Sandy and "Athena"

As most of the world knows, a damaging hurricane hit the eastern US last week. It was predicted well in advance: late the previous week I read that it was coming.

You've probably seen or heard news about its effect on New York and New Jersey, which was extremely destructive. In the Boston area it was far less severe. MIT did close for the day, so I stayed home and still got some work done, though an afternoon meeting had to be cancelled. It was so windy that there was even something of a breeze in my room, and there was some rain, but no flooding in our area.

Patrick did brave the elements to do some work on campus and help pack up a pre-election climate change awareness vigil (which had to be cut short due to the possibly climate change-influenced storm). He returned many hours before his usual homecoming time, and we decided to bring forward our usual Thursday games night. Pandemic was the game of choice, being set during a natural disaster, though not weather-related. We managed to win more easily than we expected, and decided that next time we play, we should attempt the heroic version. We then moved onto Puerto Rico, perhaps almost as appropriate since Sandy came from that direction.

The next day, streets were full of leaves, but my part of the world was otherwise returned to normal. Like several storms before, we were far enough north to feel only the edge.

On Wednesday a winter storm hit a similar region: once again we were on the northern edge. The Weather Channel called it Athena, being the first storm of the 12-13 winter, but the National Weather Service doesn't name winter storms and told its employees not to use the name.

The snow was nothing unusual, but it felt funny to have snow again after 19 months with so little. The way it swirls in the wind is rather pretty, although the early snow is annoyingly wet on the ground. I left my bike on campus and took the bus home: it was much more full than I am used to!

Thursday morning was rainy, and the snow was already mostly gone when I walked to campus and continued to disappear through the day. Now we expect a sunny, even warm (by Massachusetts late fall standards) long weekend.