The layer on top of the ice here in Nashville was at least a half-inch thick this morning. My initial reason for stepping outside was to scoop my driveway. I worked for twenty minutes (making very little progress) before I got distracted with stacking the shards of ice that had formed above my driveway. My wife will probably not be very amused when she gets back home tomorrow.

These things look pretty nasty compared to the little, short-limbed, short-antenna’d, black crickets that are common in Nebraska.

Yeah . . . I can only imagine what went through my wife’s mind when she saw me in the backyard arranging leaves.

I wasn’t supposed to take this photo according to the folks at The Hermitage. Since I didn’t use a flash the lady didn’t realize that I had already taken a shot. That’s just how I roll.

These are the bags of leaves that we raked up off of our new backyard in Nashville.