A Beautiful Month in the Neighborhood

Happy New Year! We're back from Chicago now, and I promise a couple of posts from the Following Christ/Human Flourishing conference that Jenny and I attended. But while we were gone, most of the snow melted in a daylong rainstorm. More had fallen by the the time we returned, so I need not fear a dearth of snow around here, but this time it was a gentle two inches. Two objects for this post: To add a reason my tired brain had forgotten about why the 23rd was a beautiful day here--the neighborliness of my next door neighbor who took pity on Jenny and me chipping and chopping the ice left from the snow plow. He just kept going with his powerful snowblower and blew away that icey mess in short order. Thanks!!

The other is to convey some December G.R. statistics from the paper this morning. First, it was the cloudiest month on record. July 5 itself had more sun that we had the whole month. Second, we got 54 inches of snow, making it the second snowiest Dec. on record and three times the average 18 inches G.R. gets the last month of the year. Third, this month's supply of snow added to the rest of the (calendar) year's record 143 inches. I'd say that Chuck's man-toy, the snow blower, was a strategic purchase. My only hope is that the rest of the winter will be easier now that we've survived this. According to a local TV weather guy, none of this excess has to do with global warming but instead it is related to last winter's "weak La Nina." There you go, those of you who are bereft of snow in your southern homes.

I promise a book post for Reuben from the conference....very soon.