...in slushy mud. Met Bob and Lou at Elizabeth's in Delevan for breakfast, then over to Lou's workshop in Walworth for iceboat shenanigans. Wombat is ready to go and the trailer almost so, and all is looking good. (Buddy Melges dropped by for a chat while we were dinking around.)

On departure, I towed the old trailer away and to the Mallard Ridge landfill just west of Delevan. The entrance road winds up the side of a beautiful oak-studded moraine, but once over the crest and on the flat in front of the big drop-off a sea of slushy mud with ruts like barge canals. It gave me pause, but the operator of the giant, spike-wheeled bulldozer waved me forward, so, in 4-wheel drive and a state of anxiety, I roared into the quagmire, did a quick half donut before the fatal edge, and came to a stop. Coming to a stop in that slop was against my better judgement, but necessary since I needed the help of the dozer operator to tip the now unwanted iceboat box and cradle off the still usable trailer. That done I scraped gobs off my boots, climbed back into the truck, and somehow got it to move forward, eventually onto solid ground.

The good thing about the drive home from there was that all the sleet, freezing rain, slush, and snowdrifts did a good job of scraping the truck clear of dump muck.

Now, as I type this, sleet is rattling against all the east-facing windows, and the storm continues, seemingly unabated. What a winter!?

In the image below, all the orange lines are areas where flooding is significant, with the red indicating severe. Apparently things are rather damp in England, too. I wonder how it's going in California?