Winter is Back!

What a pretty scene that is, Carol. At least, it is from where I am sitting in my air-conditioned kitchen. Are those robins in the tees that we are seeing?

Yeah, I'm with Janine. I love snow...........ON THE INTERNET.

Yes, those are Robins in the tree. It is pretty, but after last week of 40 degree temps, I can't say I'm thrilling on this snow. Oh, well. Carol

These are wonderful pictures, Carol. They evoke many memories. My air conditioned kitchen is comfortable though, so I'll just sit here and savor those memories as I watch those big red hibiscus tap on the window at me. Flowers are a wonderful substitute for snowdrifts and air conditioning is a comfortable cooling alternative to wind chill. But that's just me. You may differ.

That kind of snow is hard to imagine - it was 72 degrees here today. Yesterday was 78 degrees but tomorrow it is back to cold weather - a predicted high of 60 degrees!

I think that some school district leaders had frozen brain cells yesterday. Minneapolis and St. Paul did not cancel school! I started out bringing my kids to school, got two blocks and then turned around to bring them back home. I trudged into school - seventeen miles away. Being a student teacher you have to make sure you do everything right, including going in on a day when even a polar bear wouldn't show his face! My cooperating teacher made it in about 10a.m and since we had only six children she sent me home after lunch.
Omar says that people weren't meant to live in places like this. I suggested that he imagine how the American Indians must have had to struggle in the past - living in teepees and hunting for their food in this kind of weather. He said he finds it hard to believe that they ever really lived here. He says this is where they sent people to die!

Poor Omar. He's really having a bad day. I know you gave him all the right words, like the Orphan Annie song, "The sun will come up tomorrow, tomorrow, ta ta da ta ta (you know the rest). That's what mothers are supposed to do, even though I think I detected a bit of a grumble and a whine in your story of the day. Hmmmm?

I spent an hour and a half yesterday trying to get to work. I left the house at 6:10 for my normal 15 minute drive. At 7:30 I made it back home after going about 5 miles.

On the other hand, there was much rejoicing at our house yesterday. The boys had their 1st "snow day". The last one for Robbinsdale school district was in 1991.

After making a pot of coffee and coaxing a small dog outside (she's leaving tummy tracks in the snow) I put on my painting clothes again and applied the 2nd coat of paint in our bedroom. Wasn't such a bad day after all!

Hastings got 18" of snow. Judging by the snow marshmallow on my birdbath, I'm guessing we got 12-13".

Tons of snow in Red Wing prevented me from trying the drive home at 7am Monday(I'd worked the night shift). I tried to catch a nap in a patient room for a few hours but the snow was still coming down, wind blowing, plows pulled off the roads in WI, and roads closed in many directions when I got up. Hung around the hospital until John & Zack came to pick me up(I was too chicken to drive, thought I'd crash or get stuck). Anyway, made it home and slept for 12hrs last night. The doctor coming on in the am was stuck in the ditch for 6hrs before getting his car towed to the garage and a ride to the hospital. He's hoping his car is thawed this am so he can go home(St.Paul). Red Wing got about a foot of snow yesterday, not quite that much in Stockholm.

NOT FOR ME! I hate cold weather and March is supposed to be spring! We've been having very warm days- I had to go shopping for the baby because I didn't have any shorts to fit him. It'll be cooler today and tomorrow, but nothing like 18 inches of snow!

We are such wimps down here. Even Mama who is from there couldn't be tempted to brave those kind of days again.

On the other hand, my brother-in-law, Joe, just had to live in Michigan for the very reason of what these pictures represent.