We are in the grip of an arctic cold, and this is not typical for Atlanta in January. I am not happy about this. The HIGH today will be 32. Right now it's about 8-10 degrees, with a wind chill of close to zero.
Normally, 32 would be the low and the high would be somewhere in the 50's.
The past few years have seen some weirdly cold winter days, even snow. Last winter there was an event we called Snowpocalypse, where people were trapped in their cars for hours and hours because of a Snow Event that happened in the middle of a weekday and caused the city to shut down. Atlanta doesn't have snowplows because it seldom snows here. We aren't set up for it.
I was not out driving in it. I was taking photos here at home, thanks be to God. I remember it well. I'd had a job interview and snow was already falling. Fortunately, the interview was in Tucker, 5 minutes from my house. It was a fast interview and then I hightailed it home - a 5 minute journey that took me 20 minutes.
Michael got home on the bus OK. Thousands of children were stuck at school, however, and spent the night. One of my cousins spent 8 hours in his car. A friend of mine couldn't get even close to home, and pulled over and spent the night at a friend's house... and then another night. The snow melted a bit and turned to ice, then it snowed some more, making driving really dangerous for several days.
I am praying we don't see anything like that again.
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Michael and I saw the movie The Imitation Game yesterday. Excellent film. Very disturbing, though. The New York Times Review is thorough but nitpicky.
I sat there thinking to myself, I have in my pocket a smartphone [a tiny computer] and I am watching a movie about the man who invented the computer.
Wow.
It's a great film and I highly recommend it.
Michael has always lived in a world with computers and he takes them for granted. I suppose my generation is the last one to really be in awe of the computer. When I was his age I had never touched a computer, and I wouldn't get one at work or for home use until I was in my early 30's.
Think about this. Today, we use computers to find life partners, to find our way home, to do homework, to write books and articles, to find recipes instantly -- they are essential to all aspects of life.
And yet, most people have never heard of Alan Turing. What he did was classified by the British government until just a few years ago, and he was persecuted for being gay.
Think about how the world might be different if he had not committed suicide at age 41?!?...
