Stuck in the house

Well, the end of October is fast approaching and winter is quickly barreling down upon us.  Another day of being cooped in the house.  It's still early in the "stuck in the house" season too.

It's cold, grey, really windy.  Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees and are laying in big, wet, soggy heaps on people's lawns.  They're too wet to even rake up.  

No one is outside.  These days you don't see anyone outside other than those running from their car into the house/store/mall/bank/whatever and back again.  No one is out walking, there are no kids out playing, the streets are bare.

Ger knows how badly I want out of here; how much I hate it here.  He's such an optimist that he tries to make everything sounds so much better than it really is.  So I asked him if he'd like to go out for a nice long walk, maybe a find a cafe and sit outside with a coffee.  If it's so bloody great, why not???

First of all, we don't have cafes here.  This is not a city of culture here.  We have 4 million Tim Horton locations instead.  You can go and sit inside and drink from cups made from carton, or from cheap, beige, chipped mugs.  You have the pleasure of being served by cranky teenagers making minimum wage, pissed at having to work there, but willing to do it so they can pay for those 200$ designer jeans.  You rarely get the coffee you asked for.  Ask for milk, they forget and put cream in it.  Ask for sugar, and it's either not in the cup, or all sitting at the bottom because said teenager was too lazy to stick a spoon in the cup and stir it.  If you're like me and drink decaf, you'll be lucky if there's a pot made, and if not, teenager with attitude will ask you if you want a regular coffee instead.  If I wanted a regular coffee I wouldn't have asked for decaf, you moron.  Once you're done, you can run like hell back to your car, battling the wind, pelting rain or snow and throw yourself into your car where you hope the car will warm up before frostbite and hypothermia set in.

Yes, it's great to live here.

I know that once the snow starts, we'll be back to the circus-act we had last year, where my husband had to push my car not only out of the driveway, but down 2 streets out of the subdivision.  Seriously.  I'm stuck with this car.  It's a 2000 Crown Victoria.  It's one big ass car.  My mother was kind enough to give it to me when she bought her 4-wheel drive SUV.  It's drinks gas like an alcoholic sucks back booze.  The best part???  We can't get rid of it!  No will buy the damn thing because with gas at the price it's at, no one wants to spend their money on this gas-guzzling piece of crap.

So I'm stuck with this car I hate.  I need a part-time job to keep it in gas.

This car is also a rear wheel drive.  It sucks in the snow and on ice.  And, believe me, I'm a pretty good driver, having learned to drive in northern Ontario in 20 feet of snow and ice 15 inches thick.  My son is learning to drive, and there's no way I can let him get behind the wheel of this monstrosity of a car in winter because when he does and he gets into an accident, I'll be guilty because I knowingly let him get behind the wheel of my death-trap on 4 wheels.

So, what do we have to look forward to?  The next 5-6 months of being holed-up in our houses, furnaces running full time costing a small fortune, snow that at first looks all pretty and white, but quickly turns brown and dirty because of the sand and salt they spray everywhere so people don't go slip-sliding off the roads.  Constantly shoveling the mountains of snow - sometimes light and fluffy and other times heavy and so wet - until your back aches and blisters form on your hands.  

Yah winter!!!!  But through it all, Gerald will say "It could be worse."  Sure, it could be worse!  But it's pretty damn shitty none the less!  He says this to try to make me feel better, but it just pisses me off.