Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. across the nation nd across the world. It is just past 12:30 a.m. in "The City."

The number of school closings for today and possibly Friday, is too long to list. Suffice it to say that the Winter Storm Warning and the snow that may accumulate another three inches continues until 7:00 p.m. tonight! According to the NWS, the current temperatures are the coldest ever recorded in all 50 states! In addition, the wind chills are still dangerously low and the driving conditions are hazardous. Fortunately, we have nowhere to go and lots of time to get there. The sun will rise this morning  @ 8:01 a.m. and set this eveninbg @ 5:55 p.m.

Worthy of note, is that Michigan was one of several states where delivery service by the USPS was suspended due to the weather conditions. As Adam said, getting junk mail one-day later is not a game-changer. Yesterday was supposed to be day one of our new subscription to the Grand Haven Tribune, but no mail = no newspaper.

I nearly forgot to mention that the other natural gas provider in West Michigan, Consumers Energy, had a fire in one of their compressor stations yesterday. That fire during the cold snap, caused Consumers Energy to ask that their customers turn their thermostats down to 65° to conserve natural gas. Will any one do it? I dunno, but we turned ours down even though we are not a Consumers customer. We use Michigan Gas as our supplier here in GH.

We stayed in yesterday and Mary busied herself in the kitchen making another vegan triumph, well actually two. She used some old dry bread and veganized a recipe for bread pudding. It tasted great with dinner. Dinner was that pudding accompanied by a cauliflower lentil loaf. She had to do considerable chopping and food-processing that caused the actual cooking/preparation time to swell from 45 minutes to more like 90 minutes. Fortunately, she is experienced enough with internet recipes that this didn't throw her off her game.

The aforementioned bread pudding.

The cauliflower lentil loaf fresh from the oven.

On the plate and ready to eat.

Early yesterday morning, I picked up Abigael and strummed a few chords. Am I rusty? You bet! But it felt good to have her in my hands and to make some music for the first time in nearly five weeks.

Since we didn't get up until after noon, our day was shorter. I did some reading and not much else. I did talk to Adam after Mary spoke with him while I slept.
 
Today, I plan to look out the Weather Window (WW) and see what I can see. If the snowfall continues as forecast, I don't anticipate that will be much. We are fortunate to have our neighbors assisting with the snow removal. Next winter, no matter what the state of my health, we are going to hire a service to do that. Blanche DuBois, one of the fictional characters in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, intoned in that play the following line, "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers." Our neighbors are far from strangers, but we can't always depend on their kindness, so it behooves us to make other arrangements.

Today, we have no specific plans. I hope that my Thursday edition of the Grand Haven Tribune comes in the mail today, assuming that the mail is delivered. Mary and I will collaborate on some indoor chores and perhaps some cooking. Otherwise, I'll read, Mary will knit and we'll stay retired. Ciao.