Saturday, February 06, 2010
Snowpocalypse? Wow!
Apparently they're calling it the Snowpocalypse here in the blogosphere, so who am I to disagree? Based on the view out my window this morning, the term certainly seems appropriate. The snow began last night around 6 PM, just in time for the game night a few of my friends were hosting in the northern part of town. As one of the few guests with a car, I volunteered to be the designated driver because one can never tell how well the regional rail will cope with inclement conditions, even if those conditions consist of nothing more than a little bit of freezing rain.
As my friends and I ate dinner (a chicken pozole) and played Apples to Apples, the snow steadily accumulated so that there were probably two or three inches on the ground by the time we left. At that point, it was still relatively dry, powdery stuff, just wet enough to make a good snowball but not so heavy as to make cleaning off the car an ordeal. Granted, driving home on the highway was a bit of an adventure as other drivers were so eager to get home or so nervous about the apparent lack of friction on the roads to let people merge from the onramp. But eventually, everyone got home safely and I was able to place my car back in its customary spot behind my apartment.
This afternoon I can barely see my car, despite the fact that it had been cleaned off rather thoroughly just a few hours ago. The news reports that more than 17 inches had fallen by 7 AM this morning with approximately 6 more inches to fall during the rest of the day. They also note that this is the first time since 1884 that the city has had two snowstorms of similar size in the same winter, which I'm sure will please the critics of global warming. It's currently #6 on the list of total accumulation, but the winter is still going strong so I expect it to rise slightly higher before all is said and done. Rumor is there may even be a snow storm on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would be interesting since I'm currently scheduled to show up midweek for jury duty. We'll see how swiftly the wheels of justice turn when there's snow on the ground...
Anyhow, given the wind, the cold, and the snow accumulation, I'm tempted to spend the day at home doing some work. Not paper-writing per se, but reading, brainstorming, that sort of thing. I also wanted to clean up in case I decide to have people over for the Superbowl. (Oddly I'm one of the few in my circle with an actual TV. Perhaps this reflects the growing trend one sees discussed in the news of people moving away from traditional cable or broadcast networks in favor of receiving entertainment content through computers. I wonder when this will become the norm...Will television in the future be a fundamentally different type of device? Is the antenna jack going to disappear entirely in favor of the ethernet or fiber optic cable? What is to stop the computer from being integrated into the monitor itself in a larger version of the recently announced iPad?) Sorry about that parenthetical...I've been thinking a lot about displays lately due to my dissertation. Perhaps at some point, I'll discuss the parallels I see between the rise of color broadcasting in the 1950s and the push toward 3-D television today. (There are more than you might expect.)
For now though, I'm going to get moving. Just because I'm snowbound along with half the people in the region doesn't mean there isn't a lot that needs to get done.
Stay warm out there, ladies and gentlemen. Wherever you are.
Apparently they're calling it the Snowpocalypse here in the blogosphere, so who am I to disagree? Based on the view out my window this morning, the term certainly seems appropriate. The snow began last night around 6 PM, just in time for the game night a few of my friends were hosting in the northern part of town. As one of the few guests with a car, I volunteered to be the designated driver because one can never tell how well the regional rail will cope with inclement conditions, even if those conditions consist of nothing more than a little bit of freezing rain.
As my friends and I ate dinner (a chicken pozole) and played Apples to Apples, the snow steadily accumulated so that there were probably two or three inches on the ground by the time we left. At that point, it was still relatively dry, powdery stuff, just wet enough to make a good snowball but not so heavy as to make cleaning off the car an ordeal. Granted, driving home on the highway was a bit of an adventure as other drivers were so eager to get home or so nervous about the apparent lack of friction on the roads to let people merge from the onramp. But eventually, everyone got home safely and I was able to place my car back in its customary spot behind my apartment.
This afternoon I can barely see my car, despite the fact that it had been cleaned off rather thoroughly just a few hours ago. The news reports that more than 17 inches had fallen by 7 AM this morning with approximately 6 more inches to fall during the rest of the day. They also note that this is the first time since 1884 that the city has had two snowstorms of similar size in the same winter, which I'm sure will please the critics of global warming. It's currently #6 on the list of total accumulation, but the winter is still going strong so I expect it to rise slightly higher before all is said and done. Rumor is there may even be a snow storm on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would be interesting since I'm currently scheduled to show up midweek for jury duty. We'll see how swiftly the wheels of justice turn when there's snow on the ground...
Anyhow, given the wind, the cold, and the snow accumulation, I'm tempted to spend the day at home doing some work. Not paper-writing per se, but reading, brainstorming, that sort of thing. I also wanted to clean up in case I decide to have people over for the Superbowl. (Oddly I'm one of the few in my circle with an actual TV. Perhaps this reflects the growing trend one sees discussed in the news of people moving away from traditional cable or broadcast networks in favor of receiving entertainment content through computers. I wonder when this will become the norm...Will television in the future be a fundamentally different type of device? Is the antenna jack going to disappear entirely in favor of the ethernet or fiber optic cable? What is to stop the computer from being integrated into the monitor itself in a larger version of the recently announced iPad?) Sorry about that parenthetical...I've been thinking a lot about displays lately due to my dissertation. Perhaps at some point, I'll discuss the parallels I see between the rise of color broadcasting in the 1950s and the push toward 3-D television today. (There are more than you might expect.)
For now though, I'm going to get moving. Just because I'm snowbound along with half the people in the region doesn't mean there isn't a lot that needs to get done.
Stay warm out there, ladies and gentlemen. Wherever you are.
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