Snow-- the morning after

Update from the kitchen window: 17 inches fell at MSP before stopping last evening. Snow removal guys came to plow us out last night with a very loud snow blower. Sound is magnified at 3 AM, which is when they showed up. They abandoned ship, and snow blower about 30 minutes later, leaving us with a partially plowed driveway.

OLGS is out trying to make do with our much lighter snow blower, although he's leaving the driveway in the hope that the snow guys will return with heavier equipment. He's just going to do the sidewalk. Always the good neighbor.

This is the biggest snowstorm we've had since moving to our Mpls. house. Makes me feel like a real Minnesotan.

Too cold to snow?

View from the kitchen window
When people from New England, where they get lots of snow, ask me how I like the snow in Minnesota, I always tell them that it's too cold and dry to snow much. The difference between here and there is that when it does snow, the snow remains on the ground until April. In contrast, the 10 inch snows that regularly occur in Massachusetts disappear within a week or two.

My tune has changed. Right now it's snowing again, and we are on track to have the snowiest December in many years. The Twin Cities are shut down in expectation of 12 inches or more. It's blowing and drifting, as they say on the road conditions report. This is probably snow scam -- weather people are never happier than when a disaster is looming. But there are five inches on the ground at 9 AM with no sign of stopping anytime soon.

What's going on? Looks like global warming to me. It is now warm enough to snow, and snow hard. Kinda exciting, and reminds me of my childhood in snowy Central Mass.

Who ever thought there would be an upside to climate change?

Snow!

First snow of the season. Wet, heavy, heart-attack snow. Tree-damaging snow. Hazardous to electrical wires snow. Snow-emergency snow. Snow that requires the first use of our newly hired plowing service ("I don't start plowing until the snow stops." Makes sense, but what if there are twelve inches?) Snow that is so close to water it will all turn to ice once it melts, rendering me a shut-in until March. Cookie-baking snow. Stay in and watch movies snow. Soup making snow. Snow that keeps the cat Mitzi inside for the rest of the winter. Snow that brought Joe College Grad home in search of "boots" (a pair of suede Nike skater shoes -- "They're great, Mom. I've used them for two winters, and they don't smell when they get wet.")

It's beautiful.