I Remember, Do You?

-

It started with a few flakes, but by nightfall it was the heaviest snowfall I've ever seen in my life.

And it was 20 years ago today.

Yes, 20 years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play I experienced the biggest blizzard of my life (so far).  The Halloween blizzard of '91.  It was one for the ages.

I was 22 years old then.  And I had work ethic back then, I'll tell you.  I was living in St. Francis, MN, in an apartment complex.  It was my senior year at the University of Minnesota.  I worked for the U of M Food Services, and my main job was running a little coffee shop Monday through Friday.  I had to open the shop early morning on November 1st.

Yes, I actually attempted to drive the 40 miles to Minneapolis to do my job.

I didn't make it out of the apartment parking lot, though.

I remember waking up in the middle of the night and looking out the living room window and I couldn't believe how hard it was snowing.  I set my alarm an hour earlier to give myself more time to get to work.

That morning, well before daylight, I remember attempting to get to my garage, wading through heavy snow that was mid-thigh on me (I am 6'1").

I remember thinking, "I'm never going to make it to work."

I actually shoveled out the front of my garage, only to shake my head at nearly two feet of snow that packed the rest of the parking lot.

I was right, I didn't make it to work.

In fact, that winter of 1991-1992, St. Francis, MN set the state record for the most snowfall in one location: 53.52 inches.  And I was right there in the middle of it.

And it all started 20 years ago today.

Popular posts from this blog

Our New Neighbor

-
Image
I've talked about this dude before on my blog, but on Friday he really gave us a show.  He perched himself above the bird feeders in our back yard and waited for (I imagine) an unsuspecting squirrel to come along.  He eventually flew away with an amazingly huge wingspan... but here he is, our new neighbor, "Oscar" the Barred Owl.  I originally thought he was a Great Horned Owl, but this picture I snapped out our living room window makes it very obvious that Oscar does not have tufts or "horns" on top of his head.  His head is nice and round and he has the most incredible eyes.  Beth looked it up in our handy Birds of Minnesota handbook written by my friend Stan Tekiela, and he is undoubtedly a Barred Owl. The only other choice of owl in Minnesota (after Great Horned and Barred) is the Screech Owl, but that species of owl stands only 9 inches tall.  Oscar was an easy two feet from head to toe.  The only word I can think of to describe him is "majes...
Read more

Make Over!

-
I have decided to do a little make over on the site. Actually, I went to Stacy's blog and saw that she had some cool new graphics, so I just followed the links to the source. Pretty neat. I decided on a winter scene since we just got several inches of snow over the last couple days and outside it is colder than Bill and Hillary's bedroom. I'll find something more "springy" after while. I've also modified the "Comment" section (since changed to "Smart Remarks" section) so anybody can leave a smart remark, not just registered Google users. As you can see, I am endorsing my own presidential candidate: Gene Simmons. America would be a better place if he was the Big Cheese. I would strongly recommend reading his autobiography Kiss and Make Up . Don't worry, the demons of Hell won't come flying out of the book. It is actually a very interesting read. He came from total poverty as an immigrant from Israel (his mother was a prisoner in a c...
Read more

What a song can do

-
Image
It was a rainy day yesterday, so I decided to catch up on some low-priority tasks, such as updating my iTunes with some old songs from my CD collection. It turned out to be a very interesting day of reflection for me. In mid-1994 I bought Counting Crows' album "August and Everything After." It remains one of my favorites, but one song in particular really moves me, even to this day.  Actually, it helped change my life.  You see, music does that to me. A little background: 1994 was a blur to me. I was going through a very tough time. I was 24 years old, had a worthless (so it seemed) bachelor's degree and suddenly I found myself going through a divorce, which totally blindsided me. My life was a screwed up mess.  I had no direction.   Life had no meaning.  I was angry.  I was lost.  It would have been easy to give up. I sure as hell wasn't interested in women. I tried dating, but I hated it. Women were nothing but trouble, anyway. The...
Read more