yeah, spring, mm hmm.

We're forecast for "Heart Attack Snow" tonight. WTF, Minnesota?

crazy signs of spring

It's only 40-something out there and you'd think we'd gone mad. I know I have - mad with ecstasy. Check out what I've seen lately.

1. A suburban just drove by with a golden retriever hanging out of the front window.
2. Two kids were riding their bikes in tank tops.
3. The gutters are gushing with snow melt, and the sound of it is pure music to my ears.
4. I'm happy. Really.
   
5. The teenagers in the neighborhood are running amok in the night again. I love that about our neighborhood: white, privileged, well-fed, giggling gangs. It would be even more wonderful if they happened to be un-privileged and not white and still well-fed and giggling, but I take what I can get.
   
6. I didn't wear long underwear today for the first time since November. Really.
7. The thermostat has been set to 60 or below all day and the inside temperature hasn't fallen below 63.
   
8. And best of all, the snow people are emaciated. Click on this image to see details and have a a good laugh at these little teeny super guys:

I would like to kiss the weatherperson

Current temp and forecast:
I haven't been this genuinely happy in months. 6 months, to be precise.

CHANCE OF RAIN SOON!

47 degrees on Wed with a chance of rain! I couldn't be happier. I need my Wellies and some ice cream.

1:08 pm addendum: I hear that it's terribly naive of me to assume a weather report in Minnesota will actually be close to accurate. Piss on it all.

I'm sorry, but I see no hints of spring at -10 degrees

This from MNspeak.com:

"Maybe it's just a more relaxed attitude about work lately, but today I left the office with just a trace of sun left in the sky, and noticed that the east Lake Street Dairy Queen is open. The forecasts see no hints of a thaw any time soon, but meteorology be damned, are there any other signs that winter is about to start its inevitable retreat?"

I did not leave the house all day yesterday because the temp ranged from 4 to -10. It is not close to spring yet, not in the least. This is insane, convoluted thinking! That crazy Minnesotan!

Many people assure me that once the mercury hits 50 degrees, people will go outside in flip-flops, shorts, and t-shirts. There will still be snow on the ground and the trees will still be barren. People call that spring here. I'm sorry, I am in the minority, but that's just crazy.

One of my to-do tasks this week is to buy a plane ticket to San Francisco for sometime in the next 3-4 weeks.

I have no reason to go to Minnesota...

I'm able bodied, young, fit, stubborn and spry. Additionally, to help with the unfortunate physics of being inexperienced with all things winter, I have Yaktrax to help out with what I have not yet mastered. I will not sugar-coat my disdain of Minnesota winter weather, but if it weren't already clear by the tone of my previous posts, let it be known officially that I wrestle daily with the question, "Why the hell am I in Minnesota?"

Today it's gray and dreary outside. Actual temperature right now is -4.4 degrees, wind chill is -20 degrees and we've had forecasts of snow since last night. (I know: it's colder outstate. I know: all you locals have lived through -80 degrees. I know: some of you pay $500 heating bills every month. I know, I know, I don't care.)

Okay, here's what I'm trying to get to. Why in the world would you live here if you are elderly? Permanently in use of a wheelchair? Chronically ill? I'm doing just fine in the scope of health and agility, and I slip all the time on ice, tromp awkwardly through snow, whine into the wind, and bitterly bitch about sub-zero temperatures. I cannot imagine how difficult this must be for anyone who's just not feeling so great.

I just walked home and crossed paths with a very old man who was so hunched over he could not comfortably look up to see where he was going. He carried a very large, heavy bag and wore tennis shoes. I'm so saddened that he has to get somewhere, and it's so uncomfortable and super slippery outside.

Long before I moved here and toward the end of the phase L. and I can only refer to simply and fondly as "friendship," I actually said to her, "I have no reason to go ever to Minnesota. Except to see you, I guess."

And now I live here. Indefinitely.

It sure is amazing what we put up with. The trade-off is unquestionably worth it - success, happiness, family, love, clarity, direction, purpose. I'm just not sure if the putting-up-with gets more arduous or more tolerable with time. By the time I'm old and frail and dependent on devices for mobility, I really wonder if I'll have grown to ignore or (gasp!) even enjoy November through March.

One of those backwards days

This morning around 7:30, it was 5 degrees. By 8:30, it was -1. Now at 10:40 it's -4.4. The sun is rising, it's bright and blue out there, the snow is glistening and crunchy. There's some sort of weather phenomenon I don't understand - that it gets colder on sunny days. This is a sweeping generalization, right? But I heard it as a warning when I moved here and today it's obviously true.

Anyone get it?

I wasn't being dramatic, after all

I commented to a comment in a previous post using the dramatic term "arctic" to describe our weather. I say that often out loud. "It's not the arctic!" L. often replies, with an accompanying eye roll or a deep sigh.

And this morning I read this headline: Arctic blast to send the temperatures tumbling, Cold snap could last for 10 days, the Weather Service said.

Here is the whole story.

We've cancelled weekend plans twice for various reasons and I have to say I'm glad I don't have a single reason to leave the house.

Minnesota is not the arctic, but we get arctic blasts. Hmm. I think I'm entitled to my drama.

Any day now, I expect to see these guys wandering down from the north.