ANOTHER Few Snow Days

Sent home early from school yesterday, working through a virtual school day today, and already scheduled to be staying home again tomorrow, we here in Casper, Wyoming, are enduring yet another few snow days. This go 'round, the snow storm has broken a record that has stood since a wintry Christmas Eve over forty years ago. In fact, it sets the record, as kept since the 1930s.

I was going to post a couple of pictures, but the white space below gives a rather fair sense of what Wyoming looks like outside my window.

Cloudy Conjunction

We have been watching Venus and Jupiter approach one another night after night for weeks. 

Then, at last, the evening they meet, the skies are cloudy, alas!

 

Yet, it made for a ghostly glow around the pair, as if they were gazing through a spectral veil.

 

 

The high, frosty clouds also gave the Moon a really cool halo.

So, it proved to be a wondrous night of stargazing, nevertheless.

Another Couple of "Snow Days"

A blizzard rolled into Wyoming--as well as across half the country--with snow and ice and wind that wouldn't quit. A deep freeze of blinding white drifts...

...Giving us another couple of snow days. 

But only "half-way" snow days. 

Because, although we got to stay home, we still had to attend school using virtual learning tools. The storm was well forecast, and folks had ample chance to prepare. When the snow started blowing, we were ready.

It was still weird. Seeing pupils' faces arrayed across the computer screen, and it felt like we had slipped into a wormhole and got shot out three years ago--right into lockdown!

Nevertheless, teachers and students once again proved themselves adaptable to any situation, and we were able to make it a valuable pair of days worth of work and learning.

Does this then mean the end of the true "Snow Day"?

Another Snow Day

Second snow day of the year--announced just as I was tying my tie, just as my wife was going to warm up the car, and just as the Twins were gathering their Winter gear.

We all went back to bed--even if not back to sleep.

Always so wonderful to spend a cold Winter morning watching The Price Is Right.

Happy Holidays

 

Happy Holidays to all!

2022

Destination Onward

 

Destination Onward: The Story of Fates Warning.

 

Excellently presented by a writer possessing rich experience in the field along with deep appreciation of the subject.

Wagner's perspective as a skillful journalist and critical fan rings true throughout. He tells the story of the band--obviously one of his favourite musical outfits--with both honour and honesty, apparent that he was not simply interviewing people connected with Fates Warning but rather hanging out with them and relishing the stories they had to tell, thankful they would all trust him to collect everything--every memory and every expectation, every success and every regret, every inside joke and every outside anecdote--and bind the scattered pages together. How enviously I read, even whilst realising with every word that this was the guy destined to write this book. And I am thankful he did.

I sure did learn quite a lot about my favourite band, its members and extended connections.

Only one thing bothered me.

He mentioned the Awaken The Guardian 30th anniversary shows, how folks were singing along with every song, straining for each note.

I was amongst the fortunate few to attend both shows--the one in Germany and the one in Georgia. I must proclaim that I, myself, at each concert, only stood silently...listening. I was there to hear Fates Warning's voice, not mine.

Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed reading the book--listening to each album, chapter by chapter. 

Thank you Jeff Wagner for translating the story of Fates Warning from music to words.

Links:

Order the book here – http://fateswarningbook.com

https://fateswarning.com/2022/03/10/destination-onward-the-story-of-fates-warning-book/

https://radicalreseahttps://www.facebook.com/FatesWarningBookJeffWagnerrch.org/product/destination-onward-the-story-of-fates-warning-book-by-jeff-wagner/

https://www.facebook.com/FatesWarningBookJeffWagner

Pumpkin Patch 2022

Our pumpkin patch was a smashing success this year, in spite of -- or, perhaps, because of -- the strange growing season (late start, weak seedlings, heat waves, wet August, and frostless Autumn).

40 Pumpkins in all.

A far more "smashing" success than last year--when an out-of-control driver "smashed" through our fence and "smashed" through our pumpkin patch!

 Pies, Cakes, and Jack-O'-Lanterns Await!