cleolinda | Entries tagged with snow!

I am disappoint. Huntsville and Hothlanta are buried, and all Birmingham got was a thick, granular crust of ice--basically, an accumulation of sleet. It was enough to make everything dangerous, but nothing fun to make up for it. We had some actual snowflakes today, but nothing that stuck--just the same old crusty ice that had softened yesterday and then refrozen over night. We didn't even get enough snow to do this:

Meanwhile, Boston and New York seem to be preparing for the Snowpocalypse to hit them. Foresthouse also tells me that D.C. is expecting a few inches, so I have been designated her Emergency Representative. More seriously: I hope all my Australian readers are safe right now. We will be sending good thoughts in your direction.

ETA: You can donate to flood relief efforts here.

As explained earlier today: SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011 OMG. Well, I've still got internet and electricity, although my sister's already run into some road trouble. Let's have a breakdown of reports from around Twitter:

@BreakingNews: State of emergency declared in Alabama; up to 10" of snow predicted in some areas - Times-Journal http://bit.ly/i0YjcV

This was sometime around 2 pm, mind you, before flake #1 had come out of the sky. The sleet started coming down here around 3:30.

( ALABAMA HAS ACHIEVED: SLEET. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: FALLEN ICE )

Well, as sure as I go on about it, it won't happen. BUT. We're being advised that Birmingham may be hit by an ice storm tonight. Right now, I'm less sure that we're going to really get some Laura Ingalls Wilder shit up in here because originally the weather forecast had a low of 10°F (-12 °C), and now the lowest low is... 30. We're going to have to do better than "just barely below freezing" to get the snow to really stick. Well, it's supposed to get down to 22 late next week, but it's only supposed to be sunny then. But that's the thing--the weather could just as easily get worse. And we've still got three days of snow and/or ice predicted. So obviously, there are riots in the streets. My parents went ahead and got the week's grocery shopping done Friday afternoon because, obviously, there will be neither a loaf of bread nor a jug of milk nor a single battery left on the shelves for a hundred miles once a good panic gets going.

I've tried to explain this before, but the South really does not get this kind of weather very often (although we've been getting more of it in the last few years. Thanks, Global Warming Trufax Climate Change!), so we are just not prepared to deal with it. ( It's the trees )

Basically, I'm outlining all this because, as sure as I do, none of it will happen. However, if I disappear for a few days, this will be why. I'm going to try to conserve battery power on my phone and laptop, since I won't know how long the power might be out if it does go, so I'll probably check in on Twitter, since it's quicker. If for some reason I can't post anything myself, I'll probably call

foresthouse, who (as my Literary Representative and Internet Lawyer) can then update people on Twitter. But this is an "Oh my God, it's been three days, where is Cleo?!" scenario. I'm hoping it's just going to be all of us snowed in with lots of electricity and internet and, apparently, football. Because if people can't watch Auburn tomorrow night, I am pretty sure there will be civil unrest.

Oh, and now my friend David reports,

@griner: Birmingham: Winter storm update from @abc3340: http://bit.ly/fUsKqG Going to be a craaazy night.

Greaaaaat.

ETA: State of emergency declared in Alabama; up to 10" of snow predicted in some areas.

ETA 3:30 PM CST: THE SLEET HAS BEGUN.

omg so tired. Everyone's gone now, though, so I can have a timeout or a nap or something. My meds getting screwed up has made me slightly hysterical--well, let me rewind that. The night I mentioned the medication problems, I managed to get my doctor on the phone, and while she never addressed why she refused authorization, she sounded like nothing was behind that and she was eager to get things straightened out for me and cognizant of me not having any Lamictal being a Bad Scene. So... I don't know what kind of misunderstanding happened, and I kind of don't care. But a couple of days' disruption has thrown me off enough that I've felt like crying all day, not even for any reason. Like, intellectually, I feel fine, but I have this physical sensation of distress. It's weird. I'm just saying, I'm glad to have some alone time now.

(By the way, I ended up posting the Secret Life of Dolls entry last night.)

MORE IMPORTANTLY. I've got about as many character doubles as I could ever possibly handle, and I love my little Toy Biz Galadriel, so this is strictly off-story, but... ( IT'S... BEAUTIFUL )

Also: SNOW. ( Read more... )

If we've had a white Christmas before, I don't remember when it was. Five or six hours of it now, falling pretty thick and fast... and only just now starting to stick.

