Snowflakes in September?

Why not, right? Poor Wyoming got snow this year before Labor Day even found us.

Since I lived in Minnesota for 6 years, I lived with a lot of snow. And at the beginning of the winter months, I loved anything snow related. Sadly, as the months of cold and darkness moved on, I would cringe at the sight of flakes.

So, if memory serves me, both of these manicures were done before the inevitable hatred of winter kicked in.

I tried my hand at gradients on this first one and stamped snowflakes in silver. The matching pants in the background were not intentional.  Haha. It was winter and they were comfy.

Instead of doing a gradient on this one, I used different colors on the snowflakes to capture winter.

It will be interesting, at least to me, what happens with my winter manicures this year since I'm living back down south. I may enjoy the winter a hell of a lot more, as long as freak blizzards don't show up.


More manicures tomorrow!
See you then.

Snow and destruction all around

"The older you get, the faster it flies."
That was what my Mamaw told me years and years ago. And the older I get, the more I see how right she was in her assessment.

I swear it was the first of February just yesterday and now March is looming on the immediate horizon. With it, one living up north would hope that that means the ending of winter and the beginning of a glorious spring.

Yeah, not getting my hopes up.

As I've mentioned before, this winter has been brutal. Or as a friend of mine in Michigan said, it's been cruel. (And she's one of those crazy people that loves snow and everything winter.)

A few years ago, we got a hell of a storm one December weekend. It made national news due to the Metrodome roof collapsing due to the snow. (If you've never seen the footage, click that last link. It's surreal.)
During that storm, the plows destroyed our mailboxes, the buses stopped running, the post office was closed, and it was all out hell for a few days. Due to that, I knew that 1) plows were dangerous and 2) winter could really suck when it wanted to do so.

Fast forward to this winter and we seem to be back in that suck.
Last Monday, February 17th, we got a bit of snow. (A bit being near 8 inches.) And just like that storm back in 2010, our mailboxes met with an untimely death:

In case you are wondering, that a solid 4x4 on the left that was literally twisted in half from the weight of the snow being thrown from the road. We didn't get mail for a day or two until my husband was able to rig it back up temporarily.

And of course, the best way to fix it will have to wait until the Big Thaw. (Steel pipe will be a better post but since there is about 6 feet of snow on the ground that we don't want to dig through and due to the ground being totally frozen, it'll have to wait.)

Our trash cans didn't fare too well against the plows either but they just got thrown about 10 feet from their starting points. This was after the regular trash can was already kicked over (after being emptied, thank god) and the recycling bin was righted once before:

But that snow wasn't terribly heavy. Granted, I wrenched my back shoveling out driveway but I think that was user error and not bending my knees enough.

The next day, I was having one of those days where it would have seemed like the perfection solution to my problems was to run away or hide in bed for a month. Really, I was a basket case for multiple reasons. But that night, I tried to get to the normal side of life. I made my macaroni and cheese and planned to experiment with a new way of eating it. (Think hamburger meat and hamburger toppings.)

Well, sadly... I used the wrong cheese and it was a giant, clumpy mess. When I went to throw it away, it fell out of the bowl and onto my boot. My UGG boot. My ugly, UGG boot that doesn't do well against grease and cheese. Or water. Or snow.

Look at that shit. You can actually see exactly where those elbow noodles landed.
On any other day, I'd have cursed a bit and then started over. But that day.... that was the day I didn't need one more thing to go wrong. So I lost it. I broke down and bawled my eyes out. Like I said, it was a rough damn day.

The next day, however, was a blessing from the Gods of Better Weather. All of a sudden, our temps shot up to 40. 40!!!! And when I looked out the window midday, I saw something I've not seen since October.... PUDDLES!

As you can see, the mailboxes were still wonky.

But there were puddles!

I went outside and also for the first time in months, I could actually feel the sun on my face. I could feel that warmth and it warmed my heart as much as my body.

To let spring know that I was really looking forward to it's arrival, eventually, I called out to it:

But alas, the warming trend ended with a vengeance.

Within just a few days (Last Thursday to be exact), a snow storm blew through, preceded by about 3 hours worth of rain.

Rain. In February. If the temps had stayed elevated, that would have been all right.

But the temps don't cooperate in Minnesota. Not in the winter. 

My husband and I went out Friday afternoon to shovel the driveway. (luckily, we'd already cleared out the snow from Monday.) 

It.Was.A.Bitch.

The snow was super heavy due to how wet it was when it was falling. The wind had made sure to blow more of it around and stack it up higher than average. We actually had to get out the power shovel which made it easier but still took a few hours. 

This was taken halfway through. I made my husband plant a foot to get a better idea of how deep the driveway was under the Evil White Stuff:

Luckily, the temps hadn't bottomed out yet and after shoveling, Peanut came out to play for a little while. I think I had to dig her feet out of the snow in the yard 5 times. If she'd tried to pull her foot out without help, her boots would have stayed behind. (It's happened before.)

As much as we weren't happy about more snow, we just went back inside and stayed in Friday night.

But Saturday, oh what a level of suck.

I went out, briefly, to go to the store. Our road looked clear enough so I thought it'd be okay to drive. But I ended up death gripping my steering wheel because 48 hours after the snow had moved on, the roads here were beyond awful. EVERYONE on the interstate was doing 40 mph or less. The overhead road signs that usually tell you how much traffic is going to suck, or if DUI patrols have been increased, simply said "Icy Roads. Slow Down." 

(Sorry, no picture for that. I value my life too much to be taking pics while driving, especially in those conditions.)

