Some minor transitions today. Early in the day, after we all had a fine breakfast at the local branch of pancake specialist Walker Bros. — ahead of the Sunday rush — I took Lilly back to Champaign to continue her junior-year education. Later in the day, I took down this season’s Christmas tree, which as usual left a trail of needles all the way from the living room to the curb.

On Saturday, snow had fallen. The most since late November, but even so we only got a few inches here. We were at the northern edge of a larger storm that barreled eastward through Missouri, Iowa, downstate Illinois and Indiana. So the closer we got to Champaign the next day, the more snow we saw covering the ground.

Here’s the I-57 rest area near Buckley, Illinois, where six (eight?) inches or so covered the ground.

Not an epic storm, but enough to cause trouble. Today I-57 was clear and unobstructed. It must have been a different story 24 hours earlier. We saw five, maybe six abandoned cars at various angles off the side of the road between Kankakee and Champaign, part of the aftermath of the previous day’s weather. That included one whose front was banged up badly when it hit a support pillar of an overpass.