It’s exciting times here in central Maryland. It’s snowing. So far, we’ve had a light snow that doesn’t stick to any paved areas. But we know it’s a major event, because Howard County closed all their public buildings and cancelled all activities therein. That includes Centennial High School. And it includes the Jazz Ambassadors, the Army field band that was going to perform there today. And that means the Chaprnkas won’t be coming to the concert, and we won’t have dinner for them.

Given the obvious severity of the weather, there was only one option. But we didn’t have any snow emergency kits. Shame on me! I got out early enough that the stores weren’t crowded and made it back unscathed. Danita mailed the last of her Christmas cards just before lunch. Now the hatches are battened, and we’re ready for up to three snow emergencies.

A few things happened besides the snow. We took Mark out to breakfast Sunday and met his girlfriend Jiajia (pronounced “Jay Jay”). She’s a delightful young lady, working as an associate professor in physics at Bucknell University.

Thursday, we went to Bob Evans and did our Christmas shopping. (Sadly, they closed the Mimi’s in Columbia.) We wanted to have everything ready to drop ship. Unfortunately, a couple of the things we selected didn’t have gift wrapping available. We think we selected a wrong option while we were on Amazon. We had to ask Jul to do some wrapping for us. We’ll try to do better next year.

Our other activity was a neighborhood party at the clubhouse yesterday evening. There was plenty of food and lots of libations, but for some reason the people were louder than normal. We were able to talk, but it was hard to hear.

Fortunately or unfortunately, that’s the big news of the week. I rode my bike. Danita went to exercise classes. We did our chores. I hope this finds everybody doing well.