three or four days now on a thick fog that has kind of come and gone, but mostly made visibility difficult. i said to my wife, "it looks like an old fleetwood mac album out there," but the reference was lost to her. We are in the same generation, but clearly not of the same musical leanings. a lot of my friends know exactly what album i'm talking about.

i am grateful to not have to leave galesburg, where i can see the streetlights through the fog and i don't kneed to see that much else besides the car in front of me. out in the mountains when it got this bad i felt like the cliffs and canyons were going to swallow me whole.

i've been working a little on my disney stories - in fact if i can finish "have a magical day" i can name it "have a magical day - and a dozen other short stories from the house of mouse." i'm mulling that over as a full title - and mulling over stopping at thirteen. it would be a small book that way - like the walmart book - seventy pages or so. mulling it over, i said.

i lost a little weight there for a little while, with all that running around and everything - but in the end, i got it all back again. something about the cold and long winter nights sitting here at my chair - i've been eating too many snacks. ah well. right back to where i started. and that's the end of january for ya.

a really heavy fog has moved in, and though i'm very tired i can't go to bed because the teens are monopolizing the bathroom. it's about ten at night, and the puppy is ok with this turn of events, because he enjoys my lap and will gladly sit anywhere where i will pet him a little while longer. i gave out on my reading a little while ago, and i did a little writing, but wasn't really grooving on that either. the fog puts me in a reflective mood.

the house is actually emptier these days. the eighteen-year-old and his friends actually moved out, and we spend time getting their house organized across town, but that leaves us this one, quieter, emptier, peaceful. the fog has settled over a deep snow and it had been raining on this snow for a while. rain, ice, snow, fog - it's been kind of relentless for a while. but it also feels like the worst of the cold is over. a couple of minus-fifteen nights and some very cold days, and the cold front just kind of left. now it's fog and snow.

took off my hearing aids to go to bed, but then of course i couldn't go to bed, so came back downstairs, put puppy back on lap, and now it's tinnitus and the quiet house. out on the street a car comes by occasionally - our brick street does not seem to be too icy and they sometimes have pretty good speed. all day, you follow the rules; you go the speed limit, yield to people, go along in an orderly manner. at night, they seem to take liberty. who knows if they are going from one bar to another or what. i think this weather has gotten to some people. not everyone is going to come out of it intact.

got done running around earlier today, pointed myself back home, and got stopped by a big old train. this one seemed to have a lot of cars from europe on it. it was about two miles long, as they all are, but the cars had logos that were in german, french, danish, etc. why would they all be together? i kind of liked it; i always do, unless the train stops altogether and i have to turn around in no faith that it will ever start again. the graffiti is especially interesting to me, and seems to be in a language of its own.

i now have a train of my own, and this one is online, for writers and poets, and filled up with my pop-art of graffiti on trains. it seems to be pretty sleepy and i must say, there's enough other action out there that people don't really need mine. i'm trying to get it to the point where all i do is make graffiti pop art once in a while, and start a new train - i really don't like policing and avoid it at all costs. i'll make the rules more to my liking, so i'm more likely to survive. that's my general rule on blogs too. if i enjoy doing this, i'll keep coming back.

it's about eight below out there, and going down fast; it will probably get to fifteen below tonight. tomorrow night might be equally cold or worse. i got up my nerve and went out in it; fortunately i was only going around town (galeburg illinois). at the hy-vee people were busy gathering supplies, and as usual very friendly.

galesburg is a train town and i could see a train in the distance blocking the tracks. this meant i had to go over a bridge which of course is high drama on the way back down. i made it though; the roads were ok. i had to go around several times; i'm sure that train had its own problems.

i saw this one kid in a slightly larger car stuck in a berm created by the snowplows. he was actually in the driveway of a gas station and was trying to get back onto the main road, but made the mistake of trying to go right over this berm which held his car while his wheels were fruitlessly spinning in the snow. in my younger days i would have got out of the car and helped him; he'd need a major push. today i did nothing; i am seventy, and earlier today i fell off our stairs and into a snow-bank, and i just decided, with snow blowing, icy roads, and minus eight, i'd leave it for the younger folks. he had someone with him. he was right at a main road. i am hoping someone helped him. it couldn't be me, today.

i'm not sure how it happened that i fell off the steps and into a snow-bank; i was very lucky. i have a few bruises. i just want to stay in my chair with puppy in lap. i'm hoping no pipes freeze. friends and family are encouraging me to stay put. it's not the kind of blizzard you want to be stuck out there in.

new year's day. did my blogs and some running around in the very-cold weather, and i'm now sitting back, enjoying the puppy and watching it get dark - well, at five o'clock, it's already dark. i didn't feel like cleaning the garage. i' have been sitting more, running around less. but i did make it out to monmouth to see one of the kids' moms.

the puppy, for his part, is grateful for the times he can lie around, tucked up on my leg, taking a real nap. he gets angry when i have to get up and leave him. his idea of a new year is lots of naps where he keeps one eye open. he's perfectly willing to come up and sleep in the bed also.

i'm making a series of resolutions on the blogs. i did the pop art one just now, but it occurred to me that my pop resolutions aren't really that strong. i muddle along doing pop regularly, but i don't really have the strong desire to take my work to a better level or, for example, to join the crowd of impressionists online who peddle their work. i want to take my work and put it in frames, but, i haven't really had the time to organize the frames, the art, the various aspects of it. pop is one of those things that is more or less on the back burner.

but, i came up with a dozen marketing resolutions fairly quickly. i have lots of marketing things going on and plenty to resolve. in fact i have resolutions in many areas, including the expansion of a quaker book charity. i'm serious about it and might actually do it. it would address several problems at once: first, that a lot of books are simply falling by the wayside; second, that kids need stuff to do; and third, that the internet has made possible the relatively expedient putting cheap books in people's hands. My son taught me a little about the ebay process; now it's my turn to consider using it with a box of books i received recently.

as i sit here i realize it's just an unrealized fantasy at this point. the christmas tree stands there glowing; we're late taking it down. the large puppy has made scrappy messes all over every floor. my pamphlets need to be finished. i haven't been getting enough exercise. and on and on.

but with the new month, a new blog report. no football here. no rose parade, no television. no blizzard or snow-drifts. no trip to the y, yet. when war reports show people getting bombed and killed, children starving, i'm somehow less inclined to go out on the town. or even, to say to my friends, let's get together, and enjoy some company.