Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:00 a.m. in "The City."

Yesterday was a snowy day. We got about three inches of new snow, but it seemed to come when we were both sleeping and awake. I wonder if the Jolly Old Elf knew? Oh well, I was fortunate that our neighbor once again was on the job and cleared the majority of our shared driveway. I spent some time yesterday clearing the snow from the deck, the front porch/sidewalk, and the area in front of the garage. Our neighbor does a good job, but there is always snow left in places that need to be cleared.

Both GTWD and STWD were fortunate too, as that meant that I had the chance to clear their area in the back forty. Speaking of the fur-children, Mary took a couple of pictures of them in a rare moment of repose. They are only in these positions when they are not engaging in a scrum that is their preferred form of play.

Ginger and I in the La-Z-Boy

The fur-children asleep on the couch

How about those Bears? Once again they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of a near victory over the Green Packers. The Bears tied the score late in the game only to have Aaron Rodgers toss another of his game-saving bombs into the Bears chances for redemption, and that allowed the Packers to kick the winning field goal and claim the victory, 30 - 27. Oh well, another season of futility will draw to a close for the Bears in two weeks while other teams are on their way to the playoffs. The Bears next opponents are that team from Washington D.C. and the MN Vikings.

The 9 - 5 Lions didn't fare any better, as they fell to the 10 - 4 New York Giants by a final score of 6 - 17. The Lions have to play the 12 - 2 Cowboys next week and then close out the season against the  8 - 6 Packers. The NFC Central Division is up for grabs.

Yesterday I spent some time working on some music while Mary worked on an index. She says she is making good progress. Most importantly, this index does not require my assistance. I'm good with that.

Today, I plan to do some of the crosswords from the N. Y. Times that Mary picked up downtown yesterday. That was one of the reasons that I had to clear the driveway so that she could get the car out and go to the news agency. She would prefer to walk, but the sidewalks are just too ice covered and treacherous for safe walking. We are not getting enough exercise this winter due to the ice and snow unless you count the shoveling and snow blowing that I am doing.

Otherwise, the fur-children will need to go out later this morning. GTWD is okay with going to the cleared area in the backyard and I suppose STWD is too, but as I said, no one in the household is getting enough exercise this winter.

The current temperature is 15° according to the NWS. On my DTWS, the temperature is 16.9°. In either case, that's cold. In addition, the NWS has issued a small craft warning that is in effect now, to be followed by a gale warning later today. A gale warning in December? High winds ranging from 15 - 25 knots will produce waves tonight from 3 to 5 feet. As the wind speeds climb to 40 knots, the waves will build to 6 to 10 feet later today and 7 to 12 feet on Tuesday as the winds increase to gale force.

According to the warning notice, a gale warning is issued when winds are from 34 knots to 47 knots. Any small craft operators are advised to stay off the "Big Lake." By way of information, a knot is 1.15 nautical miles, so to get the conversion to mph, you multiply the number of knots by 1.15 to get the miles per hour. For example, 10 knots equals 11.508 mph. therefore, a 47-knot wind speed is equal to 54.087 mph. Convoluted I know, but that's how it works.

Later today, the high temperature will reach 24°. By Tuesday when the sun warms the air, we are supposed to reach 34°. The sun will rise today @ 8:12 a.m. and set @ 5:12 p.m. Ciao.