An agreeable friend

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

George Eliot, 'Mr. Gilfil's Love Story,' Scenes of Clerical Life, 1857
English novelist (1819 - 1880)


Grumpy Sunshine

We have a monster storm unfolding in the States. 30 states under winter weather advisories involving over 100 million people. We have so much snow here already in Massachusetts, 38 inches just in January alone. Much of it still on the ground with enormous drifts and plowed into mountains. When I first started teaching , 40 years ago, I worked in Northern Maine on the Canadian border, weather like this was a way of life, but it was a dry cold, far away from the ocean, unlike here. I was so much younger and it was hard living then, this is just impossible. We are preparing for power outages since freezing rain will be part of this storm for us, and that means downed tree limbs and wires.