Glazed

On my walk to the hospital today I had a chance to appreciate the effects of the latest ice storm to blow through these parts. It was pretty magical: everything, and I mean everything, is encased in a quarter inch of clear ice. Each large tree must be covered with hundreds of pounds of ice; each individual needle on the pines is locked in its own crystalline sheath; even the snow is covered with a thick layer of ice. Walking on it, the crust shatters with every step. The trees make a particularly impressive sound in the wind: a sort of crinkling groan, due to the extra weight they're bearing combined with shearing ice. Watch out for those falling branches!

However, the board exam is the day after tomorrow, so the splendor of Nature must wait while Nerdery calls. Thus, this weather-appropriate quote of the day, from the section in the book on hypothermia: "A patient is not considered dead until he or she is warm and dead; in other words, do not give up resuscitation efforts until the patient has been warmed." And on that cheerful note, it's back to the books.