Shabbat (mostly)
Dec. 12th, 2005 07:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidThere was snow Friday morning, turned to sleet when I left work, which was snow again when I left the T at Harvard. But not for long: it soon became thundersnow*! The first flash, as I crossed the Yard, made me wonder momentarily who'd been trying to take flash pictures in a storm. I got my answer as the thunder arrived a few seconds later. And that wasn't the only time; there were more as I crossed the yard, and through the afternoon. It ranks high on my list of eerie weather.
* "Thundersnow" also makes me think of the Australian book Thunderwith, just for the name similarity; there is no thundersnow in the book.
There was time to shovel the sidewalk before Shabbat, but not enough time to do a really good job; we're now stuck with some thick ice of snow trodden down until it melts (which takes longer than it should, even in winter, since we're on the south side of the street, with the sun low enough in the sky that the buildings block most of the direct sunlight that could melt it more quickly).
After Shabbat started, I had a fair bit of time to unwind; dinner wasn't until much later. Luckily, I made my saving throw against nappage, and made it to my hosts' at the stated time. Which was good, because I hadn't seen them in far too long (*wave*), plus I got to meet a new person. Really meet, over an hours-long dinner, rather than the barely-meet of new people at a party, where, if I meet new people at all, I find one or two random things out about them, not enough to remember them for very long as individuals (unless I meet them again soon in some other context). Anyway, dinner was both yummy and fun, with much random silliness (some committed by me, what a surprise :-).
I left later than I'd expected to manage being awake, and the walk home was invigorating; it took a while until I could sleep. Luckily, I managed to sleep late (non-trivial for me), starting to make up a noticeable sleep deficit.
When I wasn't napping, I was rereading the Abarat books, realizing that yes, I don't care for the (not really an) ending of the first book, and part of what made it so creepy for me the first time wasn't the story itself, but the pictures (all done by the author). When I read, I mostly go too quickly to make detailed pictures in my head (which is why I'll read much scarier things than I'll see onscreen), but these made them inescapable. (There's also that it's a reread, so of course things don't have the same initial shock.) They're still creepy in some ways, but it's easier to read now.
And that took up the day; this was the earliest-starting (and therefore earliest-ending) Shabbat of the year, starting at 3:54. Next week it starts moving later again, beginning at 3:55. It's slow change in the extreme weathers of the year, faster change in spring and autumn, by 6 minutes or more a week.
* "Thundersnow" also makes me think of the Australian book Thunderwith, just for the name similarity; there is no thundersnow in the book.
There was time to shovel the sidewalk before Shabbat, but not enough time to do a really good job; we're now stuck with some thick ice of snow trodden down until it melts (which takes longer than it should, even in winter, since we're on the south side of the street, with the sun low enough in the sky that the buildings block most of the direct sunlight that could melt it more quickly).
After Shabbat started, I had a fair bit of time to unwind; dinner wasn't until much later. Luckily, I made my saving throw against nappage, and made it to my hosts' at the stated time. Which was good, because I hadn't seen them in far too long (*wave*), plus I got to meet a new person. Really meet, over an hours-long dinner, rather than the barely-meet of new people at a party, where, if I meet new people at all, I find one or two random things out about them, not enough to remember them for very long as individuals (unless I meet them again soon in some other context). Anyway, dinner was both yummy and fun, with much random silliness (some committed by me, what a surprise :-).
I left later than I'd expected to manage being awake, and the walk home was invigorating; it took a while until I could sleep. Luckily, I managed to sleep late (non-trivial for me), starting to make up a noticeable sleep deficit.
When I wasn't napping, I was rereading the Abarat books, realizing that yes, I don't care for the (not really an) ending of the first book, and part of what made it so creepy for me the first time wasn't the story itself, but the pictures (all done by the author). When I read, I mostly go too quickly to make detailed pictures in my head (which is why I'll read much scarier things than I'll see onscreen), but these made them inescapable. (There's also that it's a reread, so of course things don't have the same initial shock.) They're still creepy in some ways, but it's easier to read now.
And that took up the day; this was the earliest-starting (and therefore earliest-ending) Shabbat of the year, starting at 3:54. Next week it starts moving later again, beginning at 3:55. It's slow change in the extreme weathers of the year, faster change in spring and autumn, by 6 minutes or more a week.