Cool! Snow! Drive!
Thursday 6 December
Can’t resist: things moving smoothly, so a few minutes to write, perhaps post?!.
The substantial snow today so beautiful!
Only an inch and a bit, but a lovely texture. As it fell the supercooled rain from earlier on the ground reverted to liquid as the ground is still ‘warm.’ Yet the snow hit the windshield with a crunchy susurration, half-melted then refrozen on the way down, the last of the snowfall dry and fluffy, so utterly an ideal of opposite snows; substantial enough to move easily as a unit (easy to get off the car, roads, etc.), fluffy enough to be light, and unlikely to be truly slick until night cools liquid into ice. With the slushy base and the dry finish easy to get off the sidewalks, etc. and dry before night so will not be icy.
Pleased too with the new car’s performance in the snow; of course the 4 wheel drive feature is always fun and the ABS brakes (nothing like the ones I’d experienced on cars… well, getting back there now) are more sensitive than I am to rotational slippage (a tone of chagrin here), yet does nothing for yaw. The three sets of windshield wipers… I’m not laughing now. The angle of the back windshield collects snow so that wiper is a necessity! I can force the car to slide if I send it sideways, but return handling is immediate at will. Impressive. I still think heated seats is a bit much especially with the excellent performance of the climate control system, but I’m happier about and more respectful of the car’s engineering and performance in adverse conditions now; not just bells and whistles.
(Edit: Updated list above)
For the month: The way I live my life IS my religion.
From today's newsletter:
Why Suffer?
Suffering is completely unnecessary. Suffering only comes because of our unwillingness to grow. It only enters because we are not on the path. Suffering has been glorified by religion because it keeps people downtrodden and easily controlled. In yoga, suffering is considered an aberration. In Savitri, Sri Aurobindo writes, "Where ignorance is, there suffering too must come." And later on he writes, "Pain is the signature of the Ignorance." People who are on the path of yoga and who are constantly aware will find suffering for its own sake to become unnecessary.
-Aadil Palkhivala