Okay, So... Here We Are

[lydamorehouse]

The picture above is from a very short walk that Shawn and I went on yesterday morning when it was 40 F / 4 C and all the snow was evaporating into a heavy fog. Until yesterday, we'd had a lovely blanket of twelve plus inches of snow (approximately 30 cm). It's snowing right now, but last night's thunderstorm and rain was very... unnerving.

I've heard thunder in December before, but usually during a snow storm. I can't remember ever experiencing a tornado warning in December before, however. That was vey weird.

Other than our little stroll through the fancier neighborhoods in Saint Paul, Shawn and I also had planned a short trip out in "the weather" to drop by the Roseville library to pick up the books that I'd requested that had come in. I'm laying in stores for the upcoming winter break. Once Mason is home from college, our big plan is to snuggle in and have a week or so of "pajama days" where all we do is snuggle under blankets and read. I have a novel to write, as well, but I'm hopeless behind on that, honestly. I've been working on it, but not fast enough to make my end of the year deadline, alas. I hope to do some writing, but for whatever reason the words have been coming out at a trickle rather than a flood. It happens some times. This, too, shall pass. I had writers' group last night, so I will do some revision today. That often leads to forward-writing, so fingers crossed for me.

However, I suspect that I'm in one of my "intake" phases as a writer. I've been reading a lot and consuming a lot of TV/movies. Shawn and I finally watched both Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings last weekend. I have to say that I loved them both, much to my surprise. Next up for us in the MCU is the new Hawkeye mini-series. I feel especially psyched about Hawkeye because I was a fan of the Matt Fraction comic books on which they are very clearly based. (Pizza dog!)

In non-fannish news, she and I also finished watching the latest season of Shetland. 

As I also mentioned in a previous post, I've been ripping through as much Star Trek content as I can because Shawn got us one of those free month deals to Paramount +. I watched all of the seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks. I  am now most of the way through Star Trek: Picard's first season, which I initially found to be slow moving but once they reached the Artifact, the recovered Borg cube and all the hot Romulans, I was all in. Given what my fan friends had said about this series, I did not expect to be as invested in Picard as I am. 

I may take a break before starting the second season of Picard, however, as tallgeese recommended the new animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy, and I'd like to dip my toes into that before everything evaporates at the end of the month. I'm also two season behind Star Trek: Discovery, but that's lower on my list of priorities. (And, I'll be honest, for me, the series flattened out after the death of Captain Lorca. I loved everything about him. He is who I would be in the Star Trek universe, if not a Romulan spy.)

I also ripped through the first volume of a manga called Zom 101: The Bucket List of the Dead, about a salaryman who was stuck in a job so awful that he's actually elated when the end of the world comes because he's finally free to do the stuff he's always wanted, like, have the time to clean his apartment.... (seriously.) The first volume rides high on this schtick, which I enjoyed, but I'm unsure how well that running joke will be able to sustain the story, so I mean, this is not necessarily a ringing endorsement. Plus, it's ecchi? So for those of you who know what that means, you know what that means. (Lots of unnecessary/gratuitous naked boobies. And maybe one dick? But, of course the official English-language version censored THAT, and not the boobs.)
 
Anyway, it looks like the snow has already stopped, alas. We only got a dusting, but I will pray for a bit more so that we can have a white Christmas for those who celebrate. For us, no matter what's on the ground, the days will get longer, so Winter Solstice is never in danger in it's main functionality if there is no snow. If the days no longer lengthen after Winter Solstice, we have a bigger problem than even climate change.

I hope you all are doing well out there, wherever you are.