’Tis a season of dank and dreary...

The question is: what will the local area look like by the weekend, after several days and nights of rain and snow followed by dropping temperatures? We had a similar weather episode in late December a few years ago and it left the place a skating rink. Little snow, lots of ice, and water (and leaves) covering the drive.

will the next storm(s) leave a mess like this?

Photo by J. Harrington

I recall some of the climate change reports from a few years ago suggesting Minnesota winters would become more like Missouri’s. I think we’re there. This morning we drove a little more than an hour north to pick up a couple of cartons of lamb meat. The trip up I-35 is much more pleasant, especially in winter, when one isn’t experiencing a third, fourth, or fifth day of dreary overcast, while looking over drab wetlands and snow covered sod farms along the  road sides. Then again, I am now more attuned to why folks in the old days decorated their houses with greenery at this time of year. It is definitely more cheery.

On the way out of town, we stopped at the post office to mail Christmas treats to my sister and her family. Arriving home several hours later a package awaited us on the stoop. It was full of Christmas presents from my sister and her spouse for our family. Our synchronization was off by but a little, but the love is there.

The post office parking spaces were constantly full while the Better Half was mailing the package. The disruptions in mail service over the past few years, due to COVID and other staffing shortages, made me wonder if it makes sense to have most post offices in towns and smaller cities add drive-through windows. If more folks are going  to be picking up and dropping off their mail, it might make sense to cut down on lobby crowding and help expedite customer service. I just don’t know what Amazon would think of that, do you?

Winter

By Anne Hunter

Behold the gloomy tyrant’s awful form 

Binding the captive earth in icy chains; 

His chilling breath sweeps o’er the watery plains, 

Howls in the blast, and swells the rising storm. 

See from its centre bends the rifted tower, 

Threat’ning the lowly vale with frowning pride, 

O’er the scared flocks that seek its sheltering side, 

A fearful ruin o’er their heads to pour. 

While to the cheerful hearth and social board 

Content and ease repair, the sons of want 

Receive from niggard fate their pittance scant; 

And where some shed bleak covert may afford, 

Wan poverty, amidst her meagre host 

Casts round her haggard eyes, and shivers at the frost.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.