Sylvia's Journal

We hunkered down while blizzard Nemo (2013) was roaring outside, sweeping the cove into a frenzy of large swells and waves that rolled in like thunder and broke over the granite wall onto the street.  Inside we were enjoying the company of Sita and Jim and little Faro, sitting by the fire, stoking it up just in case the power would go off. It never did, nor did the internet connection go down. Thus we were able to document the course of the blizzard through facebook postings.

Steve was told to show up for work and was then turned back when the mayor of Boston put a driving ban in place: one year in prison or 500 dollars. Imagine that. Apparently some people were stopped and sent home but no one was sent to prison. Our governor referred to those as knuckleheads). All the while Tessa was frolicking around in Los Angeles. A fortuitous departure the day before the storm allowed her to use her free ticket that would have gone ‘poof’ after March 1.

If we were in danger because of the storm, Tessa was in a place terrorized by a rogue police officer who had gone off the rails. The whole affair seems to put into question the main story line of the pro-gun lobby that it is the bad people who use their guns on innocent people.  I presume the policeman was once considered a good person and given training and access to guns, just like the mujahideen in Afghanistan who we gave Stinger missiles (and now we are considering a similar move in Syria).

I never got dressed on that blizzard day and decided it was a good day for a 1500 piece puzzle. Sita and Jim helped and we completed it in no time. Encouraged by the success I started another puzzle but I couldn’t convince anyone to join me. Alone I cannot finish a puzzle between meals and so it takes over the dining room table forcing us to take our meals in front of the TV. Tonight I decided to put the thing back in its box even though I did not quite complete the (all black) edges.

Over the weekend we were supposed to assist Sita in a series of networking sessions at Harvard’s Social Enterprise Conference. Sita barters her services in exchange for connections and access to even better connections.  The snowstorm cancelled the first day of the conference and Sita’s crew of scribes and facilitators were not able to make it into Boston and so she mobilized her parents. It was fun working with her again and watching her scribe the two keynote speakers.