Stupidity

Today I am angry with the State of Illinois. And the stupidity of grocery store managers.

This morning I went to the grocery store with the intention of buying food and drink for a party I am having on Saturday. This included a fair amount of alcohol. On reaching the checkout, I showed the cashier my UK driver's license, which I have used as ID for the last year in the US. But she wouldn't let me use it! And neither would the stupid stupid store manager. He went so far as to show me the list of approved IDs: apparently the UK doesn't count as "out of state"...

Even if he didn't want to claim to have broken the law and trust my ID, how hard would it have been to claim he thought I looked over 30? I mean, I'm 27 for god's sake...

Grrrr.

Postage

Suppose you want to send someone a birthday card. Suppose your card weighs in at around one ounce. Depending on from where and to where you are posting said card, the cost will vary. This much is clear. The following is not:

US -> US 39 cents (approx 20p)
US -> UK 84 cents (approx 43p)
UK -> UK 32p
UK -> US 1.12GPB

I don't understand. How can it cost less to send a card from the US to the UK than the combined cost of sending a card domestically inside each country? And why on earth does it cost so much to send something from the UK to the US? The work load is the same whether the card travels in each direction... where is the extra money going?

Ice and snow

Did I mention that it was cold over here? Well here are some photos of Lake Michigan to prove it:

Chicago in the distance:



Sand through the ice:



and just incase you were wondering, probably best not to try swimming in it...

New boots!

Note to self: when the day's weather has included 6 inches of fresh snowfall, make sure your walk home passes by as many government buildings as possible, for the pavements in front of them will have surely been cleared of snow.

Alternatively: buy new boots!



Note to Ramzy: this post is not about the weather. It is about boots.

There is only one thing on my mind

So I've noticed that back in the UK, you've been having some, and I quote from the BBC website, "severe" weather. You poor things. Temperatures as low as -4C. How do you cope? Not very well, it turns out, as parliament calls for "debates" on the weather. What exactly are they going to debate? How pathetic it is that a country can fall apart after just four inches of snow? You just don't know the meaning of the word "cold". When you can go out wearing two pairs of gloves, and still not feel your fingers after four blocks; when you can't walk the 50 yards to the building you're lecturing in without having to put on a coat that resembles a sleeping bag with arms; when you wake up in the morning, look at the weather, and think "Hm, only -15C, that's warm!". That's when you'll know the meaning of Cold.

More on the Cold

Look, even the BBC have noticed that it's cold in Chicago...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6340747.stm

How to stay warm in the cold

There are basically three options:

1) Don't leave the house without wearing all of your clothes.

2) Don't leave the house.

3) Leave the house, the town, the state, and fly to somewhere nice and warm in Florida.

Unfortunately, (3) didn't work so well for the Bears, who ended up losing the superbowl in (in typical BBC News style) "rain-soaked" Miami.

Also, I would like to point out to anyone who has ever used the phrase "it's too cold to snow". That's just not true. Today, it is snowing. It may not be quite as cold as it was yesterday, but 17 below zero is still enough to make my eyelashes freeze on the walk to work.