WC Fields gets it right [from “The Fatal Glass of Beer” (1933)] …
… because this is what we are experiencing, today, worst winter day so far …
Nevertheless, around 2pm we make a trip to 103 and then to the library:
In hopes that my complaints can reach the ears of those who are in control of such things, I must continue to note that the local weather is despicable. Herewith, I document the action of wind gusts approaching 50 mph (admittedly, a still photograph may not be quite as effective as video would have been in depicting this phenomenon …). 
Was visiting Eric today and while manhandling a cardboard carton (containing minivan window glass) of about 2′ x 5′, we were nearly taken aloft by a sudden gust. I spun on the ice but we somehow stayed afoot and avoided a costly accident, keeping the glass intact.
Also making a visit to my old workplace (where yet another incident of spontaneous glass shatter had taken place, by the way), I saw a rare sight across the way in the railroad premises. Knowing jack about trains, I nevertheless could see that this was an unusual configuration — an engine pulling a “Service Unit” car and a “Blizzard Bus” car — so had to walk over to the tracks to investigate. A subsequent Google search came up with this Union Pacific site page that briefly offered this definition: “Blizzard buses are modified cabooses used to store supplies and provide shelter for crews”.
Photographer/filmmaker Michael Shainblum gives us this view of Oregon.
The first appearance of snow at street level:
Maybe it is not constant after all, suggest some physicists trying to explain yet-unanswered questions about the universe.
Seeing this discussion today comes right after we finished a BBC two-part program on the relationship of the beginning and the end of the universe, “The Beginning And End Of The Universe”. You can see this, like we did, on Netflix (with subtitles for the aging among us!) or on YouTube:
The best of the year stuff is starting to appear. Here you can find National Geographic’s picks for “10 of the Most Stunning Wildlife Pictures of the Year“.
Don’t miss other great collections at the Nat Geo site. Among my favorites are these photos by kids: “Through The Eyes Of A Child“.
Another Land Rover photographic trek into the Sierra Nevada mountain area of Northern California. Most of these pics are from the area north of Death Valley and south of Yosemite, if I recall, and take in the California border ghost town at Bodie, and include a bit of late day and early evening Mono Lake (with its salt formations arising from unusual drainage conditions) and other nearby wanderings.
