Am I in Minnesota?

Tonight, for the first time ever in the history of my living in the South, I had to shovel snow! The (by my estimate) 7 inches of snow crusted with ice that coated the back deck and the 4-5 steps down to the yard were too much for my ancient mostly-pointer Jake to negotiate. I carried him down once - then got to work clearing the steps.

Last night I was cohosting a dinner party for a Foyers group (from church) but we tied up early because of the predicted snow. My cohost Sue insisted that I head home and leave most of the clean up to her. Sure enough, the snow began as i was loading the car (more like tiny balls of ice), was coming down steadily by the time I started out, and was accumulating steadily by the time I got home. Fortunately the roads were still clear, but by 10 pm last night the yard and neighborhood looked like a winter wonder land, and my neice and her boyfriend were out playing in the snow. This morning the CDC was closed "except for essential personnel". Fortunately for me I am not currently essential because I don't know how I would have gotten in if I needed to. The same 6-7 inches of snow that coated the deck, steps and yard also coated the driveway and street.

Since I have not ventured out I don't know if the roads are clear once you get off my street. I do know that the temperatures have not risen above freezing yet today and the block remains totally snowed in. I am searching the internet and keeping an eye on my Blackberry for another email from the CDC EOC telling us not to report to work again tomorrow. But since none has arrived yet, I am beginning to turn my mind to thinking about how I might best attempt to get into work if I am expected to report tomorrow.

I still have those Minnesota cross country skiis - but the same absence of side walks that makes it hard to walk anywhere in this city would inhibit my ability to skii to work - not to mention that physically I doubt I could make it these days.

Today was very productive - perhaps not for the taxpayers but for me, as I finished 3 loads of laundry, a couple of loads of dishwasher, a lot of accounting and filing and tax preparation at home.

Tomorrow morning I will try to get a photo of the lovely snowy land to post.

Meanwhile, how many mass killings in schools and public places do you think we will have to have before the Congress decides that if it is necessary to have a license to drive a car and to renew that license periodically and keep that car registered then it should also be necessary to have specific training and a license to have a gun and also necessary to register that (those) guns? Why does the right to bear guns make it necessary to have laws that prevent the ability to have a national database documenting gun owners? Why is it necessary, easy, even possibly for mentally ill people to easily equip themselves with automatic weapons? Am I the only one who thinks that the NRA has had too much influence on Congress, and in ways that go way beyond protecting the ability of my acquaintances who hunt to put food on the table to coninue to be able to do so?