October Winter

How do I know I live in Minnesota?

Because the morning started with a chilly, borderline-freezing rain, but by the time my shift ended and I got to my car, I had to clear five inches of snow off of it.

Mixed with leaves that had fallen off the trees. That's Fall for you here.

Sometimes. Sometimes we don't get serious snow until right around Christmas, or rarely, after Christmas.

And sometimes it shows up as an absolute shock to the crops, and you drive home past tawny-gold fields of still-standing corn holding little white bundles of snow in their leaves.

At least it's not hail. Or sudden flooding. Seeing the crops laid waste like that is disheartening to everyone. And flooding wrecks a lot more lives than October blizzards.

Knocked out our power grid at work, though. And if it knocked out ours, it may have hit parts of Mayo, too. It was cool in the bookstore, because our backup power keeps the cafe and the constellations in the castle-sky lit, so it's pretty and deeply atmospheric, but it could be a great nuisance in a lot of other places.

Made me very grateful for the connections around downtown. I park next to the main stage theater in town (shameless plug - they're doing Wizard of Oz this December, and Santas is the W.W.o.t.W - y'all should go see her, she's going to be fabulous), which connects to the Civic Center. Civic Center connects to the skyways, which connect to a number of the hotels downtown, several blocks of the hospitals, a number of banks and other random places of business and foodings, and the downtown mall, which houses both the bookstore where I work and the chocolate shop where I work.

Er, and also the coffeeshop where one of my girlfriends works, and the bank where Swedewolf works when he's in town. And a bunch of my friends work at Mayo. Also, said skyway is a block from the newspaper where my mom works. All of this means that there's a good chance of running into someone you know if you take your lunch in the food court.

And the library. Mustn't forget the library. And the pianos in two of the hospital buildings.

Suffice it to say, between the hours of 0800 and 1730, I can be set loose downtown and keep myself amused and taking care of random errands for hours without ever having to once poke my nose into the raining slush that seeks a safe haven inside my shirt collar.

We're talking about quarter-sized flakes today. One of the baristas came in the afternoon, and said it took her a half hour to drive three miles. Desperately slippy.

I was in a nasty accident last December. Car was absolutely wrecked. Should have gotten pictures. Now very nervous about driving anytime there's junk between my tires and the pavement. This is not a helpful attitude when you live in Minnesota.

Could be worse. Sport's from Michigan.

It's not that I hate snow at all. I love snow. I get so excited about the first serious snowfall. Walking downtown in a busy snowfall with an armful of books and happy thoughts to yourself, it's like a hundred tiny kisses over your cheeks every minute. Driving in the snow I can do without, but I love playing in it, building forts and tunnels, and walking in it, and sledding, hillsliding, falling down in a big drift and watching it fall on you from the sky. Shoveling snow is kind of a quirky bonding thing with a friend, skiing is a big adventure (especially if you're like me and not very good at stopping), and ice skating is splendid. Winter's great - you have to love it.

I just really hope my car survives it.