Kelly’s Unnecessary Blog

I have said for a long time that winter is my favorite season. And this was after I moved to Minnesota. But this year, winter’s buggin’ me. Just take a look at my front yard.

I don’t know when I began actively liking winter. I remember enjoying snow as a kid in Ohio, especially that one year when there were snowdrifts up to the eaves and I burrowed out a snow cave in one of them. That was back in the days when parents still let their kids do stuff and didn’t freak out about safety or germs or whatever.

From Ohio, I went to Wisconsin, then to Minneapolis for a few years, back to a different part of Wisconsin, and then back to Minneapolis, where I’ve been since fall 1994 (my word, where does the time go?).

It must have been in the last ten years or so that I decided winter was my favorite. This probably coincides with aging and generally getting overheated more easily, so the summer heat became less appealing and easy cooling more so. I know it’s not because I adore winter sports such as ice fishing and snowmobiling.

A lot does go on during the Minnesota winter, as people try to embrace this thing that happens for half the year. St Paul has a perfectly nice Winter Carnival with activities such as an ice castle and medallion treasure hunt.

I think what’s annoying me this year is the below average temperatures that are keeping everything crusty. We haven’t had any more snow than usual, and certainly not even close to what has happened on the East Coast this year. But we have been suffering with those well-below-freezing temperatures. I’m sick of bundling up (though I’m quite fond of my sleeping bag-esque down coat that makes it more bearable by about 10°F; in other words, I can wait ten more degrees before I have to add the long underwear), I’m sick of slipping on icy patches created by 24-hour “warm-ups” followed by immediate freeze-downs, I’m sick of darkness, and I miss sitting on my front step for Home Happy Hour. 

Summer, where are you?