If I ever seem to think that it’s a good idea to go out on December twenty-third in lousy weather, would somebody please beat some sense into me?

An in-city trip — just a normal non-shopping errand that generally takes about a twenty minute drive — required an hour and fifteen minutes to complete today. There were no accidents or anything, just a lot of traffic, and all of it moving at the pace of an arthritic snail. Given the weather and the congestion, that was probably a good idea, but it was a ridiculous amount of time nonetheless. Thank goodness for a large store of unlistened-to podcasts, if I hadn’t had something to keep my mind off how long it was taking, I’d have probably killed something.

Sometimes I think bears are the smartest creatures on the planet: they sleep through this entire season.