More Signs, I'm Becoming A Hermit.

 Actual winter weather has arrived at the City by the Inland Sea.

Throughout November and December, Milwaukee flirted with seasonal temperatures and zero snowfall. We are now experiencing zero windchill and occasional snow showers. For me, this means concern for where did I store my gloves and balaclava. I also have to break out the scarves that actually work to keep me warm instead of being an accessory that makes me look more European. (Oh yeah, I do that.)

Many of us have this love-hate relationship with snow. We're depressed when we don't have a white Christmas. We complain when we have to shovel or blow it. It's 'pretty' when it first falls and ugly as it ages in piles of gray decay.

We have a roller-coaster temperature experience along with the snow, with high temperatures below freezing and lows in the single digits. Then, as mentioned above, you add wind that ranges from 10 mph and occasional gusts of more than 35 mph, and you're talking about possible severe conditions.

This is generally living in the northern midwest part of our country. We all have our stories of storms that were unbelievable in their ferocity and affect. Some of us have lost a car in a snowdrift on our driveway or one created by a plow on a city street. Some of us have lost a snow boot in the snowdrift so high it sucked off our leg.

But ladies and gentlemen, the meanest trick Mother Nature ever devised is black ice. And if she's really pissed off, she'll put a cost of nice dry snow over the top of it so you will be sure not to see it. But, if she puts it on the front steps, it can be a killer. And that, my friends, is why I haven't left my apartment building for over a week.

So what does one do with all of this alone time? It's perfect for writing pithy entries on my blog. But I realize the solitude directs my thoughts and guides my hand. The hand with the pencil or paintbrush in it.

I love Carol Rohde - Curley's work. By making my image from hers, I learn. Her style is much loser than mine. I need to do more of this.

I chose this image because of the complexity of its arms and hands going this way and that. I might paint this.

This sketch is from a photo that my Granddaughter Micka posted on Facebook of her and her husband A.J. They are dressed up for a night out. He with a beer. She with her wine.

And that's what you do when you don't want to surrender to loneliness.