We had a snow fort for about two days

January 14, 2009 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

Then we got a blizzard.

Before.

After.

It’s like hurricane season, only colder

January 12, 2009 | Barack Obama,Iowa,Politics,Weather,Winter

Much colder.

We’re at the beginning of the second (or is it the third?) blizzard of the season. I’d post a picture, but, well … got a printer? Got paper in the printer? Pull out a piece of that paper and hold it in front of your face. That’s what it looks like out there right now.

The kids spent two hours at school this morning before it got canceled. Then I got stuck at the end of the driveway on my way to pick them up.

Whee.

Don’t worry. I’m not wishing us back to hurricanes. I’ll never forget having two babies in bouncy seats. Under the kitchen table. In the dark. For at least three storms that took out a couple of trees.

Guess we’re just wacky weather magnets no matter where we live.

We will be layering in the coming week. You know it will be cold when they actually use the word “bitter” in the forecast. That’s just a nice way to not use lots and lots of cuss words. And the folks up here are nothing if not nice.

I better hurry up and call President-elect Barack Obama’s Blackberry (while he still has it) and see if he can add “making winter more pleasant” to his agenda.

Frosty the Snowman

December 30, 2008 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

Was a jolly happy soul

With a John Deere hat and a carrot nose

And two eyes made out of … beer-bottle caps

At least that’s how the story goes around here.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

December 22, 2008 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

No school today.

No, it’s not a Snow Day. It’s not snowing.

It’s a Zoinks!-It’s-how-cold?!? Day. Or a By-the-time-we-get-the-buses-warmed-up-school-will-be-over Day. Or Your-ears-will-pop-off-your-head-in-two-minutes Day.

How cold is it? Depends who you ask.

That was first thing this morning. The Internet is telling me it’s still minus-17 degrees out there.

Ah well. I guess it’s like the snow. I laugh when they say how many inches of snow we got. How do they know? It could be 2 inches or 24. The way the wind blows it around, it’s hard to tell.

We’ve got 3-foot snowdrifts next to the house and a 6-foot wall of snow in back.

Now if it would just warm up (I’d take, oh, 10 degrees at least), the kids will have tons of fun digging and building forts in all that snow. They also want to build a snowman. Heck, they can build a whole village of snowmen out there.

From lizards to blizzards

December 21, 2008 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

We have tons of snow, and the kids are dying to make a snowman. But there’s not enough “bundling up” to be had to make me send them out in minus-10 degrees and 40 mph winds … you know … a blizzard. (I don’t care what the Norwegians and Swedes say: “No bad weather, only bad clothes.” Yeah, whatever.)

I know I’ve said it before, but … brrrrrrrrr!

I’m dreaming of a pink Christmas

December 19, 2008 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

Christmas past

Christmas present (snow day #2)

Sun dogs fire on the horizon

December 17, 2008 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

Still freezing …

December 15, 2008 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

… with jaw-dropping (or -locking) 30-degree-below-zero windchill.

Is that even legal?

Well, it shouldn’t be.

Walking in a winter wonderland

December 9, 2008 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

Well … sort of.

It’s our first snow day.

I never meant to be so cold

December 4, 2008 | Iowa,Weather

My car tells me the outside temperature. If it could talk like my GPS, though, I think it would have a lot more to say about the current state of arctic affairs. (I keep expecting my GPS to start screaming at me, instead of calmly repeating, “calculating route,” over and over and over again when I don’t do what she tells me to do.)

It’s amazing to watch the inside-the-garage temperature drop to outside-brrr temperature … 30 degrees in two minutes … when I drive to school every day.

It’s almost like watching the stock market.