I kid you not, the ice on the road was at least a half inch thick in most places, even on I-494. In some places, it was as if I were driving on a washboard.

Now, I can drive in snow. During my very first trip up to MN, I drove up in a blizzard. I know that slow and steady will keep you safer in snow. I learned to drive in the snow in Colorado years ago.

But this... this was something that freaked me out a bit. I just wanted to be back home and off the roads. Thankfully, I made it home safe and sound, after sliding and losing traction only twice.

72 hours after the storm, which was Sunday, the news reports said the roads were doing better. MnDOT had upgraded the ratings to Fair and there were 200 crews out working 24 hours a day laying down salt and deicing stuff.

Also on Sunday, the Metrodome met with its planned end when 84 charges of explosives imploded the old stadium to make room for the new one. Watch this video to see the implosion and make to watch for the road shot in the second half of the video. It'll give you a good idea of what every road looked like on Saturday.

The drive in from St. Paul is going to be super weird not seeing that Dome rising up.

It's been a week of destruction, planned and unplanned.

I have never wanted to see signs of spring so badly. I haven't seen grass since my trip to Disney in early December and I miss it. I'd take winter brown grass over covered in white grass any day.

Although, I'll admit, watching icicles form and watching them grow to sizes taller than my kid is amusing. This is a before and after of Hell House and the icicle that has been growing on the side of the house facing the sun:

 

I'll leave you today with 2 drawings that have made their way around the internet quite a bit this year. I know I've posted the first one on FB before but the second is new to me this year.

Appropriate every winter in MN

Amen. WHY?!?

How's the weather where you are?

Winter is never going to end

Warning: born and raised southerner living through a hellish winter in Minnesota needs to vent. So if my bitching bothers you, you might want to skip the post today.

It's February, which astounds me. Where in the hell did January go? I swear, just yesterday it was New Years Eve.

It's been 2 looong months of winter here in Minnesota. A long, dark, frigid winter. And I am so damn sick of it. I am tired of wearing double layers and still freezing my ass off.
And don't even get me started on the amount of shoveling that we have had to do this winter. With our own house plus Hell House, it's a lot of shoveling. (Go take a look at the last pic in the previously linked post. That is a long sidewalk when it's covered in snow. That's not counting the driveway and the front sidewalk.)

Friday we ended up having to shovel our driveway for almost an hour, thanks to the amount of blowing snow that had accumulated near the house. And then the next day, we spent another hour shoveling Hell House, again thanks to blowing snow. (I swear, both houses are in wind tunnels.)
The front steps at Hell House were totally under snow... couldn't see where they stopped or started. Stepping in it, the snow came up above our knees. We had to shovel that walk to even get IN the house.

When I look outside and see this, I can feel my day go from decent to shitty. I see shoveling in my future. And shoveling sucks.

We've been having a lot of days like this:

And days like those make me sleep longer, sort of like pretending I'm a bear and hibernating. Wake me up and you better be using a very long stick that keeps you more than an arms length away. Since the temps and wind chills have hovered near frostbite and hypothermia levels, you can't even go out with the kids and play in the snow without worrying about medical problems. Boo.

I generally wear 2 pairs of socks at a time. My hands and my feet stay cold, even in the summer. But even with 2 pairs of socks and a thick pair of boots, I am still worrying about frostbite. The pain I sometimes feel in my toes is enough to make me get in my car and drive south.... never to return.

Every day, I wear thermal bottoms under sweatpants. (Shursh. I'm renovating a house, for gods sake. I doubt be on the cutting edge of fashion is necessary. And if you've read this post, you know I don't bow to the pressures of fashion or society.) Those thermals and the sweatpants still leave me shivering.

I did wear jeans on Peanut's birthday and 5 minutes away from the house, I was raising hell and regretting that decision. (See? I do dress nicer when I feel that I need to do so. I even wore a nice shirt, makeup, and perfume!)

And don't even get me started on my car. 

My mother keeps saying that her car is dirty. Puh-lease, woman. Does you car look like this?

And this is AFTER I was able to wash it a few weeks ago. The stripes are due to the snow that hit a week ago on our way home from Hell House and dinner. It was warmer that day so the snow was wet on the car and not freezing right away. The top half of the car is a little cleaner than the bottom. (Check out the bottom of the pic. That's my garage floor, or what I call nasty as hell. It's covered with snow turds, salt, sand, and dirt. Yuuummy.)

With snow and terrible temps in between days of warming comes two things that I cannot ignore when I pass through neighborhoods: ice.

Icicles and ice dams are plentiful around the Twin Cities right now.

And until moving here, I never paid much attention to either. Now I realize how bad it is to have ice dams on the sides of your house. And I'm amazed that more people don't properly deal with them. If you don't. you'll end up over the years with lots of damage to the inside and outside of your home.

A house near Hell House doesn't have an ice dam... it has an ice DAMN!

That's a good 6-8 inches of solid ice hanging at the edge of that house, plus the long, sharp icicle near the side. LOTS of houses look like this right now and I cringe at the damage that it's causing.

And speaking of icicles... this one I had to photograph. Sadly it's hard to tell in the picture (looked better and more visible in person) but it's got wavy lines in the ice. It made me think of bacon.

Ice bacon?

On Saturday, February 1, Peanut mentioned that January was over. And since it was February already that meant that winter in Minnesota was almost over. I stopped and looked at her with a puzzled expression. When she asked what was wrong I said, "You do remember that it snowed on Button's birthday last year, right? It snowed in May last year. Winter lasted about 7-8 months".

She thought about it for a second, frowned a little and replied, "I want to live closer to the equator".