If you watched the news Wednesday, you probably already know we had snow in Georgia. Atlanta was paralyzed. If you read my previous post, you also know that there were a lot of impassable roads in Alabama Tuesday night. Wednesday morning dawned clear and very cold. We had three inches of snow and 10 F. I don’t think Rome’s traffic situation was anything like Atlanta’s, but we had no reason to leave home Wednesday anyway.

I did take Zeke for a short walk in the morning. It was too cold for Lucy, even with her coat. I was glad we went down Wildlife Trail, because I found evidence that at least one fox is still in the neighborhood. I had not seen one since the county spent a week resurfacing Wildlife Trail. At first I thought the tracks were from one of the cats, but they were too big and too widely spaced. The tracks came from the woods across the street, where the foxes seemed to have a den. They came into our driveway, but veered off away from the house and then back into the street.

It looks like this one spends some of its time in a culvert. Its tracks led to one end of the culvert and disappeared. There were tracks at the other end, too.

Zeke’s tracks made a neat little intertwined pattern with the fox’s.

Zeke seemed completely uninterested in the tracks in the snow, so I assume there was little or no scent. He was interested in the area around the end of the culvert. I assume this means the scent was stronger, although I don’t know whether that means the fox spends time in the culvert.

We walked into the woods at the bottom of Wildlife Trail. A rabbit had been hopping around down there.

Later I found what was probably a crow’s tracks behind the house. I wasn’t sure at first, but when I followed the tracks, they led to a double circle and then disappeared. It was a neat trick if it wasn’t a bird.

Added Thursday night:

It was 16 degrees up at our house on Thursday morning. I drove down the mountain a little after 8 am, and the thermometer in my truck showed 1F. I haven’t seen a temperature that low in a long time. The cab got warm, but the engine didn’t get to normal operating temperature until I reached the long uphill grade that I couldn’t get down on Tuesday night. That was about 30 miles from home. Motor oils and other lubricants must have really improved in the last 30 years. I drove a 1984 Nissan pickup during the winter of 1984-85 when the temperature in Atlanta dropped to about 5F. It never got warm enough to give heat in the cab, and when I took my foot off the gas, the truck slowed down like I had thrown out an anchor.