Be safe out there

[PointWarrior]

Seattle was glare ice all day everywhere.  Tried to walk the dog this AM, we both slide in slow motion down our sloped driveway.  He looked at me like I was nuts and scanned for flat ground to go back in the house.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Looks like we're getting a salad place instead, which is the exact opposite of Arby's.

I've failed miserably.

Marching on Glendale!

[Scoop Snoop]

Happy that we have no snow in the part of the Blue Ridge area of Virginia where we live, but it was 5 degrees at 6:30 this AM, -7 wind chill, when I walked our very old Beagle Sasha. She insisted on finding the perfect spot to take a dump and absolutely refused to be rushed.

[MU82]

Lost our power overnight. Decided to run out to find an open Starbucks. By the time we got back, the power was back on - yay! It had been out for about 4 hours.

Breezy and unseasonably cold in Charlotte.

[mu_hilltopper]

Beginning Wednesday .. 10 straight days of 35-45 degree weather.

The ice rink gods giveth, and they taketh away.

[tower912]

Yeah, we are going to need to uncover storm drains to give the 30 inches of snow we have on the ground somewhere to go.

[4everwarriors]

Those damn guns were at it again last night, hey?

[Uncle Rico]

Those damn guns were at it again last night, hey?

There's only one thing that I know how to do well
And I've often been told that you only can do
What you know how to do well
And that's be you,
Be what you're like,
Be like yourself,
And so I'm having a wonderful time
But I'd rather be whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
There's only one thing that I like
And that is whistling in the dark

[🏀]

Take it easy on 4ever, it's a big couple nights for him.

[tower912]

Lost our power overnight. Decided to run out to find an open Starbucks. By the time we got back, the power was back on - yay! It had been out for about 4 hours.

Breezy and unseasonably cold in Charlotte.

Phew, power restored before the titanic Panther/Lion battle.

[MU82]

"Worst storm to hit Buffalo in decades."

Yes, that's right. A region that always seems to be under 4 feet of snow from Dec. 1 to March 1 is being buried by its worst storm in decades. Yikes!

[tower912]

77 inches of snow in Buffalo 5 weeks ago.

[MU82]

77 inches of snow in Buffalo 5 weeks ago.

Yep. And this one supposedly is WORSE!

The storm, the worst to strike Buffalo in decades, battered the region overnight with winds exceeding 70 miles per hour, and by Saturday morning more than six feet of snow had buried houses, businesses and cars. The region will not see blizzard conditions ease for another 12 to 18 hours, said Jon Hitchcock, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Buffalo office.

[21Jumpstreet]

There's only one thing that I know how to do well
And I've often been told that you only can do
What you know how to do well
And that's be you,
Be what you're like,
Be like yourself,
And so I'm having a wonderful time
But I'd rather be whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
Whistling in the dark
There's only one thing that I like
And that is whistling in the dark

I do love me some They Might Be Giants

[warriorchick]

Chick Jr went to the Titans game with her uncle and cousins today.

They all said it was too cold to drink beer.  She said, "I'm from Wisconsin!" and waved the beer vendor over to their section.

I have never been more proud.

[tower912]

(sniff) (dabbed tear)

[tower912]

25.5 inches of snow.    Now at 67 for the season.   And it is all going away.   That i cg. of rain between now and Sunday is going to be a problem.

[MU82]

Op-ed in the Washington Post by Pete Saunders, an urban planner in the Chicago area:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/31/buffalo-blizzard-inequality-segregation-cities/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F38b358d%2F63b30e04ef9bf67b2345ae5f%2F5f8d147cae7e8a56e5b732a4%2F17%2F70%2F63b30e04ef9bf67b2345ae5f&wp_cu=b1005792a416de1fbe1f17e5cf366b7d%7CB1FF71CA724A36FAE0530100007F88D6

The recent Christmas blizzard in Buffalo was one for the ages, dropping more than 50 inches of snow — and putting the city over 100 inches for the season, a bit more than its average annual total. Now many Buffalo residents are making legitimate complaints about how unevenly the weather and the snow have affected Black and White residents.

Most tragically, Black people have been overrepresented among the dead. Community leaders point out that Buffalo's whiter neighborhoods and suburbs were better prepared for the weather. And in the aftermath of the storm, their streets were cleared of snow more quickly than those in Black neighborhoods.

This is hardly a new phenomenon. It is how structural racism — some call it "racism without racists" — works. In many cities, patterns established during the bygone days of virulent, interpersonal racism remain embedded in the infrastructure, and these become most evident in times of crisis. Buffalo is only the most recent illustration.

Great Lakes cities are as familiar with segregation as they are with snow. The region is well-represented on lists of the country's most segregated cities, especially when it comes to Black-White segregation. Which city is the most segregated? It doesn't matter. Sometimes it's Detroit. Or Milwaukee. Or Chicago. Or Cleveland. Others in the broader region are not exempt: St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and, yes, Buffalo. All have troubling legacies of segregation. And all suffer economically as a result.

This is rooted in the arrival of Black Southerners to Northern cities in the early 20th century — escaping Jim Crow violence and seeking manufacturing jobs — and efforts by White city leaders to impose space between the migrants and themselves. Over decades, an array of policies — restrictive deed covenants, exclusionary zoning, redlining, "blockbusting," public housing and interstate highway development, among others — formed a starkly segregated region.