Nature Has Other Plans...

I have guests in town, my parents, who hate the cold. So when we planned their visit, we talked a fair amount about the potential for snowfall. "No problem," I assured them, "it'll be way before the first snow. It only snowed this early once before, and that was an anomaly."

Put simply: WRONG. Yes, it almost never snows so early. It hasn't since 1972, actually. But I woke this morning to blankets and blankets of flakes coming down, and it's only gotten worse since then.

And in fact yesterday was a great day to be outside. I rode my horse in the afternoon, and it was a fantastic day to have a panoramic view of the mountains with all the leaves changing. Then, later, my guests and I had dinner at the Nittany Lion Inn and participated in the Lantern Tours that are put on by the Lion Ambassadors. The highlight was climbing Old Main's tower, which isn't usually open.

But we're definitely not going out there today. So, now my parents and I are hunkered down in the basement watching college football. Which is pretty awesome, but very different from what I had planned this weekend.

Literary Endeavors

This is one of those omnibus posts where I just throw a summary of my recent activities out there for everyone to peruse. I've been on a bit of a literary jag, in addition to my other activities.

This has included reading -- and I read what's handed to me, what I see on the shelves at the library, and what I get assigned for various reasons, so there's no particular value judgement afoot here.

• Just finished re-Reading Ellison's Invisible Man, Bryson's At Home, and McEwan's Amsterdam. These actually do come with a value judgment, because I like them enough to keep them around and rotate them on and off the shelves for frequent re-reads.



• Just finished reading, from the library: T.C. Boyle's When the Killing's Done and Clyde Edgerton's The Night Train.



• I'm currently reading: GHW Bush's All the Best (wherein he refers to that old battle axe Barbara Bush as "Bopsie"), Hoover's The Quickening, and Ian Weir's Daniel O'Thunder.

Beyond all that, did I mention that I'm endeavouring this year to participate in National Novel Writing Month and to "win" it? More on that later. Suffice it to say that I have a challenge what with my travel for work, my lack of a laptop, and my other obligations. But I'm spending a lot of my non-copious free time this month doing research, writing character sketches, and generally setting myself up so that I can just write when it's just writing time.

Ahem.

I MADE IT!

This makes me "fresh meat," and now I'm being tenderized by the extremely painful phenomenon of fresh meat boot camp with the State College Area Rollers.

I also have a lot of upcoming activities.

For example:

• Traveling to Hanover for a scrimmage bout this weekend.



• Participating in the 10/22 bout against Binghamton as both a non-skating official and the zombie pirate singer of our national anthem.



• Participating in Bellefonte's Halloween Parade and Fall Festival with the team, which should both march in the parade and have a booth at the Fall Festival.



• Etc., etc. There are bouts and appearances and all kinds of stuff through the end of this season, which is December.

Note that I'm not a full-fledged member of the team yet. Sometime in late November/early December I'll hopefully pass my Level 1 assessments, and graduate to full status and the ability to actually receive and give contact in practice.

So, wish me luck. And watch this space for more events and whatnot.