I Feel Your Pain

Spring will come. Say that three times and click your heels together. Got to stay positive, don't we? Spring will come to Minnesota. We don't know when. Last year April was warm and May was chilly. May was cold enough to slow down farmers spring planting. April was warm enough that when we vacationed in San Diego, it was warmer in Minnesota the day we left than it was in southern California when we arrived.
Most of the country has had a colder than normal season. The Carolinas have snow and ice. Lake effect snow has fallen by the foot in northern New York and Ohio.
People in these parts are tired of the ice. We have plows and salt and sand, but all this still can't fix everything. Sidewalks are lumpy and roads are rutty.

We expect the snow and cold, but the ice is bad. Regions with slightly warmer climes often have winter ice storms. It is usually cold enough for us to only have to deal with snow. It may be interesting to see what we find when this ultimately melts. I will probably forget what I have under the ice on our deck--the turkey carcass is still there. I use the outdoor freezer to keep stuff like that. If I put it in the trash can which is in a heated garage, it will get smelly. Keeping the bones in a bag outside works until pickup day. Since we haven't had any cougar sightings lately it remains untouched.
It warmed up a bit today and is now snowing. That is the pattern in January. Freezing or shoveling. At least we aren't like the unfortunate citrus growers in Florida who are worrying about a billion $$ crop loss or worse yet, tree kill. National news reported Kansas City closed schools when temps dropped into the teens. Wusses. I guess we are conditioned to take pride in our ability to deal with winter. We don't have any oranges or strawberries to freeze. The only thing that freezes here are people new to Minnesota. The rest of us celebrate Winter Carnival Days with an outdoor parade.