I can hear myself breathing

I'm alone this weekend. Almost alone. I have two adult daughters who are theoretically living in the house, though I'm not seeing much of them. The rest of my family have gone away for a few days to visit extended family and to give me the space to catch up on things.

Yesterday was supposed to have been spend poring over spreadsheets, trying to beat to death a long technical paper that has been haunting me for a good month now. I got distracted by a few things. For one, I was able to hear myself breathe for the first time in many a month. I also began reading a great book (the Clive Doucet which should be in the sidebar about now). I'll write about this eventually in my book blog, but here I'll say that I think everyone who lives in a city (at least) should take a look at this book. I doubt I'd have found it without the intercession of a good friend (thanks Richard). I also more or less acccidentally fell inside an e-book on evolutionary architecture that took up a lot of my attention. Again, I'll say more about this in the other blog (publisher pays, so I aim all serious space cadet thoughts there). I will say that reading a book about cutting edge advances in computing circa 1995 makes one realize just how far things have come and how quickly they're moving.

And finally, I watched the snow fall. We had a gigantic monster storm yesterday. It's stunningly beautiful, it broke a record, and it will unfortunately generate a huge spate of stupid "global warming" commentaries from people who don't get the simple truth that climate change basically means freak weather and not necessarily constant hotness (also that this winter has actually been warm -- one reason for all the snow). If I ever find that camera cable, I'll stick up a picture later today when I'm avoiding those spreadsheets.

But first, gotta go dig up that shovel. But what to dig it up with?