I smell a pilgrimage

Having heard before I moved here about the "famous" giant stucco snowman, I've been wondering when I'd stumble across him. Today I came across a pdf file about exploring art in the suburbs that outlines a history of this snowman sculpture. I think now is a good point in my acculturation to Minnesota to finally go find him.

Just for your viewing pleasure, here's a photo stolen from his wikipedia entry:

Walking up hills with ice

I'm not the only one who blogs about how Minnesota winter is enough to drive you a little crazy. This is a good cab story, and I knew I had to link you all to it when I read this:

"Whenever there's a blizzard, I usually end up stowing my car in a ramp about a mile away and walking home. In the ice, however? I seriously did not want to walk up the hill when it was covered with a quarter-inch sheet of ice."

Duluth is beautiful, but I think I'd rather spend summers there, quite honestly.

When it was too hot, or it rained too hard, everything came to a halt in El Salvador and nothing got done until it was more bearable. Is that what happens here when the streets freeze over?

Texas looks goooooooood.

Growing up in Texas was a nightmare, and I like to believe it hated me as much as I hated it. Once I graduated at 17, I moved away and never set foot on Texan soil again. I changed planes in the DFW airport once and felt creepy until the plane took off.

Take a look at these actual current temperatures. Today it's 84 in southern Texas! Yeehaw! Andale! Vamanos ya! Texas sure is lookin' good, ya'll.

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.

Angry punching squirrel carved out of snow

There are squirrels everywhere in the world, but I sure have noticed that there are a disproportionate amount living in the Twin Cities. (I've seen all black ones and all white ones here, which I've never seen anywhere else before). They roam the neighborhoods in packs, attacked our Halloween pumpkins like vultures on a carcass, and for all I know probably have their own political party in the state of Minnesota.

Today L. insisted we go to the snow carving area in the fairgrounds to see snow sculptures. All of a sudden today the temperature shot up to 40 degrees, so some of the sculptures were self destructing by noon. However, this angry punching squirrel hadn't melted a tad.

It seemed so freaking funny that someone would put so much time and energy into carving a squirrel out of a block of packed snow. The squirrel is angry, but the acorns surrounding its feet are smiling. It's such a confusing scene.

Now, back to that temperature rise. It was so wonderful! I wore a spring fleece and a scarf, no hat, and no gloves. Tomorrow we're forecast for snow and 12 degrees, but today I pretended I was in California again on the coldest week of the year.

It's so warm outside I can't believe it!

School started and my mind is on beginning so many new tasks and readings that I haven't felt in the mind frame for blogging. I will let you know, however, that it's so warm outside that I've been walking around outside with no hat! Yesterday I went for a run outside, rather than in a gym, and didn't wear gloves either!

It's been hovering around 25 degrees the last two days.

Perspective is truly EVERYTHING.

Saw this guy today and asked him for a photo

Haha! Just joking! Did you think I was telling the truth?

I did collect some ice in my own hair today from respiration condensation, but not nearly that much. Just to make myself feel better about why the hell I live in Minnesota, I read this: The Coldest Places on Earth.

International Falls, MN, is profiled first, just soo ya know. More evidence that my paranoia and dramatic flair are justified!!

Read. Enjoy!

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?