Winter finally hit today here in the Frozen North. Wind Chill is now a term to be respected and feared. It won't be long before I begin to hear bulletins advising no one go out with exposed flesh.

I had no immediate concerns today, and so nothing was accomplished. Lay in bed far too late with a crippling headache slivering my vision, a bottle of grey-market painkillers lying open on its side, its contents spilled over the small table and rug by my bed. I listened to the clocktower chime out several hours before I managed to upright myself and make the long trek to the bathroom. Stood underneath a stream of pressurized water one degree below the burning point of human flesh for a half-hour. Emerged red as the day I was born.

Ventured into town to get a haircut and learn the true nature of my dire financial situation. A trip to the bank confirmed that I have roughly sixty dollars to my name and still a couple weeks to go before I have work again. The elder of a father-son barber shop of which I am a patron took the day off. I wasn't up to the two hour wait and so I am still hopelessly shaggy.

Drove to the used bookstore out in the boonies to sell a box of books that I found in a closet. Sadly, I could not take the store credit and bury myself in literature for the weekend. I took the cash, apologizing to Sam behind the counter. I need the moolah for petrol when I go home for Christmas.

The cold is currently bleeding its way through the double pane by my head. In this room the heat pipes just cough and are of little use. Tonight the kiddies are enjoying the start of their weekends by weaving from bar to bagel joint and back again is search of a buzz and a place to spend the night. Outside my window a woman is laughing loudly as a frat-boy adds crude appendages to yesterday's snowmen, making them anatomically correct. There's nothing I enjoy more than anatomically correct snowmen.