This morning I deliver the mini-van to Eric’s for glass replacement and encounter our eggman (The Eggman, one of Charlie’s favorites — he leaves Charlie a sausage or jerky treat every time he drops off our egg order). Then I walk home in lightly falling snow, sharp cold, but no wind for a change.
Late afternoon, Mt. Emily from Gekeler. On the way home from 103.
Brief blizzard this morning, then a sudden (slightly) warming spell. Off to walk the Abominable Snow Dog this afternoon. As the snow depth is 6 – 8 inches and more in drifted areas, Charlie’s way of negotiating is to bounce from a previously-established track to another. He occasionally becomes high-centered, but quickly springs free.
By nine pm or thereabouts, the wind settles down enough for a brisk Charlie-walk through the snowdrifts around the chilly, empty EOU campus.
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”.
Possibly you are unable to detect and experience the frigid cold and the bitter wind from these photographs. Temp is predicted at sub/minus/negative zero tonight. A time for Netflix (wrapping up “Four Seasons in Havana”) and comfort food.
Btw, are you SAD?
Ivi, home from Seattle for the holiday week, exercises her professional dog-walking touch, undaunted by snow and cold. Charlie approves.
