Good morning, everyone. I looked out and, omg, I could see parts of my compost bin and small sections of my garden containers peeking out from under the snow. They are only covered by 3 ft of snow instead of 5. And there is a two foot gap below our mail boxes. We may get rid of the better part of this over the next week since we aren't expecting any daytime temps below freezing. We are keeping the cat in much to his displeasure. We let him out a few times Sunday and he spent monday somewhat listless and off his feed. We think he may have gotten some of the residual 'salt' we used on the ice. Unfortunately, the little monster seems to like any standing pool of water that isn't in a bowl better that what I put down for him. So, for his own good, he is staying in until I can clean off the patio no matter how much he complains.

That was cute, Kay. I hadn't heard 'Uncle Sam's Canoe Club' before. Over my life I have discovered more occupations that I wasn't suited to than those I was. Military life is definitely in the 'unsuited' category. Like you I tend to speak my mind and I am not overly respectful of authority simply because it is authority. When I was in boot camp one of the DIs overheard a caustic comment (not mine) to the effect that the speaker saluted a certain officer simply because she was wearing the uniform. The DI threatened to hang up an empty uniform an have everyone salute it if that was the sentiment. My thought--how could you tell if it were empty or if that particular officer were wearing it? I did keep the thought to my self but my tongue was sore for a week. I am also not very accepting of threats and threats seemed to be the major means of discipline. Especially threats that punished the whole group for the transgressions of one. I was very glad I never took up smoking so the withdrawal of smoking privileges didn't bother me. And, when one non-com at photo school threatened any of us who failed to keep her hair within regulation length with a trip to her 'barber,' I cut my hair to the shortest pixie I ever had. I hate providing anyone with weapons to use against me.

My skeptical attitude toward authority is amplified when it comes to looking at politics, sociology, or economics. Most of what passes for authoritative pronouncements is pure self-important twaddle. Somewhere along the line most of our authorities have had the logic centers of their brains disengaged, if not removed all together.

I am absolutely fascinated by how long it took the mainstream media to get onto this story. I read stories about the increase in basic foods for the last three months (since the Russian heatwave and drought destroyed 30+% of their grain crops last fall. Some may think I have a morbid taste in google searches (which include items like 'agricultural disaster area' and 'drought') but I would rather know what is going on that might impact our finances rather than being blindsided. I think it is much better to prepare for the worst and hope I am pleasantly surprised than to be unpleasantly surprised when the worst happens. That is why I thought this Daily Kos story interesting. The possibility of flooding with snow melt has been lingering in the back of my mind since that has been a frequent occurrence over the last decade. I know how much snow we have gotten (20 inches alone in that last blizzard) and we didn't get as much as some of the areas north and west of us. We can look forward to the snow melting rapidly here because we know that it will run off without flooding us out. It would take a flood of biblical proportions to damage us---but then that is what eastern Australia is dealing with.

I don't think I need to add any comment to this posting on Jesse's Cafe Americain. He is absolutely right.