It snowed pretty good here the past day or so. The weatherman called for 10 inches – seems about right. Playing in the snow so far included shoveling out my car, making a snow angel and taking pictures. Sledding and building a snowman were on my list but I figured I’d wait on those until friends wanted to play too.
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Now playing: Switchfoot – Awakening
via FoxyTunes
Early this morning, while installing Ash‘s new CD player in her car, we began discussing photography. I mentioned how I hoped my parents would be getting me a digital camera for Christmas. A camera would serve utility purposes, enabling me to better capture and share places I’ve seen God’s beauty in creation – living out of my backpack, snowboarding, or sitting in a park. True to what I’ve come to know of Ash she was very encouraging, suggesting I give photography a try and saying she thought I might be decent. This afternoon I grabbed Ben‘s camera and headed out to the streets around the Dawg Haus, talking to God and admiring his ice encrusted creation.
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| Ice Storm |
(click for my picasaweb album to view more)
(John street in front of the Dawg Haus)
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Now playing: Norah Jones – Don’t Miss You At All
via FoxyTunes
O Christmas Tree O, Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us.
They’re green when summer days are bright;
They’re green when winter snow is white.
O, Christmas Tree, O, Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!
Dawg Haus Christmas decorating 2007 shall live in infamy. Finding a tree proved a simple task this year – maybe due to fewer strongly opinionated Dawgs in this iteration. Even the controversial debate of white VS multicolored lights turned out a simple, civilized discussion. This is where the simplicity stopped though. At the end of the night (about 11:30PM) I had visited local stores on two occasions, once for lights and once for a tree stand. We replaced the old leaky stand after it leaked through the floor and onto Ben‘s Bed in the basement, Josh electrocuted himself with a rogue strand of lights and managed to cut up his fingers pretty good trying to fix said strand of lights.
As I give into sleep, I pray the tree stays standing through the night; part of me expects to awake to a loud crash as the tree topples to the floor.
As I type my weather widget tells me the outside air has reached an almost tropical 41° today. A couple weeks ago I pulled out my jackets and sweaters from storage – I saw this coming, I’m still not ready for it.
I decided to make a list of a couple of things I am excited about now that it’s cold in an effort to better ready myself for the long winter. An exhaustive list this is not – it serves the point though.
Things I like about the Cold:
- Wool socks – Preferred Smartwool of course, although others will do.
- Warm drinks – Ok so this one is year round with coffee, but now I look less like a junkie. This includes coffee, tea, hot chocolate, chai and occasionally cider.
- Jazz music – Something about Jazz and the cold winter – the overcast skies, the barren trees, the way the night grows longer stealing away our days – just feels right.
- Cold Cheeks and Nose – The fresh cold air on your face feels good, as long as the rest of you stays warm (Amy pointed this out today).
- Snow – Beautiful, fun, white, essential for snowboarding
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Now playing: Thelonious Monk – Straight, No Chaser
via FoxyTunes
Remember how fun snowdays used to be as a kid? You know the routine, wake up as usual but make sure to take your time getting ready. Watch the school closings scroll across the tv below the morning news casters – “I didn’t see district 300 that time, maybe the next time around, or the one after that. Surely they can’t be expecting us to go outside in this!” When in reality all you can think about doing is climbing the biggest hill in the neighborhood sled in hand – heart racing as you head for the enormous-very-dangerous-looking ramp the older boys built.
Years have passed since the snowdays of youth. Today I learned something about snowdays in the adult world that caused me to long for the ones of childhood. A blizzard-ish storm started beating on Chambana last evening and supposed to continue on through the tonight – resulting in the University of Illinois closing for at least today, maybe tomorrow as well. Since I work for the U of I that meant I was sent home this morning after working just a few short hours.
That’s how I learned that when you’re an adult a snowday doesn’t mean sledding, hot chocolate and naps, but instead means your home becomes your office. Here is a picture of my new office:
Comfy huh? It doubles as a bedroom – which is convenient for those long afternoons after a big lunch.
When you work in IT as a Network Nerd you are the people responsible for making it possible to work from home. Translation : there is no good excuse for me to not be working today. The change of scenery is nice though.
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Greg Van Nada
VERY COOL Love you, Dad
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