what is it exactly that we're being punished for?

The pic to the right is of one of our poor decrepit plastic snow shovels, most likely from Menard's, which is now being officially listed as KIA in the undeclared war against winter, v.'13-'14.  It's stuck in a snowbank as its own headstone.  This guy had gone into action already suffering from wounds received last year; in retrospect, he shouldn't have been sent into battle in any role more dangerous than as a prop for a snowman.  As if I've had a chance to build any snowmen lately.  What with driving to and from Brooklyn Park five times a week, moving cars around during the far-too-frequent snow emergencies and tooling around St. Paul's prestigious Midway District and Highland Park as chief commissary officer for both the human and feline populations of 1614 Laurel, it's been all I can do to keep the sidewalks cleared.  I've thrown plenty of snow around since the landscape went white but I haven't had much of a chance for any outdoor sculptures.  I looked for a Hawaiian shirt at the Goodwill yesterday morning (yeah, I'm still allowed that entertainment) thinking that if I ever did have the time to build a snowman, I'd outfit him in tropical gear as a thumb of the nose at whatever powers are toying with us this season.  I wrote somewhere else recently that this winter now officially sucks.  I'm standing behind that statement.

For the record, the shovel pictured above expired as I was trying to clear a path from the far edge of the back deck up to our back door.  There's a good foot of snow on the deck out there and it was just too much for the poor, old, overmatched shovel.  His previous cracks just couldn't take the pressure.  He did manage to make a dent in the deck's snow cover before succumbing; I can't say that he didn't go down fighting.  I'll save the handle in the hope that I'll be able to find a replacement blade but I know that's likely a forlorn hope.  Of all the shovels I've sent off to early deaths, I have yet to put a handle back in business with a new blade.  They take up a good-sized corner of the garage already and their numbers are growing.  Not to mention that this particular winter is far from over.

I've gotten pretty good at knowing in advance when the St.Paul City shakers and movers will declare snow emergencies.  But I'm clueless this time.  We've easily had enough 1-3" snowfalls over the past week to 10 days to merit the plows hitting the streets again.  However, the wind has become a wild card.  Right now, the winds are howling across the entire state from the northwest corner down to where Minnesota meets up with Wisconsin and Iowa.  And I mean howling.  I've heard that there were wind gusts of nearly 60 mph down in the Windom area.  My mother didn't get out of there any too soon even if it was nearly 70 years ago.  We had a couple inches of the light and fluffy stuff last night but I don't think that a single flake of what fell then is still sitting where it landed.  I'm pretty sure that most of our snow has up and taken wing across the Mississippi for West St. Paul or Mendota Heights.  With any luck at all, every bit of recent Minnesota precipitation is airborne again and headed beyond the eastern suburbs, bound for Wisconsin.  That might save us the annoyance of another snow emergency.  Let that little simpleton Scott Walker deal with all of it.

I've just gotten the word that North Hennepin Community College won't be open tomorrow.  Good news for me though Miz Susan has been ordered to work at her St. Paul school even if the 4th graders have been given another day off.  She acts like she's disappointed that she won't get to hang at home with me for a 3rd consecutive day but I suspect she's secretly pleased.  Guess I'll be headed down University Avenue again.  To Menard's for a couple of replacement shovels and to the Goodwill for that Hawaiian shirt.