amen

Family

Last night, I was up late working and I heard K stirring and whimpering in bed. I checked in on him and it was as I suspected; he was having a bad dream. So I prayed for him. As I whispered, he settled into a restful sleep and just as soon as I said “amen” and kissed his forehead he did not wake up, but he did put in his own “amen.”

Driving Advice

Adventures, Observations

Assumption: If the speed limit on a given road is 55 miles per hour, then that speed limit is the speed — give or take a few miles per hour — that is reasonable to drive under perfect conditions.  Question:  Is it reasonable to expect folks to drive less than 55 mph under less than perfect conditions?  Another question:  Is it reasonable to expect folks to drive substantially less than the posted speed limit when conditions are almost as bad as they could possibly be — to wit, a half inch sheet ice covering the road?

 It is interesting to me that if visibility is less than 50 feet or so, folks tend to drive quite slow, but when icy conditions impair their stopping and steering ability, they do not slow down.  But the effect is the same.  You can’t stop or steer in time to miss your target. 

 I suspect that if folks tested their traction more often on slick roads, they would slow down more.

 And here is another thing.  While driving in heavy snow yesterday, we had probably 40 cars pass us.  38 out of 40 had Illinois plates.  Interesting?  I think so.

Need Camera

Observations

You know, I’m beginning to think I need to take a camera with me wherever I go. There is so much that I see that I think is worthy of a snapshot. This morning on the way to work, there was again a dazzling hoarfrost. But the more interesting bit was that there was almost no wind and a temperature inversion. The warmer temperatures, about one hundred feet up, stopped the smoke from folks’ chimneys rising, but the colder temperatures kept the steam visible for a long time.

A farmer was delivering hay to his cows in their pasture, while his farm house puffed a stream of smoke that traveled straight up and then took a ninety degree turn, as if it were actually traveling in a stovepipe.

Another house on the side of a hill was several hundred yards from the road. The smoke from its chimney also traveled straight up, but when the inversion checked it, it began to spread north in a widening layer. So by the time the smoke had reached my viewpoint, it was as wide as a road and as thick. It was a smoky country road in the sky.