It's hard to be a zombie when it snows.

I blame the previous post for this (but it sure was fun to do).

Or maybe they'd just hibernate.

What happens to zombies in the winter, especially in places that receive large amounts of snow? I would think that those places would become pretty much inhospitable to the walking dead. After all, moving so slow, I have to believe it would be pretty easy to freeze. Then what? Would they just have to stand there and wait to thaw out? But what about the whole freeze/thaw process that wreaks havoc on roads and buildings and other infrastructure? I mean, sure, they're already dead, but what about frostbite? Would it still affect them so that after they're thawed they just start losing limbs and other extremities? All told, I'm not sure zombies would be able to survive the winter because in general, they're simply not dressed for it, and then there's the lack of food and ease with which a still living person might be able to get their hands on one of those big snow plows and take them all out. That's another thing. Why in the movies doesn't someone go find one of those big snowplows and use that for transportation? It would be a lot easier to hit zombies with a plow than with a car, and would probably result in a lot less damage to the vehicle. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

Besides freezing, there's also all of the snow. Now, zombies have never seemed to be very agile except in spurts and except for those really fast moving ones that I think would probably be done away with in the first freeze, though it would be kind of funny to see them run and go sliding around because they've lost control. Still, as a group, I'm not sure zombies would do very well with snowdrifts. They might trip and fall down shuffling into one, and then they'd freeze and die again or whatever. It would, however, make shoveling a path or driveway kind of scary because you'd never know when your shovel might hit one, or when one might burst out of the snow and come after you. Really though, it would make more sense for the zombies to stay in the south, or for those in the north to migrate south in the winter like birds or butterflies, and avoid the snow all together. Plus, I've got to believe that at least some of the still living people would head south when it got colder, so the zombies would be just following their food source.

And with that I think I just put much more thought into this than I should have, so I shall end it here, but it was kind of fun to think about.

(And yes, I do know of at least one movie where the zombies were out in the snow, but I've never seen it, have heard it isn't that good, and don't plan to watch it.)

Thank you Carson, that will be all.

What would be the point of living if we did not let life change us?

(And thank you Downton Abbey. I, for one, cannot wait for season two.)

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

To get my car into the driveway at around 10 last night, I had to shovel snow for about an hour.

To get my car out of the driveway today, I had to shovel snow for a little more than an hour.

Then, since I was on a roll, I shoveled a path to the door and shoveled out the neighbor's parking space for about another hour.

All the while telling myself that it was good for the old constitution.

And that it was surely good enough for a few karma points as well.

So close. So close.

Only 217 pages to go and I'll have finished the second draft or third or whatever number this is.

So much for that "I just have to knit things together and then I can stop for a bit."

Somehow that stopped being true several hundred pages ago and turned into "I've come this far, I might as well see this through to the end."

To be fair, it was probably the right decision.

The timeline should be in order by the end, and all the gaps and holes should be filled in.

Should.

Should.

Should.

Should.

(You know, when you type the same word several times in a row you start questioning if you spelled it correctly even if you know you did. Weird.)

I'm not supposed to get mad at Jeopardy, am I?

Yet watching these Watson games has only reminded me of those very frustrating games where, when playing against the computer, the darn game kept ringing in almost as soon as I'd read the question and hadn't had time to think. Those little flashbacks were not something I wanted to have. That, and as interesting as it was to see how it decided among three answers, I didn't want to know the answer. I wanted to be able to come up with it myself, and that probably didn't help my mood. I also realized that while they talked about the disadvantages of the computer, it did have one advantage that the other contestants didn't: a lack of knowledge gaps. Let's face it, there are just going to be gaps in a person's knowledge, no matter how smart they are. Heck, even the smartest people in the world are still learning. Another thing that kind of annoyed me was when one of the options would be the complete title of some work mentioned in the clue. Frankly, not everyone is going to know the complete title to certain things. For some reason that annoyed me a lot and just made me think that that darn computer was really smug. A lot like some of the computer contestants from the game, and you already know how I feel about them. I think I'll be happier when they go back to using real people. Computers are great and can be useful for spreading information and connecting people and helping them and all that, but I think I've come to the conclusion that there is no place for them on a trivia show, and if there is, I don't think I'll be watching it. The flashbacks are far too painful...and annoying.

I'm sure you didn't mean it that way.

Technology when you want it.

People when you don't.

Okay, so I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to be telling me that you can use E-Surance yourself with a little help from your friendly computer, or if you want to talk to a person you can do that too. Unfortunately, the first time I read it, it came out this way in my mind: Technology when you want it. People when you don't (want them). Yes, I know it's wrong, and maybe it's just the way my mind works what with everything that's happened lately. Still, it took two reads to get it the right way and the first time I read it, I knew I'd read it wrong, but it just came so naturally and I have to believe I'm not the only one to read it that way. Maybe it's one of those glass half full or half empty kinds of things. Still, it's pretty dangerous.

It's what they don't tell you

that should worry you.

Many apologies for the delay.

Now that I am free of stitches, strips, gauze, pads, and tape, things should start to pick up again.

Should.

What a great game!

And that halftime show?

Wow.

Wait, you were talking about the Puppy Bowl, right?

Let's think about this for a minute.

What do you really mean when you say, "Of course you'd like that," or "Of course you'd know that," after finding out that someone likes a particular movie or song, or knows a random tidbit of information or whatever. Just think about it for a minute.

Do you have two answers?

That's what I thought.

Watch your tones, people. What your tones.

Because it's far too easy to go from sounding impressed or understanding to sounding like you're saying, "Idiot," or "Weirdo."

(And if you are thinking that, maybe you should take some very old advice and just keep it to yourself.)

He has three children,

But he should only have one.

If that.

(Might I add that he does not exist and said children are not necessarily children, so don't go getting all snippy with me.

They're all something else, or at least they think they are, but they aren't, but they don't know it...it's complicated. Just go with it.)