244. Winter Weather

Winter will officially start in a few days, at 1:08 AM EST, the morning of December 22. As of right this moment, the sun is shining, but the temperature is just below freezing at 31 degrees, which is also today's expected high. By the start of Winter on the 22nd, the high is currently forecasted to be in the 50s. But, this is the Ohio Valley and weather forecasts are subject to change.

Friday night we had lots of precipitation, in the form of rain, sleet, snow, and ice; so much so that I will be entertaining roofers tomorrow morning. Waking at 8:45 am yesterday, I found the end of my bed cold and wet, as were the clothes discarded from a few hours earlier at the foot of the bed. And, it appeared to be raining through one of the three windows in my room, the one which fronts on my street. Apparently the water had gotten in behind the brick facade and made its way not only to my bedroom window upstairs but also to the large double window immediately below.

Damage in the bedroom was nil, other than some wet clothes and carpet. Downstairs was a little different. Below the window I have several low-rise bookshelves and all of them along with the books they host were wet, some beyond repair. The bookshelves are replaceable, the books are not. I am a collector of books and have been since I was a child. I have all kinds, some old first editions; others that literally aren't worth the paper that was used to print them. Amongst all the books are also a collection of maps - mostly street maps of Kentucky and her cities - again some old and some new. It is interesting for me to compare the highway routes on the map, as time has led to a number of new roads being built, as well the numbering and renumbering of Kentucky's crossroads. As an example, US 127 used to be numbered only as a State highway (KY 35), while KY 227 and KY 627 used to be a US highway (US 227). There are a few others like this, as well as some renumbered state highway so as not to duplicate an interstate highway number. Kentucky does not allow a state highway to carry the same number as a federal or an interstate highway. There used to be a KY 24 in Mason, Fleming, and Carter counties, but it was renumbered when Interstate 24 was completed. Similarly, KY 64 just west of Louisville and Elizabethtown is now known, for the most part, as KY 144. There are two exceptions. US 79, of which there is an early entry in this blog, ends at Russellville, where KY 79 continues north to Brandenburg, crossing over the Matthew Welch Bridge at Maukport, Indiana, where it becomes IN 135. The other exception is the little known and unmarked stretch of KY 471, essentially an entry/exit ramp of massive proportions connecting I-275 and I-471 to US 27 just east of Northern Kentucky University in Campbell County. But, I digress.

I was speaking of cold rain, sleet, ice, and snow. How amazingly different the weather is from just last Tuesday, Inauguration Day for Steve Beshear, when the thermometer broke high temperature records in celebration of a change of command in Frankfort. As I said, the weather is ever-changing here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. Stick around. Spring is just around the corner.

*****

Happy Belated Birthday to Preston Bates, who was all of 19 yesterday and is already a political veteran in Jefferson County. Another one of those names to remember - part of the Kentucky Democratic Party's ever-deepening bench for the future.