Mistaken about the Big Thaw

No photos today, too cold to operate buttons, typing with a stick taped to my 3rd pair of gloves. Weather turned bad, I went to DC on Wednesday, got 4 inches of snow in DC then got back to some cold temperatures. We went to the mall on Saturday and it was a beautiful sunny day but -24C at 10am. With the wind chill it gets really cold, about -40 - and at -40 Celsius and Fahrenheit converge so it doesn't matter which. Just don't go outside for long.

The furnace has been playing up too, so we had a really cold day today. I half expect to have to pick the kids up like a frozen lollipop in the morning and then thaw them out in front of the fire. Appropriately enough someone emailed me this asking if I was enjoying the 'nice cold weather?'

DIARY OF A SNOW SHOVELER

December 8 6:00 PM. It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses Print. So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!

December 9 We woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the Whole World? Moving here was the best idea I've ever had. Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks.

This afternoon the snowplow came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life.

December 12 The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a disappointment. My neighbor tells me not to worry, we'll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we'll have so much snow by the end of winter, that I'll never want to see snow again. I don't think that's possible. Bob is such a nice man, I'm glad he's our neighbor.

December 14 Snow lovely snow! 8" last night. The temperature dropped to -20. The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life! The snowplow came back this afternoon and buried everything again. I didn't realize I would have to do quite this much
shoveling, but I'll certainly get back in shape this way.

December 15 20 inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife's car and 2 extra shovels. Stocked the freezer. The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that's silly. We aren't in Alaska, after all.

December 16 Ice storm this morning. Fell on my butt on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like heck. The wife laughed for one hour, which I think was very cruel.

December 17 Still way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere. Electricity was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm. Nothing to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I should've bought a wood stove, but won't admit it to her. I hate it when she's right. I can't believe I'm freezing to death in my own living room.

December 20 Electricity' s back on, but had another 14" of the damn stuff last night. More shoveling. Took all day. Darn snowplow came by twice. Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy playing hockey. I think they're lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower and they're out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they're lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he's lying.

December 22 Bob was right about a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white crap fell today, and it's so cold it probably won't melt till August. Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to poop. By the time I got undressed, pooped and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel. Tried to hire Bob who has a plow on his truck for the rest of the winter; but he says he's too busy. I think the jerk is lying.

December 23 Only 2" of snow today. And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What is she nuts!!! Why didn't she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did but I think she's lying.

December 24 6". Snow packed so hard by snowplow, I broke the shovel. Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the man who drives that snowplow I'll drag him through the snow by his nose and beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shoveling and then he comes down the street at 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over where I've just been!

Tonight the wife wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I was too busy watching for the snowplow.

December 25 Merry -bleeping- Christmas! 20 more inches of the slop tonight. Snowed in. The idea of shoveling makes my blood boil. I hate the snow! Then the snowplow driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think she's a fricking idiot. If I have to watch "It's A
Wonderful Life" one more time, I'm going to stuff her into the microwave.

December 26 Still snowed in. Why the heck did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She's really getting on my nerves.

December 27 Temperature dropped to -30 and the pipes froze, plumber came after 14 hours of waiting for him, he only charged me $1400 to replace all my pipes.

December 28 Warmed up to above -20. Still snowed in. THE WITCH is driving me crazy!!!

December 29 10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That's the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?

December 30 Roof caved in. I beat up the snow plow driver he is now suing me for a million dollars not only the beating I gave him but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up where the sun don't shine. The wife went home to her mother. 9" predicted.

December 31 I set fire to what's left of the house. No more shoveling.

January 8 Feel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?

It made me laugh - if only to keep warm. Will be heading down the basement in a bit to wrap up warm in front of the fire :-)

The Big Thaw

Another day of sledging last Saturday, we had the hill to ourselves which was great (as sometimes Dan has the habit of barreling towards people). We also got a snow tube (fancy term for a rubber ring with a sealed base). It was warm enough that Andy really enjoyed it and we stayed out for a good while.


On Sunday for the first time in about 6 weeks it went above freezing so we made the most of it by going out for walks and playing in the park. It reached about 3 degrees C which means no hats or gloves!


Getting chillier again this week, in the paper they actually summarise the weather for Wednesday as 'character building cold'.

