§ Our county has issued winter storm warnings each day since Thanksgiving and each day, without fail, would pass without a single snowflake falling. Some cities a few hours east of here got hit with wild amounts of snow but nothing reached Cleveland until Wednesday night when we got a weeks worth of snow all at once.
§ While waiting for the storm, Caroline and I decorated our house for the holidays. A new addition this year is a candle with a wooden wick—a technology I had never seen before. It makes a quiet crackling sound as it burns. Very cozy. Also new are dried orange and lemon slice ornaments. The hope was that the citrus scent would deter our cats from climbing up and sleeping in our Christmas tree, which has historically been one of their favorite holiday pastimes. So far, remarkably, it has worked.
§ I won two free passes for a local rock climbing gym at my company’s holiday party raffle. Well, technically, I originally won tickets for a neighboring city’s minor league baseball team which I was miraculously able to trade with a coworker for the rock climbing passes. I’ve always wanted to try rock climbing. I’ve long thought—based off of absolutely no evidence—that I would have a natural aptitude for it. Well, I guess we will find out soon.
§ Apple Music’s Replay—their answer to Spotify Wrapped—launched this week.
I’ve listened to a total of 132 hours of music (so far) this year which is pitiful when compared to the 672 hours of podcasts I listened to over the same time period.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard managed to make it into my top three artist despite first discovering them at the end of September. At 365 minutes they just barely eked past James Blake’s 363 minutes. Charli XCX left them both in the dust though, racking up 747 minutes in second place. It truly was a brat girl summer, huh? Caroline Polachek, deservedly, came in first at 883 minutes. Desire, I Want To Turn Into You was the best album of 2024, even though it came out last year.
§ This week marks my two year anniversary of writing and publishing these weeknotes. I was evidently much more articulate this time last year when I wrote:
What I didn’t expect, and where I think they actually deliver the most value, is as a bulwark against the acceleration of time as I get older. Thinking back two years ago, for example, I couldn’t possibly pick out particular events from each week of the year—the past is all a big blurry jumble with just a handful of well-defined signposts. Over time I suspect I will get even more value out of these notes for exactly this reason. What, specifically, do you remember from, say, August 2012?
This still rings true. Additionally, as my archive grows I find more and more value in the ability to look back and draw connections between past events.
