brownsville

that sad time of year has arrived -- right after the euphoria and anticipation of christmas and right before the magical, flowery spring. the long haul has arrived. taking down christmas decor makes it even longer. i usually get so accustomed to the additions that i could just leave them up all year long...



it also includes the typical blustery weather that makes you want to turn into a bear, climb into a cave & go to sleep for 3 months.

this was our first snow from back in december, measly as it may seem. so far it's also the last...

now we're in that lovely phase of brown-ness that does absolutely nothing for the imagination.
i do love dusk when the bare branches are black against the cold sky. that's the one redeeming aspect about this time of year.

i've still got my fingers crossed for some good snow days. it seems like last year's best snows were in january...
(right? i think... i hope...)
nothing can beat a nice cozy unexpected day off.

in other news, i got to the bottom of the lava mystery. it was simple enough to deduce once i got to thinking about it. i just forgot to put in the pyrometric cone that usually melts when the proper temperature is achieved. it then activates the automatic shut-off switch by melting and forcing the shut-off pin down.
without it, the only thing that turned the kiln off was the melting, oozing clay seeping down the side and pushing the pin. by then it was long past the normal cut-off time and the sculptures were one mass group project.
i know you were dying to find out. i'm glad i'm able to ease your suspense.

and finally, i have a cold.
this cold has inspired me to come up with another one of my famous medical theories.

i don't know if anyone else has this problem, but when i'm really congested and can't breathe too well, sometimes i can still breathe through my nose, it's just rough going. but (here's the problem part) after breathing too much through a congested nose, sometimes the inside of my nostrils start to burn.
on the way to work this morning i hypothesized why that is. pure oxygen can burn (working in a hospital i learned this from patients who were on oxygen). so when your lungs aren't absorbing the oxygen you breathe in as well as normal, it just hovers around the nostril area, bouncing around and burning.

i don't know how medically sound this theory is, but i was happy with my powers of deduction.