So, if applicable: what was your favorite Christmas present?

Not feeling great, but feeling less hysterically awful than I had been (see also: the last few days). So basically, I have gone from feeling "emotionally raw" to "merely fragile." Rock.

(As a side note: "Have you seen--?" Yes, I have seen it. Particularly if it is related to Twilight and came out this past weekend. Yes, I have. Yes, I have. Yes, I have. And in his defense, if I'd had as much of it thrown at my head as he has in the last two years, I'd be allergic to it too, and I HAVE one.)

I am unable to think of a segue, so: Google will let you turn Buzz off permanently now (scroll down). I mean, if you just HAVE to have your privacy, GAH.

Question for those of you going to the Neil Gaiman reading at UA later this week: is it a reading or a reading and a signing? Because either I've gone stupid (entirely possible) or the event page just doesn't say. (I don't know if there are any tickets still available, but be warned: even though tickets are free, if you don't have one, you're not getting in. They've already given out 600. It's going to be a madhouse.) If there's not a signing, that's fine; I just want to know how many hours I'm going to be standing on my feet. Because, again: madhouse. ETA: There is definitely not a signing, and it's not 600 people--it's 1200.

Meanwhile, speaking of Alabama: There was a shooting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and it gets weirder by the hour.

And finally: Sam is recovering nicely from his (mysteriously) hurt back foot. He is now on his third bandage boot (red again). Also, he ran out into the snow on Friday evening and made a snow angel.

Sam ran out, flopped over and made a snow angel as fast as he... on Twitpic

Current Music: The Killers - Somebody Told Me (Josh Harris remix)

Soooooooo Google has fucked up pretty bad with this new Buzz thing, in my opinion. It kind of sounded like a hybrid of FriendFeed, Google Reader, and Twitter, which I don't need because... I already use FriendFeed, Google Reader, and Twitter. If it's supposed to be like Facebook... well, I don't ever log into Facebook, so I still don't care. I mean, I'm happy for you, Google, that you have put it all under one roof, but because everyone I know who gives a shit about "microblogging" is already on Twitter but isn't necessarily on Gmail and Twitter suits me just fine, I'm going to stay over there.

Then I saw this. Apparently, Google Buzz reveals who your most frequently emailed contacts are.

You know who my third most frequent contact is?

My abusive ex-husband.

Which is why it’s SO EXCITING, Google, that you AUTOMATICALLY allowed all my most frequent contacts access to my Reader, including all the comments I’ve made on Reader items, usually shared with my boyfriend, who I had NO REASON to hide my current location or workplace from, and never did.

[...]

Oh, yes, I suppose I could opt out of Buzz — which I did when it was introduced, though that apparently has no effect on whether or not I am now using Buzz — but as soon as I did that, all sorts of new people were following me on my Reader! People I couldn’t block, because I am not on Buzz!

So now, Google Updates, Explains Buzz Privacy Setup (Lifehacker: "Does it seem to you like Google underestimated how seriously people would take having even a small part of their inboxes exposed to the world?"). There is also a privacy checklist on MSNBC. Quite honestly, I am more worried about the privacy of my contacts than my own right now; I went through that Lifehacker link's instructions to turn that shit off and discovered that I had already opted to lock down my profile fairly securely (and not filled much of it out, in fact) a while ago. What freaked me out was the idea of people being able to see who I email and then possibly going off and bugging them, and I won't get into why this is a concern for me (and them), but it is. So I'm turning this shit off until Google gets its act together, because, judging by that first blogger's experience, it is (or was) a privacy-invading, Catch-22 clusterfuck. If you want to opt out as well, go to your Gmail inbox, very bottom of the page, and look for "turn off buzz" in the tiniest letters possible. Assholes.

(Seriously, can someone explain to me what the sweet hell Google was thinking?)

ETA: A more thorough Buzz-remover from CNet. Just turning it off doesn't fix everything.

P.S. It has been pelting down snow for a couple of hours now. Also, Sam went to the vet for a foot checkup, and now he has a red boot.

So all the snow was supposed to come yesterday, and it was nice and swirly but the temperature was above freezing so it didn't stick, and it was kind of lame and nothing really happened.

