Rant on a Long, Long Winter

I live in Minnesota, dammit, and I love it here

I love the cold and the dark of the winters. These are winters with the wind whipping your cheeks gray and the snow freezing your eyelashes into tiny icicles. But you know that.

Did you know that the hardy people here don’t wear their big, insulated, North Slope jackets much? “It’s only a little storm.”

And dark. If you have the wrong job, you get up in the dark, go to work in the almost light, and go home at dusk. So some of us have to miss that special kind of dark during the day, which is like getting teased by a bright gray light in the sky. Is that a pigeon gray? Is it a gravestone gray? It’s a special Minnesota gray, like fuzz balls under your bed.

And who can resist the thrill of watching the school closings scroll across the bottom of the TV screen. Or the excitement of checking online to see if your school is closed for the day or if you have to “tough it out” and go.

Yes, I’m a teacher. Proud of it. Dedicated. Experienced. I know that if the weather looks bad you should leave home a little early in the morning because driving will be, well, bad. Murderous. Treacherous. Think freezing and thawing slush on a freeway. That snow chunk on top of that semi is bouncing around and, yup, snow chunk on your windshield.

So I’m intelligent and I leave early to get to school on time when the weather is bad. (This is a concept that some have to be taught, but that’s another article.) The driving is savage, but, hey, I love Minnesota weather.

I make it to the school parking lot. Mr. Janitor tells me school is canceled for the day.

Oh. They closed school and I wasn’t home to check the scroll thing on TV or the website. Oh.

So I’m intelligent and I buy a fresh turkey on the way back home. It’s good to be out and doing things like going to work and buying food. Driving in terrible weather.

Enough.

And the summers! I love the sultry summers.

In the movie, “Throw Mama From the Train”, that was the word that the nasty mother supplied. Sultry. Hot and humid. The humidity makes my skin glow.

I have to admit, even though I’m ranting here, we do have some precious, perfect days here in our Minnesota summers. 74 degrees and calm and sunny. I’m not saying how many of those, but a few.

We have wild summer winds here that are…well…a ninety foot white pine fell on our sweet little cabin.

So I’m from Minnesota, and we look on the bright side. The bright side of this event is that we have a cabin. And we have insurance.

Hey, things aren’t really that bad here. It was dry enough to go biking yesterday. Fun. It’s April and next week the temperature will be above 50 degrees. I might get to ride my bike again soon, when the rain stops. Look on the bright side.

End of rant.