Monday, April 16, 2012

A soft sell

The weird weather season continues. This is one of the reasons I don't live in the northern regions of Minnesota. When it flurries in St Paul, seven inches of snow falls on the Iron Range. While it makes the vistas very pretty, it also makes travel and most forms of exercise quite difficult. By Wednesday this new snow fall will have melted and will be flowing into the lakes and rivers of the region. And for a couple of days, at least, the threat of grass fires will be very close to nil. These snow covered trees stand near Swan Lake in Pengilly. I think they could be considered native vegetation. They look pretty comfortable with a white robe of snow.


Cars buried by the seven inches of overnight snow. The snow also took out the internet and cable TV for a couple of hours this morning, but all is back to normal now.


Yesterday PW and I went to Keewatin to visit some property that she owns there. On the way out of town, on a crisp spring day we saw a group of three seven or eight year old kids with a stand selling something. I'm familiar with kids selling kool-aid at stands. Unky Herb and the Prairie Princess did that very thing at about the same age. Keewatin is a small town - maybe 1500 residents - and there is very little traffic through the town, especially on the side street where the stand stood. I think that they probably had not had a single sale since they set up the stand. PW thought they may be selling hot chocolate or some other consumable, and she likes to encourage entrepreneur activities in kids, so she suggested that we stop. She went to talk to them and after a few minutes came back to the car with a purchase. It turns out that they were selling water balloons. Mini water balloons. For three dollars she was able to buy a bagful of them. A dollar for each kid and a chance for each to go home with a buck and to get out of the cold. Money probably well spent.

Mini water balloons. Car keys for scale. I'm not sure what she plans to do with them. I think maybe she'll make a center piece for her book club meeting.


Tomorrow is the national day of paying the government what we think we owe in taxes. Mine are in and I await confirmation that I indeed agree with the government as to the amount that consists of my share of the cost of running this large country. I wish good calculating to those still in the throes of the process.

4 comments:

Santini said...

The prospect of snow at this late date is chilling. I read a Duluth blog that claims that April is one of their snowiest months. (I won't be relocating to Duluth anytime soon.)

Water balloons? Hard to figure what purpose they'd have for them, other than to toss at passing cars or dog sleds.

Gino said...

The Weather Channel in Vancouver is reporting 30 cm of snow in Chisholm.

Mrs. Smith said...

Very interesting post. I can't imagine kids thinking they could sell mini-water balloons. Who would buy those? Oh, sweet entrepreneur-encouraging women!
It's a little jarring to see photos of snow in April, but the native trees are gorgeous.
I am really enjoying the beauty of Vancouver, even though it is getting colder and grayer every day.

Retired Professor said...

The pine tree photo is frame-able. Nice.