Then I looked up from my computer this morning sometime after 8 am, and we've got a minor blizzard going.

Snowfari 2010, featuring Scout and Shelby:

( Read more... )

SO IT BEGINS.

Man, the dogs are going to be bored out of their minds cooped up inside today.

Current Mood: SNOW!!!
Current Music: Heather Nova - "Winterblue"

The thing you have to understand about snow panic in Alabama is that it's not about the snow. Mostly, it's about us not being prepared for snow; a meager two inches is considered an epic blizzard. It's also about the side effects of snow--I live in a heavily-wooded suburban area full of giant, beautiful, old trees. Very old trees. And they all have dead branches here and there hanging on by a shred of bark, so when you have just enough snow to weigh them down, they break off and fall onto the power lines. Or worse, the entire tree is mostly dead and it falls across the road or onto (and usually through) your house. There was one Epic Two-Inch Snow that ended up with a three-foot-thick, forty-foot-long pine lying across our street (and in what used to be someone's sun room), while live power lines were sparking in the road. In fact, my mother reported last night that, as she was driving home, she saw a number of official-looking trucks on the side of the road, presumably stationed for speedy tree removal.

It's also about the ice. None of us know how to drive on it, because we don't get it often enough to figure out how and then retain that knowledge. One time there was a Special News Report on Safe Winter Weather Driving, and I am serious, it was, in its entirety, "Drive slow." And now, over to Jim with the sports! So basically, entire schools, businesses, and highways will be shut down for safety reasons ~~while all of Chicago points and laughs~~. I am not even kidding: my sister may not be able to get to work on Friday--

Oh God. I just realized that if we are all iced in together for the next four days, a remake of The Shining is going to break out.

While we're here, a teensy bit of Twi-spam, because I am getting a lot of email about this, and also, I enjoy the progression of the headlines:

Attn. Jackson Rathbone: Missing something?

'Eclipse' Script Wasn't Leaked, Says Summit.

Nikki Finke: Yes, That Leaked Movie Script Is 'Eclipse.'

1. I don't want to read it. I'm to a point where I don't even watch clips of movies I know I want to see anymore. I get so bored in the theater if I feel like I've already seen the movie. 2. I suspect the wink emoticon in the script (as seen at the first link) is forced product-placement sarcasm from screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. 3. My dazzle is somewhat chagrined that (people tell me) the werewolf-vampire nose-fist bump is not in this version of the script, because, quite honestly, the Edward/Seth stuff is the only thing I find remotely likeable about Book!Edward. Also: COME ON! WEREWOLF-VAMPIRE NOSE-FIST BUMP! If there is anything funnier than that, I can't think of it right now.

Meanwhile, I am trying to work--I got a good bit of novel note-sorting and categorizing done yesterday--but am having a hell of a time. Lots of interruptions, and I can't concentrate for shit. Also, my new calendars (50% off!) came in from Amazon yesterday, but without the books I had bought for research, and then I realized I had forgotten to order a couple of other researchy things anyway, fnarr. Also-also, I bought another pair of fingerless gloves because I was concerned that my homemade recycled ones were fraying a bit from being worn so much, and I am really hoping they arrive before the cold snap is over. This is Alabama, after all.

OH OH OH I ALMOST FORGOT I have two questions to ask you:

1) How do we get e-books from my stepfather's Kindle onto my parents' computer? They can't figure out how.

2) Those identity protection/theft-prevention services, are any of them actually any good?

Current Mood: wearing a new, not-ragged sweater, yays

I forgot to mention! New episode of Made of Fail is up. "It's like... fudge... made of out PEANUT BUTTER."

Meanwhile! Right after I posted that last entry--seriously, I hit "post" while putting on my shoes--I went out and saw Sherlock Holmes again, this time with my mother. ( More Holmesian nerditry )

(For those of you wondering when I'll ever shut up about Sherlock Holmes: IT'S NOT TWILIGHT, OKAY? So shut it and count your blessings.)

