A weekly note

It’s so cold! There’s so much snow!

The boiler has been running non-stop for about a week now. I’m pretty sure this happens about once every year. It’s crazy to think of a stream of natural gas flowing into your house and turning into flame at a constant rate for that long. 😅

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Is “stream” the correct word?

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We have now shoveled umpteen times. Even though I like shoveling and don’t like snowblowers, it was very nice to look outside and see the neighbors snowblowing the sidewalk a couple times this week.

It gets tiring!

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There’s about 12 to 16 inches sitting on the deck railing. Most of it arrived slowly but surely over the last week, though we got a nice dumping to top it off yesterday. The forecast continues to say cold, so we’ll probably have more before less.

Fingers crossed this starts to help the exceptional drought conditions. The basin fill map for the west is looking happier for a good chunk of the Northwest.

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I’ve found myself singing the “here’s looking at you kid” part of Roxy Music’s 2HB at times when I’m looking at A. I know it as a Venus in Furs song from the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack.

My brain always says, hey like in Casablanca, but I never actually stopped and pieced together that 2HB is actually a dedication to Humphrey Bogart.

I also had no clue Thom Yorke did the vocals for the soundtrack. 🤯 And I do like it better than the Roxy Music original.

For some reason I’ve always thought the opening lines were a great representation of glam even though I’m not really all that familiar with glam outside of that era David Bowie. It’s funny that they’re more literal than I’ve always assumed.

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Michelle said she gets a blurb in the weekly note when she wants and that this week she’d like to use that blurb to say how ridiculous it is that these kids’ toys with batteries have these stupid little screws keeping the battery door shut.

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Among many other books, A was given a copy of The Gruffalo for Christmas. It is fantastic. An excellent story with an excellent twist and everything rhymes with an excellent cadence.

Sure to be a favorite for years because Michelle and I will probably never get tired of reading it.

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We watched Don’t Look Up this week and had a good time. Easy and funny and a bit uncomfortable. I think the beginning of the movie was the best and that any researcher or science writer would get a kick out of at least the first 45 minutes or so.

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Big day. Last of the year! Last weekly note of 2021.

I like what I wrote in last year’s last note:

This is personal, though it’s not an email newsletter. I write for myself—mostly—because I like going back and checking in on how things were. I also write some things in the hope that specific people end up reading them. It’s fun to casually share thoughts as we maneuver through, uh… life?

There were only 16 weekly notes this season, which is kind of a bummer after 31 in the first. I do have a good rhythm going for December, so I’m hopeful for the future.

This time I’m going to stick with the same title to maybe not jinx the progress. I’ll probably play with adding a week number or something just for fun.

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Happy 2021 season finale! See y’all next year. Share your thoughts in 2022—I’ll read your blog!

🥃🥂🎉