-10 C, but feels quite warm in the sun! The days are thankfully getting longer with the sun rising just before 7.00 am and setting around 6.00 pm. This will change next week with daylight saving - in the US it's changing this year; beginning second Sunday in March (11th) and lasting until first Sunday in November (4th). So as of next week, the time difference will be 16 hours instead of 17, until daylight saving finishes in Australia and then it will drop another hour to 15 hours.
The last few days have been pretty exciting with all the snow. It has blown right in onto the front porch and, before the landlord shovelled, the steps were indiscernable.
I took an early-mark from work on Thursday so I could get home before the 'rush-hour' traffic and the onset of the snow which fell for most of the night. After a mostly snow-free season, the storm is very newsworthy as it brings a lot of moisture, so there's endless reports on the radio about the exact measurements and levels etc, along with stories of stranded motorists ignoring interstate road closures (and associated heavy fines) and subsequently having to be rescued. Up at Lake Superior, there have been big 'ice-mountains' formed by water breaking through the surface somehow (sounds like Kiama blowhole!). There's a slide-show on the MPR website with pics from around the state.
I drove in to work on Friday - observing (and thankfully avoiding the effects of) some interesting driving behaviour on the way - as it dawned on some drivers that the nature of the road conditions might require less speed than normal, bringing about the classicly Minnesotan, signal-less, response (ie sudden deccelaration with no concept of surrounding traffic!).
It's Saturday morning and I just took the dogs for a quick walk around the block. In spite of the sun, it's a bit chilly. The snow-ploughing has left huge banks of snow between the footpath and the street - a little hard to negotiate in places. On the way home from work last night I helped push a little VW through the intersection shown in the photo with the Melbourne St sign (just down the road from me) - made me glad that I chose an all-wheel drive. The truck belongs to the next-door neighbour ... makes me glad to pay extra for the remote-controlled garage!
