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jim_pThat's the sound of a giant snowfall crashing down on weekend activities.
I had to pass on Arisia this year because the concerts for my choral group were scheduled to happen the same weekend (I originally was glad they didn't conflict with Arisia, then they went and moved the con on me. Grump.)
During dress rehearsals this week, people were mumbling about "big snow this weekend". Phrases like "6 to 12 inches" were floated. I didn't think it would be a problem, but I conferred with the rest of the Chorale board and volunteers to work out a contingency plan. If the snowfall was to be bad enough, we'd try to reschedule the concerts. Our venue-huntress went off to get alternate dates from the churches we were scheduled to perform in and we worked out how we'd get the word out to both the members and the audience.
Well today I had to press the button on that plan. When I got up thismorningafternoon, there were several emails waiting for me from various members strongly suggesting that we postpone the concerts. Normally the members are loath to do this, so this much concern was very persuasive. Mind you, at the time we made the decision there wasn't a snowflake to be seen anywhere; this was shortly after noon.
What really convinced was when I talked to the husband of the venue-huntress; he told me that there's a place on the NOAA site where the meterologists give detailed background as to how they arrive at their forecasts. Turns out that meterologists have several different systems for modeling weather. Often they'll run several different models and see where the consensus lies. This time the various models were in the range of "bad" to "REALLY bad".
What followed was a mad flurry of phone calls (yay Vonage and unlimited usage!) to coordinate various volunteers, start off further contingency planning, and getting the word out. One thing I wanted to do was change the outgoing message on our phone line, but it took me over an hour to get around to that because calls kept coming in needing to be answered. Finally got that done and got the website updated.
We still don't have firm alternate dates yet, because we have to coordinate the availability of several parties (venues, organist, conductor, soloist, members). We're converging on 2/12 and 2/13 [fingers crossed]
After taking care of all that I then had to scoot out to Phillipston to take care of the feral kitty and pick up the snowblower; I think I'll need it. While the landlord gets the lot plowed, I think some machinery will be handy in the mop-up. It still hadn't started snowing when I set out, but that quickly changed. I was driving right into it. Got out there, took care of kitty, extricated snowblower and gas-can from barn, loaded snowblower into van without ramps and beat the hell outta there.
Stopped at Stop&Shop on the way back to pick up a few items. In honor of the usual panic response to emergencies like this, I decided I'd have French Toast for breakfast tomorrow. The only item I needed for that was bread. I also picked up greens for the rabbits and some stuff for tonight's dinner (beef chuck, bell peppers, mushrooms). Surprisingly when I was at the store I did not see the usual run on bread/eggs/milk. The shelves of bottled water were nearly bare, though...
Got home, offloaded the snowblower, slipped on a glare-ice patch getting it inside, whonged my knee a good one. Took a while for it to forgive me.
I set off the fire alarm browning the beef. This isn't the first time that ordinary cooking activities have set it off... gotta talk to the landlord about moving that damned thing. Fortunately the building's main panel is about ten steps from my kitchen, so I could hit the fire-snooze-alarm and then open the window.
Beef, peppers, mushrooms, water, onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, mustard seed, and sage into the pressure cooker. Fifteen minutes later (including heatup and cooldown time) I've got a wonderful intensely-flavored stew. Pressure-cooker stews rock bigtime!
Putter around on cleaning, paperwork, and too much LJ and IRC for the rest of the evening....
I had to pass on Arisia this year because the concerts for my choral group were scheduled to happen the same weekend (I originally was glad they didn't conflict with Arisia, then they went and moved the con on me. Grump.)
During dress rehearsals this week, people were mumbling about "big snow this weekend". Phrases like "6 to 12 inches" were floated. I didn't think it would be a problem, but I conferred with the rest of the Chorale board and volunteers to work out a contingency plan. If the snowfall was to be bad enough, we'd try to reschedule the concerts. Our venue-huntress went off to get alternate dates from the churches we were scheduled to perform in and we worked out how we'd get the word out to both the members and the audience.
Well today I had to press the button on that plan. When I got up this
What really convinced was when I talked to the husband of the venue-huntress; he told me that there's a place on the NOAA site where the meterologists give detailed background as to how they arrive at their forecasts. Turns out that meterologists have several different systems for modeling weather. Often they'll run several different models and see where the consensus lies. This time the various models were in the range of "bad" to "REALLY bad".
What followed was a mad flurry of phone calls (yay Vonage and unlimited usage!) to coordinate various volunteers, start off further contingency planning, and getting the word out. One thing I wanted to do was change the outgoing message on our phone line, but it took me over an hour to get around to that because calls kept coming in needing to be answered. Finally got that done and got the website updated.
We still don't have firm alternate dates yet, because we have to coordinate the availability of several parties (venues, organist, conductor, soloist, members). We're converging on 2/12 and 2/13 [fingers crossed]
After taking care of all that I then had to scoot out to Phillipston to take care of the feral kitty and pick up the snowblower; I think I'll need it. While the landlord gets the lot plowed, I think some machinery will be handy in the mop-up. It still hadn't started snowing when I set out, but that quickly changed. I was driving right into it. Got out there, took care of kitty, extricated snowblower and gas-can from barn, loaded snowblower into van without ramps and beat the hell outta there.
Stopped at Stop&Shop on the way back to pick up a few items. In honor of the usual panic response to emergencies like this, I decided I'd have French Toast for breakfast tomorrow. The only item I needed for that was bread. I also picked up greens for the rabbits and some stuff for tonight's dinner (beef chuck, bell peppers, mushrooms). Surprisingly when I was at the store I did not see the usual run on bread/eggs/milk. The shelves of bottled water were nearly bare, though...
Got home, offloaded the snowblower, slipped on a glare-ice patch getting it inside, whonged my knee a good one. Took a while for it to forgive me.
I set off the fire alarm browning the beef. This isn't the first time that ordinary cooking activities have set it off... gotta talk to the landlord about moving that damned thing. Fortunately the building's main panel is about ten steps from my kitchen, so I could hit the fire-snooze-alarm and then open the window.
Beef, peppers, mushrooms, water, onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, mustard seed, and sage into the pressure cooker. Fifteen minutes later (including heatup and cooldown time) I've got a wonderful intensely-flavored stew. Pressure-cooker stews rock bigtime!
Putter around on cleaning, paperwork, and too much LJ and IRC for the rest of the evening....
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 05:51 pm (UTC)Right now I'm just staring out the window wondering if/when the plow guy is gonna show up. Even if he does there's a ton of shoveling/snowblowing to do...