Snowed In

Minnesota got 20" of snow last night. Some parts of the city had a little more; some a little less.

We're lucky enough to rent a house and have a garage off the alley out back.

Most of the time this is a blessing, because when the city calls for a "snow emergency" so they can plow the streets, we can just stay parked in the garage. This is fine for normal snow.

Not so much when you get 20". Why?

Because they don't plow the alleys.

Imagine walking out your back walk to snow drifts up to your waist, sometimes higher.

{Sorry I don't have photos, I'm trying to work the kinks out of my camera USB cord}

It's pretty spectacular.

A fresh blanket of snow is gorgeous, especially this time of year.

And on Saturday, when the snow was falling, I was perfectly content hanging out indoors.

I was able to get a lot of homework done. I planned on getting it all done and giving myself Sunday off to go spend some time with my family.

My plans were foiled by a typical (maybe not TOO typical, but nothing us Minnesotans can't handle) snowstorm. I expected to shovel the walkway and shovel out the drive. I even expected to dig out of the alley a bit.

I DID NOT expect it to take 4 hours and 4 trips inside for cocoa to warm-up (which I had thanks to the fall swap and LaDonna at iFROG.)

It would have helped if I had a snowblower rather than a shovel. A shovel just doesn't cut it when it's 20" of snow! But it was also really disrespectful of my neighbor for not clearing their part of the alley. They cleared enough to get their car out, covering up a large portion of my section in the process. It's incredibly surprising since we're a state that EVERYONE helps, especially when it comes to the weather. We're "Minnesota Nice" after all.

My faith in humanity was restored when I headed out for my (hopefully) last trip. My roommate and I devised a plan to get rid of the rest of the snow, so we could pull our cars out of the garage and make it through the alley. As we walked out, we saw a different neighbor snow-blowing the last little bit of remaining snow.

So, after all was said and done it took teamwork, 4 hours, 3 mugs of cocoa, lots of muscle, snot and frozen eyelashes and one incredibly good-samaritan neighbor to clear up the biggest snow-storm Minnesota has had in over 20 years!