November 11, 2019. Madison, Mississippi. The Lull Before the Storm.

The air was totally still. I could hear no birds. I could hear no wind. I was spooked. When I go out for a walk, I hear lots of noise. I hear boats on the reservoir and hear airplanes in the distance. And I hear lots of bird songs. But today when I went out to walk at 4:00 there were no sounds at all. Being by the water means having breezes. But not today. Not even any birds. They must have known that something is coming and they were hiding. I talked with George in Liverpool this afternoon. He said that in Nova Scotia everyone was preparing for cold weather, followed by a storm. "We are battening down the hatches," said George. I told him that we in Mississippi were also expecting cold weather. But we will not get as cold as Nova Scotia. When I went walking, the temperature was 70 degrees. At 8:00 the rain started. By 9:00 the temperature was 45. And by sunrise, which is 6:25 the temperature will be 29, which is about as cold as Jackson ever gets. The forecast is for us to have rain all night and we might even have snow. Molly will be delighted if it snows because the schools will be closed. The solution for snow and ice here in Mississippi is to just wait. We will be 50 by Wednesday. Today when I was out walking I knew that bad weather was coming. I have never heard the air so still. Spooky.