Home for the Holidays

Todd Kulesza — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:11:04 +0000

A few days ago I was snowed in; now I’m fogged in. Midwest weather is bizarre. I don’t think I ever saw this much snow in December during the 25 years I lived in Michigan, and now it’s all about to melt because the temperature has spiked to 60 degrees. Flooding in December? What a strange year.

This past week has completely flown by. I put together a draft of our next research experiment, finished off my holiday shopping, and spent an evening building a collection of family photos to fill a cute little frame my sister found for my grandma. I’ve met up with Leslie and her sisters and gone out with Colleen and Jon a couple of times, but mostly I’ve stayed home and visited with family. Christmas was a day-long extravaganza that started with just the immediate family, then migrated to my Aunt’s house to see my dad’s side of the family, and ended with 30+ of my mom’s relatives coming over for dessert and drinks. I think the photos speak for themselves:

Small

Medium

Huge

I can’t remember the last time we had the whole family together like that… with so many cousins, it seems there’s always at least someone missing (and aside from being home for a couple of weeks each December, for the last couple of years that person has been me).

So now I’m realizing that I leave in less than 48 hours, and sort of wishing that I was staying longer. There’s no special someone I want to rush back for this year, and visiting with family has been pretty relaxing. I’m still having plenty of teary moments when something around here reminds of when Twinkle was staying with us, but they’re finally starting to ebb. Thankfully I didn’t take her to the nearest coffee shop, so I’ve had the ability to retreat there when being around the house has me a little too depressingly nostalgic. Yesterday I hid out there for a few hours and tore through a book on audio engineering–at least when I get back, I’ll have some fun new recording projects to try in my home studio.

I was kind of hoping to have a chance to try snowboarding with my little brother Kyle while I was home, but I had research to work on when I first got back, and now the weather has turned all warm. At the very least, I got to take some cool photos of him on a couple of homemade jumps in our backyard.

Kyle pulling a 180

Too Cold

Todd Kulesza — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:07:39 +0000

My second day back in Michigan, I got snowed in. Now it’s 7 degrees outside and dropping, and more snow is expected tonight. In fact, more snow is expected for the rest of the week.

Next year I’m inviting my family out to Oregon for the holidays.

Snowfall

Todd Kulesza — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:27:11 +0000

I wasn’t expecting to see snow for a few more days, but tonight Corvallis is being gently blanketed by soft, picturesque flakes. I ran out to the store as soon as I realized yes, we really were going to get snow tonight, and stocked up on firewood and spiced apple cider. I should be all set for the next few nights, and then it’s back to Michigan, where I’ll get snow plus blustery winds… while colder than normal here, it still feels pretty calm outside. I even went out for a bit with my camera and tripod to snap a couple of photos. Tragically, I discovered that long exposure times don’t lend themselves to rendering the snowflakes softly drifting down from the sky.

The view from my porch

Looking back at my apartment

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Home for the Holidays

Too Cold

Snowfall