No Go Snow

Snow! Around noon today, it started snowing in earnest. Then it stopped. At about 3, it looked like it was going to do more than flurry. But it didn't. The ground is still bare of the season's first white coating.

Actually, the reaction to the first snow of the season around here is more like, hm, snow. Slush and then ice can't be far behind.

After more than a decade of householding here in the North, I've at least worked out a way to deal with ice on my sidewalks, namely tube sand. A tube of it is handy near the door and I scatter it on when ice forms for that all-important traction. You never really appreciate foot-to-ground traction till you don't have it suddenly. I actually have a new tube of sand ready this year, acquired last week, instead of waiting for ice to appear as I usually do.

Even without snow, Orion tipped me off that it is now in fact winter. Just after 11 pm on Monday, the last hour of November, I remembered to take out the trash. The air was crisp and clear, and there he was to the south-southwest, lording over his slice of the sky.

One more pic from Phillips Park in Aurora, last week.

At the base of a large flagpole near the park's ornamental waterfall, which is dry, was this plaque, dedicated to Daniel Wedge, a Civil War veteran who died in 1947. Every plaque tells a story, don't it?