when I was a kid I would go down the street to the neighbor's trampoline and jump around for what felt like hours and have really elaborate daydreams about what the world would be like if it was all snow and ice all the time everywhere. In the daydreams I would slide and zoom around and hang out in these cool underground snow tunnels. 

Today I got to live out that fantasy in real life and like most things my stupid child mind came up with, it was actually terrible. I couldn't take two steps without almost slipping and busting my entire self. Took me like an hour to do my normal walk. You see all the car exhaust on the snow and think 'dang we really live like this huh?'

No but actually it was pretty fun. I've never seen a large clear field of smooth shining unbroken ice. 

things that played on repeat in my head while I was digging my car out of the ice yesterday

 he has songs of wildebeests and angels. he has soared on the wings of a demon...

are you really letting a MAN block your shine right now? a MAN block your shine?

don't pop your tire with the chisel don't pop your tire with the chisel don't pop your tire with the chisel

and if you don't love me now, you will never love me again, I can still hear you saying I would never break the chain

One way you could think about the weather is that every day there's a new weather-related challenge for you to overcome but usually in Central Virginia the challenge isn't very hard. nearly non-existent even. So it's not a very good way to think about the weather.

who named the school buses?

 the age old question. which came first? the school or the bus?

let's ask the answer to all of life's questions: ETYMOLOGY!

The word bus, surprisingly enough, is a shortened version of the word 'omnibus' which is latin for 'for all' and means a collection of stuff published all together that was previously published separately. An omnibus was also a horse-drawn vehicle--the precursor to the modern bus, some might say. Google traces the first uses of 'omnibus' to the 19th century. 

It is not too far of a stretch, in my opinion, to say that the word 'bus' is a shortened version of a phrase that essentially means, 'THE FOR EVERYONE WAGON'

And I think that's really great.

Meanwhile, the word school comes from the Greek word for leisure?! Like the ancient Greek word referred to where you would go after working to discuss philosophy and hang out with the boys.

MY DREAM! MY DREAM! If only we lived in a world where 'school bus' meant 'the for everyone wagon that takes you to where you can hang out with the boys after work'.

See what they've stolen from us!? See what they've done. 

Not the metal tube that takes children to the place where they're molded to provide value for shareholders and/or end up in prison. Not that! Not like that!

aw geez. aw geez.

I'll tell you who named school buses. The wrong people. How could you take those two words that are great in their source and nature and make them into what you did. Oh geez.  

this is a new character I've come up with

 one time, my father came home very late and he told us that while he was at the 7/11 a man hit his truck with his car and drove off. for he was possessed by the great googly mooglies. and he did not know what he was doing. I was glad my father was okay. My mother was mad that my father had been out so late. Why were you out so late anyway? Searching for googly mooglies?

And then later, years later, I went to that 7/11 at three in the morning with my friends. And we went inside and no one else was there. The door was unlocked and we walked around for a few minutes and no one came out and we got scared and left. There were googly mooglies out and about that night for sure.

My father doesn't go out at night anymore. The only time he goes out is when my sister is home and can drive him. He says he is going to see "the night people." The people out at night. 

The one time I saw night people was in college when my friends and I tried to drive to Richmond but we went the wrong way on the interstate by accident and drove to Virginia Beach instead. Walking along the boardwalk. Those were night people. They moved on a different plane of existence and we could see them but they couldn't see us and we didn't want them to see us. 

In the Bible Adam gives names to all the livestock, the birds, and the beasts of the field. But he never named bugs or shrimp or slugs or school buses. 

as someone who hates the bypass by my apartment

 it gave me no small amount of joy to see it rendered useless by the snow and ice we were visited by today

another thing I was thinking about was how in college it became this thing during the study period before finals for people to flood the library and make a show of how much time they were spending there.

but you know that they weren't actually studying. they were just going to make a show of it. it was a mass emptiness. I've done it. Everyone's done it. 

Everyone's gone to the emptiness where nothing really happens and you can look around and see that everyone else is at the emptiness and it's safe because no one is doing anything or experiencing anything. everyone is there and there's nothing for you to not get or miss out on because there's nothing there at all.

"oh were you at the thing?"

"yeah I was at the thing. I saw the thing just like you."

"oh yeah me too I saw the thing."

I don't know. Rah Rah Rah! I don't like the thing everybody else likes! I'm unique. I'm so special. But it's still true. You need to be DWELLING.

DWELLING I SAID!

watching the snow fall and listening to fully retractable by soul coughing

 I do indeed and shall continue

dispatch the shiftless man to points beyond

 one thing I yearned for today was being a person who hasn't heard about all the snow we're going to get. It probably is important that people know about it and are able to prepare but in my experience it won't affect my day-to-day life that much and I like to imagine how it would feel to experience a big snow without any prior warning and also would it be like to live outside of information like that. In many ways it would probably be isolating and alienating. 

today I thought about birds and how they can probably tell the big snow is coming. that's so awesome for birds. 

another victory for birds. just like always. they keep winning. 

most beautiful animal- birds.

most bestest flyers- birds.

lays the most delicious eggs- birds.

sings the most beautiful songs- birds.

collector of shiny trinkets- crows. which are birds.

they refuse to stop winning and respect it so much