Petty Literary Critique and More Snow

I love the television show, Haven. If you haven't seen it, it's about a small island off the coast of Maine (though it's filmed in Nova Scotia) where the inhabitants have "troubles" which allow/cause them to do strange things. While I realize how petty this is going to sound, one thing I don't like about the show is the opening credits when it states, "based on The Colorado Kid by Stephen King." Some of the names in the book are changed in the show. For example, the newspaper editor and writer become brothers in the show, so Dave Bowie becomes Dave Teagues. Although in the book the other newspaper man is named Vince Teague, without the s. Police chief George Wournos becomes Garland Wuornos, with the u and o reversed in the last name spelling. Moose Lookit Island becomes Haven, and the Weekly Islander newspaper becomes the Haven Herald. There's nary a Steffi (or newspaper intern) to be found in the show, even though she's one of the main characters in the book. A little restaurant called the Grey Gull does retain its name in the show.

These are all small things, but the bigger issue is that this isn't one of Stephen King's supernatural thrillers. He published it through Hard Case Crime, and it's a mystery story with Stephen King's signature fascinating characters. So, why am I complaining about all of this (other than I'm clearly way to obsessed with Stephen King)? It's really because of two words. If the show would simply change that line in the opening credits to "inspired by..." instead of "based on..." I'd be placated. I'm fully aware that shows and movies based on books can't follow the books exactly due to the different story-telling platforms, and I don't have a problem with that. But when you change a story from a realistic mystery/drama to a supernatural thriller, it's no longer "based on" the original story. At that point the original story was just a jumping off point for a totally new and unique story. OK, pointless rant over.

We're living in a winter wonderland right now. We got about 8 more inches of snow yesterday afternoon and evening, and the current forecast is for more snow this afternoon and overnight. Which is probably accurate since it started snowing again around 12:30. This morning I had the local news website pulled up and just watched the count of closings and delays increase. It went from a little over 100 at about 6:15 to almost 225 by about 7:00 this morning. My kids' schools weren't closed, and of course both of them had morning activities today, so I got to drive on the snowy and icy streets. I was ready to start punching one of the other drivers on the road with me this morning, and figured I'd get the opportunity after he rear-ended me. This guy came up behind me so fast and drove so close that I couldn't see his lights. I couldn't physically go any faster because the cars in front of me weren't going any faster. I raised my hands into the mirror at one point in the universal "what the heck" gesture, which he responded to with the universal gesture for language I won't type on here. Luckily as soon as the road opened up into four lanes, he sped around me to follow too closely behind someone else. Unfortunately I didn't get his license number, and fortunately he didn't run into me.

Denver Public Schools did close, so technically my office was closed today, but my whole department just worked from home. Although I did take some time in the afternoon to rest since the past couple of weeks have just worn me out. My son has a play performance tonight at the school, provided it doesn't get cancelled due to the weather. My husband and I discussed it this morning and we've decided we're walking to the school. It's just not worth it to try and find a place to park when the sides of the streets are piled with plowed snow. I hope it doesn't get cancelled because the kids have worked so hard on it. Fingers crossed!

This picture is from yesterday afternoon, although it's pretty much what things look like this afternoon also.

This slightly blurry picture captured the snow sparkling in the streetlight this morning. It doesn't look there's very much, but it was about 4 inches deep when my husband shoveled a line down the middle of the driveway. Luckily the earlier snow hadn't stuck to the driveway since we have an eastern facing front.

The sun was out this morning and we had blue skies. But around 11:00 the clouds started moving in again before the snow and gray skies returned this afternoon.