Day 10.362: Exile #2's Sunday Column #187

Exile #2 writes...

I know we keep harping on about the weather over here, but it’s hard not to when you read headlines telling you that is is colder where you are than on Mars, and see pictures of ocean waves breaking in the form of slush. My favorite story of the week, however, was from Florida, which is also experiencing unusually low temperatures. There, geckos have been dropping out of the trees - not dead, but extremely dormant! Exile #3 can relate, I’m sure.

Not surprisingly, we have spent a fair amount of time indoors curled up with books and playing board games. Exile #1 and I played a game of Codenames in which it became clear that we should not be considering a move into espionage, whilst Exile #4 joined us for some Exploding Kittens. It’s not all been frivolity, however. Exile #3 kept warm yesterday with some dance workshops. Meanwhile, Exile #1 and I have been working on a song for an upcoming Martin Luther King celebration. Hopefully more on that next week. Stay warm, my friends!

[Editor's note: here's a photo of the kids bundled up for the cold]

Day 10.361: Rogue One take 2

We watched Rogue One today - for the first time since we saw it at the cinema a year ago. I think I enjoyed it even more the second time around. Sure, the CGI human characters bothered me more than they did last time, but the story and the main actors and the scale along with great pacing really made it a thoroughly enjoyable film, and quite possibly my favourite Star Wars movie.

Day 10.360: Twelfth night

...and our living room is more spacious and less decorative.

Day 10.359: Blizzard conditions

Since we knew the schools were going to be closed today, I was only one getting up for anything this morning. Since it was not yet snowing, I decided I didn't have any reason not to go in, so I drove to work where the first flakes were just starting to fall.

I left around 11 am since I could do the rest of my duties just as well from home. The roads were passable but a little more exciting than I would like. The flip-side of that is that since the plows had not yet been so there was no blockage at the end of the driveway.

Snow continued to fall into the evening and the wind got up during the afternoon - but so far we have had no ill-effects beyond a foot of snow and some drifting. With another bitterly cold snap coming it is a bad time for people to be losing power due to the strong winds.

I went out twice to clear the snow. An inch or two has fallen since but it looks like we're pretty much done unless there is a lot of drifting of what has already fallen. A few hours ago, the plow went by for the second time and left a massive pile of snow across the entrance to the drive. I was not looking forward to having to deal with it but I was too tired to get straight out there. When I looked out an hour of so ago it was gone - one of our neighbors with a big snow blower must have dealt with it for us. I'm very thankful I don't have to go out again tonight or deal with that in the morning.

Day 10.358: Calm before the storm

Here's another photo from our trip to Gardens Aglow:

Today the temperature got up to 28°F (-2°C) - that's the highest temperature since before Christmas. It felt quite comfortable especially while the sun was shining. However, it is the calm before the storm as we are expecting some heavy snow and likely blizzard conditions tomorrow. As ever, these kinds of predictions are difficult to make accurately, but the meteorologists are in enough agreement that the schools announced they would be closed tomorrow while I was still at work.

Now we wait and see...

Day 10.357: Sculpted?

I did a double take when I looked out of the window at E5N1's ice tree that he constructed back in mid-December. It is still going strong (amazing in itself) since the temperature has barely been above freezing for the last three weeks and not at all for the last two. The reason I looked twice was because it looked like someone had been out and sculpted it into some sort of animal:

However, a second angle revealed it was probably just a random conglomeration of snow:

Day 10.356: Dalek defeat

We've been playing lots of games. This is one that has taken the most dedication (both in terms of learning to play and time set aside for a game): Doctor Who - Time of the Daleks.  It's by the same people as our Firefly game (and has some of the same game-play features in a slightly simpler form).

The table starts out quite simple but as you can see, by the end things are a little more complicated. It is satisfyingly Doctor Who-ish throughout and although we've had games where the Daleks beat us soundly, today we were victorious and it was just a matter of who would get the bragging rights (Exile #4 and I shared them).