It’s amazing how quickly a four-day weekend flies by.
I’d planned on going for a hike on Thursday, but the weather didn’t cooperate. I figured I’d go on Friday instead, but again, it was too cold and overnight snow made the roads dicey. So I watched a bunch of The Haunting of Bly Manor and made a grocery store run and cooked Tara a couple of fancy dinners. I was especially proud of Friday night’s fried chicken. There are three secrets to making great fried chicken: a cast iron skillet, peanut oil, and constantly adjusting the temperature to ensure it remains between 300-325° for the 14 minutes it takes to cook each batch. Mine’s really good, but I rarely make it—it had been two years since my last time. I think the attention to detail intimidates me, but I need to get over that because it turned out excellent.
I also couldn’t help but stalk my former coworkers on Slack. My corporate account is still active, so I found myself checking in periodically, just to see what was going on. I also might have answered a couple of emails. Hey Jay, if you’re reading this, please deactivate my accounts! Otherwise, at this rate I might end up planning out the spring magazine issues.
Saturday morning we watched the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. I’m sure it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but goddamn, did we laugh our asses off. It made for glorious morningtime and was very nice. Later, I saw this meme…
…and it’s not inaccurate.
When the first movie came out in 2006, I thought it looked stupid AF and swore I wouldn’t waste a single brain cell on such drivel. But I ended up caving, because those were my early bachelorhood days and I had a Netflix DVD plan where I got three movies a week. Eventually, you run out of things to watch, and desperation seeps in. I ended up liking Borat so much I bought the DVD.
Guess I’m not as highbrow as I thought. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was determined to get out and hike at some point during the weekend, so even though it was snowing again on Saturday, I decided to go for it. Instead of driving somewhere, I just hiked up the ridge next to our house and along the Skyline Wilderness Trail. It’s a lovely hike anytime of the year, but especially so in the snow.
The snow fell pretty steadily the entire 2.5 hours I was out, but it started to really pick up during the last 10 minutes. I got home, took a nice hot shower, and we adjourned to the basement for cards, records, and cocktails. Our typical Saturday night ritual. Ordered Marco’s pizza and watched the Impractical Jokers movie before hitting the sack.
The storm got so bad, Pennington County recalled their snowplow fleet and issued a no-travel advisory. We woke up to this in the morning…
I don’t mean to brag, but yes, that is 10″ you’re seeing there.
Granted, we already had some snow on the ground from earlier in the week, but still…this was quite a lot! Considering it’s only October, this could end up being a long winter.
I’m outta practice, though. Instead of firing up the snowblower, I stupidly chose to shovel the driveway and sidewalk. I think I underestimated just how much snow there was. At least it was a great upper body workout.
It’s fortunate that the storm didn’t arrive one day later. I’ll be hitting the road tomorrow morning for the 55-mile drive to Wall for my four-hour orientation. I’m assuming the interstate will be fine, but just in case, I’ll give myself an extra half hour. If I’m too early, I can always grab coffee and a donut at Wall Drug.
Normally I have first-day jitters when it comes to new jobs, but this time I feel nothing but excited. Maybe because this is the third time I’m doing this in two years, ha…
I really need to settle down.
Mark My Words 
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