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.

My winter jacket

Static electricity (which I hate) is up. I'm pretty sure water from a sink shocked my hands yesterday. I'm going to try to get used to it, since it's very shocky here, and I know it doesn't hurt very much. It just startles me every single time. I hate it, did I mention? On the plus side, it makes my hair stand up, which is fun. This picture is from REI. My hair loved the down jackets.
And that's my new winter jacket! REI didn't have longer jackets, since those aren't as sporty, so with less butt coverage, I think I'm going to start wearing flannel boxers. They did have lots of jackets with fur-lined hoods, as does everywhere else. It's really the rage this winter, fur-lined hoods. You can, of course, get real fur or faux fur, but I usually try not to join in with the popular stuff. There was a cold snap about a week ago (see last blog post), but since then, it hasn't been terribly cold. (They keep promising me snow...) When it gets really cold again, if my jacket won't cut it, I can reevaluate.

Transparent forests / Whoosh, it’s cold!

Pretty much all of the leaves have fallen by now. It was very windy last weekend, and the trees that were holding out the longest finally had to give in and release their leaves. As a result, trees that previously offered shade and concealment now are bare and, yes, transparent. The greenway (natural bit of open space inside the city) by my apartment that I walk along each day is fairly narrow, and I can now see through it to the street on the other side. I also now have a better view of the piece of Muddy River along the middle of the greenway. And if the trees are transparent horizontally, they’re also transparent vertically. I used to be able to walk along the greenway and keep the sun out of my eyes by walking on the shadier side of the street. Now that the leaves are gone, there is no shade. Furthermore, since the sun is lower in the sky, it hits ya right in the eye. Surprising, then, that a major department store doesn't sell sunglasses in the winter. Today I wore my ski hat (to keep my head and ears warm) underneath a hat with a brim to block the sun. This may be routine and now the things I’ll always have in my backpack are: umbrella, sunglasses, scarf, gloves, ski hat, and brimmed hat - unless I find a brimmed ski hat. This is in addition to the standard Kleenex, camera, Chap Stick, etc. (My friend Heather pointed out that a brimmed hat will also keep snowflakes off my eye lashes.) It’s dark here by 4:45pm, so I only have to adjust for the glaring sun during my morning walk. I was thinking that it was weird to have it completely dark by 4:45pm, but we’re still not at the winter solstice yet, so the days are getting even shorter.

According to weather.com, this morning it was 29 degrees on my walk to work, but with the wind chill, it felt like 16 degrees! The ski jacket that I've had for years has kept me warm where it covers, but this weekend I hope to get a winter coat that covers my butt – everyone says this is very important. I went out to dinner with a friend last night, and on the way home, we saw a puddle that was frozen on the top. I held onto his arm for an anchor and tapped the puddle with the toe of my shoe. The ice crackled satisfyingly. Said friend also told me that if you breath into the collar of your jacket, (which is so inviting since your breath warms you up), your jacket will end up soggy: wet and cold. Wow, the things you learn.

Depending on which weather report you look at, snow is expected for tomorrow...

Autumn is letting go...

Today was only in the 60s but last week it was in the 40s. It rained enough today for me to need my golashes. I love it when that happens.
There are fewer leaves on the trees every day. There are zillions of leaves on the ground though, and being swept up by street sweepers. Autumn has been a magical time, and I'm so glad I've been able to watch it day after day.

Sam Adams Summer Ale was great, but when I found out Sam is now brewed and bottled in Pennsylvania, my new beer is Harpoon (Thanks, Chris!). They have a summer one, and an Oktoberfest, and now I'm drinking their Winter Warmer. It's very festive and it's getting me in the mood for the holidays.

My mom and brother came for a visit!

My mom and my brother came to visit last week. It was great seeing them and we had fun and laughed a lot.
Josh and I tried the oysters (you hardly notice them with the horseradish and cocktail sauce) in the Oyster House, the oldest restaurant in the continental US. My mom wasn't as daring, but she did get the Boston Baked Beans. The story behind those? People couldn't work on the Sabbath, but they could put beans in a pot the day before and slow-cook them to eat after church Sundays.

We got a deck of cards and had dinner in with wine and Hearts.

It was sunny most of the weekend and the leaves were gorgeous. There were far fewer of them that even just the week before, but we found some beauties.

These were taken in the Victory Gardens; each plot is tended by a different person.

Duck butts are always funny.

I hope my mom's first-graders appreciate all of the leaves she picked for them...

We did more than take pictures of leaves...I swear. The photo below was taken in Salem.

Below, Boston Common. Until urban cattle owning went out of style, the Common had cows and public hearings.

Josh at Harvard University.

Here's a non-leaf photo; see I told you. This was at Harvard University, over in Cambridge. We went there to see the Museum of Natural History. They have glass flowers that look perfectly real. The museum was great, but of course not as cool as the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Overall a great trip. It was great to see my mom and Josh, and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of my family next month.