Snow Balls

Apparently, everyone knows you can't make snow balls with dry snow. Silly me.

Sunset today at 4:15pm. Welcome to Winter.

My First Snow Storm

Getting in the holiday spirit, a few days before the snow.


When I was working on cruise ships in Alaska, we would ask the (complaining) kids as we walked around the outer decks, "Are you cold, or are you tough?" Photo, above, indicates that I was cold.
The snow started around 1pm on Friday. We'd been released from work at noon and I got everyone who had been at work to go out for pizza together. They're all amused by my snow-glee, and they're taking bets on when I'll start to dread the cold and snow. Ha! I say.
Snow tip: Keep your hood up so the snow doesn't melt on your neck.
Mike the Bike is safely inside, but look at these poor bikes, left out in the snow.

A fun activity I discovered is pushing the snow off of cars. Ordinarily, you never touch someone else's car. You probably don't even touch your own car very often. But when the cars are piled high with snow, it's really cool to push it off. You know how destruction is fun, but we normally suppress the desire? Think about it - food fights, demolition derby, lighting stuff on fire. We realize that destroying things is counterproductive, so we normally don't do it. But pushing snow off of cars, that pristine white, the perfect smoothness. It's fun to mess that up. Before:

And after:

Just like apartment management companies kept on top of the fallen leaves in the autumn, so do they shovel or blow the snow. You can see that sidewalks in front of some apartment buildings are clearer than others. Also, in front of playgrounds or parking lots, the sidewalks aren't cleared at all. The roads are cleared nicely, but walking in the road is dangerous because the cars could accidentally slide into you. See the guy blowing snow?

I know I have all winter, but I wanted to get the stereotypes out of the way, so here I am catching snowflakes on my tongue.

My friend Greg and I had a snow fight. I wouldn't call it a snowBALL fight, since I was just grabbing snow and throwing it at him. The snow stuck to my gloves, making snowballs difficult to create. Some college kids were hanging around outside their apartment building and they started cheering for me, "Go Red!" Greg still won, but the kids told me I'd put up a good fight.

It's also fun to make a body print on the cars.

Greg put his face in the cold snow. Can you see the snow sparkling?

This is the view out my windows.

Billy's first big snow.

Right now in Blustery Boston, it's snowing and 33 degrees (but it feels like it's 19 degrees). Today's forecast for San Diego? Sunny, with a high of 64 degrees.

Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday to me!

My First Snow Day!!!

There's a severe weather alert for Boston and the surrounding areas today. The governor said all government employees could stay home, schools are closed, and several of my co-workers are working from home today. Those of us who are here got a nice treat - we get to go home (paid of course) at noon! Last year, there was a huge storm and employers all released their employees at the same time - my boss's car sat in one place on the road for four hours, and it took him six hours total to get home. As a happy walker, my one-mile commute will only be slowed by my playing in the snow and photographing the storm. I can't wait!

The following was taken from NOAA.org, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

...HEAVY SNOW THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING WILL RAPIDLY ACCUMULATE ON ROADWAYS AND TRAVEL IS HIGHLY DISCOURAGED...A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 AM EST SATURDAY...IT WILL QUICKLY BECOME HEAVY...RAPIDLY ACCUMULATE ON ROADWAYS...AND RESULT IN VERY POOR VISIBILITIES. SNOWFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR ARE LIKELY FROM MID AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING HOURS. ROADS DURING THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EVENING COMMUTE WILL BE SNOW COVERED AND TREACHEROUS. IN ADDITION...NORTHEAST WINDS WILL INCREASE LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...THIS WILL RESULT IN CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW...RESULTING IN VERY POOR VISIBILITIES AT TIMES. AT THIS TIME...IT LOOKS AS THOUGH MOST OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND WILL RECEIVE 8 TO 12 INCHES OF SNOWFALL BY MIDNIGHT FRIDAY NIGHT...AGAIN...TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. ONLY VENTURE OUT IF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

Six Months!

It was six months today that I moved to Boston. I wonder what the next six months have in store...

Ice Storm

This isn't my photo. It was submitted to boston.com, but I just love it and wanted to share.
The ice storm affected much of New England, but not Boston. We're expecting rain and snow tomorrow and the day after, and freezing rain on Saturday, but I don't think it will really snow again before I go to San Diego for the holidays. There's supposed to be snow on Christmas Eve, but by then I'll be safely away from it (drat).

Good Morning

I hope you're enjoying the holiday season.
The weather is crazy here. Snow last weekend, and then flood warnings this week. There was what looked like a clogged drain on my walk to work yesterday. (I always have my camera handy, you may have noticed.) The cars had to drive through pretty deep water.

There was also a lot of water in the greenway I walk across each day. I was wearing my galoshes, so I could wade through the deep puddles, but I saw a girl start out and have to go back the way she came; she was only wearing sneakers. Amateur.

