The winter solstice is just around the corner. Days are short, and tempers aren’t so long now either.
I had to stop and get gas on the way home last night. It was still early evening, but the sun had set a couple hours before and it was pretty crisp out. Indeed, it was cold enough that the gas pump printer couldn’t spit out my receipt; I had to go into the station to get it.
Walking toward the entrance I met an older gentleman… older? Well, let’s just imagine this guy has me by a couple years, and I haven’t been young for quite a while. Anyway, our newest acquaintance stops at the door of his pickup, turns to me, and offers, “This weather is horrible. It’s killing me”. Now I wasn’t in a particularly good mood right then myself. My mind wandered down a list of possible replies:
“Sucks to be you”
“Yeah, and winter starts on Wednesday”
Looking up at the cloudless sky – “It’s only going to get worse”
“OH, you’re that one guy from Wayne.”
Just to be clear, Wayne is way north, and likely much colder at the moment.
But I couldn’t bring myself to heap salt on his wound, the moment was getting awkward, all I had was a snarky thought with a side of local geography… I was about to offer “South is that way”. And as my right hand was sneaking out of my coat pocket to assist with that message I reigned it in, thought the better of it, and just tipped my head in a sort of “I hear you” nod. Two old curmudgeons passed in the night, what doesn’t kill them leaves them to be curmudgeons again tomorrow.
I brush my teeth last thing in the morning before I head to work. Old habits. So this morning the tube of toothpaste is just about empty. There’s another in the house – but it’s not handy. One piece of my mind starts growling over this inconvenience… and another piece of my mind goes to “South is that way”.
Gulliver's Pulse 
Be thankful as an old curmudgeon you still have teeth to brush. Oh yeah winter does start tomorrow.
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Did last week’s polar vortex leave any snow in St Louis/St Charles?
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More ice, very little snow. Gridlock Friday night for most peoples comute. Some with 15 minute drives took 5 and a half hours. I have even heard of 8 hour comutes.
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Ouch, 5 1/2 to 8 hrs… that would do me in. About two weeks ago there was a bad accident along the route I drive home that closed the road down. I was able to get off the highway and take back roads home. But that whole ordeal only added 45 minutes to the normal time – so I really can’t complain.
Mart and Dan took the scenic route home from Aledo. They got to see a good bit of the state that neither had seen before. Where was the hog farm you worked at in college?…. I’m thinking they may have gone close by
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Avon. Ham-a-lot corp.
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Avon, thanks. That may very well have been along their ‘tour’.
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