Award It Or Don't

Damn It

There was a time when I sincerely loved snow.  I would look out the window, saw all of the randomly shaped pieces of frozen precipitation fall outside, and experience a sense of glee.  Not that ripoff Jonathon Coulton kind of glee, the kind of glee that you usually only see in children.

Looking out the window, I could see all the fun I could have out there.  Building things that look vaguely like obese people, hurling clumps of ice at people in a way that is socially acceptable, jumping into open fields without fearing that I would throw out my back, all sorts of unabashed, freeform, endless fun.  This fun was enhanced when Ruby came into my life.

Nothing could stop me and Ruby.  With Ruby, my love, I could conquer everything, and I did.  I remember one time Ruby and I were traveling home after a long day at work.  The snow was coming down like something that comes down very, very hard.  Off in the distance I could see the taillights of another car.  Even though I could not see the car clearly, I knew that this car was wedged into a snowbank.  When I got closer to the car I saw what it was.  A Ford Mustang.  The snow had turned somebody's three hundred horsepower toy into a three hundred horsepower sled, while I, and Ruby, were driving comfortably and securely in the driving snow.

However, my perspective on snow has changed this season.  It's not the snow's fault, nothing the snow can do can ever be wrong.  It's other people.  People.

Recently I've developed myself into a responsible adult.  This took a lot of effort on my part, and is something that I feel I still need to work on.  Being a responsible adult has allowed me to be more self-reliant, and less reliant on other people's help.  It would be nice if the people I interact with in the real world would see this as a positive development for me.  That is not the case.  Instead the people I interact with in the real world has seen me becoming more self-reliant and said, "Oh great!  He can do shit for us!"

It's not that doing things for people is a bad thing.  It's just that the balance feels a little unbalanced to me.  It's gotten to the point where the people I interact with in the real world have started to ask me do to things for them assuming that I'll do them and that I won't ask for anything in return.  It's not that I need anyone to do things for me, but it would be nice to be asked.

One of the people I interact with in the real world asking me to do things for them are my parents.  Specifically, my parents have been asking me to shovel the sidewalks out in front of their house when it snows.  They live on a corner lot and have an abnormally large driveway and the snow has been heavy and plentiful in since the start of the year.  This has resulted in me having to go out to my parent's house multiple times a week to shovel large amounts of heavy snow, usually taking me about an hour to clear each time.  Also, I've been doing this alone.  All alone.  Sure, my Dad could help me shovel the walks, but apparently doing shit around the house is apparently an unreasonable proposition for my father.

For me, shoveling large amounts of snow sucks.  What sucks more is having to do this alone.  This experience has caused me to change the perspective that I have about certain things.  Specifically, my perspective on snow.  Now when I look out the window and see the randomly shaped pieces of frozen precipitation fall outside, I dread seeing it.  I dread it because it means I have to go out there and endure something I sincerely don't like doing alone.  Again.

Damn it.

So yeah, I said that I was going to do The Fifth Annual The Four Star Awards today.  However, voting for this years awards was low.  By low I mean the only people who bothered to vote was me and some random person on Facebook who only voted for one category.  This is not the first time this has happened, but it will be the last.  There will be no The Fifth Annual The Four Star Awards ceremony, and the future of the awards is in doubt.  I'd apologize but, it seems, the only person this cancellation disappoints is myself.

Remember The Sleeping House?  Volume 11.  Buy it or continue not doing so and read the syndicated version on redertainment.com, or don't.  Whatever.