Sorry, gang, I know you were all counting on coming out to cheer me up in my lonely isolation — my wife is away, visiting relatives — but there was that nasty wet storm yesterday, and I just spent a couple of hours digging out the driveway and sidewalks from that (-20°C! A four foot high pile in front of the driveway!) and my face is numb and my fingers are burning and my feet are frozen. Now I learn that there is an even bigger blizzard on the way today.

So this is one of those days when you discover that Western Minnesota is not fit for human habitation. I’ll be celebrating the New Year by nestling in with a pot of hot tea, snowed in and inaccessible for a while. I’ll get wild tonight and have a beer.