Minnesota Weather

Hello,

On Monday Leroy and I got up at about 6:30 to walk the dog. I usually walk the dog in MN and in Utah so I think these animals know who I am. When it is morning they often park themselves outside my room and wait. We did not check the temperature, but because there was snow and cold we put on long underwear, boots, wool socks, hats, scaves, and warm gloves. Almost instantly in going outside the nose hairs froze. About half way through this walk Leroy put his hand up to protect his face. I started walking rapidly, almost running. "What is this running about?" Leroy wanted to know.

"I am getting cold," I said, "and we still have about 10-15 minutes to go." We walk a loop so we had to finish. Can you imagine we did not see another person or dog or even a track of any such creature.

When we got back to the house someone informed us that it was –10 with –40 wind chill. I had talked about taking Sophia with us and Brian said, "No it is too cold." Good thing he said that. But then we might have turned around right away instead of doing the whole trip and causing my cheeks to feel as if they could fall off.

When Miriam went out later in the day she said, "This is awful. Why do people live here?" Utah has a much more temperate climate in spite of being in the mountains. I will admit that my coat was so cold that it crackled. When I visited in Utah the last time both Miriam and Andy complained about the cold while I thought it was nice there.

Yesterday, Miriam called and said they were in a better place now. "It is snowing and Olivia is outside just wearing a sweatshirt having a good time trying to catch snowflakes."

Paula