It was blustery and cold on Thursday night, and when I emerged from the warm confines of Starbucks after decorating their sign, I saw to my dismay that it was snowing. Just a flurry or two or three, no accumulation, but winter has arrived for real now. I hate snow, but seeing it does make the incessant Christmas songs about snow seem at least a bit more appropriate.

There are no bells or ribbons on my new orange car, thank goodness. So far, one week and no major mishaps. Its driving experience is quite different from the blue Electron CRV, and I have been rather tentative on roads filled with holiday traffic. I have only driven it on the highway once so far, and then was only able to get up to highway speed for a few seconds before I had to slow down for the traffic crawl again. But I have already put its hauling capacity to work. Just as I measured before I bought the car, mat boards stack vertically in the cargo bay with plenty of room to spare, along with my art markers kit for Starbucks, my heavy backpack loaded with work tools, a bag or two of groceries, and an art portfolio.

Thursday night I met with the director of the Falls Church gallery where I hope to exhibit. I showed him four of my architectural pieces as well as two landscapes and he was impressed. This will be a "theme" show which is dedicated to the changing architecture of Falls Church. I will be writing an article about it which will be featured, along with photos of some of the paintings, in the gallery's monthly newsletter. The date of the show will either be May or June next year, so I have to paint enough pieces by that time.

My current Calculus chapter is "Techniques of Differentiation." If f(x) is a constant function, that is, it always results in the same outcome, then its derivative is zero. There's much more upcoming, such as the aptly named "Power Rule" regarding exponents.

Posted at 3:39 am | link