If you’ve been following the news at all, you’ll know about Hurricane Sandy who joined forces with another monster storm to create something End-of-Days-ish over the Northeastern United States. This super storm was particularly relevant to my interests given that I live in Southwestern New Hampshire.

We made it through relatively unscathed but we’re about the only region which did. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that on Sunday, the day before Sandy came to town, our car’s transmission decided to pitch a fit while we were bringing my daughter back to her mother’s place. We got about twenty miles into the seventy mile journey and had to turn around.

I got an extra day with my daughter, but at the cost of trying to get emergency transportation sorted out in the middle of a weather emergency.

Good times!

So between Sandy, my daughter, and the stress of having to juggle appointments around while hoping the tin box I call home didn’t blow or float away…well, about the only productive thing I did in the last few days is get Episode 20 of Maynedon out the door.

But at least Alex and I had fun in spite of possible annihilation.

With Hurricane Sandy threatening to blow away the large pile of leaves my father raked up, we decided to turn my daughter loose on them ahead of the storm.

If a hurricane is going to blow your leaf pile away, you might as well let your eight year old get in on the action.

Then there was the matter of entertaining her while the storm was doing its thing. Among the activities were playing with all the plastic Italian ice cups my daughter is making us save. I’m pretty sure Alex qualifies as a hoarder now.

My daughter has been having us wash and save plastic Italian ice cups. Apparently they’re for stacking. Also, check out the sweet hat I made for her. Who says large, bearded men can’t knit?

I’m not sure why Alex looks like she’s admonishing the cups. In fact, they seemed rather cooperative to me. Then again, what do I know?

Anyway, yesterday was the first opportunity I had to just sit down, chill out, and de-stress. So I pretty much blew off work entirely and played Minecraft the whole day. Well, that and I read a little. Today I managed to take care of a couple of things that have been hanging over my head, and of course I have an appointment in a little while.

If my previous patterns are any indication, I’ll probably be back in the full swing of things in the next day or two. So, with any luck, Sunday’s check-in will be filled with actual progress and not adorable pictures meant to distract you.