when we have but few comforts we enjoy them the more

Stuff I can't stand to shop for:

• Shampoo. Could there be any more choices?! It's either inexpensive or good for your hair, so you're stuck. You never know what it'll end up smelling like on your hair later. It's pretty much no win. Plus, it's heavy. And you never know if you've gotten a defective bottle (with one of those flip-caps that won't flip) until you get home. 
• Underwear. Either comfortable or attractive, never both. And of course you can't try it on--except the part that you can try on, but only after removing all of the rest of your clothes in that area, which is just such a joy and so conducive to viewing oneself with any degree of accuracy or aplomb. I've never muttered, "Whatever!" in my own head so often as I do when buying this sort of thing.
• Toothpaste. A bewildering array of attributes, each of which is attractive and desirable. The only things that really matter, though, are what it will taste like and whether it'll make your teeth feel clean, neither of which can be determined from looking at the boxes, tubes, and packages. Overwhelming!
• Christmas cards. How many is enough? Too many? Not enough? Buy right before Christmas, get exactly what you need, and pay the premium price? Buy right after Christmas, maybe get some extra, and get the best discount--but find a place to store them?
• Feminine products. Just, the whole damn process. Ugh.
• Athletic socks. How thick is thick enough to adequately cover a tattoo? How high is high enough on the ankle, but not too high? What's comfortable in winter but not too warm in summer? What's thin enough inside running shoes but not too thin during winter? They last forever, but only if they're not quite right. If they're perfection in a sock, they unravel in milliseconds.
• Makeup. It's invariably expensive, in a ridiculously tiny quantity or else everlasting, and never ever looks good. And the way that it's marketed does not lend itself to comparisons of like products (e.g. one brown eye shadow to another brown eye shadow) but within product lines. Who gives a rip about pink eye shadow, if I'm shopping for brown? The whole process is exhausting and defeating.

I'm sure there is more.

Today, I took the first step in the home-buying process. Really, the step that will tell me if there are more steps to be taken, or not. It's exciting and nerve-wracking, but it feels good to know that it's moving forward at least this much.

I have my W-2s and can file my taxes at will, as long as I'm ready to accept that there will be no amendments or modifications to the W-2s. Given the origin of one of them, I'm reluctant to use it right away. There have been issues in the past....

It snowed last night. All told, we got 5". The place where I used to live got somewhere in the 8-12" range, though it's hard to tell because with high winds they've got blizzard conditions. I wonder if this will be enough to make some of them calm the f--- down about how much "worse" the weather is "up here," as if they're in the tropics and I'm in the Arctic Circle? There are less than 3° difference in latitude between the two locations. REALLY not that much!

One of my friends ran a marathon today (in a faraway location). I was only out of my PJs for the duration of my shower. Ahh, perspective!

[the title quotation is by W.B. Clulow, from Horæ otiosæ, or, Thoughts, Maxims, and Opinions. Part IV. 'On Happiness']