Bombogenesis, a popular term used by meteorologists, occurs when a midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours. A millibar measures atmospheric pressure. This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters. The formation of this rapidly strengthening weather system is a process called bombogenesis, which creates what is known as a bomb cyclone. – NOAA website

The first big storm of the winter is expected to bring nearly a foot of snow and strong winds to the area today. Bitter cold will follow the snow.  My work is closed today. The boys are at their mom’s house and Susanna is sick in bed. So I get a quiet day morning with Izzy.

Last night I finished my storm preps. I replaced the belt on the snowblower and ran it for 10 minutes. I pulled out the generator and got it running and then spent an hour looking for the power cable (that was hanging in plain sight in the garage). I filled up the cars and filled up extra gas for the generator. Susanna filled a few extra pitches of water.

Now to just wait it out. So far it hasn’t been too bad – it is windy, but not terrible (yet). The snow is light and fluffy and not yet too deep. Hopefully we will keep power. The work on cutting back trees by the power company over the past few years has helped; we have been pretty luck with power through the big storms over the past few years. At least it is cold enough that the snow should be light and fluffy and not so bad to shovel.

I almost started this post with “This year was a busy year,” but I realized that I started my reflections on 2016 with the same words, and probably the year before that. It has been a full year, but I haven’t really been posting much on this blog, even though that was one of my goals for this year. It seems that the Internet has turned into a place where one now needs to always watch what personal information we put out in public. It didn’t always seem that way. Of course, the Internet was never a perfectly safe place (one still locks car doors when parking in even nice cities), but when I started writing this blog, it felt like I shouldn’t have a problem if I kept information that was too personal off the website. But this year I was torn. So I didn’t write much.

I posted pictures on Izzy’s blog. I waffled between making the blog private (in which case almost no one ever read it), or making it public so Susanna’s parents could see the pictures. I also posted on Instagram. Of course, on Instagram, that is the place to be this year. I posted here – more pictures than words – but my posts were not very frequent. And the boys posted even less in their blogs.

So, how did I do on my goals for the year? Not very well. My goals (from my post a year ago):

• Be more consistent in writing in this blog. I think it helps me to take time to focus on what I have finished.
  I put more pictures on this blog this year, but fewer words.
• Be better about posting pictures of Izzy in her blog.
  I think I did pretty well with this. I was able to get pictures into Lightroom, and post to the blog directly from Lightroom. 
• Do another “March Challenge.” This time with Will and Ben.
  Nope.
• Finish the coffee table.
  This I did finally finish (after too many months of it sitting in the shop).
• Make at least two additional pieces of furniture in the workshop.
  I think I did, though not for the house. I made a water table for Izzy with Dan, and some furniture for the workshop.
• Install the pool with Susanna and the boys.
  This was done, but not the pool we had planned at the start of the year.
• Finish the patio updates/outdoor kitchen.
  Nope. We did a lot of work on the patio, but it is not finished.
• Install a new door on the workshop and interior walls/insulation on one wall of the workshop.
  Nope.
• Improve insulation on the workshop and the boy’s play loft.
  Added on the workhop only. 
• Host a New Years party with Susanna.
  Considering that I am writing this on New Year’s Eve…
• Go bicycling with the family.
  I did some, but not as much as I wanted.
• Spend a good week with Ben working on his boat this summer.
  We did some work, but not a full week worth.

But overall it was a good year. Some of my memories from the year (and I’m sure I’ll think of a dozen more as soon as I post this):

• Getting a sailboat with Will (and driving half-way across the state to pick it up the day before we left on vacation) and almost sinking the boat when we launched it.
• Watching Izzy start walking, talking, and finding her own personality.
• Watching Will start at high school.
• Watching Ben have a great start to his final year in middle school.
• Going on a family vacation to New Hampshire.
• Taking a bowl turning class with Ben.
• Many weekends at the Mystic Seaport.
• Going on a long hike with my Dad.
• Saying goodbye to Targa.
• Getting a new cat with Ben.
• The mess of dealing with removing lead paint in this house.
• Having to stop installing windows to drive to the mall to give Susanna the spare keys when Izzy locked her out of the car in the rain.
• Being stuck in a dark airport with Ben when the power went out for hours at the Atlanta airport.
• My Mom visiting for spring break.
• Building a sandbox and water table for Izzy with Susanna’s dad.