So this happened.

Yesterday I was out taking fall pictures (which you'll see in the next while, such as they are).

Today, not so much.

Bugger.

I mean, don't get me wrong -- it's the end of October, it's Alberta, and this was bound to happen. They're saying it probably won't stay anyway, so what's the big deal, right?

Roads. Roads are the big deal.

Somehow, every year the first snowfall causes people to lose their minds as if they've never ever seen snow before and then take off down the highway in a big cloud of idiot. It doesn't help, of course, that this snowfall is creating a layer of ice that half of the population of the QEII (um, that'd be the major highway between Calgary and Edmonton, for those not familiar. Renamed in honour of Her Majesty for a royal visit a number of years ago, which always makes me wonder about the thought process: I know, let's take the stretch of Highway 2 where everyone drives like it's the Autobahn and leaves their collective brain at home and name it for the queen. I'm sure she'd like that) will think means DRIVE FASTER.

Personally, I'm staying here.

For a number of reasons, actually. The idiot factor is the big one, but there's also the problem of the stupid new rock chip that I got on the way here on Friday that looks likely to spread but I couldn't get fixed yesterday because hello? small town business hours (and that was too a sentence. Of some sort). And, since it's me, you can add lack of sleep to the mix. I have no need to make myself part of the problem today.

To be honest, the lack of sleep really kind of ticks me off today, because I'd had a really good sleep the night before and there was absolutely no reason for my brain to play the let's see how many things I can make you worry about all night game. I really, really, REALLY hate nights like that, because it's like I'm having my own self-contained argument. In a somewhat three-year-old style, sadly. It kind of goes like this:

You know... such-and-such might happen.
Shut up.
And if it does, whatsis is certain to happen afterwards.
Shut up.
And you just know that when whatsis happens, it's going to make whosis completely impossible to deal with.
SHUT UP.

Yeah, super productive, that internal discussion. Ah well, if it gives me another excuse to stay out of the idiot parade today then I guess it's not such a bad thing. Oh, and if you're here in Alberta and you're not already following @511Alberta and @AMARoadReports on twitter for updated road conditions, then you really should be.

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In other news, I finished a sketchbook yesterday. My watercolour sketchbook. Ok, maybe not technically finished since I could still use the backs of some of the not-so-good pages that I don't mind wrecking to play around with now and then, but finished enough that if I put it on the shelf tomorrow and never used it again I wouldn't consider any of the pages wasted.

I finished a sketchbook. I don't think that any of my two fans can realise just how big that statement is.

I never finish sketchbooks. I either get partway through and then stop using them because I'm sick of the paper, or I get partway through and put them aside because I can't bear the thought of the crappy artwork that's in them.

I have a little bit of a problem remembering that a sketchbook is a sketchbook and not a this-has-to-be-perfect book.

I made a resolution with my last big sketchbook purchase, though, that I'd allow myself to be less than perfect. Good thing too, since I am less than perfect. And you know what? It stuck. Well... mostly it stuck. My little pocket sketchbook that I do pen & ink stuff in has had to take over from its bigger cousin in the less than perfect category (unfortunately, I had a few things turn out decently in the bigger book. I'm still using it, but not as much for casual doodling as slightly more finished ideas), but the watercolour book stayed as experimental as it was supposed to be.

And it's done! Woohoo! No, seriously. I finished a sketchbook AND in watercolours no less. I suck at painting, but I've kept plugging away at it long enough to finish a sketchbook. Who'd'a thunk?

I have its successor already waiting in the wings, even. And -- knock wood -- now that my wrist is finally starting to feel a bit more stable, it may even get used.

Hooray for small victories, then. And hooray for lunch when it's leftover pizza. In other words, time to stop typing and (sigh) watch the snow while I eat pizza.

Sigh, again.

At least I'll enjoy the pizza part of that.