We were snowed out of our Frisbee game in Ellensburg this afternoon after about three inches of snow fell throughout the morning here in town. I know three inches doesn’t sound like a lot, especially to anyone used to slogging through feet of slush and ice in Michigan, but the trip would’ve crossed two mountain passes on the way. So, no thanks to that icy fun.

This has been the nicest winter I can remember in a long time though. It’s nice to feel the winter season but not be bombarded by it. Snow falls and sticks for a week or two, slowly dissolving during the sunny days. I’ve only seen salt on the road a couple times, and usually just near an intersection or a sharp bend in the road. Gravel seems to be the most popular method for dealing with slick conditions. The environmentalist in me likes this method for keeping our groundwater clean. And the aestheticist in me likes the way the roads end up looking like cookies and cream ice cream. Chocolate pebbles on great sheets of vanilla.

I’m excited for the spring thaw though and can feel that warm weather active itch growing day by day. I’ve got a gym membership that I’ve been very diligent about using (at least five days a week for the past four months) to lift and cross train, but, and I was telling Mary the same thing this afternoon, I’m pretty sick of the routine. Cranking away on an elliptical just doesn’t have quite the same pizazz as tromping up a mountain. I suppose skiing would probably fill that void. One of these years.

Cooped up, cooped up, cooped up. I am desperately sick of sitting in an office all day. I spend the day spinning in my chair and counting down the minutes until lunch or quitting time. I can say with 100 percent certainty that by this time next year I will not be sitting in an office. But this a rant (and this rant has been building steam for quite some time now) that will have to wait for another day. I’ll just say that real life is far too much like Office Space and I share much in common with Peter Gibbons.

It’s not just about me and my dream of doing nothing. It’s about all of us. I don’t know what happened to me at that hypnotherapist and, I don’t know, maybe it was just shock and it’s wearing off now, but when I saw that fat man keel over and die – Michael, we don’t have a lot of time on this earth! We weren’t meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements.