December 28, 2017. Cleveland is in a deep freeze. It seems to have come about a month early this winter. The weather service forecasts the cold spell to run for at least another week. I am driving through icy, slushy streets. But it's mostly sunny, though by the rays of a low-arching winter sun. I see one car that looks like it has just been washed. The rest have a road salt glaze.
I am driving from a Target store to the next stop on my shopping run. The shoppers at the store seemed fairly cheerful. A family went by, the children chattering. A boy, guided by his father, had found a good toy for his Christmas money. A man walked in front of me, and said, "Excuse me." A floor clerk directed me to the perfume department, and called ahead to have another clerk meet me there. The other clerk researched and found that the store didn't carry what I was looking for, but that it was available on Amazon. These are Americans, my people. We live in "the land of the free."