ice

 At eleven in the morning, finally left the bed. The evening had been late the night before.

It was snowing outside, and the footpath in front of the house was covered. It is only four metres of footpath, so go outside and clear the snow and spread a bit of salt.

Have breakfast, note that there are hardly any eggs left. Read the news, read that there are hundreds of Iranians being killed by their own security forces. At least, those belonging to their own government. The authoritarians are threatening with more of their own security forces in the United States unless the protests stop.

There are presumably more guns per capita in the United States than there are in Iran.

It is all very worrying. The United Kingdom wants to send its troops to Greenland for some NATO exercise. It is hard to follow exactly what is going on in the world.

Leave the house, in the meantime it has started to rain. The pavements are covered in a sheet of ice. The pavement in front of the house is covered in ice, regardless of the salt that is spread there. This phenomenon had been mentioned in the weather forecast the night before. Ice rain is what the German meteorologists called it.

Walk to the mall to get eggs. There are people slipping on the surfaces everywhere, it is alarming. It is strange that the cyclists seem immune to these conditions. But they are driving their vehicles more slowly than usual.

Buy the eggs in the shop, and walk back home taking the path by the river. This is not as badly iced as the others. Once at home take the snow rake and push the ice aside.

Two hours later a man knocks angrily on the door and says that salt is to be spread on the path, it is covered in ice again. 

The drizzle has caused a completely clear and almost invisible sheet of ice to form over the paving stones, it is like an ice rink.