Breaking the pattern

Something tells me we broke out of our repetitive pattern yesterday.  How do I know?  Well, Susun and I actually watched the movie Ground Hog Day on DVD last night.  So, what's so special about that?  Generally, whenever we watch that movie, it signals we are breaking out of our own Ground Hog Day routine.  Not only is the movie very funny (even if you've seen it 200 times) but there are many, many lessons contained therein.  This morning, I feel we've left our own Ground Hog Day behaviors behind and as Phil says in one of the last few lines of the screenplay, "Something is different."  Ah, it feels great.  There's no new snow on the ground.  All of our Arizona chores are 800+ miles away.  We can finally rest and relax and gear up for a return to our day job tomorrow.  After the past two months, the day job will definitely feel like a genuine vacation.  What's not to like about sitting in a warm office next to a phone that hardly ever rings with nothing much to do all day.  Ah, the life of a petty bureaucrat is wonderful!

Yesterday, we stumbled on an esoteric link regarding the movie "The Big Lebowski."  Turns out this movie (which we've NEVER seen) is one of those cult movies.  Some so-called scholars penned some supposedly scholarly analysis of the movie and its cult following.  One of them said:

"Only an unhinged movie survives as a disconnected series of images, of peaks, of visual icebergs. It should display not one central idea but many. It should not reveal a coherent philosophy of composition. It must live on, and because of, its glorious ricketiness.”

Susun and I were discussing this quote last night and that's what led us to watch Ground Hog Day  again.  Yes, the movie is quite "rickity."  I really love the concept of a "visual iceberg."  Click here for a link to the Lebowski Papers.  


We're getting our daily newspaper delivered again.  We've never met our newspaper carrier--never even SEEN our newspaper carrier.  Whoever delivers our paper is the most punctual, loyal, dedicated and thoroughly effective newspaper carrier we've ever had.  It's almost always hanging from our mailbox before 6 am every day, sometimes as early as 5 am.  We go out of our way to keep a route snow & ice free for our carrier.


Having a newspaper delivered to your doorstep is one of civilization's great accomplishments.  It's right up there with streelights and city snow removal.  Speaking of which, the city graders finally came down 12th Street at 6 pm yesterday.  There were two blades working in tandem.  They pile all the snow in the middle of the street and then this giant snow blower marches down the middle of the street, hurling a stream of slush and snow into an obedient 10-wheel dump truck that follows behind.  The Mayor declared a Snow Emergency yesterday and our Zone B is on tap for a complete cleanup today.  Hopefully Cranmer Street will get cleaned.  You should see the mechanical mayhem that takes place when the crew moves through.  There's usually 5-6 pieces of heavy equipment working together in a tightly woven dance coordinated by guys with radios and hand signals.  It's like watching a ballet in which each dancer weighs 10-20 tons.  There's even a backhoe running "sweep" after the heavy guns move through.  The backhoe deftly carves out snow from driveways and sidewalk stubs.  In other words, you won't be trapped by a giant ice beam--the city makes sure you have your normal access to your street(s).  We love it.