December has been inconsiderate.

It’s brought inconvenient winter storms every week. Not *during* the week. I could handle that. On the *weekends*.

A couple weeks ago it was an ice storm. A big old half-dead tree across the alley dropped some branches. One landed on the power line running underneath and blacked out the neighborhood. When the electricity goes out, so does my heat. I spent the night in a hotel.

This is the second ice-storm blackout in a year. Last February a branch from the *same tree* knocked the electric meter right off my house. It took two days and $500 to get it fixed. The tree is now on my enemies list.
***
This week I had a headache for five days straight. I saw two doctors. The first gave me a simple and apparently dubious diagnosis. The second said the same thing but gave a detailed explanation that took into account the observations I’d reported and made a hell of a lot more sense. If any doctors out there are looking to cut health care costs, here’s a tip: actually *explaining the reasoning behind your diagnosis*, instead of handing down your judgment and running off to the next patient, could save a *lot* of second opinions.
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Less painful, but still annoying: the one movie I’d been looking forward to seeing in the theater [isn’t coming to town] [st], courtesy of our local theater chain monopoly. To add insult to injury, here’s what one of the usual idiot comment-section drones had to say:

>Even though it has Johnny Depp and the Tim Burton directorial moniker, “Sweeney Todd” is not exactly fodder for the unwashed masses. It’s an R-rated musical supposedly soaked in gore, washed of color, and decidedly bleak in tone. Not exactly a blockbuster in the making. Paramount’s cockiness in demanding extra dollars will only hurt their box office returns, which I’m guessing they’ll really need for this one…blowing off Midwesterners reflects a left-coast elitism that should be given the finger.

I’ll take Paramount over this guy any day. They may be left-coast elitists, but at least they don’t think Midwesterners are an unwashed mass.
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I’m sure things will only get better from here, and I hope to update more frequently in 2008–I’d like to post some thoughts on books I’ve been reading, continue reviewing old _Doctor Who_ tie-ins, and finish [more comics than I managed this year] [com], including some longer stories.

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