Rick's b.log - entry 2026/01/05

I may not be going to work tomorrow...

I went and fed Anna at twenty to five, and walked her around the house to get a little bit of an 'out'. She wasn't amused by the stuff falling from the sky because it wasn't edible. I took an umbrella with me because it was still chucking it down, but it felt like a mix of big snowflakes and rain. I thought it could be a problem if it's this wet out and the night dips below zero, especially given as how there wasn't any sun today, so the highest it crawled up to was a mediocre 2.4°C. That's like the colder part of the average fridge.

Just before 5pm, I looked out front and... well... what's has come down in the past fifteen or so minutes is about the same as fell all night on Christmas, and it doesn't show any sign of slowing down and the temperature is supposed to keep on plummeting - down to around -5°C again. I just can't see any scenario where the roads aren't...catastrophic.

It's a white world this evening.

Unless there's like a foot of snow on the ground, I'll do like I did last time. I'll bring my car around front and gently tap the brakes. The last time I tried that several years back, I kept right on going, which for me was enough to be "nope, not driving in this".
And if there's a foot of snow on the ground (or, worse, more)? That's an instant nope. But I don't think I've ever seen snow like that in this part of France.
But, then, I've never seen two flash floods on consecutive days, nor the access lane completely underwater, nor...

Later on, using the camera's IR mode.

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John, 5th January 2026, 20:17

So multiple abduction in another state's jurisdiction is to be added to international piracy in the indictment of the US president (the buck stops there!). Who is it that implements international law?   Is it the UN?    Was it an act of war, or merely an infringement of international law?    As you so rightly point out, Greenland must be justifiably nervous.    It's a bit like, say, Putin decided to invade a now independent former-soviet state.    That's an act of war which he himself describes as just "a special military operation".    Will Trump adopt the same phrase, I wonder, in days to come, to describe this present atrocity?     And, as you also point out, an unfortunate precedent which may have serious repercussions if not universally condemned and acted upon!    I think we all have much more to worry about than whether you get to work tomorrow or not!

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