Winterkill

I was sitting here thinking about the weather, like most of my neighbors in the great Midwest, and I suddenly wondered what the cost of the last month's storms and bitter temperatures has been. A few of us had discussed the near-panicked pre-storm stocking up that's occurred occasionally, but I'd be willing to bet that the snow, ice and bitter cold have seriously affected a lot of businesses across the area.

I know for a fact that restaurant and bar business has suffered (not that I haven't done my part to help the bars). Hell, the Haymarket closed early due to the ice storm a few weeks ago - that's serious weather, kids! I've seen that some livestock trading outfits shut down for a day or two because of the current cold snap, schools have closed for days at a time, the streets are unusually quiet downtown.

I'm not enough of an economist to determine how deep or wide the effects will be, but I'm sure that January will end up being a less than stellar month for a lot of smaller business throughout the Midwest. And that, of course, means that a lot of employees will be hurting. I haven't paid attention to state news enough to know if Culver has declared a Disaster situation, or whether that's warranted, but I know it's going to be a lean month for more than a few folks.