I'm not going to even bother going outside today. I would like to go snowboarding sometime this week, but I think i need to first be able to dig my car out of the driveway before I think of going anywhere.
Yes, under that pile of snow somewhere is a car. More specifically, MY car. Its predicted to keep coming down until about seven this evening, which i can rejoice in because if I ever do make it up to a mountain (
Silver Mountain is probably my best bet, right off the freeway, they finally opened today) it's going to make for great riding.
But until the roads clear a little, you think my little front wheel drive sedan will be able to negotiate two feet of snow? Probably not.
So that leaves me with a list of things to do around the house to keep me occupied until I can shovel my way out and make it to one of the nearby mountains.
What does one do when there is nowhere to go?
CLEAN - When you are stuck in your living area with no ability to escape, sometimes it helps to make it a little more hospitable. And even if you are a total slob like I am, I feel more relaxed when my space is picked up. Your snowed in with nowhere to go? Make it an excuse to pick up your place. You got nothing better to do, right?
READ A BOOK - So your space is picked up already, or you get a case of just wanting to bundle up and hunker down while the snow falls. Grab a hot cup of cocoa, peruse your library and settle down with a good book. It does help pass the time away, and letting your imagination carry you someplace warmer and more exciting is a bit of a departure from the monotony of being 'snowed in'.
PLAY VIDEO GAMES - Ok, so you hate to read, or you just have nothing that you haven't read already and you don't feel like reading something twice. Well, if you are a gamer, being snowed in might not be much of a departure from your day to day life. Turn on the ol' Xbox and play video games with loved ones until the snow melts. Play all 84 songs on Rockband II through the longest playlist ever. Practice gay marriage and polygamy while keeping all your spouses happy and unaware of each other on Fable II. And if you are feeling like getting a little exercise in, why not turn on the Wii and play a little Wii Fit?
WATCH A MOVIE - Or maybe your Xbox gave you the dreaded Red Ring of Death and you recently sold your Wii Fit on Craigs List because they are currently going for more then you paid for it, why not rade your video library instead and find a good action flick to pass the time? If it is before Christmas, you can set the mood by putting on a good holiday movie like
Elf. Have a Jimmy Stewart Marathon by throwing on
It's a Wonderful Life and
Mr Krueger's Christmas, or give yourself an excuse to watch the entire extended edition of
Lord of the Rings back to back. Heck, rewatch old seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Battlestar Galactica! That will keep you busy for hours.
WATCH TV - Or maybe your entire christmas collection of movies is over at the parent's house, and your DVD player is currently on the fritz. There is also the option of watching regular TV. Turn on the news and see how bad other people have it in the world to help brighten your day. Maybe there is a report on how many wrecks are on the road from the first major snowfall. Watch Daytime Soaps and get hooked on Days of Our Lives and When the World Turns. See completely incompetent people sue each other over frivolous issues on Judge Judy. Watch the Travel Channel and picture yourself in some exotic location like the Bahamas or Hawaii where they haven't seen snow since the ice age.
SURF THE INTERNET - Or maybe your brother has his computer hooked into the huge television set that you use to watch TV on and is busy playing EVE Online since he can't play his XBOX anymore, and the other TV downstairs isn't hooked to the cable. You could always surf the wonders of online. The internet can keep you busy for YEARS. It is the one place anybody can go to keep from getting bored. There is just so much Information, you can get your local news, check the weather stats to see when the snow will finally stop, educate yourself by researching a subject that you always wanted to learn about. In fact, Surfing the Internet can be broken down into SubCategories.
- READ THE BLOGS - Find out what is the talk by surfing Political blogs. Why is the left mad at Obama for choosing Rick Warren to say the invocation at his inaugeration? What does Michelle Malkin have to say about the Auto Bailout? What does the Daily Kos have to say about Michelle Malkin? The drama is always at its height during election season, which we seem to still be in, but if Politics are not your thing, you can always try the milblogs to see what people are saying on the ground in Afghanistan, when they have a chain of command who will let them speak. And if that's not your thing, how about Mormon Mom Blog Spoofs? Seriously! If none of that sounds interesting, bare in mind that if there is a subject out there that interests you, there is probably a blog out there about it. Check out Cracked.com, which has a blog that blogs about various lists on any topic imaginable. Very entertaining.
