Words of Wisdom

I look like a chipmunk and talk like Sloth. Yes, I just had my wisdom teeth removed. Am I less wise now? A lot of people would say I was unwise before to opt to not get sedated and just take local anesthetic. I'd say it went well, and I'm happy with my decision (for now ... we'll see when the pain sets in). I mean it did start off with 12 shots in the mouth, but that really sounds worse than it was. :) Unfortunately, the earbuds of my iPod kept falling out, but luckily the whole process didn't take very long. And the surgeon was pretty cool and funny, so that made it better. Although, I hate it when they have 5 things in your mouth and insist on asking you a question. You'd think they'd learn in dentistry school that people can't talk with stuff in their mouth ... esp while they're under an anesthetic!

Snow, snow and more snow ...

It's really odd that we're getting this much snow in the city. We had two decent snowfalls before I went to India, the big blizzard while I was there, and two more big drops in the week and a half I've been back ... and January just started! And the weird thing is that the mountains are not getting much snow. We've had four snow days from work and several partial days (they sent us home today around 11 because of the weather) ... and we've had zero snow days and only a handful of partial days in the two other winters I've been here.

My first winter here was fun with my "summer" tires. I remember buying them only a few months before I moved out here. I remember reading reviews saying that the tires are terrible in snow and me thinking, "Eh, when am I ever going to be in snow." Yea ... so after almost killing myself and countless other "almosts" on the road, I decided to invest in snow tires the next winter. I have these Dutch Vredestein IceTrac studded snow tires (yea, I know ... sounds hardcore, huh?). Now I feel like a god amongst men when it snows here. I must admit, last winter I questioned my decision to get snow tires because it snows so infrequently here in the city. But this year, it seems like my greatest investment yet. I have to say that I'm normally a pretty conservative driver, but when it snows, I think I'm a little too aggressive because of my confidence in my tires. It's probably going to get me in trouble soon.

My friend/neighbor decided not to put on his snow tires this year because of the expense (he doesn't have an extra set of wheels) and the fact that it doesn't snow very often here. Well, when I was in India, he apparently had to use my car because his was useless in the big blizzard. With the next storm approaching a week ago, he sucked it up and put his snow tires on. :-)

I've never had to shovel snow in my life. I mean I did last year a little, but I didn't really need to. This year I sorta had to. It's still kinda novel right now, so I don't mind, and I haven't had to shovel a lot. I can't help but wonder what March will bring since that's supposed to be the snowiest month. Meanwhile, we're heading out to Vail tomorrow to test out the slopes (they finally got a decent snowfall). It's going to be a cold one, but I expect my first trip out there this season to be a good one! :)