Meanwhile: omg so cold. I love it. It's already one o'clock, but it's still only 26°F, which means it only gets colder from here. In fact, we've got snow predicted for Thursday. The dogs are bored out of their minds because I won't let them stay outside longer than ten minutes at a time; I'm under a fleece blanket (NOT A SNUGGIE) in the den at my laptop, and I had to put on my huge floor-length coat and my gloves just to take them out front. (I do have a pair of full-coverage gloves, but I put on my favorites just because they are pretty: fingerless gloves recycled from toesocks, because a hole got into one of the toes, and they were too awesome to throw away. Bonus photo feature: My stubby little hobbit hand.)

Fingerless gloves, recycled from toesocks on Twitpic

(Speaking of accessories: the purse I decided on, because it's simple, and the grey-on-black paisley is interesting but casual. I'm going to try to fix my faux Fendi for more stylish occasions, but this looks like a good everyday bag. And it's from Etsy, yay.)

And I think I had something else to mention but I can't remember what but I'm sure I will later. Very busy, tons of work, trying to alternate footnotes with novel-writing, yay.

Current Mood: cold! yay!

You guys, I don't think I've ever seen it snow this hard in my life. (I mean, maybe it has overnight when I wasn't looking. We did have WINTER STORM '93, after all.) It's snowing harder now than it was this morning, and the temperature's actually inching down.

Anyway, I decided to take some more pictures, to show you how much has fallen since that first one. Most of them were taken through windows, although I finally went and stood on the front doorstep (barefoot. I are smrt) and took a number of yard and street. I've dumped all of them into my Flickr account (no matter how redundant), so you can browse the "snow" tag if you want. These are just the good ("good") ones.

( My sad attempts at photography )

Current Mood: snow!

Taken from my kitchen window:

Scout likes to chase the snowflakes (he tries to eat them), and once he got bored with that, he flopped out in the snow and started rolling around like he was making snow angels. And then he came inside and we made pancakes. Later, I will probably make hot chocolate. Right now, I am getting back in bed to watch the snow from my window.

Current Mood: snow!
Current Music: SNOW!

Oh, wow--someone sent me a book, but I'm not sure who it's from? There wasn't any name or card or information with it. It's something I had really wanted to read for Black Ribbon research, though, so--thank you so much, whoever it's from!

By the way, if you were working the upstairs register at the Brookwood Mall Books-a-Million on Wednesday night, and you sold a copy of Dead Until Dark to two women, the older of which kept saying "SHE WRITES ABOUT THE SHOW" really loudly over and over again, and the younger of which looked like she kind of wanted to die... I need to apologize to you about that.

( You really don't need to go announcing that Twilight is terrible )

Also, I feel like I should say a bit more about The Gift of Fear, since several people raised this concern--( Read more... )

Linkspam!

helpvera was a complete success.

( Breaking news: Jacob recast leaked? )

ETA: Bettie Page passed away this evening.

Current Mood: amused

Oh, my beautiful snow. We got an inch, and then by noon it had started melting. The pups had fun all afternoon in it, though. I mean, we didn't let them stay outside the whole time, because it was damn cold, but every time they got to go out they'd be running and skidding and Scout would paw the snow up into big lumps so he could carry them around in his mouth (he loves ice cubes). We've had plenty of freshly-made vegetable soup and chocolate cake this weekend, at least, and it has stayed freezing-ass cold (it's currently 27°F, with a low today of 19), which is something.

Cloverfield questions: ( and spoiler answers )

Cloverspam, mild spoilers: ( See Darwin do the Funky Chicken )

Linkspam proper: ( Read more... )

Current Mood: mmmcake
Current Music: The Killers, "Bling (Confessions of a King)"

SNOW!!!!

ETA: My snow is melting away. *sob*

Current Mood: YAY

I'm going to go ahead and get the linkspam out now--I'll post about Cloverfield when I get back from the movie tonight. I really don't think we'll have power or connectivity issues until tomorrow, if at all, but I find that preparing for things tends to prevent them, in a superstitious way.

For y'all wondering why a prediction of five inches of snow would send Birmingham into a (gleeful) panic, here's a few things that I don't think that Northerners, Westerners, or non-Americans are aware of: for one, winters in the South can hold steady at 40 or 50 degrees Fahrenheit, with a few dips down to the 30s or below, or perhaps none at all. We've been having a pattern this winter of an extremely cold week (19-20 degrees) followed by a week in the 60s and 70s, then a couple of days of rain and thunder. Then the cycle starts back up again. One year I got a faint dusting of snow on my birthday, and that was big news. Schools have actually been closed for a 60% chance of flurries. New anchors still refer to WINTER STORM '93 in ominous tones. If we have snowplows and de-icers, I sure as hell haven't ever seen them, although my mother reports that trucks full of sand are stationed in the streets around UAB Hospital--because people will need to get in no matter what.

