Evanston: frozen
Evanston: frozen
Although we are between winter storms, the temperature has remained well below freezing. This morning when I walked ten minutes to my dermatologist, it was 9ºF/-13ºC. A Norwegian sailor once told me that there is no such thing as bad weather, only improper clothing. I was properly bundled up this morning, except for my face, which did get cold, and found it curious that I was freezing to get frozen: a standard method to remove suspicious skin lesions is to spray or dab them with liquid nitrogen.
By the time I walked back, it was up to 19º and felt quite balmy.
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The storm two nights ago only dropped about 4” of snow, but started just before evening rush hour and had a disproportionate effect on traffic. One television reporter called the delays “epic.” The estimated time to cover the fifteen miles from downtown Chicago to O’Hare Airport was over three hours.
The next storm may cause similar delays tomorrow morning.
Please refer to my comments about the possibility of a reassessment of my madness a few days ago.
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While waiting for the doctor, I glanced through magazines I don’t usually see, and learned a great deal about Madonna’s divorce and saw photos of many celebrities I have never heard of.
I was surprised to find the novel I just finished, LUSH LIFE, to be number two on TIME’s list of best books of the year.
Written by Richard Price, who also wrote for THE WIRE, one of the few television series I faithfully watched, LUSH LIFE is a police novel about a robbery/murder on New York’s revitalized Lower East Side. I grew to like it more as it went along, but still it is nothing more than a cop book.
I don’t read that much contemporary fiction, so maybe LUSH LIFE is the second best novel of the year. If so, this was not a vintage year.
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Winebird yesterday; other birds today, photographed from our balcony, with colors and contrast manipulated with Apple’s Aperture.
Thursday, December 18, 2008