Smokingboot

It was heavy sleet when I got up and then it was heavy snow  but thankfully not really freezing rain. However heavy snow-- weight heavy, not just thick and fast-- is a pain to deal with. I scraped about four inches off the steps and shovelled the path in tiny increments because shovel was too heavy to lift. Salted same, came in and stretched, two hours later did it again, though it was only an inch or so by then. Have been hearing sirens all day, doubtless the aged like me not taking their shovelling easy. Meanwhile either a bobcat or a really public-minded and extremely strong snowblower had come along and flattened the sidewalk into walkability. Money is on bobcat because didn't see any blown snow. And if only my back wasn't such a diva I could have taken the snowpack up and cleared down to the concrete, because it lifts really nicely with the ice scraper now. Did a metre-long stretch to show it could be done, but my back really hates me.

Finished the Riddlemaster trilogy last week and went over vol.3 with the handy ebook 'search in book' function to shed some light on who and when. Am still slightly confused. Then in a bout of 'get it off the shelf' I started on James Branch Cabell's Jurgen. Cabell was probably my first experience of fandom: somehow in my 20s I stumbled on a group devoted to his works and subscribed to their newsletters and such. I haven't read him in 50 years and retained only an impression of extreme clever clogs-ishness. Which he is, and sniggering with it, though I was surprised to find that the beginning of Jurgen is actually sweetly melancholic about the compromises of maturity. Which was not something I'd register in my early 20s. Did go online to see what, if anything, people have to say about Cabell now, and was pleased to come across a reddit thread of the young'uns can't be having with him.

To take the taste of that out of my mouth I had recourse to a couple of Dr. Priestleys, only one of which was glaringly obvious. Then took a disintegrating Penguin Classic off the shelf, Poems of Heaven and Hell From Ancient Mesopotamia. Have been through the Babylonian Creation twice, with the introduction and the cast of characters, and am still confused as to who is who. It doesn't help that the pages are literally crumbling so that leafing back and forth is unadvised and difficult. Should probably move on to the next section.

Currently also reading a collaboration between John Dickson Carr and John Rhode, which reads very oddly indeed. Should also read that library book, which is in Japanese and I believe rather in demand. Since I'm certainly not going anywhere tomorrow, I may spend the day doing that.

The forecast for tomorrow contains the heart-stopping words 'freezing rain' and my joints are registering the approach of the oncoming storm. Wasn't so bad in the morning when temperatures soared to 6C/ 40-something F and great chunks of snow berms melted. Got out to the laundromat finally. The great lake at the end of my block that I waded through going had shrunk to a small puddle coming back 90 minutes later. I can't think this was all evaporation and certainly wasn't run-off, having nowhere to run to. I suspect a public-minded citizen with a broom, but who knows.

I rescheduled my physio from tomorrow afternoon to Friday and I hope that will guarantee nothing but ordinary rain and maybe sleet. Certainly they're now saying the freezing rain will mostly be west of the city. But Fiesta, at least, has road salt back in stock should I run out. And a good thing I never followed up on the impulse to take advantage of the springlike temps by suggesting dinner to bro and s-i-l. Even today I couldn't manage it and the rest of the week is various forms of precipitation.

Anyway, happy lunar new year to those who celebrate, as also ramadan mubarak tomorrow.