I hadn’t mentioned it here yet, but we had Some Weather a couple of weekends ago. A layer of ice — not super thick to ruin trees and power lines, but definitely enough to make roads troublesome — followed by thundersnow, followed by more snow, bitter cold for a couple of days and then some more snow on top. Since then we’ve had a couple of days above freezing but then back down again.
11 days later, most sidewalks are still buried (sometimes with 8+ foot tall mounds). There are several roads where they didn’t quite clear the entire lane. I made zero effort to clear our driveway, aside from digging out my car when I got stuck backing out the first time, and the tire tracks are packed ice.
But I did clear the snow and ice from our steps and front porch, for the safety of delivery folks. In retrospect, this was not a great idea for health reasons. The American Heart Association recommends a lot of caution for folks 45 and older when shoveling snow, or doing anything particularly strenuous in cold weather. Cold temps constrict blood vessels, snow is heavy, and the kind of movements involved tend to be unusual for most people and also cause additional strain on the heart. My heart health is honestly pretty good relative to everything else, but that chore took most of the afternoon (including long breaks to recover) and wiped me out. The exertion sneaks up on you FAST and next thing you know, you’re sweating uncontrollably and want to go without cold weather protection, which will only make it worse. And it takes several hours to feel normal again. I guess I’m just not going to do that anymore.
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” is sort of an informal motto of the USPS, and they used to use it in advertising — but that originally comes from Herodotus, writing about the Persian empire! USPS does not pay people well enough for that kind of dedication. At least locally, they also frequently screw things up big-time. I’ve had two packages (ordered before the new year, shipped shortly after) arrive in STL, immediately get sent to North Carolina, bounce back two days later, and languish in the regional distribution center for a week. This is not at all the first time this happened, and usually there isn’t even bad weather to blame.
Yesterday I had my passport acceptance appointment at the Brentwood public library. Despite my needless worrying, it went super smooth, and took less than 10 minutes. The librarian who did it was super friendly and professional, had clearly been through the process several times, and didn’t ask at all about my choice of the X gender marker. Bonus: the foyer of that library has a collection bin for clothing donations for trans and queer youth, including adult sizes… so now I know where to drop off the things I’d like to let go of.
I’m working on that study of Spectraphon, but slowly. It’s a complex module and I don’t want to rush it. But I’ve also still got some lingering ick from the post-Christmas bug we picked up, sapping my energy.
And also… lots of reading. Brandon Sanderson’s Wind And Truth, the fifth novel of the Stormlight Archive series and the end of a major arc, has a word count that exceeds the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. I finished reading it in 9 days.
(My Kindle is kaput. It just won’t hold a charge anymore. But I found that the Kindle app on my phone is actually a better reading experience anyway. Much more responsive, color, can scroll continuously and smoothly, faster download, fits in a pocket and is pretty much always with me. If I do decide I want a bigger screen, I’m gonna go back to the Android tablet route, but this time from some reputable brand. But I don’t think I need that.)
As one might expect, Wind and Truth was a lot. The overall device for the book was excellent — a 10-day countdown to a final confrontation, with battles for several locations presided over by different characters. The end is worlds-changing enough to provide a much-needed reset and consolidation for the back half of the 10-book series: a new conflict, new actors in play, new rules.
But I think in some respects it was almost too ambitious. Few of what should have been the huge glorious moments or the really awful “oh shit” moments hit with the same kind of emotional impact than in the first 3 novels. (There were no points where I just had to put the book down, cry for two minutes either for joy or sorrow for a character, and then continue.) I also feel like some characters got the short end of the stick, in terms of how vital their missions ultimately seemed.
I do feel like I want to read an overall synopsis of the entire series.