We don't know how to drive on ice or snow because we don't get any. Well, sometimes we get a little ice, but life pretty much shuts down because we don't know how to drive on it. The 5:00 news actually had a helpful checklist of driving tips this afternoon ("Drive slowly"). Furthermore, Birmingham is wonderfully hilly--I don't want to say "mountainous," precisely, but we do have the Red Mountain Expressway. We have tons of bridges and valleys and twists and curves. And a city full of people who don't know how to drive on ice. Plus, we're a very treesome area; even downtown has trees along the streets (it's very attractive). So you have all these ancient trees piled up with snow. And then dead branches break off. And they fall on your roof and your car and your power lines. And then you have exposed power lines lying around in the street. Actually, in the old neighborhood where I grew up, you'd see entire trees fall over during a big snow (say, six inches). I remember when our street was closed off because a giant tree was lying across the road. Another tree actually fell over so completely that its roots were completely aboveground, like giant woody tentacles. And this was a very middle-class, close-to-[suburban]-downtown, American Beauty-type neighborhood. We're not talking farms here.

I think we'll be totally fine. Mom did the weekly grocery shopping this morning before she went to work, just to be safe. Sister Girl opens Panera tomorrow at crack-thirty, but we're hoping they'll close the store. I don't think we've actually had significant snow at this house (we moved here in 2001), so I don't know if the power lines are more reliable here; it's equally woodsy, though. We've never had trouble with pipes, though, so we have all the hot baths we want, and a gas-log fire. No gas range--my mother's been wanting one, like we had at the old house (she had it put in because--wait for it--branches were always taking down the power lines), but other than that, we've got batteries and candles and lighters and lanterns and what-have-you. My internet connection is finicky, though, so I don't know that I'll have that, even if we have power. We'll see. I'm curious to see how it shakes out, but I'm not terribly concerned. It's usually more inconvenient ~~and hilarious, and maybe a little tiresome~~ than anything.

( Linkspam )

My mother, as you may or may not have noticed, loves monster, alien and disaster movies. Cloverfield, therefore, is a natural for her, and somehow, she actually proposed that we go tomorrow for the main 7 pm showing. On opening night. After dinner. I don't understand it either, but nor am I going to question it.

"So you want me to go ahead and buy the tickets?"

"I wasn't going to buy them until we got there."

"UNTIL WE GOT THERE?"

"Do you really think a lot of people really going to go?"

[Full minute of bogglement.]

"Really? "

"Look, fine. We'll go out there tomorrow, and then we'll come right back home because it's sold out."

She had me buy the tickets.

(Cloverfield Selling Out Midnight Shows; Cloverfield Viewing Tips ["Look for someone passed out on a couch at the party"; "Stay for the end credits"]; Exclusive Sneak: ‘Cloverfield’ [MTV likes it]; Review: A clever ''Cloverfield'' [EW likes it]; Cloverfield Manga Translated; MTV Sneak Peek - "Start Running Now!"; TIME Interviews J.J. Abrams; 12 big bad movie monsters.)

Meanwhile, Alabama folks get a little flaky when there's talk of snow: "A Birmingham hardware store digs into storage to prepare the sleds. If you want to believe the North American Mesoscale weather forecasting model, Birmingham could be blanketed with 5 inches or more of snow on late Friday night and Saturday morning from a major winter storm." This would bring the city TO ITS KNEES, let me tell you.

( Linkspam )

MSNBC Breaking News email: "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots man... More to come." Holy crap.

(Ah, wait, here's more from CNN: "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a hunting trip in Texas, The Associated Press reports." I was imagining a weird fracas inside the Oval Office itself.)

Meanwhile, my sister and I are both hungry, and we haven't had lunch, so... screw it, we're just gonna order pizza for dinner now. Mmmm.

(I still want a refund on my snow, though. By the time it stopped falling there wasn't even any left on the ground.)

P.S. All the BPAL that's been paid for is, in fact, in the mail.