Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 2:30 a.m. in "The City."

No school closings are in the offing @ this early hour. That could change, but I doubt it. We have a current temperature of 29° that feels like 20° due to the prevailing 14 mph winds. In addition, there is a Small Craft Advisory in effect until 4:00 p.m. today that has been issued by the NWS. Winds on the "Big Lake" may reach 30 knots and wave-heights could be from 5' to 8'. Later today, after the sun rises @ 7:52 a.m. and before it sets @ 5:12, we should see a high temperature of 31°. There is a 50% chance for snow-showers later this morning.

We got up yesterday morning to see that the overnight snow had accumulated to about four inches of heavy, wet snow. I went down to clear the deck and found that our neighbors had indeed been neighborly. Our neighbors to the east, Ken and Dee, had cleared part of of our shared driveway, while our neighbor to the west, Ron, cleared our front porch and used his 2-stage snow thrower to clear the balance of our driveway. I did my best on the deck and the steps to help the fur-children navigate their way to the back-forty, but my aching left shoulder precluded much on my part.

Fortunately, I have a date late in December to have that shoulder surgically repaired and an appointment today to have my knee shots. At that time, I'll ask the orthopedist about the near constant ache in my shoulder and see if he can do something between the surgery date and now. Here's hoping.

Speaking of my shoulder, I am having trouble laying down barre chords on my guitars. I am experiencing weakness that makes playing those chords harder. There are some techniques I can do in the interim, but they are stop-gaps, not solutions. Sigh.

No trains yesterday, so I am expecting some today. Ginger and I may spot the morning run before Mary and I are off to the orthopedist, but I/we may not be here for the return run.

I had Mary take some pix yesterday to commemorate our first significant snowfall of the 2018-2019 winter season. The city crews performed admirably, but that meant that they had plowed in the end of our shared driveway. We didn't get any pix of that because we got up after they had been cleared by our neighbors.

Our front porch before the clearing by Ron.

The snow is part of living in West Michigan. Plows and piles will be part of our lives for a few months.

Our deck prior to my limited clearing efforts.

I didn't get to those indoor Christmas decorations yesterday, maybe today or tomorrow. I did get to some guitar playing and singing along with some reading and those are always a pleasure to me. However, the pain in my shoulder limited my playing time.

Today, that aforementioned orthopedist appointment and then the day is open. Otherwise, we have nothing specific planned except that Mary wants to finish a recipe that she started last night. I will continue my latest novel, The Reckoning, by John Grisham, in large-print format. Ciao.