Unexpected

Inspirational song: Nothing Ever Goes As Planned (Styx)

I ought to talk about the train wreck that the Iowa caucus appears to be, but I have two good reasons to tread lightly: one, I am a precinct leader who will have to work caucus in a few weeks. I could end up in a cluster of my own, and I don't want to bring bad karma on myself for mocking someone else's pain. Two, I didn't actually watch the process. Early in the evening, I fell asleep in my chair, not even checking Twitter until almost seven in my time zone. I watched a little coverage while I ate a salad, and then Mr S-P and I decided it would be much more fun to watch a movie. As compelling as the live disaster might have been, we made the right choice.

We had only vaguely heard of the movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. When we paged through comedies on Netflix, we saw this come up. At first, it looked like a mid-20th century western, but I recognized Tim Blake Nelson in the thumbnail, and we looked close enough to see it was a Coen Brothers movie. Knowing nothing about it, we jumped right in. It was a series of short vignettes, and it was absolutely nothing like we imagined it would be. It was super dark, yet it was actually a comedy. The big names stars were sprinkled throughout, but some of the lesser known people were fun surprises all along the way. I kept reaching for my phone to check IMDB every few minutes, exclaiming things like, "No way! That guy is Dudley Dursley!" I think I need a few days to digest this movie. I don't know how soon I might want to rewatch it, but I feel like I must. It was absolutely beautiful, in its gloriously grim humor.

This side of the state shut down this afternoon, in anticipation of a major snowstorm. It was already getting slick when I came home from an appointment late this morning. But though it snowed nearly all day, it barely accumulated on the grass, much less on the roads. Days ago they told us 2-6 inches total for the day. Then it worked all the way up to 1-3 in the day and 5-8 in the evening. I'm pretty sure they backed way off, maybe even under the initial estimates. It's just not coming down out there. Still gonna be cold though. This snow will stick around a few days, probably until the next waves arrive, two in the next week.