early Howling Snowpocylpse report

first 8 inches of the Howling Snowpocylpse, before noon… drift in the driveway was over a foot. the half-blower bites 10 inches. I was making slow headway when a contractor with a plow came by, and I spent the best $20 of my life

clearing the way because the night before, as I was making sure we had K1 and charcoal lighter and sale Christmas lights, I called home to make sure wifey didn’t need anything. “Nope, we’re fine.”

this morning… “uh, I made a mistake. we don’t have stuff for the holiday breads for work.”

we got plowed out, pulled all the cars across the street to the park, and son #3 said, “hey, don’t want you freaking out or anything, I’m driving.”

event highlights included sliding off the road coming back, on the wrong side of the highway… getting stuck in the middle of an intersection two blocks from home… and enough raw language to make a Chief Petty Officer turn his head.

but hey, I didn’t freak out or anything.  thanks for taking that over, my friend.  when it was massively obvious the car was not going anywhere two blocks from home, I pulled my parka hood tight and walked a long, long block to a discount store and back with a car shovel for the son and a bag of cat food for traction.

those Minnesnowtans, they’re soft. We North Dakota kids, we take 40 below with the stinging snow blowing UP in stride.

and I slept the whole afternoon

at 7 PM, we're at 15-1/2 inches in North Burbs, with 20 over at Oakdale MN.  the airport shut down before the city buses did, at 11 am.  some two foot drifts here, including it appears on the translucent roof over the high deck at Chez Swschrad.