Es schneit und mir friert

It's interesting what sticks in my mind sometimes. Es schneit und mir friert (German: it snows and I freeze) comes from a passage I had to memorize in ninth grade German class. It snowed here in Sioux Falls Tuesday night and into Wednesday. First real snow of the winter and it measured about six inches. Cold? Well, relatively. It's been in the single digits and sometimes slightly below.

My friend Pam in Crookston sent an e-mail with a photo of the bank's time and temperature sign. Its unsympathetic, logical computer sensors indicated -35 (I understand it was -60 with wind chill). Ah, I really DON'T miss northwest Minnesota, although I often miss some of the people there. I might actually be able to deal with only three months of winter here rather than six months in Crookston! Whoo-hoo!

Anyway, the snow is rather an inconvenience. It's pretty, but very bad for traffic here, and I end up having to shovel the driveway. The first snow always forces us to renegotiate our driving skills too. Maybe I should consider snow tires or a four-wheel drive vehicle. Then again, my little S-10 usually does all right. A $10 investment in sandbags for the bed above the wheel wells would probably do wonders.

This is rambling, so I'll end with a little haiku I just came up with:

Snow swirls above us

Lit like stars by nearby lights

I dream of fireflies.