The Winter Storm Watch for Minnesota’s Twin Cities has officially turned into a Winter Storm Warning, and all of the snowmobilers here in our Affinity Media offices can hardly keep our eyes on our computer screens and our minds on our work!
Like many of you, we’ve been eagerly and impatiently waiting on winter’s arrival. Our hopes for what seemed so certain to be an early winter with October’s cold temperatures were dashed by November’s mild malaise.
Now? The weather system that is affecting so much of the country right now is fixing to put the hurt on us Upper Midwesterners — the weather geeks on the television are predicting a calamity of biblical proportions (quoting Ghostbusters: “human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria) but we’re as excited as Tiger Woods at a Hooters restaurant.
Also, panic is starting to set in. How soon can we get the new sleds studded? Damn, where are my riding boots? I need new runners for my son’s ’81 ET340! Did I do enough this fall to earn a lot of kitchen passes this winter?
Within the last hour, we posted our official-unofficial Snow Goer “Let It Snow” snow gauge outside the office window. I keep glancing back at it, thinking 10 inches are going to drop in the next 10 minutes, but there’s still grass showing. By this time tomorrow, however? Only time will tell.
Enjoy the storm, and remember to enjoy the panicked voices of neighbors, television weathercasters and radio station alarmists predicting the end of the world. It’s just a snowstorm, people – and some of us live in the northcountry for a reason!