Hailstoned

And the old man is snoring?

NOPE.

Then Winter must be having digestive issues. Been out a lot in the outhouse in recent years.

March, yes, but not so much February. Also telling is sap season has "migrated" to February in recent years, as opposed to its traditional timing in March.

Birds are also stirring. This weekend despite the chill, there was lots of what might be labeled, "spring anticipatory activity" along with accompanying bird calls.

Feb. 88 featured a good one out here in the B-Town/Amherst area.

1. Emojis haven't the ability to get "confused" unless AI has advanced in leaps and bounds I am not aware of. 2. "Confused" being used three times in one sentence points precisely to the source of the confusion.

10.5" final, Monson, MA.

What's different is I remember on Christmas night 1969, walking out on a pond near Boston to observe conditions in advent of this major tempest. Back then it would have been shocking to have open waters so late in December... but now...

And apples and oranges, apparently.

Yup. And so will the Passenger Pigeon.

"Stick to your long-johns until your long-johns stick to you"

And of course, Thanksgiving, 1989 with about 4" of powder falling day of, followed by 3-4 weeks of epic cold to where I jogged on ice on a section of the Chicopee River. But with the New Year, the winter more or less fizzled out.

Correct-- "machine gun" is a misrepresentation but the legality of auto/semi-auto weapons and the large magazines allowed produces more or less the same horrific results in mass shootings.