Well, winter has come to Chicago, in the form of a thick and sloppy snowstorm yesterday—one that shut down many flights at our two major airports and deposited more than a foot of snow in some areas. The high temperature today will not reach the freezing point. But I must get myself to the grocery story, as I am out of food, and since one of my retirement benefits was a free spot in the University parking garage, my car is free of snow. Now excuse me while I shop. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is putting on winter weight. Although yesterday she failed to purloin the ham from Andrzej’s sandwich, she still demands more noms:
Hili: I have to think it through.
A: What do you have to think through?
Hili: I have to think through everything, and that’s why I need more calories.
Hili: To trzeba przemyśleć.
Ja: Co trzeba przemyśleć?
Hili: Wszystko trzeba przemyśleć, więc potrzebuję więcej kalorii.
And we all know our brain sucks up 20% of energy intake in spite of being only 2% of our body weight. For cats, its even more urgent because of the concentration of hunger cells.
I didn’t know that! What a good excuse to eat more! 🙂
Both the heart and the kidneys have higher specific energy consumption (power/mass) than the brain. Pumping blood is understandable, but the energetic cost of filtering the blood is apparently also quite substantial.
Gorgeous cat.
That winter coat won’t just grow itself you know.
Atta girl, Hili! You need lots of power to maintain your magnificent brain!
I think it snowed and rained last night as I heard rain and then woke up to little bits of snow that had survived in shadows on the deck (the rest melted by the strong sun). I refused to take a migraine pill last night but I gave in this morning – the migraine was brought on by the pressure change. Stupid trigeminal nerve!
Sorry to hear about that. I’m hoping that here in southern Iowa, the only snow of any large amounts are seen by turning to channel WGN Chicago.
No snow, but it’s 35 degrees in Seattle and wetter inside my place than outside; I’ve fogged up the windows with a warm shower: anything to make the winter feel more like a sauna and less like dank, cold cave, right? It should be a nice day: some sun and golden, autumnal leaves to look forward to, and I don’t expect to be rained on, a true plus given cycling 6 miles soon to a statistical conference, for which it’s preferable to arrive with some buoyancy and a mind unperturbed by the weather.
Meanwhile, it’s Spring in New Zealand, and it’s lovely. 😛
(Well, I’ve been reading about your lovely weather all winter!)
27 (C, obviously) outside all day, and about 50% cloud cover. But some scrote has pilfered my lightweight coveralls, so I have to go around in a set the right weight for North Sea storms.
I hope you get the lightweight ones back, or you’re going to have a very hot day!
LGMFs, I suspect. I put them into the laundry the day I got downmanned to shorebase for bedspace. They’ve had nearly 5 weeks to disappear. Or reappear.
It’s not the heat when I do go out on deck. It’s the way the heavier coveralls get soaked with sweat, then chill off in the AC’d interior and are sticky, wet and clammy when I have to put them back on to go back out on deck. I do that a lot – until I got zip-up boots, I could easily spend an hour of my working day adjusting the laces on my boots every time they come on and off.
Sounds ghastly!
It’s interesting how much productivity and employee happiness (and therefore attitude and work quality) can both be improved so much just by such simple things as providing appropriate clothing.
Providing … and not having it pinched.
Occupational hazard. Neither the first nor the last time – which is why I had SPARE gear with me.
Gorgeous summer day today here in Arizona…slept in, went to a wonderful cello recital by Nathaniel Rosen, dinner with Mom & Dad….
b&