Billy and the Catnip

Usually when I come home, Billy wants my attention. But the other day, he was more interested in my stuff, and especially an envelope from my friend Sunshine. I thought perhaps Billy was smelling her cat and dog, but a second later I realized: Sunshine had sent Billy catnip. She has a plant of it and sent some of Lulu's secret stash.
If Billy could have been inside the envelope, he would have.

Do you see him licking the card?

Billy was trying to catch a bug, so he's really just in between positions here, but it looks like he's a kung fu master, doesn't it?
Billy is a little over a year old. He sure has come a long way from this scruffy little flea bag!

Home for the Holidays

I'm going to be in San Diego December 23 - January 3. I hope I'll get to see everyone. Let me know if you have time and we can get together. I'm hoping to visit the Museum, maybe December 29 or 30 (I think you all have holiday days for the rest of the time).

Someone is messing with the thermostat! It's 64 degrees right now and tomorrow it's supposed to be 37 degrees. This place is weird...but I love it.

Sunny and cold

The snow is gone for the time being, and as often happens when the skies clear, it's colder. It's currently 15 degrees and feels like (wind chill) zero. My walk to work was hurt-your-face cold. All four cheeks were numb!

SNOW!

Apparently, most of Boston wasn't impressed with the amount and quality of the snow today. It was the first snowfall, so you better believe I was excited, but not everyone was. You can feel sorry for them if you want - I do! I thought it was fantastic. I woke up and it was snowing. I opened my blinds and lay in bed watching it snow - where I live. So cool.

The snowflakes' size changed over the morning. Sometimes they were tiny like these guys (above), and other times they clumped together. You know how a star is really just a point of light to the unaided eye, but when you draw a star, you can get much more elaborate? And you know what a plastic snowflake Christmas tree ornament looks like? Well, for those of you who aren't familiar with snow, unlike with stars, the portrayals of snowflakes aren't exaggerations. They're really that ornate. (For those of you who are familiar with snow, I'm sure you're having a good chuckle; go ahead. I was staring at my gloves almost as much as I was staring ahead today.)

This is my happy-to-be-in-the-snow grin.

The snow was really light and flaky, but wet. This rose is putting up a good fight. And the grass is still green. I wonder when it turns brown...

Just a dusting, really. It seemed like a lot of snow to me, but it wasn't sticking to the pavement, only to the earthen ground.

I love this photo (below). If you look closely, there's a snowflake on the leftmost berry. There's also some snow, or at least slush, on the lowest berry.

You know how water slides off a duck's back? Not so with snow. It just sits there.

The geese here don't migrate. It's unfortunate that we've altered their patterns, but I'm glad we get to keep them all year.

What a wonderful day. I'm so glad the first snowfall was on a Sunday so I could go out and enjoy it.

My day in NYC

Harvard Medical School's Social Committee arranged a bus to New York City. We met at the school at 6am and we were in New York by 10am. Lots of movies and songs about New York floated through my head as I wandered the streets of this larger-than-life city.

" I recall / Central Park in fall." Actually, I guess it's not fall anymore, but Central Park still looked great. I kept looking for the building from Ghostbusters, which I believe faces the Park, but I didn't see it.

I'm not sure how romantic the Central Park carriage rides are with the drivers chatting on their cell phones...

I was tempted to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, but I didn't. And there would have been a very cute picture of me in front of the Radio City tree, but each try by a stranger on the street came out unfocused.

Here's a small holiday-themed shop window. Many department stores really go all-out with their holiday window displays, many of which you can see on youtube. They're very elaborate; it was a little like being at Disneyland. And the holiday shoppers were out this weekend in force. Good thing I don't get claustrophobic.

Lots of guys stand on the street, handing out fliers and selling tickets to shows. The picture above of Time Square includes people waiting in line for tickets.
It was great to see the city decorated for the holidays.
Aside from all of those fours looking cool, I thought this was a nice representation of the temperature. It was clear most of the day. I've gotten to the point that temperatures in the 40s don't bother me much. I feel that I have the gear, so I haven't been very cold, unless it's been in the 30s. All those people who didn't think I could make it through a real winter have to keep waiting.
Maybe it's because New York City doesn't do anything halfway, but even their Salvation Army bell ringers are cool. In San Diego, it's easy in the winter to see folks ringing the bell by the Salvation Army donation bucket. In NYC, the Salvation Army folks sing or play instruments, and they're really good. Except for a couple of young women, who must have done it out of the kindness of their hearts, but were terrible singers (they were as bad as I am). I walked more quickly down their block; ouch. I know I have a bad singing voice, so although I enjoy singing, I now know I should never do it for more than a few lines, and never in front of crowds. I feel guilty for all of the karaoke audiences I tortured when I was on cruise ships. My logic was that since I was the hostess, I should fill in the gaps when no one wanted to sing. I now realize how mistaken I was.