Boy, it is weeks like this that makes me really miss fall and summer…I can take the heat better than I can the cold and as I get older, I hate the winters more…although I`m sure I would miss the snow around Christmas cause there is nothing like a white Christmas…I like snow, but I just dont like this extra deep cold that the Russians decided to give us this year. The weather people have been broadcasting the past few weeks about this bone chilling, phenomenally numbing cold air that has been spilling over into the heartland of the United States, right down to the Gulf states, penetrating deeper than ever before into the USA…from the coldest reaches of Russia and for some reason, we have it this year…our winter air normally comes from Alaska and Canada, but apparently the Russians are sharing it with Canada and us this year. I think we should send it back to them and tell them to keep it…I had WGN-TV on the other day and watching Tom Skillett, Chicago`s veteran weatherman, talk about it and show us where it`s coming from and how deep it was penetrating the country here, and he showed us the temps in Anchorage, Alaska, this time of year at 48 degrees above zero….balmy weather compared to what we were getting !!!!  

What I really hate about this type of bone numbing cold air is that it makes you want to do nothing more than stay inside the house. Now, don`t get me wrong, I love my house, especially when it`s cozy and warm inside, but I do like to get out on my days off and go rockhunting as well, but when it gets this cold, I don`t want to go…and then to top off the cold, we get saddled down with snow and ice way earlier than normal, as well. Last week was a couple of inches of sleet under four inches of snow…we were lucky, the two areas I like to go rockhunting at, south of here, had a foot of snow on top of a couple of inches of sleet, and just to clarify for everyone, when it freezes overnight, that sleet turns to ice. I had talked to my buddy Jim Bay down at Eminence and he told me that it took road crews about five days to clean the snow and ice off the roads where you could see and feel the pavement once again, and that was just the main roads, highways 19 and 106…which is all I would need to be clear to drive in there and rockhunt, but then just as they do that and just as my schedule clears up to where I can do that…we get hit with yet another winter storm. Great…just what I need.

The second storm came in last night…good rockhunting friends from Memphis wanted to come up and rock hunt with me this weekend, we had it planned for a few weeks, but this second winter storm changed all that…I didn`t want them driving in to possibly ice first and snow later, so we postponed this hunting trip to a better weekend. We started out with rain most of the day yesterday, then sleet as darkness overtook us…I was up til about midnight last night and we had a few periods of heavy sleet last night. The snow apparently came in after 2 am and lasted til about 8 am, when I woke to find a beautiful winter wonderland outside my windows this morning….

…and as I headed to the gym to get a good run/hike in on the treadmill, I approached the tracks just in time for this pretty BNSF train to pass through the gates….

…then turned the corner on the other side and saw Main Street in front of me, the barren trees lining the street, now cloaked in the pretty wet snowfall that fell the night before….

…and that`s one of the things I like the most about snow, the fact that it can take the barren away and replace it with beauty…these trees above look like they are covered in multiple white flowers this time of year…breathtaking as it were….

After my workout, I drove down Hughes Ford Road, where there is a horse farm near the bottom of the hill in the valley, and I have photographed this valley cloaked in ice and snow for the past few years….always very pretty as well….

…and it didn`t disappoint me again this morning with it`s beauty….the trees standing out with their branches and trunks in harsh dark relief to the all consuming white….usually there are horses out in those fields, but not today for some reason….

…there is a single tree down in the field on the left side that stands alone, distanced away from the other trees in the forest to the left and beyond, that always looks so strong and colorful in each season….

…and then as I continued on down the road, I saw the stone arch ahead…

…the entrance to an old farmhouse there long ago…the old house and barns long gone and now replaced with a modern day metal barn built by a friend who now owns the place.  After this, it was a trip to Mikky D`s to get a mc rib sandwich and order of fries.  Hope everyone has a safe and warm weekend.