Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

We got a lot of snow in the Boston area, but people seem to be coping fairly well. The building management company have sent people over here to shovel the walks, several times, so I was able to take out the trash and recycling. The forecast for the next several days is for cold, very cold once you count the wind chill. It turns out that I can wear Adrian's old snow pants, which will do a lot to protect my legs from cold and wind. The remaining problem is boots: even with the 3/4 insoles Adrian lent me, they're too loose, including at the front, so I may try putting in a pair of full-length insoles and see if that helps. The other possibility is to go out looking for a pair of snow sneakers, or at least waterproof hiking shoes/boots (though the forecast is for the kind of weather where waiting for two trolleys, and walking from home to trolley to store, is daunting.

I've been looking at Bluesky again, in large part for news and commentary about what ICE is doing in Minnesota and elsewhere. When I've had enough for a while, I click on the "astronomy" feed I subscribed to months ago, so the first things I see are an astronomical pictures.

I did a lot of PT yesterday, and a few exercises today. It feels like I haven't gotten a lot done today, which I think is because I'd been hoping to make some phone calls (not all of them political), and assumed I wouldn't be able to take the trash out today. (The alternative to that walk along the side of the building is a spiral staircase, indoors, but spiral staircases aren't good for me, and this one is tight enough that my joints really don't like it. Cattitude can deal with it when necessary, but he's already going up and down that stair regularly to do the laundry.)

We (including Arlington, Somerville, Cambridge, and Belmont) had the season's first significant snowfall this afternoon.* It started to snow while I was in Arlington; by the time the 77 bus was in Cambridge, it was snowing steadily, large flakes. It was still snowing when the bus got to Harvard Square, so I decided I should stop at Lizzy's for ice cream.**

I got a "chocolate orgy" cone, and a quart of black raspberry ice cream to take home with me.

The snow didn't stick, but walking from the bus to my apartment I had a snowflake land in my mouth, and stood for a minute to watch the snow fall.

I complain about being cold, but that's at least as much about my wonky internal thermometer*** as about the outside temperature. I will get tired of snow by midwinter, but right now I'm saying "it's a nice day" about clouds, snow, and 34F, which cattitude finds absurd.

*I noticed a very few snowflakes in Belmont earlier this month.

**This is how my brain works; I realize this may be unusual.

***This has been going on for years and seems unrelated to menopause.

I took a bunch of photos in the park this morning. Here's one; the other eight are at my Flickr page (I'm rosvicl there; redbird was taken). Trees, snow, water, and fences, with a bit of playing with perspective and contrast.

My first day at the new job went well. My supervisor started by thanking me for coming in despite the snowstorm (a number of people who work there didn't make it, living further away), then set me up with proofreading, checking PDFs against the previous proofread pages, mostly to make sure corrections had been picked up, but he said that we had the time and I could give it a bit of "extra TLC." I'm glad I did, because along with a few trivial things ("a" for "as") I found a serious error in the glossary ["two" instead of "three" completely messing up a definition], a mislabeled graph, and a confusing set of instructions on one problem. Around 4:30 I got a computer, so I can start copyediting tomorrow.

Back in December, adrian_turtle got me a set of slip-on devices to add traction to shoes. I wore them today, and they did help, especially on the way to the subway this morning, when there was ice and sleet; this evening's surface was mostly either cleared or snow.

After work, I stopped at the branch of my gym at Madison and 36th and worked out briefly. I don't think I'll be using that branch again: they're missing equipment I want, and they don't seem to be using hot enough water to wash their towels, which smelled noticeably of other people's stale sweat. There are a few other branches worth my checking out, or I can take the R up to my usual.

( a few gym numbers )

The weather reports are saying we'll be getting our first major snow of the year, four to six inches by tomorrow morning. If you think that's not a lot, well, maybe not: but we've had a whole half inch thus far, and I didn't finally give up on the snapdragons until yesterday.

I have no special plans involving the snow: no snow forts or snowmen or anything, certainly no skis. I'll just sit here and watch it come down, and maybe go see how the missing bridge looks in the snow. If I still have snow boots: I honestly don't remember, because I haven't needed them in what feels like ages, and unused shoes wander to the back corners of things. If not, I'll go out in my sneakers, and expect to change into dry socks as soon as I get home. Urban living has definite advantages.