Another snow event

We are in the midst of another round of falling snow. This time it's maybe 5-7 inches, enough for a snow emergency plowing event beginning tonight. It is a pretty snow as it continues to fall.

I promised a trip to the fairgrounds to see the Winter Carnival snow sculptures. I was there this afternoon and it snowed continuously while I was there. Snow messes up snow sculptures. The details that were lovingly carved by the artists get filled in and the sculptures begin to look more like just another pile of snow. This photo depicts an auto being driven to the Winter Carnival. It's representative of the works on the grounds.

A street photo to show what St Paul is looking like today. This was taken on Ben Hill street, one of my routes to Crosby Farm when I'm biking on warmer days. It looks like it may need to be plowed tonight and I guess it will get what it needs.

I saw a guy biking on Lexington Avenue near Como this afternoon while I was driving to the fairgrounds. I wanted to take his photo, because he was moving precariously up a rise on Lexington towards Como Lake, so precariously that he lost traction and got off to walk the bike up the street amongst the traffic. It was not a day that I'd want to be on a bike in that part of the city. He is a brave man.

There will be shoveling and roof raking galore in the next 18-24 hours in the Saintly City.

The February sun makes an appearance

As you can see by the photo, winter is still with us. But the sun came out and some of the snow started to melt, even though the temperature only reached 24 degrees. The blue sky was elating and I was able to walk around outside a couple of hours without freezing to death. The February sun is beginning to feel like a real heat engine. The snow emergency in the Capitol City was successful, in that they plowed the streets - east-west and north-south - and, as a bonus, they filled in the sidewalk entry to the street with a generous helping of compacted dirty snow from the street, which I removed later in the day. It's part of my exercise program, apparently. I took a picture of my neighbors windblown garage roof and the pleasant blue behind it.



And the top of my own garage - again featuring the snow and the weather vane against the deep blue sky.



On my walking tour of the immediate area, I passed two tennis parks, one with two courts and one with four. Both areas were locked and chained and the surface was covered with a couple of feet of snow.

Not very much is happening this week. We haven't had as much snow as Washington D.C., but we've had enough to cause a yearning for summer.

Last Day of Meteorological Winter?

In Minnesota, supposedly, the winter season is really December, January and February. That's what the weather guys are saying, so today, Leap Day, is the last day of winter. Yay. It snowed last night on my way to play tennis, and on the way home I was confronted with freezing rain. This morning, Herb and I shoveled the droppings off the sidewalks. As you can see, the winter has not yet loosened its grasp on my backyard. I wisely waited until today to shovel, so that the ice stuck to the top of the snow, rather than merging with the sidewalk. I have had some exercise already today.



The tennis was good last night. Jerry's sub, Pat, played well and the hardcore girls were at their usual steely best. Barb and I fell behind 4-1 in both of the finished sets, but rallied to win both 7-5, 6-4. The fragment set was 1-4, so you can see that we were consistently slow at getting into the set. Becky, who works at the hospital where Jerry is spending the week, reported that Jerry is doing very well. The pathology report showed no spread of the tumor to lymph nodes, so he is very relieved and pretty doggone happy. He's on his way home sometime today, although he has to get used to eating real food again, yet. I look forward to fighting off his driving, swinging forehand volleys soon. Maybe before the snow is completely gone.

I'm amusing myself by not shaving my geezer visage until spring arrives. In the interest of measurability, that means that the temperature in the Saintly City must remain above freezing for 48 consecutive hours. That's my own personal gauge. So far this season, that span has been far beyond our ability to attain. A shot of the current visage is included for scale.



I haven't reported from curling for the week. Wednesday night was a successful evening for the Miller Rink. The game was tied 6-6 after five ends, but we had the hammer, and thus curled last. We had some good shots from Wireless and Kurt, which left three counting stones in the house. We were able to guard them, with shots from Gino, and the game ended with their skip trying an impossible shot with the expected result. 9-6. The playoffs are starting in about three weeks. We have two more games before then, but we are not in danger of winning the league. Curling is a good diversion for the winter months, but winter is nearly over. See above.

I assume that there is a theme for the March first post. Since it is leap year, I hope that it has something to do with jumping. Otherwise, I have some more pictures of the beard.