Winter

It snowed yesterday. I understand they already have knee-high snow to tread through further up north, but it's often anybody's guess if the capital area gets snow before Christmas. I think it's the sea which warms this area so much that winter is all wet and rarely white and beautiful for more than a couple of weeks in the heart of winter. I do vastly prefer winter's snow and light freezing to fall's wet and cold.

While winter is the darkest time of the year, the world actually feels much lighter once it snows - simply because light reflects off the snow and illuminates the night. And it's lovely how snow changes the city soundscape, muffling the noise. And while the absolute amount of sunlight is reduced, it's often clear in the winter, as opposed to the permanently overcast fall skies.

My sports goal was to keep running until it snows. I accomplished that. Granted, I've slipped to once a week for the past three weeks, but I haven't missed a single week and I have plenty of excuses (flu, hurt knee, hurt ankle, wedding anniversary trip) for the slower pace. Now we'll see how I find running in the winter. It's not an unpleasant thing to consider and the track I use should be in a running condition through the winter. Progress has been slower than I thought, but I don't mind, really.

All in all, things are pretty sweet right now. Work is super exciting due to new colleagues and clients, I just ordered a new PC (my first in, what, someting like eight years) and there's plenty of good stuff on the TV. Oh, and my second to last "must see" band, Nine Inch Nails, is coming to Finland for their European 2007 tour's final gig in April.

Now if I can only figure out how I'm going to change my tires to studded ones from the slicks with roads frozen and snowed-in.