Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with scattered showers and a high of 40. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:33 PM for 9h 08m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1957, the Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
Winter is a demanding season — as these months are desert-like in their sparsity — and yet deserts are abundant in sand as winter is abundant in snow. Rob Mentzer reports This Stevens Point sculptor’s medium is snow:
When Jef Schobert started making snow sculptures, he faced them toward his house. He’d shape a Mickey Mouse or some other cartoon character for his young daughter.
One day, his mail carrier stopped and told him he should make them face the street, for everyone to enjoy.
“It kind of blew my mind,” said Schobert, a 57-year-old with a white Santa Claus beard.
That was likely thousands of snow sculptures ago. In the decades since he started making them, Schobert’s annual sculptures have become a fixture outside his Stevens Point home, which he calls the Snow Art Zone. He makes around 100 different pieces per winter — carvings of a castle or a carriage or Aquaman on a throne — and posts photos and videos on his Facebook, Instagram and TikTok pages. Occasionally, one goes viral, as did his January 2021 sculpture of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wearing mittens.
“Snow is very temporary,” Schobert said. “I take pictures of it, and the pictures then become my art, even after the art’s gone.”
There’s a fellow who knows how to make the most of an austere season. We should all hope to do half so well.
Severe Wind Forces easyJet to Abort Landing in England:
Severe winter winds in Bristol, England, forced this easyJet to abort its landing on December 28. Luckily, the plane was able to reclimb, circle back, and safely land approx 15 min later.