I went to bed with a plan: wake up, go for a run, hit the gym, work on some writing, run a few errands, and go to a movie later. It sounded like a great day on the horizon, with plenty of achievable goals and a way to simply feel productive on my day off work. I woke up early this morning and fiddled with Facebook a bit, but when I opened my patio blinds this morning, I was greeted with this.

I’m from the East Coast, so I’m used to snow in the winter. However, in the 8 years since I moved to the Pacific Northwest I had gotten used to a certain mildness of winter weather. Temps usually hover in the low-to-mid 40° range and it doesn’t snow much. This winter, however? This is the 5th significant snowfall of the season, and they have all happened on my nights off work. Five snowfalls in Bellingham so far. Maybe four inches’ total accumulation. For a guy from the Northeast, four inches of snowfall is nothing. In the Northwest, it turns me into a whiny shut-in.

Oh, no. I’ve acclimated.

So, what’s a whiny, snow-fearing shut-in supposed to do until the sun comes out? Well, I took out my French Press and made a pot of coffee. I found the biggest coffee mug in my cupboard, rinsed it off and shined it up real nice. I put coffee and specialty creamer (mmm, Bailey’s mud slide) in the cup. I turned that sumbitch sideways and…

… drank the coffee.

And then I set to a revised plan. Instead of a run and a gym visit, I’ll do pushups. Instead of a movie, I’ll watch Netflix. The errands can wait until it warms up. And instead of complaining about the snow and cold, I’ll write some more.

Back to work for me. Stay warm out there.

#2017 #author #snow #dayoff #writing #coffee #fun #humor