Listening to: Ragtime – Cast Recording

Reading: Once Upon A Star Nora Roberts et al

Weather: cloudy, bitterly cold 11 degrees, wind-chill -25

Trivia: What was the first computer game?

Willy Higinbotham, a researcher at the Brookhaven National Lab, built the very first interactive computer game in 1958. He used an analog computer and a tiny, five-inch (13 cm) circular screen. The screen showed an upside down "T", with a moving dot that bounced like a tennis ball under the influence of gravity. Each player could hit the "ball" by pressing a button, and could control the angle of the hit by turning a knob. The screen was a side view of a tennis court, and the ball's path was modeled complete with gravity and friction. Higginbotham's simple game was the first to use a computer and a graphic display. It was not a true video game, because it used an analog oscilloscope display instead of a video screen. His machine was soon disassembled, but it was the seed for what later became a huge industry.

Cool word: insouciant [adj. in-SOO-see-unt, an-soos-YAHN]

If you are insouciant, then you are casual and unconcerned, nonchalant and lighthearted. Example: "Everyone was impressed by Fred's insouciant manner as he dealt with one difficult decision after another." One near synonym for insouciant is untroubled, which is exactly what insouciant means in French. The word came across in the 1700s, accompanied by its cousin insouciance [n. in-SOO-see-uns, an-soos- YAHNS] (lighthearted unconcern). The French got the word from Latin sollicitare (to vex or disturb), from sollicitus (anxious, agitated). This was a compound of sollus (whole) and citus (moved), so the exact meaning was "completely moved."

Other words from the same root include these:
• solicit: to entreat or seek out; to approach with an offer
• solicit (obsolete): to fill with anxiety
• solicitous: anxious or concerned; extremely careful
• solicitude: care, concern, or anxiety

All day we’ve known that there is a storm coming. All the signs indicated it. The temperatures were cold and there was a "snow sky". I have no idea how to explain what a "snow sky" looks like, other than that it’s a different shade of gray and the clouds have a look that says it’s going to snow.

Vague, I realize, but New Englanders all know what a snow sky looks like.

I really don’t want another storm. I don’t need to drive in it, and I don’t want a day off. As much as I might LIKE a day off, the thoughts of the year ending on June 15 is quite appealing.

The other thing that tells me that a storm is coming is the pending migraine I’ve had al day.

I woke up with the feeling that I was going to have a banging headache any minute. I started taking a variety of pills from that point on, and the headache never reached full force, but it’s been threatening all day. I have the little sparkly colors that flash every once in a while and my eyes really hurt.

I just can’t get it to totally go away. I know that that has to do with the barometric pressure changing as a storm approaches.

I am a living weather indicator.

It finally started to snow at about one. It was very fine and light, and made me decide to leave work early. It wasn’t as if I was blowing off any kids. My free period is at the end of the day, so I have no obligations other than to write reports or plan my work for the next few days. I can do all that at home.

So I left at about 2 o’clock. The drive wasn’t bad, and that made me happy. I stopped at the store and picked up some odds and ends and finally got rid of all the bottles that were in the back of my car, so I won’t have any more popping noises to scare me as I drive along.

Of course the car still looks like a landfill. One of these days I’ll get ambitious enough to really clean it out and vacuum it.

It’ll be spring by then.

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