There was befuddlement in the 4th Floor Conferences Room. We had closed out the evening with festive beverages and the basketball game up in East Lansing. We had expected the next storm to sweep Iin starting late yesterday afternoon. The bets for what was had been for nine inches of new fluffy snow. Instead, sunrise […]

The Trillium building’s majestic lobby seems like it is busier this week. That is a function of some of the staff being forced to stay over at the building due to the snow compacted under the ice coating of the frozen sleet. We support the stay over, since that means a slightly shorter wait for […]

We think Bob an Edith decided to delay the announcement of the closing of their North Arlington location until the Snow Days we are trapped in are over. That diner has been serving up hotcakes and eggs for more than twenty years. The chain has been a family-owned business for 55 years and we can […]

Monday’s Big Winter Storm got its official announcement from Splash, who rarely raises his voice but knows when something deserves notice. “I think I am in love with a talented young woman named Katie Byrne.” Rocket didn’t look up from his coffee. “Aren’t you about four decades too old for her? Or are you prospecting […]

There was excitement at The Trillium with the arrival of Enormous Winter Storm FERN. Nearly 240 million Americans—citizens and non-citizens alike—shared the experience. Light, powdery snow began falling Saturday night, then slowly turned to sleet Sunday morning, sealing the snow beneath it. The lead photo shows what Monday morning looked like from the 4th floor. […]

They said it would start at 5:31PM on Saturday, but that started to creep after normal people were getting ready for Lunch. Friday had provide the Chores Day with dry streets and full grocery shelves and today it turned into boredom when they announced that Storm God Oden had put his sandal on the brake […]

Well, the roads are not closed. not yet. But this is what it is looking like to the west of here as the sun rises on the East Coast. It is a mind-numbing 9F out there below the Conference Room windows on the 4th Floor of the Trillium. We liked this stock picture as a […]

It may be National Baked Crusty Goodness day, celebrated since the mid-1970s, but about half the US population is the path of the winter storm. It starts today in Texas and reaches us up here in the Northeast by Sunday. You can see the lead edge heading direct at the North End of the Conference […]

There has been a continuing conundrum here at Socotra House about how many times we have been around the world. For a crowd composed of students and military retirees you can imagine it is a widespread assortment of jogs and flights and white water under the bows of warships. But connecting the various dots has […]

Air Force One turned back today due to a minor electrical fault, returning to Joint Base Andrews to switch aircraft. The presidential Boeing 747s have been in service since the mid-1980s, raising the quiet question of whether replacement is overdue. At an estimated $200,000 per flight hour, even short detours add to the broader maelstrom […]