Freezing rain, sleet, then snow, topped with freezing rain, sleet, and snow (many inches deep) makes for serious shoveling. The snowblower, our Christmas gift of several years ago, earned its keep this morning. The road-plow must have been going fast as it came by in the predawn hour because it threw heavy frozen slush all the way over the terrace and onto the sidewalk.

As the shadows lengthened this evening our nocturnal neighbor emerged to attend to his driveway (Peggy having used her machine to clear his walk this morning when we were all out dealing with last night's deposit). He has since spent the past two hours chopping and scraping, using his own idiosyncratic method, and may finish his meticulous ministrations by midnight.

Sate of emergency in Missouri. The Mississippi River approaching (or possibly surpassing) the record flood level of 1993. Pretty much ditto England.

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From 'A Severe Lack of Holiday Spirit'
by Amy Gerstler

...People hit
the sauce in a big way all winter.
Amidst blizzards they wrestle
unsuccessfully with the dark comedy
of their lives, laughter trapped
in their frigid gizzards. Meanwhile,
the mercury just plummets,
like a migrating duck blasted
out of the sky by some hunter
in a cap with fur earflaps.