Optimist, Pessimist, or Realist?

[gerisullivan]

It's May 30th.

I just took the snow brush out of my car until next winter.


Additional information that may or may not be pertinent and/or useful:

-- Three weeks ago today, I removed the coal shovel that's so useful when one needs to dig one's car out of a snowbank, especially the snowbanks along the edge of one's driveway that a certain driver has been known to get stuck in...repeatedly...when backing down for a second or third attempt at getting up the curved slope.

-- There are at least three ice scrapers still in the car. They don't take up any space needed for other things and live there year round. Why three? It makes it much more likely that one will be found when it's needed.

-- I've lived in Massachusetts for five years and two weeks.

-- It is entirely possible that those 25 years in Minnesota are still in my bloodstream.

Comments

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

I took the winter gear out of our car two months ago, and swapped the location of the snowblower and the lawnmower in the garage. We've sometimes had snow flurries in April our way, but nothing major.

In 1977, there were a few inches of snow in Massachusetts in mid-May. Within two weeks, the temperature had gone up over 90. So you're probably right to be overly cautious.

[redbird]

Well, was the coal shovel in the way of anything else you needed to do? And isn't it easier to just leave it in the trunk until you're also sure you won't be caught in the snow during a trip to Minneapolis?

Given the amount of space ice scrapers take up, and the number of people I see having trouble finding them when needed in the winter, having extras makes sense. (It's not like trying to fit multiple spare tires; you aren't going to be unable to find the spare tire if it's in the trunk.)

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yes, the coal shovel takes up a significant amount of space in my small car. I even enjoy having the space the snow brush takes up, though it's much smaller than the shovel.

One of my ice scrapers is tucked into the well with the spare tire. It's extraordinarily inconvenient to get to when the hatch area is loaded, but I know that scraper isn't playing hide'n'seek under the seats as the others seem to have a habit of doing.

Actually, the way I ended up with three good scrapers is that I kept buying them when I couldn't find one, then eventually did a thorough vacuuming of the car and found the motherlode lurking under the seats and in the spare tire compartment.....

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

It is entirely possible that those 25 years in Minnesota are still in my bloodstream.

How differs Massachusetts snow from Minnesota snow? Knowing little of either - my experience living with Ohio snow predates having to drive in it - I am curious.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Minnesota's winter tends to start and end 2-3 weeks later than Massachusetts winter, maybe even a month. Both states tend to be visited by big snowstorms in March. That leaves one distrustful of the first signs of spring in both states, but the last time there was enough snow to plow here at Toad Woods this year was on March 2nd.

Minnesota's lowest temperatures are 20-25 degrees colder than those in Massachusetts. That means when snow falls in Minnesota, it tends to stay for the rest of the season. Massachusetts has the kind of freeze-thaw cycle you probably noticed in Ohio. We certainly had it in southern Michigan. Weather patterns have been changing enough that even Minnesota is getting more freeze-thaw than it did during the first decade I lived there.

In Minnesota, the year 29 inches of snow fell in a freak Halloween blizzard, the snow was there to stay, even though we often celebrated Thanksgiving having received nothing more than light flurries to that date. It was a horrible winter. Long. Long. Long.

About 10 years later, a Nor'easter buried the eastern seaboard in snow the first weekend of December, five weeks further into winter than Minnesota's Halloween storm. The Boston area had 30-36" snow on the ground before the storm ended. More snow, further into the season. I sold Toad Hall on December 30th and flew east, going up to Massachusetts to celebrate New Year's. A mere 24 days had passed...and all of the snow was gone save a few little mostly-melted mounds where the plows had piled it high in the process of clearing roads and parking lots. I was utterly shocked...and delighted. After 25 years in Minnesota, I had no idea that much snow could melt that fast in December. I knew from personal experience it wasn't up to the trick in November.

Massachusetts gets more ice. A lot more ice. It goes with that freeze-thaw cycle.

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

It is entirely possible that those 25 years in Minnesota are still in my bloodstream.

Yes, but do you still carry a blanket and/or sleeping bag in the car all winter?

(Now that we have a van again, the sleeping bag is a permanent resident. We didn't move out the shovel until it was time to go down to Nashua and pick up Twin A from college for the summer.)

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a heavy cloth bag contining air-mattress, sleeping-bag, blanket, pillow, small nylon tent, and some dried food & a gallon of water is permanently resident in my car's trunk. Handy for a camping-out weekend (which I like at least twice a year) and as an Earthquake kit because (this being California) I'm hardly ever very far from the car.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

I still remember meeting the Mpls/StPl fan who had moved to there from Winnipeg because the fall started 1-2 weeks later and the spring 1-2 weeks earlier. Getting as much as a full month extra summer every year would seem pretty special.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure that there's 5 ice scrapers in our garage and that they rarely make it into either car. This is incredibly inconvenient because hte new driver's licenses aren't stiff enough to make a good scraper like the old ones.

K.

[profgeek.livejournal.com]

The Minnesotan never leaves you, Geri. I've been in Texas for eight years now, and the heaviest jacket I have is a spring coat since it rarely gets below the freezing mark here.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Wow. Illuminating. Thx.