Chaos Seasons in the Real World

If you were in the Chicago area on Saturday, you probably noticed the drastic weather changes. All day, the weather swung back and forth between sun and snow. At times, the snow came down quite heavily, and there were also a few occasions where it was balled up like hail. On Sunday, however, temperatures climbed into the 70s. The weather reminded me of what I call Chaos Season, a magical weather storm that mixes up the seasons in the world of my Season Avatars series. Chaos Season doesn't only affect the weather, but also plants and animals. Flowers will blossom at the wrong time of the year, and birds will start to migrate. If the Season Avatars weren't able to straighten out the seasons, Challen would soon become an inhospitable place.

As the weather proved this weekend, drastic weather changes happen in the real world too. Here's a link to an article detailing some extreme weather changes. In 1943, a town in South Dakota experienced a nearly 50-degree temperature change in two minutes. In 1972, in Loma, Montana, the temperature rose 103ºF (from -54ºF to 49ºF) in 24 hours. Oklahoma City experienced a record high and record low on the same day in 1911. You can find more weather records on Wikipedia and CNN.

The strange weather on Saturday was good for one thing: it encouraged me to stay home and finish the rough draft of Fifth Season, Book Four in the Season Avatars series. Now it's on to drafting Book Five, Summon the Seasons. I also have to incorporate comments from beta readers and check formatting/layout for Chaos Season.

What's the most extreme weather you've experienced? Feel free to share it in the comments. 

Ten-Word Tuesday: Weather and Writing

It's easier to write when nice weather doesn't distract you.

Apocalypse SNOW!

The president of my company let us leave at 2:00 yesterday, since the blizzard was supposed to arrive around 3:00. It actually arrived earlier, around 2:30, just as I was leaving the daycare center after picking up my son. Although visibility was poor, we didn't have far to drive. My husband came home about twenty minutes after I did, so we shoveled and prepared to hunker down.

It's a good thing my work is closed today, because I wouldn't be able to go in:

Yep, that's how much snow drifted against our garage. I think it's at least two feet.












The three of us went outside to shovel. Alex has his own shovel, but he preferred to play King of the Hill:

















He also wanted to use my shovel as a sled:

















We don't have to shovel it all by hand; once we cleared some space, my husband was able to get out the snowblower. But he's been out there twice, and he's still not done. I've been too busy kid-wrangling and doing other chores to write or crit. But we're all safe, and we didn't lose power (though the lights flickered a few times yesterday). While I wish we'd picked up flour and a couple extra things at the grocery store, I have a nice chicken soup bubbling away in the crockpot. We're lucky that this apocalypse has been more of an inconvenience to us than anything else, but I feel for the people who have it worse.

Ten Word Tuesday--SNOW!

Please, boss, close work tomorrow. I don't want to drive!

I Took Vacation for This?

A couple of days ago, we had a terrible snowstorm here. The roads were so bad it took me over an hour to get to Alex's daycare; I arrived ten minutes before closing, the latest I've ever been. Although Alex wasn't fazed by my tardiness or the crawl home, I didn't want to repeat that drive any time soon. So when I learned we were supposed to get an ice storm this afternoon, I decided to take the day off. Even with all of Alex's illnesses this year, I had enough vacation time remaining to do so. (In fact, I think I have to use up some of it since I can't roll all of it over for next year.) I also took tomorrow morning off so I could attend Alex's winter concert at daycare (which was supposed to be tonight but was rescheduled due to the weather).

The morning started out OK. I took Alex to the library for a playdate. After an hour or so, he seemed hungry, so we had lunch in the library's cafe. Alex had been a little off this week: not eating dinner, coughing a lot, appearing to be teething, and worst of all, a blowout. (You don't want that described in detail.) But he had a good appetite at noon. I ordered things I thought he'd like, such as cheese pizza and peach yogurt. He ate both of them heartily--and then threw up. Luckily, I had an extra outfit for him in his diaper bag. But I have a feeling we should avoid the cafe for a while; I hope their carpet isn't ruined!

I still have a couple packages to send, so I wanted to go to the post office after the library. By the time I got there, Alex was asleep, so I drove home. He woke up when I tried putting him in his crib, so we went back in the car and drove to the grocery store so I could pick up my prescription and a few other things. He was still awake when we returned home, so I drove back to the post office. Yes, he fell asleep again, so I never had a chance to mail the packages. At least he stayed asleep the second time I transferred him to the crib.

I didn't get much done today; I never do with a toddler. Alex did do better after his nap. As for the snow and ice, it still hasn't arrived yet, but it's supposed to overnight. How ironic that after rescheduling things to avoid the storm, I might still be affected by it tomorrow. I may even stay home all day tomorrow with Alex, even if that means missing his concert. At least I have next Tuesday off. I plan to drop Alex off at daycare and spend my day cleaning and cooking for Christmas Eve. Do I know how to use my vacation time or what?