War is Over. (if you want it...)

Interesting weather weekend.  We got about 3+1/2 inches of snow in Oakdale, on top of 1/2 inch of rain from a true thunderstorm, the flash of lightning out the window Saturday night alerted me. 

The rain came from the south, and then froze before the snow came. From my third-floor perch atop the parking lot, I could see the pickups with the plows, and the Bobcats coming off the trailers Saturday for clearing the sidewalks and paths, working all morning to push the heavy load here,  and there around our apartment complex.

The mature pines are bearing their loads stoically; they've seen worse but they droop with heaviness.  The flag -- god bless her! -- dried out mid-yesterday, and was back up flapping with the light southern wind.  

She was the one I noticed first on Saturday night hanging so heavy, before the rains came, in what was just a generally damp day.  Not moving, sticking tight to the pole.  She had absorbed the moisture melting in the air after a dry, cold winter, then froze hanging as the sun set and the warmth disappeared.

Then the lightning, thunder, rain... I went to bed and woke to the snow and hoarfrost of yesterday.   

Quiet morning -- the road plows had moved through overnight, but the ice everywhere else was keeping drivers from being the first one out.  It looked like 5 o'clock all day, gray and in a fog.

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ADDED:   I do feel badly for the new parents doing their taxes and realizing how much of the money for their own children's futures we are sending to Poland now to help suppport the Ukrainian people in flight, and build up the Polish air fleet.

What does it do to empty a "country" of its peoples, put a government in exile, and declare the world still supporting its fight for freedom -- neutrally -- as the countryside, and cities of civilization, are decimated?

Strange days, indeed.

ALSO:  The Bakken oil range might be a good place to relocate Eastern European women and children if we begin taking in Ukranian refugees here.  In western North Dakota and eastern Montana, the climate is harsh but the need to repopulate the region would be there, if America ramps up oil production at home in coming decades.