Even in Minnesota we've only had a few snowstorms like that in my lifetime.

We're much colder, though.

im exhausted. i shoveled more snow today then i ever shoveled in one day in my entire life. it also snowed more today then i have ever encountered. i did it because i had too.

i can feel it in my back basically my entire body. i even got face first lying flat in the snow to try to get moms car out. it wasn't happening. my mom gave up but i stayed out there trying to shovel around the car but it was 6 degrees.

i would have stayed out longer, but it was kinda dark, and mom refused to run the car anymore. we could hear the rubber burning. after getting some shuteye tonight ill be reenergized and will try to dig the last of the car out tomorrow. you know what i f**king hate? after us and the neighbors bust our ass shoveling the huge plough trucks come on and just pile up all the snow to everybody house forcing everybody to work 4 times as hard. im very very grateful we did not lose power. many people elsewhere weren't so lucky.

but we're cooler

our lights didn't even flicker...I spent most of the day sitting in my car so I could move it back to my parking space, damn plows took forever to our lot. Finally when my wife and daughter came out with food I decided to go in (it was close to dark), but they love to tow so I kept getting up to go check. I saw the plow, put on my sneakers (no sox) and no warm coat, I just grabbed my leather jacket and ran out. I just wanted to be parked in a plowed spot so I could stop worrying about the tow truck coming, I have never been towed for parking in my life until I moved here and twice now they have towed me and once was their fault (they paid for it too). I ended up being outside about ten minutes and I was cold then, especially when I stepped in two feet of snow to push a car (the snow in my sneakers with no sox was the final straw).

I had a bit of a time first getting out of my spot, but gentle rocking and shoveling around the front tires (I was backed in) and I was good to go...I still would rather have this than the heat and humidity. One neighbor said "still want to move to Maine John?" and I said "as soon as I can masshole"

Hink!

I think I bitch about this every year, but it's really frustrating when we go such long periods of time w/o rain.

It got up to 46°F yesterday!

It's a little chilly and damp.

More scorchio. Hasn't rained since January. I've almost caved in and started using factor 30 sunblock (hate the stuff; it's like smearing glue over yourself ). It's really difficult to get a decent sunblock here (i.e. one that is a lotion rather than semi-solid) as the melanoma nazis have almost banned the sale of any factor lower than 30. Won't be long before we get rickets being a common condition again as nobody will get any UV at all.

Difficult sleeping on night duty, but I still prefer too hot over too cold.

To each their own. I prefer cold weather to scorching hot. I can always put on more layers.

Here? 46°F a couple of days ago. 36°F yesterday. Now? 7°F and heading to a high of 17°F, though it may get a couple of degrees higher than that where I am because of the freeway right behind us.

Just another cold gray day for us'uns...

Meteorites likely with a 20% chance of cratering.

27 degrees and I'm in the library, which is the coolest part of the house. Sun's gone down already. Having a hot cuppa tea really wasn't a good idea. Might have to go back to bed and put the air con on - must be humid today. Every forecast just shows hot yellow things every day of the week. Perfect.

Got 4 days off from tomorrow - gonna get out there and do stuff in the garden and fry baby, fry. The beach is beckoning again too. Got a couple of weeks off mid March, so we're going up to the Coromandel for some serious beach time. Should be still pretty good then. Haven't had a dip in the sea for quite a while, so I'll make the most of it. Might even catch me a few crayfish...

Not sure if we're going to go here (Whangapoua):


Or here: (Opito bay)


Not that it matters much - there's too many decent beaches to choose from up there, and there won't be too many JAFFAs this time of year. Deserted beach, wine in the coolbox, heaven...