Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 2:00 a.m. in "The City."

We have slick roads and a current temperature of 37° that will drop to our overnight low of 36° before the sun rises @ 7:38 a.m. and well before it sets @ 5:20 p.m. In between, there is a Winter Weather Advisory in effect until 10:00 a.m. this morning. Snow has tapered off for now, but will return in earnest between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., adding to those slick road/hazardous driving conditions.

In addition, once again there is a Small Craft Advisory in effect until 1:00 a.m. Saturday. Current winds of 15 - 25 knots will build overnight to 30 knots producing waves on the "Big Lake", Lake Michigan, of four to eight feet! Sadly, the people on the East Coast did not escape the bad weather and the storm out there has produced traffic gridlock in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Traffic on the turnpikes was at a standstill and so far, eight people have died due to accidents on the slick roads!

Sometimes, it would be great to be like these children from the African country of Eritrea, as they experience snow for the first time. Here they are in a clip from Twitter©. Hope you appreciate their glee as much as I did.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1061259750598434816

It is tough to go on with that disaster weighing on my mind, especially when you couple that disaster with the wildfires plaguing the West Coast. Over 60 people are known dead and there are many more missing. Over 9,000 firefighters are battling the blazes that are of undetermined cause. However, the drought-conditions have caused the ground to draw moisture out of the air, making the battle even more difficult.

It appears that we didn't buy a new AWD (All Wheel Drive) Jeep Renegade™ any too soon. What was supposed to be a mild winter has begun in earnest in November and may continue until March of next year! Adam decided that he needed a larger vehicle to replace his Mini Cooper, so he went out yesterday and bought a Jeep Renegade™ with all of the bells and whistles. He described the process of buying the car as a prime example of the "Hurry up and wait" syndrome that is common to the military. In that case, a soldier is ordered to go from point A to point B with all due speed, and then sit and wait for hours for additional orders. In the case of buying a car, one thing leads to another and another and so on.

I am currently listening to Coast to Coast AM as the host, George Noory, speaks to his guest, Christian Wilde, regarding the health benefits of turmeric, a commonly used spice in scrambled tofu, on roasted vegetables, on rice, and in soups. Turmeric contains curcumin and gives yellow rice its color. It is also used in making mustard.and giving that condiment its yellow color. Worthy of note is that the human body has a difficult time absorbing curcumin. Health benefits include lowering blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart-disease, treating cancer and arthritis, along with the possibility of treating Alzheimer's Disease. In short, turmeric is a powerful anti-oxidant that can be an effective anti-depressant. Who knew?

Speaking of cooking, I made more of my soy-curl jerky yesterday along with a variation on my vegan sausage recipe. In the case of the sausages, I substituted sage for the paprika and oregano and used a generous amount of re-hydrated onions in place of half the regular, one-cup of red beans. We had some of those sausages for dinner along with a salad dressed with an oil and vinegar homemade dressing that Mary wanted to try. I liked both. Here is a pic of our dinner.

For Adam, the 50s group, The Kingston Trio, had a song titled MTA aboout a man who never returned. Here is a version of that song from YouTube™. I think it applies to car buying too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbtkL5_f6-4&list=RDMbtkL5_f6-4&start_radio=1

Ciao.