Here I am in California for the holidays. I'm here at my Dad's house in LA, waiting for Becky to come pick me up so we can have a day out and about. I don't think the two of us have spent time together in LA since college. Can that be right?
Hmm. Well, the sun is shining here and it's almost 65 degrees and I am just soaking in the sunshine. It's a stark contrast from the snowy wasteland I came from. I know I've been complaining about the snow and the cold, which is just a little wrong. I mean, what did I expect? It's Boston, for crying out loud. Who thinks it's going to be warm in winter in Boston? But the thing is, it's still quite startling for me.
Two Thursdays ago we had this huge storm where I was in Shrewsbury for a meeting and it took me 6 hours to get home. Now normally it takes me a little over an hour. Just for some perspective, I only had a quarter of a tank of gas (I tried to get more but my gas tank was frozen shut and I couldn't get it open) and it lasted me the whole 6 hours. That's how slow I was going. It was awful. I was nervous the entire time about driving on snow and ice, people were fishtailing in front of me and I was needing to pee for 4 of those 6 hours. I'm still traumatized. People are saying we got as much snow this fall as we got all last winter. WTF?
So now I'm in LA and for the holidays all I asked for from the parents were snow tires. They're expensive, and it's going to be such a relief when I'm driving all over the Commonwealth. I also asked Aaron to help me buy a coat. Maybe between the tires and the coat I'll find something else to complain about.
Sunday, December 23
Tuesday, December 11
I can't believe that I didn't mention
Tori had her baby! You know that storm I mentioned? The one from this past Monday? Not yesterday but last Monday. Anyway, I guess the air pressure did something to her pregnancy and the little girl came early. Which is a good thing, because even coming three weeks early, this little girl was 7 lbs 7 oz's. Crazy, huh. Her name is Emma Blaheen (it's not really spelled like that. That's just how I say it. It think it's spelled Blaithin, but how would you know how to say that?). And there's a picture of her up there. See?
The other news from last Monday is that not only was it Natae's birthday, but Natae also got engaged. For those of you who know her, this isn't really news. And perhaps the rest of you don't really care quite as much. But if you knew her you would be just as thrilled for her as I am. And it was still a banner day with all kinds of things going on besides snow.
it's cold
I think I have a theme going on here.
Two weekends ago I went for a long walk and fall was in full throttle over the area. There were trees with yellowing (and oranging and redding) leaves, and the ground was covered in color. And then a storm came the following monday and it was all gone. Winter has arrived, and I don't care what the calendar says. There's, what, two more weeks until the solstice and the official beginning of the season? Yeah right. It's here.
We've had almost a week of temperatures averaging in the 30's and the ice yesterday morning was the worst I've experienced. There was rain throughout the night, freezing at some point so that by the time I got out to my car on Monday there was maybe a quarter of an inch of ice cementing my car closed. The ground was so iced over that I was slipping and sliding around just trying to open my car door. I've said this before, but a person born and raised in California has no business driving in these conditions. And I was a little terrified about driving on the highways in this mess. I mean, really. There were reports of accidents all up and down the major highways and I had a meeting an hour away.
Of course I called my boss and asked if I REALLY had to go to this meeting, and he told me to use my best judgment. As if I can say 'no' to that. So I looked up the road conditions on the internet and found that the roads I had to take to get to my meeting seemed to have been well sanded, and that the biggest challenge to me would be to get to the highway. And I know there are no big hills between me and the highway, so off I went. Going maybe 5 miles an hour to get onto the main roads (I have this thought- I don't know where it came from- that if you go really slow in the ice or snow you'll have a better chance of arriving somewhere safely. Right now it's just a superstition, but I'm sticking to it. It's worked so far). It ended up taking me twice as long to get to Marlboro, but I got there. And I went straight home afterwards and worked from home. Sigh.
So winter's here. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Some of them were taken with my cell phone, and the others were with a real camera. Sorry about the quality of the photos.
Hey Vincent!
Three days later, and bam. It's winter. That's just the way it goes over here.
Two weekends ago I went for a long walk and fall was in full throttle over the area. There were trees with yellowing (and oranging and redding) leaves, and the ground was covered in color. And then a storm came the following monday and it was all gone. Winter has arrived, and I don't care what the calendar says. There's, what, two more weeks until the solstice and the official beginning of the season? Yeah right. It's here.
We've had almost a week of temperatures averaging in the 30's and the ice yesterday morning was the worst I've experienced. There was rain throughout the night, freezing at some point so that by the time I got out to my car on Monday there was maybe a quarter of an inch of ice cementing my car closed. The ground was so iced over that I was slipping and sliding around just trying to open my car door. I've said this before, but a person born and raised in California has no business driving in these conditions. And I was a little terrified about driving on the highways in this mess. I mean, really. There were reports of accidents all up and down the major highways and I had a meeting an hour away.
Of course I called my boss and asked if I REALLY had to go to this meeting, and he told me to use my best judgment. As if I can say 'no' to that. So I looked up the road conditions on the internet and found that the roads I had to take to get to my meeting seemed to have been well sanded, and that the biggest challenge to me would be to get to the highway. And I know there are no big hills between me and the highway, so off I went. Going maybe 5 miles an hour to get onto the main roads (I have this thought- I don't know where it came from- that if you go really slow in the ice or snow you'll have a better chance of arriving somewhere safely. Right now it's just a superstition, but I'm sticking to it. It's worked so far). It ended up taking me twice as long to get to Marlboro, but I got there. And I went straight home afterwards and worked from home. Sigh.
So winter's here. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Some of them were taken with my cell phone, and the others were with a real camera. Sorry about the quality of the photos.
Hey Vincent!
Three days later, and bam. It's winter. That's just the way it goes over here.
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