Febuary 2008

This has been a Wisconsin winter:

Snow, snow, snow- 64 inches thus far with about two months to go. Wednesday, we had 16 inches of snow in 24 hours- Thursday, Friday cloudy- Saturday, three inches of snow. Snow plowers are having a boon year. Many have reached their contracted limits for plowing per event. This moves them into the realm of charging by inch rather than event.

Followed by cold. According to the groundhog- at least the one here in Wisconsin (the Pennsylvania hog always disagrees wih our little beauty) we are on our way to spring. But today the winds are gusting up to 45 mph . The sun is shinning, so with the wind and the beautifully clear blue skies it is a nippy -35 degrees outside. To put a finer point on this little icicle, that means that exposed skin can freeze in a scant couple minutes of exposure. Course, that is with the wind chill figured in. The true temp is a balmy -5. Much better as your rosy red checks have a few more minutes before becoming ice cubes.

Global warming? My Grandma told me that the weather seems to go around in a 25 year cycle. I remember one week when my son was 2 or 3 years old . I was working at the hospital and it was wind chilling around 45 below zero. My car would not start but one man who had gotten his van started was shuttling people home. I was able to get home, but was unable to get my son from the sitter's house. They could not get a vehicle started either so my son spent three days with the sitter before it got warm enough to get my car running. My son is now 28 years old.

Today's round of frigidness , however, appears to be temporary as we are supposed to warm up and send the winds back to wherever it is they go- up to 35 degrees above zero tomorrow. And more snow.