We got snow starting in the evening yesterday here in Nebraska, and the wind blowing everything around has made it unsafe to be out on the roads so they’ve been advising anyone who doesn’t absolutely NEED to be driving should stay indoors. It was almost 70 degrees out the middle of last week! Now we’ve got snow, but at least our neighborhood association has contracted with a removal service so we only have to shovel the front porch and the steps leading up to it. The driveways, sidewalks, and streets are all done by the crew the snow removal company sends out.

OldDutch, we are getting the same thing here. My car was encased in 1/4" of ice yesterday, the freezing rain was replenishing the ice faster than I could scrape it off! Had to warm the car up, to thaw the ice from the inside... first time I've been late for work in years. Heavy snow falling now & is expected to continue until Monday, we have close to 12" already.

This is not only the heaviest snowfall this year, but the biggest winter storm we've had for many years... figures it would come in "Spring". Considering that the warmest day last summer was actually in the Fall, there is an odd symmetry to this... like cosmic humor, mocking our concept of fixed seasons.

The silver lining is that we never had a big warm-up this year, so the trees never broke bud, and likely no harm will be done to this year's fruit crop. My garlic had only begun to sprout too, no top growth to be killed off. Good news for the garden... but the impact of this year's continuing cold on my heating bill is another matter. >:-(

Around here it is breaking records for the coldest high for this date, the most snow in April, and just plain most aggravation all around... No real spring thaw here either, but then no real hard cold either that I can remember, just one long cold mother of a spring time. Both of the warehouses my company has in Wisconsin closed today, they couldn't get trucks in or out. We were open here in Minneapolis. When I came to work this morning at 3:30 there were no cars in the street, no traffic and the plows were just getting started. I didn't have to scrape real hard, what snow and ice came right off; so I was on time, but then I am the only one here on Sat and Sun so big deal I guess. Our deliveries today arrived at a lot of locations before they had their docks dug out; so a lot of routes got delayed.

oldDutch, you need to move to sunny Florida to enjoy more. ;-) Hard to grow garlic though... At least it is not too bad here.

I tried Florida back when, and it was not exactly a pleasant experience for a young working class hippie from the civilized upper Midwest. I think I will just stay here. I got my house resided this spring; so it should now last as long as I need it to. We gripe a bit around here, but the winters, if lasting longer once in a while, are actually getting milder.