Wednesday, February 22, 2006
I recognize that I have not been writing too much in this here thing and I think I've finally figured out why. If you take a look at my previous entries from the month of March you will see that that month was one of the worst months of the year, at least in Joensuu, which is 500km NE of Helsinki. Which means that the month of March in Joensuu is the month of February in Helsinki and it sucks big time.
The sun has not come out for any length of time in weeks. Sure it's lighter and lighter, but it's all shades of grey. And the grey melts from the sky onto the streets because the snow that hits the ground turns grey and makes walking on the sidewalk like walking on the beach, except without the sun and bikinis. Also because the temperature is hovering around freezing it means that the snow from the roofs of the buildings melts and drops 30ft onto the ground and so they have to block off a lot of the sidewalk so that people don't die. And then the snow melts and the temperature drops and it all turns to ice. On some streets there is no more sidewalk, just elevated sheets of ice that are ridiculously slippery. And don't walk too close to the street because the cars and busses will shower you with dirty snow water.
Oh yeah, and we're broke. I mean completely broke. To put it in perspective, I'm going bald. Sure not yet, but it's definitely thinning on top. You may have heard this one before, but tough, you read it again here and now. So for a guy like me who is losing it on top it is very necessary to keep the top trim and fit and looking good otherwise it gets long, and really thin. But a haircut is 20 a pop and whereas when gainfully employed I was hitting the barber every 3 weeks - it's only a half hour after all - I am now waiting and waiting and getting used to the idea of wearing hats for long periods of time. I wish I had a flobie. But I wouldn't be able to afford one.
However, things are not all bad. For the first time yesterday I went to the gym and did not feel the need to throw up because I was physically exhausted. So I got that going for me.
But really, this time of year just stinks here in Finland. Please come and see for yourself.
The sun has not come out for any length of time in weeks. Sure it's lighter and lighter, but it's all shades of grey. And the grey melts from the sky onto the streets because the snow that hits the ground turns grey and makes walking on the sidewalk like walking on the beach, except without the sun and bikinis. Also because the temperature is hovering around freezing it means that the snow from the roofs of the buildings melts and drops 30ft onto the ground and so they have to block off a lot of the sidewalk so that people don't die. And then the snow melts and the temperature drops and it all turns to ice. On some streets there is no more sidewalk, just elevated sheets of ice that are ridiculously slippery. And don't walk too close to the street because the cars and busses will shower you with dirty snow water.
Oh yeah, and we're broke. I mean completely broke. To put it in perspective, I'm going bald. Sure not yet, but it's definitely thinning on top. You may have heard this one before, but tough, you read it again here and now. So for a guy like me who is losing it on top it is very necessary to keep the top trim and fit and looking good otherwise it gets long, and really thin. But a haircut is 20 a pop and whereas when gainfully employed I was hitting the barber every 3 weeks - it's only a half hour after all - I am now waiting and waiting and getting used to the idea of wearing hats for long periods of time. I wish I had a flobie. But I wouldn't be able to afford one.
However, things are not all bad. For the first time yesterday I went to the gym and did not feel the need to throw up because I was physically exhausted. So I got that going for me.
But really, this time of year just stinks here in Finland. Please come and see for yourself.
// posted by Howard @ 1:02 AM 
