years old, and to some a lot older. Like me for example. It's a Snow Day!  We don't often get them here in April.  But this week my day off coincided with about 20 inches of heavy, wet snow.  Normally on my day off I'm out chasing windmills or working on my latest project or scheme.  But this day, being a snow day, I decided to indulge myself by doing whatever I felt like doing.  Even if that turned out to be nothing at all.  Which it didn't.  It turned out to be an assortment of diverse and multifarious activities.  A scene from a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon came to mind early on.





 





Unfortunately, there was no Hobbes to my Calvin, so it was clear there would be no 'Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons' adventure on this day. That was probably a good thing, and okay with me. I could find other things to do.
The first order of business was to clear some snow.  So I fired up 8 horsepower of pure snow blowing power.  With that beast I figured I'd have my driveway and sidewalk cleared in no time.  Two hours later I stumbled into my garage and turned it off.  The thing is, I was done with my house in about twenty minutes, but I couldn't stop.  I had only powered up this monster machine one other time the entire winter and I was on a roll. I did my neighbor's sidewalk, and my other neighbor's sidewalk.  Then went across the street and did three other neighbor's sidewalks and two driveways.  I was throwing snow around like a deranged snow goon!  A lot of work, but it felt good to be able to help out a little bit.  With my hours and being gone a lot I don't get a chance to contribute around the neighborhood as much as I would like.  So I was glad to do it.  I have good neighbors.
It was time to warm up, dry off and check my email.   After logging on I noticed a story on the Yahoo home page rating frozen pizzas.  Of course I clicked on it.  Right up near the top was Tombstone Pepperoni.  I used to love Tombstone pizzas!  Back in the day there was nothing better after a long shift at the plant than stopping by the Longhorn Bar and having Kermit toss a Tombstone in that old tarnished pizza toaster, then washing it down with a cold Buckhorn beer or PBR.  Wonderfully delicious. 
Th email could wait.  I put my coat back on, got in the car and drove straight to the grocery store where I picked up...that's right...a frozen Tombstone Pepperoni pizza.  Came back home, pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees, then placed it directly on the center oven rack and set the timer for 18 to 20 minutes as the instructions clearly stated.  In this case I set it to 18 because every minute counts when you're waiting for a Tombstone.  Then I went downstairs and found the movie Beach Party on Hulu, starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.  Pizza and a movie.  Now this is living! Except I forgot about the pizza and didn't hear the timer go off because I had turned up the TV sound in order to fully appreciate the groovy sounds of Dick Dale and the Del Tones.  Even though I didn't hear the timer go off, the smell of pizza burning alerted me to the fact that it was done.  Well done.  But I was able to salvage a couple of pieces and it was still great.  The only thing missing was the PBR.  And Kermit.
Finished the movie (Deadhead and Eric von Zipper were at their best in this one) and decided to move on to a project I have been wanting to do.  I have an interest in alternative photography processes, and one thing I've been wanting to try is to print photographs on aluminum foil.  I don't know why.  It's just something I've been thinking about.  I had already purchased the solution to apply to the foil so it would retain the ink from the printer and now had some time to try it out.  It took some time to prepare the foil and get it wrapped around some paper sheets so it would feed through the printer.  I applied the solution and set the pages out to dry.  The next day they were ready and here is one result....



It's difficult to experience the full effect in this tiny picture, but in person it actually looks kind of cool.  I'll be trying some other scenes and maybe a portrait this weekend. 
Maybe this isn't your thing.  But the important point is that it's fun to experiment.  You don't even need a home chemistry set to do it.  Just explore what interests you.  Find your bliss, as Joseph Campbell said.  And don't wait for a snow day.  There might not be many left before spring comes roaring back.  But that will bring it's own opportunities.   Come to think of it...why can't every day be a snow day?  Not the entire day, of course, but what if all us found just a little piece of every day to do something just for ourselves? Wouldn't that be something?  Even if it's as simple as planning or thinking.  Sometimes those are just as good as doing.

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