Baby, it’s cooooold outside!
The forecast for Saturday was snow — a storm, actually — and the libraries were closed because of it. The snow didn’t actually start till 10:30 AM or so, with the forecast (at noon) saying the heavy snow would be starting around 6:00 PM. The forecast eventually changed to heavy snow starting at 2:00 or 3:00. I wouldn’t call it heavy, but it definitely started snowing again around 2:00.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
I’d say they could have opened the libraries, but the last time I can remember snow like we had late Saturday morning (in the December of some year between 1997 and 2000), it took half an hour to get from the bus stop at the front of the OHSU hospital to the one at the back, and that’s ordinarily three minutes, tops. I had to pick my secondborn up at the airport that evening, and when I realized what time it was, I said I could get off the hill (OHSU is up on some fairly steep hills just south of downtown Portland) faster if I walked and proceeded to do exactly that. When I got to the bridge across the freeway at the bottom of the hill, I almost had a panic attack (I hate walking across bridges — there’s just something about the motion underneath). When I looked around there was a black man behind me, going the same direction, so I asked him if he would walk me across. He laughed every step of the way, and I didn’t blame him a bit. To this day, I think it was very kind of him. The whole way from the bottom of the hill, I was seeing fender-benders. The traffic had pounded the (maybe) 1/8 inch of snow into black ice, and even though everybody was driving very slowly, every time somebody braked, their car slid.
I managed to catch a MAX train, and the last shuttle bus to the airport, and got there just as my daughter’s plane was due to land. To find it was an hour late. The place where I bought my dinner is no longer there, but I do remember that hot dog fondly. It didn’t take anywhere near as long to get home — they were still running the #12 bus out to the airport, and we only had to wait around 20 minutes at the airport (this was before the MAX line to the airport was up and running), and that particular line has a stop maybe all of 10 (short) blocks from where I lived at the time.
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I got my Christmas tree put away on Friday. I do believe the ornaments I have for it are the only things I own that I am tired of — I will have to do something about that before next December.
My grandson turns five tomorrow. I think he will like his present better than his sister will like hers next month. But if she’s reading “Dr. Slump” and “Leonard and Larry”, which she most certainly is, then she’s old enough for what I got her.
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There’s a man I met at some Netroots Nation, whose last name is Philpott. I believe he writes on food issues, but I cannot for the life of me remember his first name, so I can’t check (well, I can and have, but I haven’t found anything that looks right). I recall he lived in Virginia, which gives me reason to believe we are related to some degree — probably from a couple of hundred years ago, since my branch of the family only lived in Virginia for about a generation, in the late 1700s. In trying to find him, I have discovered that there are two William Philpotts who publish — one mostly on WWI (I already knew about him — I own a couple of his books) and the other on alternative health issues (I don’t think this was him, because every time I think about meeting the man, I think of Marion Nestle and Michael Pollen, who do most definitely write about food issues). I also discovered that somebody with the last name of Philpott does a lot of audiobooks — I can’t think of any other reason why several Georgette Heyer books showed up in a search for the name “Philpott”, on Amazon.com, on Powells.com, and on BarnesandNoble.com.
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I bought a 2017 reading from jan4insight. It is both very interesting and hopeful. And one of the many places lately that I have seen the recommendation to do things for the highest good of all concerned. Can you say “synchronicity”?
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I don’t know what any of the rest of you have been doing, but I have laid in a supply of safety pins — including the variety that are used for kilts and such. Yes, I’ve been wearing them. I find they work as a reminder to be kind to people. This is my inclination, but I also tend to want to go about my business as quickly as possible and get back to where I can be my something-of-a-solitary self. The pin on my coat reminds me to take that extra minute or so…. And I have an assortment packet of colored regular sizes that I wear on my shirts.
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How many of you have heard of the thought experiment about the possibility of $5 million now or a penny now and the amount doubled every day for 30 days? It makes a large difference if the final amount is cumulative or just the amount of the 30th day — but either way, go for the penny. For the final day calculation, it takes 8 days to get over a dollar (7 days for cumulative), but day 30 amounts to $5,368,709.12. The cumulative total is $10,737,418.23.
Yes, I know — I really need something useful to do. But my mind was wandering one day and I realized that, even just taking into account what I had had to learn to keep my banking records straight, I knew enough to use Excel to do the calculations. A little entertainment goes a long way here.