Natasha was coming home from New York. And I was flying out to Milwaukee. (Yeah! We have a family rule that at least one family member must be subject to sub zero temperatures every winter day 🙂 )
This was in the Atlanta airport train. I dropped off at Terminal B. She proceeded to the Arrivals stop where Sharmila was waiting for her!!
Nikita had to go to a friend’s party. Apparently, the dress code was “ugly sweater”. After finishing up some math with her, I told her that she probably should get upstairs and get ready and asked her which sweater was she planning to wear. She went upstairs and after about ten minutes came back to ask me what I thought of it.
It took me a second to realize that she had taken one of her sweaters and had duct taped a good size mirror to it. It took me more than a second to figure out how it was supposed to be “ugly”. Then it hit me!!!
That was outrageously funny, wicked smart and really, really mean at the same time. And such are the days that she really makes me proud of her 🙂
For the last few days, we have been having cold temperatures befitting winter in Atlanta – like near zero temperatures early in the morning. This morning, the forecast was for balmy mid sixty temperatures. Not trusting the weatherman, I put on two layers and went for the run.
When I pulled up at the trail and got out of the car, I was hit with two surprises. First how warm it was. Had to quickly shed one layer. I still had full sleeves on. I felt way overdressed. And that was the second surprise. Overdressed compared to whom? As you can see in the picture, there was no other car. 7:30 in the morning. Warm winter day. That was a very very surprising sight to see no one else out there.
My biggest fear was that the trail might be flooded and all the early runners had gone off somewhere else. By the time the Chalupa runners – Samaresh, Paroma, Mrinalda, Seemitadi and Sudipto showed up at 8am, I had put in a couple of miles already and had not encountered any problems on the trail. Then, with the group, I finished another five. At the end, when I was going to take a picture of the group, I could see the dark clouds gathering quickly behind. You can get a glimpse of it in the picture.
Just as we were all jumping into our cars to go for coffee, the high winds and rains started. Which created an existential dilemma for me – Starbucks or rains? Eventually, bailed out on my teammates who headed out for coffee and went back to run in the rain. About a mile and a half later, the rains stopped.
Thoroughly drenched, as you can see in the picture, I took a few minutes rest and then changed into that extra set of clothes I had. Boy, was it a good idea to take two layers or what? It always pays to not believe the weatherman!!!
On the other hand, nobody needed a Starbucks at that moment more than I did 🙂 And finally, I am now 12 miles away from getting to the 1000 mile mark for the year….
For all the great sights we saw in our vacations, one of my favorite pasttimes continued to be some “me” time sitting in the patio looking into the forest. Sometimes it would be sitting with a cup of coffee early in the morning and hear all the birds chirping. Sometimes it would be late in the evening around a fire on a cold day. And many a Saturday and Sunday summer would be spent just sitting there idling with a camera and perhaps a cocktail.
Best part was patiently waiting for the birds – especially the hummingbirds – and the deer to get close enough to me to take some clean shots. This year, we did not have much ice or snow. So, I have no icicle pictures off twigs and branches like every year.
I hope to increase my quiet “me” times as I keep growing older.
Note that for us now, at 10 pm at night the temperature is 46 deg F. On this winter night, you would expect temperatures to go down quickly to near freezing. Instead, through the wintry night, our temperatures will actually go up. In fact, in the next four hours it will rise by 15 degrees to a very pleasant 61 deg F!! That is crazy! I assume the cloudy icon (we have been completely overcast) means the heat is not escaping and the wind from SSW means warm humid winds are coming in from Gulf of Mexico. Which would make sense in that we are going to get rains tomorrow morning.
I can’t recollect ever having seen in any winter night before, temperatures go up this dramatically!!!
