I’m worried about the weather.
Frankly, it’s nice out. And this is why I’m worried. You see, it’s even more than nice – it’s beautiful. Temperatures in the low 80s all week, not a cloud in the sky. All very picturesque. All very friendly.
There’s something peculiar about that.
You can almost hear it, winter lying in wait, lulling you toward complacency while plotting to freeze your car locks open/closed.
Minnesota is the state that promises to hold your seat while you run to the bathroom only to have you find, upon your return, that her friends have taken up residence and they’re now mocking your choice of drink.
What’s your hurry? she whispers, a soft warm breeze in your ear. No need to check on your snowblower! We’re so far beyond that, you and I. Now why don’t you just throw down a blanket, lay in the sunshine for a while…
And then BLAMMO! Two feet of snow fall on you and they find your body in the spring.
Minnesota: Land of 10,000 Lakes. The “Brainpower” State. The State that Thinks You Would Look Better Blue.
Of course, you’ll remind me in February of how unfair I was to autumn, won’t you? After I’ve written my 30th straight post on how the weather is trying to kill me? After I’ve blathered on yet again regarding my astonishment over how I can now keep ice cream frozen quite solidly in the trunk of my car?
Heh, heh, heh. The car as four-wheeled icebox never gets old for me.
Still, I try to enjoy the seasons, but there’s been a change in the light, you see, and I think that’s what I find most troubling. We are mere days away from the shift, from the vivid colors of autumn turning to the brittle, it’s-only-recently-died look of fall.
We are mere days away from the discovery, once again, that winter is not our friend -- which means we are mere days away from another post on the restorative qualities of made-from-scratch gravy.
Hmm. Maybe it won't be all bad.
Gravy.
About Bob Dylan
5 days ago
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42 comments:
And I was thinking you was looking forward to winter to kill all them big spiders.
What winter lavishes on you, she withholds from us. If we blink, we are likely to miss the bulk of the winter season down here. When she comes to mock you up there, send her in our direction. It's unique to get to wear shorts at Christmas, but it can get old, too.
We usually don't get snow until late in December. While we are waiting in our brown leafless sunless landscape we become somewhat anxious for the snow to fall. At least it is white and clean and reflects the sun. Where DID I put that Vitamin D?
I love winter! Lots of time to veg out with a good book or just sit and think and "be". Of course, I don't live in the land of cold and snow! Just a little rain.
It's really hard to enjoy the best weather ever when we're holding our breath and bracing for the blast, isn't it. Never trust winter...tiptoeing in with those lacy feathery snowflakes, lulling you with Christmasy music. IT's EVIL!!!
After spending 5 glorious years in Vegas, I now live in Wisconsin, and no one could feel your pain more! I think I officially start dreading the upcoming winter in Springtime. Then, I have always liked to plan ahead.
Enjoy the beautiful weather this week!
:-) Winter is sneaky, and honestly, I enjoy a good sneak here and there. But when it COMES and it STAYS... I recommend that everyone come to MN just once, somewhere around January, just to see what the fuss is. There's something weird about the giant, walk-in-freezer-ness of it all...
Ah yes, yes, I remember well. In North Dakota, I used to get groceries at the store near the movie theater if I was going to see a movie and it was so satisfying to sit through a 2 hour movie knowing your ton of frozen goods in the car would be perfectly solid when you got out due to the fact the outside temperature in January was way colder than any freezer could hope to be. GOOD TIMES! (brrrrr!)
You never can quite relax and believe that all is going to plan - that's the hold Mother Nature has over us.
Gravy!!! :-D Makes me smile, albeit, an oily smile.
A change in the light. That's what I hear in my friend's anxious voice, is fear about that change in the light. My friend who struggles with Seasonal Affect Disorder and who lives high up, in the snowy mountains. She's already lacing up her boxing gloves to do battle against the depression she fights with such ferocity.
It sucks to live in a place where our weather is always trying to kill us. Seriously, you can't turn your back on it for one minute. This is why TV Weather is the highest rated program on TV.
Around our house we don't say "Are you staying up to watch the news?", we say "Are you staying up to watch the weather?"
Oooh. "Are you staying up to watch the weather." :-) Absolutely.
There's something wrong with our weather too. Non stop sunshine, temperature records broken for days on end. No rain. Just heat and blue sky. (Though last night, the mists came in - thick.) Autumn is my favourite time of year. Summer I hardly like at all. I'm longing for wind and rain and cool, blowy days.
It seems there is one job you are NOT doing, Pearl: working for the tourism dept. "Come to MN in January" won't get you many return visitors, I expect :)
Do you not get any of the sleet, mist, rain and other forms of non-snow precipitation that are a part of our fall on the east coast? Does it just go from heater to freezer that suddenly?
Gravy.
Nectar of the gods.
I was just thinking yesterday about how fall weather jerks us around more than spring.
If there's anything good about winter, it is that you can make those meals like beef stew, chili, mac 'n cheese, etc., without breaking a sweat from the oven causing the whole house to bake!!
Sounds cold enough for me to have to tie a string on the end of it, just it find it.
See what I'm sayin'?
