Hmm....

I'm not really sure what to title this.

First, posting may be a little sparce. The power port on my laptop died. This leaves me with my desktop that is so old it barely works and my mom's old laptop, also so old it barely works. This laptop is the slowest thing EVER and if more than one window is open it freezes. As far as I can tell since it freezes for other reasons too. We'll see what my patience level is until my real one is fixed or replaced, depending on cost.

Second, I've always been very private about where I live. Well, in a few days I am going to show you something that will tell you anyway, and it fits into this story, so here it is. I live......drumroll.....in Ohio. A very rural part. And know what? It snows in Ohio. Some years more than others, but every year at least one or two good storms. This year seems to be a heavier year, which was predicted based on our milder summer. So I'm getting lots of practice driving in snow.

Since I went to grad school in a lake effect region of Michigan with a Ford Festiva (ie a small box) as my car, I am a good snow driver. I also know my car's capacity in the snow. I know that it can do just fine as long as I'm very steady, but I can't change lanes across ice, I can't speed, and I have to be alert.

Tonight I decided that there should be a required snow driving test to be licensed in states with snow. The first part of my drive home was actually good. The roads were terrible in that part, but people were being very safe, leaving good gaps, and putting on 4 ways whenever an accident blocked one lane and slowed things. As I got further from the city the roads were less icy and more just snowy and slushy. I wasn't having any feeling that I was sliding or anything. You couldn't see markings and slow was in order, but the car I was behind for the last 40 miles was AWFUL. It was a heavier car, so I know if my Corolla had traction it should have. The driver went no faster than 28 for 40 miles, and every time they went down a slight hill or curve they hit the brakes, and when the hill was steep they rode them. Now, if you are going that slow and you keep hitting the brakes, every car behind you has to also in order to ensure a safe distance from you, which then has to be increased because you're more likley to skid. So i got to drove 20 mph for a very long time. There's two ways into this town and I decided to take whatever he didn't. Thankfully he took the one I didn't want to and I was easily able to safely drive double the speed he'd been going, without using my brakes, and i went through town, which is much messier as the streets are untouched, without going less than the speed limit. So that person was being a total chicken and I was stuck because the left lane was too messy for my light car to handle it.

I talked to Dr. Mind tonight more about my feelings that not really resolving the hospital situation has created a lot of the depression that's left. I left the notebooks and papers I meant to take to show him on my bed so we'll have to do that next time. But he said I seemed better, right from the outset of the treatment. And I think he's right. Oddly I'm waking extremely early suddenly and am awake enough to do housework and stuff. I think it might be the depression improving but I'm not even bringing that up yet. I do not feel manic at all, so I think that's ok.

Cats are so weird. I have my broken laptop sitting beside me on my bed in a bag because I was getting some info off it for my mother, who has to call about the warranty because it is technically her laptop. My cat is much bigger than the bag, yet he has curled up on it and is dozing with this look like "I HAVE to lay on this, I've never laid on this before".

Anyway, I need to throw in a load of laundry, and hopefully by the time I get back google reader will have loaded so I can read my feeds and go to sleep. As I said, I'll post as I have patience with the computer.