I’ve got to admit it’s getting better…

I stayed hunkered down at home most of today, whipping up a pot of chili for lunch, and settling a dog dispute over a hapless bird that got trapped on our screened porch.

I responded to serious barking and snarling to find Jack with a dead bird in his mouth and Samantha, the American bulldog, glaring at him for taking her prize. Sam dreams of catching birds and sits under the bird feeder, a picture of comical optimism.

I chased Jack around the yard for awhile – which is what he wanted me to do - trying to get him to surrender the dead bird before he ate it. I finally distracted him and snatched it up, tossing it over the fence and out of his reach.

Thinking I might see something worth photographing, I took my camera with me when I went to the post office in mid-afternoon. I stopped at the Dollar General to restock Maria’s supply of Coke Zero 2-liter bottles and as I prepared to get back onto the highway, I noticed this Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department grader northbound on U.S. 49. So I shot a bunch of frames and sent one downtown for possible use in the paper. The driver, just for the record, was Heath Eubanks with the department’s Greene County maintenance crew.

Our little subdivision county road, on the other hand, isn’t likely to get plowed or graded before the sun makes the snow disappear. That’s the most common form of Arkansas snow removal.