The Month in Review: Part 1.

December 2010. The month of the most snowfall in Minneapolis.

EVER.

Needless to say, December has been busy. What with finals and the holidays and work and shoveling out 34 inches of snow from my driveway and sidewalks and porches, that really leaves little time for much else, doesn't it?
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
So I've gotten a little lazy with updating you on my life as of recent, but hey, I made it two whole posts before the laziness set in, didn't I? Well to make up for it, I'm going to binge-blog and try to sum up my entire month in a matter of 3, 4, or 5 posts, depending on my mood.

PART ONE: Snow.

There's a reason some call it Minnesnowta, and this past month has reflected our proud title well. With a blanket of white falling from the sky at least once a week, mother nature was able to out-do herself by 6 inches this year, compared to a previous record of 28 inches of white, powdery goodness.
On the bright side, Minneapolis has a fairly effective setup for snow removal. Somewhere in the hierarchical structure for winter weather, a person in power (let's call them the Snow Czar) decides whether or not an accumulation of snow in a single storm is enough to declare a "snow emergency," in which the city sends out an army of plows to makes its way down the 1,000+ miles worth of city street in hopes of clearing the snow and making driving less of a hazard. Once a snow emergency is declared, you've got what seems like 30 seconds to get your car to where it needs to be, and if you don't get it out of the way by the time the plows are ready to come through, you can make your way down to the impound lot to pick your car up. In other words, if you're not on top off things during a snowstorm, you're SOL.
To make things better, a snow emergency consists of three days: each with different parking restrictions. In short, I'm extremely thankful for my garage stall.
On top of having the most snow physically fall from the sky this month, it was also the month of the most snow emergencies declared in the history of Minneapolis; five of 'em. In four weeks. After the December 10th snowstorm, there were actually two snow emergencies declared to clear the 17 inches of snow from the streets that had fallen in one day. That's six days worth of emergency. Oh, and you can't forget about the snow emergency that was declared ON CHRISTMAS.

"Welcome home, Mrs. Smith. Where's your car, you ask? Check the impound lot."

Man, if Minnesota is good for one thing, it's teaching one to appreciate springtime.