'Tis the season to be chilly

There's snow on the ground, and I would have walked over and gotten a photo of snow on the town, but a) the broken toe doesn't enjoy travel and b) the Nevada City Live webcam will (in daytime) show you just as well. (FYI: as of this writing, you can't view the webcam if your browser security is set to High.)

The technical term for what I've heard called "popcorn snow" is graupel: "an unstable air mass produced unusual icy pellets that looked like snow. The frozen pellets, which resemble hail, are called graupel...what looked like frozen white peas coated backyards..."

As discovered last spring: to keep warm if you don't want to enrich (or un-bankrupt) PG&E, cut off the leg from an old pair of jeans, sew one end shut, pour about 5 pounds of pre-baked (to reduce moisture) dried rice in the other end, knot or tie firmly. Heat in microwave. It works as well as a hot water bottle and those pesky leaks are considerably less disturbing.

Updated with tips:

• from Sally - if your car door lock is frozen, heat your key? the lock? with a cigarette lighter.
  
• Keep frost off your windshield by putting your sunshade on the _outside_. Or, better yet, park under an evergreen.