Feb 13, 2007

"AND IF YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO SPARE, THEN I'LL TELL YOU THE STORY OF MY LIFE"

Chicago is under a winter storm warning, which is superb in my book. I bundled in my snowboarding jacket and ventured out to the supermarket to see my neighborhood looking like a ghost town. I opened the heavy wooden front door to my building and had a bunch of snow fall in on me, so I was glad to have my big boots and sub-zero tough socks.



I have lived in many different cities, and I have to say, that the inclination among Chicagoans to stockpile booze and get hammered when the weather is too much is an interesting one. I saw four people at the supermarket with carts filled with booze and valentines. Oy, valentines. I'm a v-day refusenik, btw.

So, anyway, now I'm home. listening to Il Guaranay and having coffee and drying the cold melting snow from my pants on the radiator, working and watching my cat chirp at larger snowflakes, thinking them to be birds.

My neighbor across the street is out in front of the building, shovelling show off the walkway in full cowboy attire. What on earth is going on with all of these cowboy types around me lately? Is there a fashion happening going on that I know nothing about?




Apparently, I have nothing better to do today than take sneaky photographs of my fucking neighbor, right? Well, I have quite a lot of work to do today, as per usual, but, every time I look away, it seems as if my cat has some urgent kitty business to attend to.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Snow stinks. We in Boston have had virtually no snow this winter, EXCEPT a storm is expected late tonight. I will believe it when I see it...

orieyenta said...

Hmm...you've got snow and we've had some awful rain in Miami. As much as I hate being cold, I think I'd trade at the moment.

I am laughing my tuchis off that you took pictures of the cowboy snow shoveler...too funny.

So - what blogs was kitty reading?

Unknown said...

There is something very Lynch-ian of a cowboy shoveling snow, while a cat works on a laptop.

Nicky said...

Your cat might be the cutest cat I know. FYI. And I've known a lot of cats.

Here in RI we stockpile bread and milk whenever there is even a hint of snow in the air. It dates back to the blizzard of '78 when people couldn't get out for days and ran out of everything. People always laugh about it like, "haha, yeah, sure, don't forget to stock up on bread and milk, ha ha ha" like they're not going to do it, but then they all do!

David Byck said...

I love the photo of your cat. I myself have six. Well, it should be eight but one was kidnapped and the other (due to its own bad karma) was eaten by a python in our garden.

Anyway, I like the cat photo because it tells us a lot about you. Look at the nice blue cloth under your computer. Hell, I don’t even do that!

Thanks and peace,

Katie Schwartz said...

you are so adorable.... hilar squared. love the cowboy. too much.

Johnny Yen said...

Years ago, when my dear friend Julie split with husband number 1, she showed up with this guy in a cowboy hat. He's Jewish and from Hyde Park. Go figure. He's now husband number 2 for her, and is very good to her, so I don't question the cowboy hat, though I still wonder about it.

If it makes you feel better, I'm still going with the basic "pea coat and black hat" look this winter, so I look like either a longshoreman or a mugger. Cowboy hats are impractical in Chicago winters.

Eric Spitznagel said...

Uh, I don't know if having your cat eaten by a python is necessarily bad karma. It may be because you have freakin' pythons in your garden! I'd look into that. Seriously.

As for the Chairman, I'd be surprised if he was just surfing the 'Net and not, say, working on the great American Kitty Novel. Spend a few hours with Mao and you'll know, that cat is a literary genius.

It's 60 degrees in northern California right now. Reading about snow in Chicago has become my weather equivalent of porn.

Amy Guth said...

It's Chairman Meow, get it? Not Mao. Meow. Hmm... Your theory of my cat's literary genius is a good one, and it was entirely confirmed to me long ago when I found him nestled into a space on my bookshelf, snuggling a copy of Engligh As She Is Spoke.

Eric Spitznagel said...

Yes, yes, Meow, I knew that. Not sure why I confused him with the communist. Maybe it's because Chairman Meow also wears berets. (Or is that just in my dreams?)

Having also snuggled with a copy of English As She Is Spoke on at least one occasion, I can attest to Meow's good taste in books. I've known several dogs with a fondness for The Da Vinci Code, but those dogs (not surprisingly) are idiots.