- START A BLOG - Didn't find a blog that interested you? Think you have a better understanding on a subject then some other neanderthal? Why not start your own blog? You can blog about anything, and chances are somebody out there will read it, even if its your own mom. And if you don't want your mom to read what you are writing, start a blog under an internet alias that sounds nothing like your real name. Nobody will know its you unless you put your picture up. You can even come up with a better list of things to do when your snowed in then I have!
- WEBCOMICS - Sure, a lot of good ones fizzle and die, but if you want to keep yourself entertained for hours by looking at pictures with words on them (not like a novel which generally has no pictures in them if you can't stomach reading a book), and whats more, they are generally funny. There's some really popular ones out there, most of them seem to be geared toward gamers like Penny Arcade and Ctrl+Alt+Del (though I'm quite partial to 8-bit theater, being a huge fan of the original Final fantasy and all), but Online comics are more then that. You can view sindicate classics such as Calvin and Hobbes, Army favorites like PVT Murphy's Law, nifty comics like Sluggy Freelance, or strange and unusual comics with ridiculously long names that frequently go in and out of hiatus that has such a niche market that they will likely never be insanely popular like Creature, Keeper of the Vortron: Dimension Gateway. Pick one, read it from the beginning. Some of them might take you a week to get through their archives. But where are you going? You're snowed in, remember?
- YOUTUBE - You don't want to read, you just want to watch and laugh without much brain power involved to remind yourself that you are not that miserable being stuck indoors for who knows how long. But if they made a video of something, you will likely find it on YouTube. Watch Robot Chicken episodes before Adult Swim pulls them for copyright Violation. Enjoy as Charlie the Unicorn goes on another magical adventure and get's his kidney stolen in the process. View Chad Vadar work a thankless job as a Supermarket Day Manager. Listen as this guy carefully records himself four times to sing aCapella versions of John Williams classics to Star Wars Themed Lyrics. And on the same vein as Youtube, there is Today's Big Thing, which will leave you with plenty of interesting things to watch for hours.
- SELL UNNEEDED CRAP ON CRAIGSLIST AND EBAY - Like that Wii Fit you've used a grand total of four times since you bought it, or that PSP that you never play. Your snowed in, go through all of that stuff you got and find out what you no longer need and make a few bucks. Just bare in mind that since your snowed in, other people are as well so it might be a bit before they can come and get things. But that's what ebay is for. You can list it so that it comes off when the snow finally melts and then you can ship it. And on the same vein. . .
- BUY CRAP - You got some christmas shopping to do, you aren't able to go anywhere, go on Amazon.com, eBay, or whatever other website you prefer shopping at and get a little shopping done for the holidays. Then have it shipped to your house in time for it to go under the tree. Think of the money you save on gas! It can go to shipping instead. If you play it right, you can get some deals that offer free shipping for further savings! Sweet!
- GO TO AN ONLINE DATING SERVICE - Of course, it helps if you are single, but if you are a swinging type or wish to have a discreet affair, well, I'm not saying that I condone that sort of behavior but hey! To each their own. Just don't go crying when you pick up an STD from a casual encounter with a complete stranger. And each dating service has a different niche market. eHarmony for a long time was about christian values and commitment through compatibility. Craigslist personals are all about whatever the hell they are about, pick your poison, you'll probably find something. Match.com is, well, a matching site, kind of like eHarmony. I think. Log on, make a profile, find somebody else and start chatting with them through the IM service they provide. Plan a meeting for when the snow finally melts. Make sure its a public place and to bring your mace on your first encounter in case the person turns out to be a complete whack job. I'd say bring your gun but you might be percieved as the whack job in that situation.
