The weather forecast on one of Washington DC’s TV channels predicted 20-30″ of snow for the area.

Presently, I’m working on an assignment with Alley Cat Allies, which means that I’m spending significant amounts of time in their Bethesda, MD offices. One of my trips coincided with the blizzard that occurred over the weekend of January 23-24. For the duration of the blizzard, the U.S. government advised people to stay indoors and not venture out. The blizzard started at 1pm on Friday and later that day I returned form the Alley Cat Allies office to the hotel where I’m staying. I write this as of Sunday afternoon. The blizzard has stopped but there are mountains of snow everywhere.

I have just spent two days not leaving my hotel room. I haven’t gone outside since Friday afternoon but I hope to take a walk later today. In any event, I will be going to the Alley Cat Allies nearby office tomorrow to work for the day. Prior to the storm, I stocked up with chips and salsa, cartons of soup, bread, salad, humous, instant oatmeal, coffee, orange juice, and soy milk. I cook with an electrical kettle and a microwave.

It’s been a bit weird to not go outside for two days and watch from my 11th floor window the blizzard raging outside. But, on the other hand, it’s been rather nice to have the time to myself, catch up on sleep, and, of course, work. Lying in bed this morning, I began to make a mental list of projects and tasks I had worked on in the last two days. This led me to getting up and writing a list, which is now turned into this post.

So, for those who want to know what I did in the 48+ hours of the blizzard, here’s your answer and in no particular order:

• Finished reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I had started reading it about four weeks ago but since then I’ve had long gaps when I hadn’t touch it. This is a novel that you have to concentrate on. I feel I haven’t benefitted from reading it as much as I should. This is the second time I’ve read it and the first time was also not conducive. What I would really like to do is to read Heart of Darkness without too many interruptions over a couple of days. Third time’s the charm?
• Spoke with various friends via Skype and FaceTime.
• Emailed and spoke with Becky Robinson at Alley Cat Allies about various ideas and projects.
• Read six back copies of the London Review of Books and have a similar number to go.
• Wrote in my journal.
• Wrote and revised an appreciation of a key figure in the animal rights movement. The next step is to make a video file of myself reading it out.
• Edited and prepared for publication for my client, Compassion In World Farming, an interview with a scholar. I also drafted a second interview with another scholar.
• Listened to two podcasts from the Author MBA podcast, which I find interesting and full of useful advice to authors who ‘think like an entrepreneur and treat their books like a business.’
• Listened to one podcast from the ARZone. The Animal Rights Zone podcast is excellent.
• Answered email–there’s always email to answer.
• Posted onto my social media throughout the blizzard photos taken from my hotel room and including some of them here.
• Reviewed a proposal to revamp this website, which I hope to complete this spring.

Of course, I’m not making any claims of hardship here. I could not help but think of those outside–the homeless, dogs and cats, birds and wildlife and others–who had no choice.