Hmmm. Temps in the 80s and sunshine, beautiful weather in Minnesota right now? Makes me think maybe I should consider a move to the midwest! I'm in not very sunny Pennsylvania -central PA to be precise (and that, by the way, is NOT Harrisburg but rather near to State College, home of Penn State University's Main Campus) and our weather here has totally sucked since Labor Day Weekend! We've had rain, rain, rain and just for good measure, Mother Nature says, I think I'll just deliver a bit more rain but I will meter it out in small showers off and on all day, or early in the day with some clearing and when those people think it's turning into being a nice day, I'll just ship another little shower their way. We've had cool temps in that time. We've had COLD temps off and on too! And gee whiz, just two days ago, we woke up to a coating of SNOW on the ground here! Sure it was only an inch of the white fluff, but it was still SNOW on October 2nd! A tad early for my tastebuds! But then too, what else can you expect when old Mother Nature dealt us a lousy hand this entire year thus far -from winter that didn't want to end when it should have, to a spring that was wetter than all get out and cold spring rains lasted till July. Then, the end of July we had about two weeks of weather hotter than Hades with record breaking highs here in the low 100s and now, rain -seemingly never ending of the wet substance for well over a month. Meanwhile, Texas has had nothing in the rainfall dept! And of course, don't forget the rains from two back-to-back hurricanes that wreaked havoc along the east coast and clear up into New England as well in early September. Yeah, Mother Nature is definitely showing signs of being in need of some Prozac, anything, to alleviate the bitchy nature we're seeing in her these days! It's all putting me in that same kind of mood too, as you can see!
I hear ya, Pearl. I think winter up here in the Canadian Prairies might be even a tad bit worse than down there in MN. We're having the same warm sunny weather right now too. I'm soaking in every speck of Vitamin D that I can, cuz once the snow flies, I won't be sunning myself for probably another 7 months. Gotta be prepared, right?
I've spent a week or so outside of Duluth back in ott one (It's so awesome to be able to say ott one like some 20th century geezer). There was very little to no snow on the ground or in the air. There was a razor sharp strait line wind though, coming off the lake. It was somewhere around -20 with the wind chill. I had my very first coffee-cicle. Got a nice cup of hot coffee, stepped outside, took a sip, took a step or three went for sip number two and my once tongue burning beverage had solidified.... Good times.
Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm---GRAVY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Winter is never our friend. It is evil and not to be recommended. Ours aren't as harsh as yours, but I do not long for dreary, gray and wet. Oh wait, that's what it's like today.
Boston weather has been weird. Too warm for now, 70's about half the time. I, too, feel that the bad weather is going to slam down on us all at once.
Quick! Hide! And pass the gravy!
Minnesota sounds like Alberta, Canada. I lived there 12 years and finally left because of the weather. Just couldn't take it any more. I feel for you.
Loved this post, I'm feeling the same way here in Reading, England. We have had a heat wave. It's all kinds of wrong. Your words summed up where I live perfectly: '... promises to hold your seat while you run to the bathroom only to have you find, upon your return, that her friends have taken up residence and they’re now mocking your choice of drink.'
I'm worried because it is spring here and we are freezing.
Where is the sun ? Why are the birds wearing little down coats?
The cemetery cats are asking for blankets instead of food.
You want some cold weather ? come visit :)
Being from Chicago and living in south Florida since 1988, I am well aware of windchill 73 degrees below zero and numb fingers trying to get a key in a frozen car door lock and hoping the car starts this time. Which of course is why I live here.
Mother Nature can be a witch - with a capital B!
Here's hoping she is in a kinder, gentler mood this winter. Because really? I'm SO over snow. It was magical when we first moved here; but now? I'm done. And the winter's we get would be the kind that you would laugh at. I would DIE if I lived any further north. I'm not kidding.
Quite often - over here - we get the four seasons in one day. Gives us something to talk about.
Oh, winter! A native of Southern California, I went to college and grad school at Northwestern U., on the shores of Lake Michigan just north of Chicago. I loved living with four seasons! I loved winter (except January ice storms). Of course, in those days, I didn't have to drive in it. And I do remember once being blown off a bicycle by the howling winds and Northwestern students spent winter doubled over in the face of the winds blowing off the lake, so all notices were taped to the sidewalks instead of posted on bulletin boards or trees. It was quite an education for this weather wimp! I've subsequently been to Minneapolis on book tours in the winter and what struck me about that city as opposed to, say, Cleveland, was that people in Minneapolis seem to love where they live and accept winter as simply part of that. I can hear the love in your comments about your rolling ice box and gravy!
oh, I see why folks want to come here in winter!
Warm Aloha from Waikiki;
Comfort Spiral
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Despise winter, mostly the early darkness. when the sun goes down, so do I.
hate winter, when the sun goes down, so do I.
I told 'em winter is comin'
They called me paranoid, yep, they did.
Who's not laughin'...?
And I like winter (though it is nothing like as vicious as yours) and am mourning its departure.
It's just begun raining over here in Southern California, and already people are complaining. Just yesterday it was a beautiful 75 degrees. Today it's going to rain, and the news is giving people directions on how to survive the onslaught (Do you have an umbrella? Are you tires at the right pressure? Leave early in the morning to avoid traffic congestion!) You've *got* to be kidding me! But I guess we SC people are ignorant on how to handle actual weather.
Now, give is snow and I'm sure we'll think it's armageddon come to punish us for going to the beach in the midst of "winter"...
Mmmm, gravy.
I quite like winter.
Of course I live in Australia, not Minnesota. We don't often find two feet of snow suddenly dumping on us.
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