not thawed enough

Warmth, or pseudo warmth in January -- it's a mixed blessing. You love it, reluctantly. Snow gets really brittle. It melts, it freezes, there's ice.

So much ice.

My little girl and her fiancee drive back to Chicago. After breakfast...





....I mope about the fact that kids don't stay tied to apron-strings, even as I don't really mean to mope about it.

The temperature outside climbs.

I suggest a walk. Oregon maybe? -- this from Ed. We rarely walk around in this town just south of us.

It's dismal: windy, slippery, very very slippery. One person out and about. That's it.





Still, this is winter in the upper Midwest: days of ice, days of snow, gray days, sunny days, mixed up days.

We take out shovels and chip away at the thick ice in the drivway. Forget it. Visitors will have to slide their way to our doorstep.

Sunday. My older girl and her husband are here for dinner. We eat, we watch a bit of the Golden Globes.






When they leave, I tell them many times to be careful in the ice. This will be my parting piece of advice to anyone who comes to the farmhouse in the remaining months of winter: watch out for the ice! Yes, watch out. Stay warm and happy, walk cautiously. Winter words. Winter weather.