Peals of thunder shook our apartment and the downpour of snow and hail plastered the windows and painted the world a violent white – weather that began with a morning snowfall and continued in bizarre patterns of intensity and calm throughout the rest of the day, punctuated as both evening and storm’s end approached by the clear call of a single robin. My cold began to lift, which I’m hoping will give me the energy I need to make it through the rest of this week.