- VISIT FORUMS AND CHAT ROOMS - maybe you don't want to hook up with somebody. Maybe you just want to find people of similar interests and chat about things. Anything at all. You can spend hours in forums and chat rooms meeting people and finding new friendships with people that you will likely never meet in real life.
- PLAY GAMES - There are a ton of gaming sites out there. Flash games are probably the most prolific, you can play old stand bys like poker or swat the penguin, or Cat bat if you have a penchant to seeing cute things bloodied up. And if you want to have your soul sucked away, try World of Warcraft or Everquest and kiss your social life goodbye, because you won't make it out of your snowed in state intact.
WRITE - Maybe you aren't in the mood for surfing the internet, but you aren't so much in the mood for reading someone else's imagination, and you want to explore your creative side more. Why not write a short story? Or if you are like me, continue on one of your half dozen unfinished stories that all amass 100 or more pages? You can write a story about being snowed in! Make it a thriller, the lights go out, and somebody is trying to kill you and there is nowhere to go. Defend yourself! Or you can make it a comedy about how everytime somebody tries to do something while they are snowed in, it goes wrong. Or you can make it a story about a family enjoying themselves in the summer heat during the fourth of July, you know, to escape the monotony.
EXPLORE YOUR NEGLECTED HOBBIES - The weather has killed the power and your computer is going to die at any minute. Do you have an unfinished model train set sitting down in your basement you haven't touched in two years? How about that pile of Art Supplies from your days in college that you have all but forgotten? Why not make the most of the winter season by rediscovering these lost crafts that you enjoyed doing at one time but for whatever reason you are no longer doing? You enjoyed it at one time, right? So why aren't you enjoying it now? And even if the power is not out, if you got a long put off craft waiting for you to just finish it already, put the shoulder to the wheel and why not get off your freakin' butt for a day and do something you don't do every other day of the week that is actually somewhat productive. Like CREATE SOMETHING!
STEAL THE FOUR WHEEL DRIVE CAR - So, YOU'RE snowed in. But that doesn't mean that everyone in your household is. What about that four wheeled drive truck with all terain tires sitting in the driveway? A mazda protege might not be able to negotiate the snowey conditions, but a Nissan Frontier could! Just steal the keys while the owner of the forementioned vehicle isn't looking (or to busy playing video games online) and take off with a bunch of snowboarding equipment in the back. Bliss! Silver Mountain, here I come!
So, there is a few items to give anybody an idea of things they can do. I think after taking three hours of researching this list, I'm going to do the second to the final. Or maybe I should take a hint and work on my webcomic that I am toying my readers with by updating once two weeks ago after an eight month hiatus. I think I need to update it, it won't take me long to do. I can get a jump on it and just get it done.
Yeah, that's it. So, update the webcomic it is. Or Clean. Or do some art. (or steal my brother's truck)
Or I can just go suck my life away playing an Evil SOB on Fable II and sacrifice innocents to the temple of Shadows. this game is so wrong on so many levels.
UPDATE: I forgot one important factor of snowed in bliss, because I failed to see what married couples all across the country see when they have nowhere to go. So, erm, this next one does not apply to me, NOW, but in a few years, when I find myself perhaps married and snowed in once more, I might look back on this list for ideas and I would be somewhat disappointed if this was not added.
MAKIN' WHOOPIE! - What better way to spend a cold winter's day snowed in then by spending it getting intimate with the one you love. Are you workin' on adding another member to your family but you don't seem to be able to find the time to get together for some baby making? What better time when it's freakin' frigid outside and the heat's not working? Create your own heat and lock the door so the kids don't come barging in curious about what you are doing. With the cold weather running across the country, can you imagine the number of child births we'll see in nine months? Of course, some people are going to be
attributing it all to Obama's win in November.
Build a Snowman (wait for the powder snow to get the right consistency)
