Brrrrrrrr

There is nothing quite like waking up to -20º weather. I am well aware that people to the north are used to worse temperatures, yet I am an Iowan and therefore I complain about the extreme seasons of winter and summer every year. I realized last year that spring is highly overrated; only May offers a nice month devoid of windy cold days and too much rain. If we are lucky March provides a nice warm surprise that happens not enough or hardly at all.

Well at least there is the pleasantries of fall and summer is bearable at times. Perhaps if I migrate to a hotter climate I will complain and whine about the humidity and the heat. Even if currently I am longing for warmth amongst this bitter January frost.

Slipping And Sliding

During the winter season I can handle cold and snow. However I cannot stand ice, which makes driving and walking almost impossible. It also leads to falls and I experienced this first hand tonight. While salting the parking lot I slipped and fell, chipping my tailbone. I’m afraid to admit that I cursed like a sailor because it really hurt. A lot. Luckily for me I did not injure anything else, and people were there to help me up.

They took me to the hospital in an ambulance-no sirens though. Because of horror movies and lost loved ones hospitals creep me out. Still the nurses were nice and they released me after x-rays showed I had only chipped it. If I’m lucky I’ll go to work tomorrow. Until then I’m icing up my sore and bruised ass and watching TV. Not the way I wanted to spend my Friday evening.

Hey Look, Its Snowing!

Thanks to global warming (among other things) snow has been rather scarce this winter season. In fact the state of Iowa and many of its neighbors have been in a drought since the spring and therefore a serious lack of moisture has struck the land. Right now though I look out my window and snow is falling, which is odd to me these days since we’ve only gotten one snowfall all year. However I remember January’s when snow fell heavily and the winter was bitter cold-there was even a winter a couple of years back that saw temperatures going 20 below zero, which to someone like me not accustomed to such weather it came as a surprise. I’ve lived in Iowa all my life and I’ve seen both extremes in winter and in summer, yet winter has been strange the last couple of years. I no longer know what to expect.

So I am taking my shovel to clear the driveway and the sidewalks, a task that I have been far more used to doing on a regular basis than during this lukewarm winter season. Maybe this year the groundhog’s prediction won’t even matter (I jest-its never mattered, he’s just a convenient scapegoat) as by February the grass might be growing back already. We even managed to get ice for one whole day, and it was slick outside before the temperature went and the warmth melted it away. I’m afraid that this summer will be the opposite of the summer of 2008, where the river overflowed and flooded the city, replaced by water rationing and a lack of relief from the heat. Mother Nature is cruel and unforgiving in more ways than one.