One of the most basic things to do is turn time into heat. Microwaves happen to be one of the more precise methods of doing this.

I can definitely say I'm tired today. After spending 5 hours cutting though a combination of snow and ice only to have my car unable to climb a snowy hill, combined with a 2-hour trip on foot to the grocery store, I can appreciate various things that I often overlook in a new way.

1. SUV's. As much as I don't like the cost of gasoline, t'were the hummer-owners who go the last laugh today. I can see why many families consider the big van / SUV a 'must have'. City-dwellers have a different problem, but if you're in the suburbs or beyond, it makes a big difference owning or knowing someone who owns an SUV. Most of the time it's not much of a benefit, but in a snowstorm like this it is invaluable.
2. Snow blowers. Probably not the best use of gasoline. However, 30 inches of snow over any significant area (not to mention a repetition thereof) moves beyond what I think I could handle with a shovel. Walking through town made me thankful they have 'em.
3. Refrigerators and dehydrated/dry goods. Dehydrated stuff isn't as good for you. But then again, toting 50 lbs a few miles in the snow isn't either, probably. I'd choose dry goods over miserable hikes any day. Likewise for the icebox; fresh is nice but there are only so many hours in the day...
4. Rock salt. I don't like what it does to runoff (or snow) - makes it all dirty and nasty - but man it is nice to have when your house faces the north. Iced up walkway? Not anymore. Compressed snow/ice? Breaks it in a couple of hours.
5. Being young. Seriously though, if I were a bit older, this might not have been a possible day. Youth is good for something, it seems.
6. Progressive shoveling. You think, 'Well, I don't have to go anywhere this weekend...' but really, unless you are a hermit, you will need to leave some time before the snow melts. Progressive shoveling (shoveling every few inches) makes the work lighter and frankly, keeps you from maddening idleness. That's a double plus.
7. Internet, email, phones. Being in contact when you can't otherwise be in contact? You win this round, internet and phones.
8. Living on a main road. Sure, getting snow plowed into your car is trouble, but actually getting the road plowed? Can't complain about that.
9. Having a snow-worthy car. Whether it is because my tires are actually not all-weather or because my car is too light, I can't be sure. Regardless, it would be nice if a half-inch of snow did not stop me entirely from moving. Maybe... snow chains for my car? IS that too retro?

I'm sure there are others. Also, I can't help but enjoy the photo opportunities. Now if we could only resume our usual schedules... but that won't happen. We're getting another storm in a few days.

Sniffing around yesterday I found this: 'Welcome to the Plutocracy':

...they voluntarily threw out restrictions against corporate funding of campaigns, restrictions that date back to 1907 and have been upheld by every court since then...

While it seems worrying, really all it does is allow corporations to burn more cash into the mass media for political campaigns - neither of which concern me greatly. Consider:

Just as traditional media conditioned the audience to be passive consumers — first of commercial messages, then of products — the traditional organization conditioned employees to be obedient executors of bureaucratically disseminated work orders. Both are forms of broadcast: the few dictating the behavior of the many. The broadcast mentality isn't dead by any means. It's just become suicidal.

In contrast, the Internet invites participation. ...

From something I've read far too late.

I think the court may be being partisan. But I think it's futile. The more people use the internet, the more fractious they become; the more mocking of mass-packaged anything. There are still some bastions - people who lack the will or anger (it seems to be a big factor on the internet) to resist marketing. But I think that is slowly changing. And that is the cause of our recession.

Weighing heavily on my mind today is what I call 'The Returning'. In its very essence, it is a desire, more or less, to crawl back into the womb. But enough criticism! Variously it is expressed in traditionalist language, but it in no way, I think, constitutes real holy Tradition. It might be a yearning for a golden age - one that might have existed or not - a yearning to return to our primordial state by going backwards - and so forth.

The problem with all of this is time, and especially as Christians - the End. Certainly, I would agree that I want to be as Adam was, walking with God, with no need for clothes (which you will note always fit imperfectly; I looked at my feet last night and saw marks from my socks imprinted on them. And such nice socks I have!) and to not be constantly needing to combat evil, but to be free to choose among the many good things and dance the minuet of the cosmic retinue.

I've noticed something about this movement, which I would like to express. A man loves his parents first just because they are his parents; and if his parents are decent folks, it is mostly preference. Storge without Agape. Again most of us probably loved Christianity who were born Christian in this way; affectively. We enjoyed the company and the routine (when things were well) and so forth.

But loving it was not an act of the will really, but more a habit of comfort. And from here comes this kind of traditionalism. We might hark back to the 19th century, for instance, or earlier; whatever. It is all colored by our experience.

The hallmark of this kind of 'mere preference' is a bitterness about the new. It is precisely this preference and desire for earthly comfort which breeds the bitterness that the youth flee from into the cities and the fast life. The bigger and louder the media and the technology, the more rapid the fleeing.