Winter Wonderland

"Pittsburgh will be spared the full blow of this winter storm ..." were the words of the weatherman from the local newscast on Friday as he showed the states and cities that were about to be clobbered by the coming storm to our South.
Fast forward to Saturday morning (a day full of planned activities by the way), when we woke up to find everything covered in white outside. Another weatherperson on the morning news was saying how we should feel lucky we "only got 8-9 cm of snow"since states like Virginia and cities like Washington DC and New York City were expected to get as much as 30 cm from this storm.

Here is what it looked like as I stood on my front porch, looking at my neighborhood (my driveway is at the bottom of the picture and the road goes across the middle of the picture at an angle - see the yellow fire hydrant at the edge of the road).
I walked outside and started shoveling my driveway, trying to clear a path to the street which was still impassable at the time.
The snow was still falling, but I was simply trying to clear-up the majority of the snow at that point.

Soon I heard the rumble of the snow plow going up and down the street, clearing snow and spreading salt behind it.
The street was now navigable and I only needed to clear my driveway to enable us to actually attempt to drive on it.

The closer I got to the end of the driveway, the wetter and heavier the accumulated snow became (partially melted by the salt from the snow plow). Eventually the path was cleared and it was time to clear the sidewalks and the pathway to the front of the house. It took about two hours and the falling snow was starting to turn the areas I had cleared white again. It was time to deploy the salt, which was sprinkled on the the surfaces and started working right away, since it was about -2C, still warm enough for salt to be effective.

This is the view of the end result from the sidewalk (standing by the yellow fire hydrant).
My son Greg had to take his last two final exams at Pitt today (yes, they also give finals on Saturday I found out) and we planned to go pick him up in the afternoon.
Unfortunately each municipality is responsible for snow removal on their streets and others were not as efficient as our own local folks.
Still, my wife employed a slow and steady pace and managed to go to the university and bring him home without any mishaps.
Now we get to sit back and relax, perhaps we might even have a white Christmas...

Foundation

My friend Mike (Mihalis) passed-away last Saturday.
He had been suffering from prostate cancer which had metastasized to his bones. A long-practicing Anesthesiologist, he had no misconceptions as to the diagnosis, nor his prospects. What amazed me was the calmness with which he described his illness and how he had made peace with himself.

I remember when I had first met him at our parish church, following a Sunday service, while we were sitting in the social hall.
Greek Orthodox churches in the US are quite different from their counterparts in Greece. Here the entire Greek community comes together around the church and there is a whole social scene that plays-out in parallel to the religious experience.
When Mike had asked me what I did and I answered I was involved with Marketing, he went on to say he was going to seek my advice about how to best market his Foundation. We talked about many things over the years, however we never got around to discussing this specific topic.

This week, following his passing, we found out a bit more about Mike's Foundation: the Christian Orthodox Monastery Preservation Foundation. Mike had visited many monasteries throughout the world in the last twenty years and he had been truly touched by the monastic way of life. He had used a large portion of his net worth to create a perpetual endowment fund for his Foundation when he financed it in 2001. The goal of Mike's Foundation is "to provide the means whereby monastic communities can preserve, practice, perpetuate and proclaim their unique way of life through the development of tangible and effective projects, programs and activities of a philanthropic, educational and evangelistic nature."

A number of monasteries have already benefited from this Foundation and it's work will be continued, being carried-forth by our parish priest, father John.
I couldn't help but be awed by the calm, quiet and unassuming way in which Mike had made sure that he could continue to aid monasteries throughout the world, helping them create the basis, or groundwork, the foundation so to speak, for continuing to spread the message of Christian Orthodoxy.
May God rest his soul.

A Fool for All Seasons

A couple of years ago I decided to walk to meetings that take place in different buildings around our campus, rather than drive. I figured a little bit of exercise would do me good. While this is fairly easy to do when the weather is nice, the weather this past week provided some challenges.

Friday morning was not typical for early December: temperature was around -7C, the wind was blowing at 30-50 km/h and the wind chill temperature was calculated to be around -15C. While Pittsburgh had been spared the massive snowfall that was recorded to our North and Winter was still officially about a week away according to the calendar, it certainly felt wintry when I began my walk.

Distance to the building I was headed for was about 0.5 km and as I walked there, I saw various co-workers driving by in their cars, giving me strange looks. Once the meeting was completed, I decided to expand my "stroll" and take the 1.5 km nature trail before returning to my office.
A friend who sometimes walks on the nature trail with me stopped his car as I was leaving the parking lot, rolled down the window and asked if I needed a ride back to my office. "No thanks, I'd like to get some fresh air and clear my head" was my response. He laughed as he drove off.

Once I arrived back at my office about 30 minutes later, my face red from the wind and the cold, my glasses fogging-up from the condensation, I saw that same friend in the hallway. He asked if I had taken the nature trail and I told him I had. He laughed again and said it was too cold for that and that I was a "braver fool" than he. We chuckled good-naturedly, but I could tell from his tone he was also slightly envious.

As my body began to warm-up and I got down to business, I found I was re-energized and felt pretty good. When nature throws a challenge like that and you can respond, it has a way of making you feel good.

Some might shake their heads and wonder if I've lost my mind. I just know that they can call me a fool, but it won't change the way I feel once I have overcome a challenge - even a relatively minor one like this.