Tim and I went out to High Bridge to take some pictures, but all the ice had already melted. However, we did get some pictures of the river at flood stage. This one, for example, shows the river locks. Note that you can’t actually see the locks.

I particularly like the bench, which is a board that two trees have grown around over the last few decades.

No, I’m not a great photographer, but I figure if I take enough pictures, a few of them will be good just out of dumb luck.

Last sunday we had ice on the trees. Yesterday I zipped the lining out of my jacket because it was too warm. Today we have an inch of snow on the ground. Perhaps tomorrow it will be warm again.

This sort of fluctuation plays havoc on the roads, and we have a big crop of potholes out there.

Dear City Council member,

Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the brief outage of the traffic lights around Lexington, following the ice storm of the past weekend. As you know, these intersections operated as 4-way stops while the lights were dark, and, in almost every case, this vastly improved traffic flow. In particular, at the intersection of Reynolds and Shillito, which is on my way to work most mornings, yesterday morning I waited about 12 seconds, as compared to my usual 3 minutes. Most mornings, I sit at that intersection anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes, while 3 or 4 cars drive through the intersection in the other direction. I then have about 25 seconds to get through the light before it change again, so if there are more than 3 of us, someone has to wait another light. But, while the lights were out, it was like old times, back before the unneeded and unwanted traffic light was added to the intersection.

Unfortunately, this morning the light was back in operation, and, once again, I sat for 4 minutes while 3 cars went past on Reynolds. The light on Clays Mill, however, was still out, so I managed to get right throught that intersection without the usual 2 minute wait. Yesterday, it took me 6 minutes to get my daughter to school, whereas, when the lights are working, I almost never make it in less than 12.

I noticed a number of other intersections, also, where traffic flow was a lot faster than usual, because the lights were out. I had always assumed that lights were intended to facilitate traffic flow, not hinder it. Clearly I was mistaken.

So, if you can arrange for the lights to be out more frequently, this would save me a great deal of time and frustration. If you could bring this up at the next city council meeting, this would be a great service to our community.

Thanks for your time.

It was quite interesting driving around today. There are a bzillion icecicles on everything. Cars are encased in an inch or more of ice. Trees are giant ice sculptures. The roads are not particularly bad, but every few miles there’s a branch hanging right down into the road, and this always seems to happen just as someone is coming in the other direction.

There was almost nobody on the roads today, which is just as well, and is probably the reason that I saw not one single accident. However, a small plane went down near somerset, and from the pictures, it was because of ice.

I need to get my printer working again, so that I can print some of the pictures I’ve taken. Although the printer was detected immediately, it does not seem to be printing anything but plain text correctly, and I just don’t have the patience to wrestle with it right now.

There was an ice storm last night. Left quite a mess. There are a number of trees in the road, or branches that are overhanging the roads so low that I can’t drive under them. I took some pictures.