The snow was fun. 26.9 inches. Excellent. I love watching snow fall, and I’m always a bit sad when it finally stops. Falling snow is like being under a warm blanket; nobody’s outside, everyone’s insulated in their homes. When it stops snowing, everyone’s out and about and it sort of ruins everything.

I have today off from work for Lincoln’s birthday (which was actually yesterday). As a state employee, I get separate days for Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays. The problem with a Monday off that nobody else has off is that there’s not really anything to do. But it beats going to work.

Coincidentally, yesterday, Lincoln’s actual birthday, I began reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. This, a day after I finished reading the mammoth The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln by Sean Wilentz. I guess I’m on a Lincoln kick. Or, I’m on a reading-books-I-got-as-gifts-over-the-holidays kick.

As another commemmoration of our 16th president, here’s a photo I never knew existed: Lincoln at Peace, taken the day after he was murdered. Creepy, but calming.