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This winter has been out of the ordinary. It has snowed every other day dumping around 4 inches each snowfall – except for last week where it dumped 16 inches then turned bitterly cold.

So far I have had the machine jumped as the battery simply gave up in the cold, helped push out other machines as they helped push mine out due to the ploughs of Winthrop Harbour trying to clear the commuter car park after all the spaces were filled with cars.

I get my exercise not shovelling the driveway but trying to clear the entrance to the driveway after the crack street crew of Peasants Pissoir block the driveway with heavy wet snow.

The temperature has not made zero F twice in the last fortnight.

Madison has broken the snowfall record for the city and it is only mid February.

I am aware of this not by going outside but because it is the talking point of the winter. People are complaining about the cold and snow. The primaries have been relegated to the second spot on the 10 o’clock news as the weather man comes on and tells us how horrible it is outside and how it is not going to end. This is then updated three times during the half hour broadcast signing off with check in to-morrow at 5am for further updates on the weather.

I kind of like it. we are dealing with a real winter, there is snow there is cold - a bit more than usual but it effects those who complain how?

I came to the realisation that seasons are pretty much superfluous during the Superbowl. Here were the finals of a sport played in late autumn and winter by manly men in an enclosed stadium of a southern city of choice. The only time it will be played where there may be something approaching winter will be in an enclosed stadium. I used to hope for rain as that would be as close to actual weather one could hope for.

It is no different with us lesser mortals. It is a race to the machine, or maybe a long wait on for the bus. Only two die hards are doing their walking exercises. Most of the kids are driven the block to the bus stop where they sit in their parents car until the bus arrives. This isn’t due to the cold it is common practice.

What I find strange in all this complaining and warnings during the newscast is no consideration of the poor and homeless who don’t have the option of living in a weather-less state. There has been no mention of warming stations – unlike the summer when cooling stations are reported.

Sure it is cold out. Sure my feet are drenched due to the deep snow but when else will I see cities form on the lakes around here, see slob ice on Lake Michigan, try to deal with the unrelenting white – not being in Chicago the snow doesn’t turn grey as quickly – photographically.
It seems to me that winter people are more friendly perhaps due to having made the decision to be out in the cold and finding those few like minded people turns them into comrades by default.

This has been a long winter as it did snow heavily in December but even forgetting the warm spell that brought tornados in January, even in the worst of years this will be over with by mid April when there will be that short window of opportunity before people start the summer heat panic where once again due to modern technology one will only have a minor brief contacts.