I’m carrying this new camera with me everyday, a birthday present from my wife last month. It’s an Olympus E-P2 with the 17 mm f/2.8 lens and electronic viewfinder. I wanted it because it’s the closest thing to my beloved old Leicas out there. Well, short of a new Leica, but they’re a little out of my price range these days.

The one camera, one lens ideal suits me really well. The 17 mm lens, while not the sharpest lens, gives me a field of view really close to how I see the world. (About a 35 mm if you do the math to compare it to the old film days.) But, every now and then … I just wanted a little more reach.

One of the nice things about the micro four-thirds format is the ability to adapt older lenses to the new cameras. You don’t get the autofocus and all the autoexposure modes, but the E-P2 does a nice job when focusing manually. I ordered a $30 adapter off of Amazon.com and then scoured the internet for an Olympus 50 mm f/1.4 lens and found one at the right price at Adorama.com (so my friend Jeff got a little commission off of the deal).

Lens showed up a few days ago. Had it sitting on my desk as the sun set out the back window and the color caught my eye.

I’d guess this lens is from the 1970s, no telling how many sunsets it has already seen.

The great storm is five days in the past, but the evidence of it remains. University opened on a delayed schedule again but the county schools stayed closed. And, with Monday being a holiday, it means these snow cancellations will give them a longer break than the official spring break will … no word on how or if the time will have to be made up.

View out the windshield as I departed early this morning.

Caution tape remnants on stairs that were extremely dangerous a day or so earlier.

There was a lot of debate about the university opening today. Even the delayed, 11 a.m. time seemed, well … odd. The county schools were closed and even their decision to have staff come in at a later time was dropped once the road conditions were better understood.

So, with warnings from the city and police department to not drive, 40,000+ people headed to campus, four days after our record snow fall.

In case you’re curious, the university is opening at 10 a.m. on Friday, county schools will be closed again and we’re being warned to stay off the roads still. The sun and just-barely-above freezing temperatures today did nothing but provide source materiel for more black ice. There are entire neighborhoods that you can’t get to because of ice on the roads.

All that said, my commutes were uneventful. The decision to keep the public schools closed makes perfect sense as I didn’t see a single county side walk that was clear unless it was in bright sun all day. Any shade and it was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Rumor has it none of the school parking lots have been touched.

Good thing we have a long weekend ahead …

Day Three of Snowpocalypse 2011 … this is just getting silly. Thankfully, the university has announced we will go back tomorrow. Even if it is on a delayed opening, it’ll be nice to return and get this semester started.

Day Two of the 2011 Snowpocalypse … no classes for the kids or me. Day Three has been confirmed (along with the canceling of my conference later this week) – we’ll all be home again tomorrow.

The Small Boy and I grabbed cameras, boots and hats and went for a walk.

What to shoot, what to shoot ...

Look at that - finding the anomaly, finding the pattern.

Took a drive because we were running low on … well, salsa … (I know, I know …)

We are several days out from the students’ return and there has been a lot of winter break construction. Some of it makes sense, some of it … well … I’m not so sure.

But is is very quiet on campus right now.

The Small Boy got a year further into life today. What better way to start the day and the new year?