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COLDER THAN A WITCH’S…
The Alberta Clipper makes its way down from that Canadian repository of that huge country’s land of winter tundra. So far, the winter season has produced near-record snowfalls, at least in the continuity of their continuity. One can’t leave the house many times this year simply because the road crews can’t keep up with either the constant flow or the lessening of salt supplies budgeted and then stored in the summer months. The Clipper is going to bring a temperature drop and potentially difficult lower participation of visiting guests for Winterfest. Since the celebration is not until the 28th, there is hope that the temperature will at least end up, by then, being above zero.
The Geneva Shore Report does the weather forecast from Lake Geneva every morning, but sometimes, if it’s below zero and the wind is running at twenty-five or so, we go inside to film. The roads have been a mess as they will be on Tuesday, although it may get up to twenty tomorrow and sunny, which would make all the difference in the world for road conditions, especially for all the short back streets downtown and around Geneva Lake. At least, if you read the article in this issue about Greenland, it might give you a lift as the conditions and weather on that huge island are frightful so many times. Russia was like that years ago, and the northern settlements of Alaska, as well. Everyone simply stayed indoors for months on end, and that was hard in so many ways. If you go to one of the hardware stores, then look for the newer granular ice pellets. Little bitty ones, not the ones that go in water softeners. They aren’t that expensive, and they work extremely well. The twenty-to-twenty-five-pound bags work the best because they are easier to pour from or scoop out of than the fifty-pounders. The other implement you might want to spring for is a powerful electric blower.
Many of the snowfalls that take place on the truly colder days and nights in Wisconsin can be blown off if the snow is not deeper than about four inches, which is a lot less work-intensive, and dangerous for older citizens, and leaves a cleaner sidewalk and driveway. This does not work for the wetter snow of more temperate times. Those blowers are not cheap, so get ready for a little sticker shock. Canada, where the Midwest weather sweeps down from (unless it comes across and down from the Seattle area), deserves to send some cold air down to its former best friend and all after getting its own version of our damaged leader’s cold and crass treatment.
The day before this issue was published, two ICE officers were spotted walking south on the east side of Broad Street, just stopping here and there and looking into local stores. We did not assume they were looking for any products to purchase. Our advice is the same as our actions upon witnessing them. We left. Stay just as far from those badly selected and poorly trained ICE people. The acronym for ICE? There is none. The three letters simply mean ‘cold as the driven snow.’
