Am I blue? Well ...

Epic soaps like Downton Abbey, churned out recently in Britain, don't interest me --- but there's nothing quite like a good British spy story (John le Carre, by the way, is now 83 and still writing). So I've been frittering evenings away this week watching the first two installments of the Worricker Trilogy, written and directed by David Hare and broadcast first on BBC Two. The final installment, Salting the Battlefield, airs Sunday on PBS.

Bill Nighy (above right) stars as Johnny Worricker, an aging MI5 operative who despite various trials, tribulations --- and romances --- manages to give the establishment fits. Great stuff. 

I've frittered a lot this week, which is why there's nothing especially productive here this morning.

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Part of the problem is, I am not a winter person --- unless the winter is happening in let's say Mississippi, where the seasons change but not quite so dramatically. 

So I've been frittering, too, by reviewing past and current posts on the Facebook site, "A Place Called Rodney,"  which I joined despite my Yankee-ness and the fact that the only family member who spent any time at all in that state, Uncle Jim Rhea, A Lucas Countyan of an earlier century, was killed during the Siege of Vicksburg and is still there, sort of.

Rodney is a ghost town in the Natchez District with a couple of wonderful old crumbling churches and the members of and contributors to the site incredibly and most interestingly productive. So it's a constant source of diversion for someone who obsesses about old buildings --- even though my interest in Civil War order of battle is underwhelming.

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Truth be told, I've been cowering inside too much since Tuesday, when the cold snap set in. I'm working on adjusting the old attitude, but it's going to take time.

One of the Facebook posts that diverted me this week came from a friend in one of Iowa's big cities who, while shopping his favorite Hy-Vee, ran into a guy with an automatic weapon strapped to his leg. Upon inquiring, the manager sent him a nice note saying the store does "not completely prohibit fire arms" and observing that, "This is an issue with no clear cut answer and much support on both sides."

Now I really don't care if people own guns, hunt, play with guns, any of that. But must say it's bad manners to carry a weapon into a retail establishment --- and probably dangerous, too. You never know when somebody's going to misunderstand your motivation and blow you away.

And I understand Hy-Vee's position, too. Ban guns and you end up with heavily armed folks in camouflage scaring the bejezus out of people in the parking lot.

I'm just grateful that the Chariton Hy-Vee management posts that little sign on the front door every summer reading, "Shoes and shirts required." Because only God knows how dangerous barefoot people are.

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Am I blue? Not necessarily, but the weather map is. Predicted high of 30 today --- and snow. Wonderful.