We had to give back the car that someone from church lent us so we bought another car yesterday. The next door neighbours, Mary and Wes, are really well connected and they are friends with Dan Luther, who is heir to the Luther Autombile chain of 25 large dealerships in Minnesota. So anyway, we got a very good deal and are going to take it for a drive to St Croix Falls.

The drive to St Croix was the first time we've seen lots of people out ice-fishing - for those not aquainted with this strictly northern pastime, ice-fishing consists of sitting in a little hut on a frozen lake and fishing through a little drilled out hole. The actual purpose of ice fishing is not, as you may first imagine, to catch fish (though that is an outcome for sure), rather to escape the wife and kids and to drink beer with your mates. Though it sounds an extreme form of escape, the discomfort is less than you may think as people typically drag a well equipped hut out with their 4x4. Check out this picture for a distant shot of some ice-fishing going on.

The rest of this post consists of another compare and contrast exercise in weather. See if you can spot Dan in this picture (you may need to blow it up).
Did you spot him? He was having a lie-down on the lake in the background.

We spent ages on the lake and the area around, it's been one of my favourite things so far, walking out over the lake, taking a lie-down - really peaceful.

What wasn't peaceful was taking Dan on a walk near the cliffs of the gorge, no matter how many times we rearranged words 'Fall You'll And Not Careful If Dead Be You're' we had to resort to being 'handcuffed' to me for most of the walk.

When foam attacks

Christmas Day was all a bit much for Dan

On boxing day Dan and Becky played with their fizzy foamy science. Dan being the responsible older brother let Becky stay near the experiment while he stood a safe distance away.


Here are Dan and I at the St. Croix river (the white thing behind us), as you can see its pretty big and pretty frozen.

And here are some of the icicles the have our house surrounded.And here are some photos from new year's eve



Teresa and Claire got the kids gingerbread men for Christmas, the kids love carefully decorating them, building up a child/gingerbread man rapport and then biting their heads off.

Happy 2008

Happy 2008 from all of us in freezing Minnesota!

I'll try not to bore everyone with a detailed summary of last year, suffice it to say that it was a bit more eventful than we could have anticipated at the same point last year. I'm not even going to begin to guess what this year may have in store.

We've managed to lose the lead from our camera to the PC so no pictures today I'm afraid (I think they were mostly of icicles anyway so you got off lightly), the lead is either:

1. in a bin buried in wrapping paper
2. in one of the cupboards in the kitchen and destined not to be found for a few years
3. in England with Martin and Margaret as I seem to have inherited a similar looking lead since they left
4. In front of me on the table but I just can't see it

So instead a quick summary of the week and then some Minnesota trivia

Boxing day - not a national holiday here, not many people know what it is, we went out for dinner on boxing day and got asked by our waitress what is was so we told her that everyone in England has servants who live below stairs and this is when we give them their token gift - which is sort of true. We also went sledging, well Dan and Martin and I did, the others wimped out.

Worked on the next day, everyone else stayed in all day, then went to see a gig in the evening, spur of the moment thing and saw a local artist Mason Jennings who was really really good. The sad thing was that his brother opened for him and did about 8 numbers and you couldn't help feeling that the talent in the family wasn't very well distributed. He also got his Dad and wife up on stage and his dad sang a really good song. It was all quite a folky happy sort of gig, check him out on youtube.

Went to Stillwater the next day which is a town to the east of Minnesota, partly to have a drive through the frozen wastes to get a bit of that Fargo feeling, and partly because Stillwater is a very pretty town on the St Croix river. The town was suitably pretty and the St. Croix, which is the width of the Thames had completely frozen over and was covered with snow.

Martin, Margaret and Jon left on Saturday and we went sledging on Sunday - thw two events are not connected. Here are a few pictures we nabbed from their cameras

Jon behind Minnehaha falls

Next time bring me one this big!

Becky moving quickly in the basement

Granny tells Becky that the moon is made of cake

Grandad tells Becky that Granny is made of cake

On new year's eve we had friends from church round so the house was filled with 7 kids who were bizarrely well behaved, Dan has got into playing Monopoly and the 3 eldest children played Monopoly and chess all evening.

We also found them sitting up at the breakfast bar in the basement playing 'stinky foods' where Dan was caught ordering a fart salad.

And that was 2007....