Events

At 12:12 pm, the Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters thermometer registered an above-freezing temperature for the first time since 10:58 am last Wednesday. And let me tell you, walking back from the vet with Cassie an hour ago felt so much better than even our -7°C walk this morning.

The temperature tried and tried but couldn't get above -6.1°C over here. It should keep going up slowly for the next day. And we might even see the sun tomorrow. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world: Nick Reiner, the 32-year-old son of director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, has been arrested following the stabbing death of his parents. In response to the Reiners' deaths, the OAFPOTUS posted some truly deranged crap on social media, further demonstrating how he's completely lost it. Brian...

At concert time yesterday, the temperature at O'Hare had barely made it above -13°C (9°F), and the -21°C (-6°F) wind chill didn't help. At least it was sunny. Even at intermission, about an hour before the sun set, the stained glass at Millar Chapel was amazing: The audience were facing the massive stained-glass window on the south end of the chapel, which really enhanced the music, I think. We really enjoy performing there. And as forecast, the temperature bottomed out around midnight and has gotten...

The bitter cold we expected has arrived. This morning the temperature fell to -16.6°C (2°F) at Inner Drive Technology WHQ and -18.9°C (-2°F) at Chicago's official reporting station at O'Hare. It hasn't been this cold since the wee hours of January 22nd. Unlike that frigid week when we got 5 days in a row below -10°C, this time around things will change quickly. Just look at the latest CPC forecast for Christmas week: The CPC hasn't revised their January and February forecasts since mid-November, before...

The north magnetic pole has wobbled around Canada and the Arctic very quickly for the past few years, and no one knows why. A consequence of its traversal of the Arctic has been to create an unprecedented geographic situation in the UK for the past three years, which alas is ending today: ‘True north’ is the direction to the geographic north pole; ‘grid north’ is where the vertical blue lines shown on Ordnance Survey (OS) maps converge, and ‘magnetic north’ is the direction that a compass needle points...

Ah, December, when the easy cadence of weekly rehearsals becomes a frenzy of performances and, yes, more rehearsals. This is Messiah week, so I've already spent 8 hours of it in rehearsals or helping to set up for them. Tonight I've got the first of 4 Messiah performances over the next two weeks, plus yet another rehearsal, a church service, and a Christmas Eve service. Then, after Christmas, a bunch of us will be singing at the 50th anniversary party for a couple who have sung with us for longer than...

On this day 100 years ago, Arthur and Alfred Heineman opened the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo, Calif., filling a need for lodging that Americans didn't even realize they had: At the time, motorists had limited options. Their dust-covered clothes hardly suited the highbrow standards of most hotels, and parking in cities could be challenging. So many drivers stayed in autocamps, roadside resting places that sometimes offered basics like firewood and communal bathrooms, pitching tents off their...