/usr/web/www.marshallindependent.com/wp-content/themes/coreV2/single.php
×

Weathering the weather

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a meteorologist. I would watch Dennis Feltgen on KSTP and was just fascinated with the weather. I wasn’t too crazy about thunderstorms though. Plus I wasn’t a big fan of snow and cold. But my dreams were dashed when I realized I needed to be good in math and science to be a meteorologist. Those subjects were not my strong suit. But that’s OK, I became a journalist instead.

I kept hoping that the meteorologists would’ve been wrong this past Saturday when they kept predicting a historic snowstorm. Blech. It’s the second week of April, why are we getting more snow? And it’s not just a couple of inches, but nearly a couple of feet. But then I looked at people’s Facebook posts from five years ago that showed the same thing — heavy snowfall in almost mid-April. But like most Minnesotans, we persevere and “weather the storm.”

I didn’t have anywhere to be this past weekend, so I was prepared to be holed up in the apartment. I had bought food Thursday night. I had plenty of books to read, and there’s always Netflix, Hulu and other online streaming to keep me entertained. The wind was howling Friday night and kept rattling the windows. It was a little nerve-wracking.

I woke up Saturday morning, looked out the window, saw the blowing snow and went back to bed. I definitely didn’t feel like going anywhere. And besides, this is my first time in a long time that I was going to be lazy. But I wasn’t a “not getting out of my pajamas” kind of lazy. I did eventually get dressed to do some laundry, dishes and tidying up a bit around the living room.

And like the lyrics in Meat Loaf’s “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,”“the snow is really piling up outside …” — the snow kept falling and falling throughout the day on Saturday. There were still people out with the shovels and snowblowers, but there really wasn’t much action on the street driving-wise.

During the weekend, I started a true crime novel that’s been sitting on my book shelf for years — “All She Wanted” by Aphrodite Jones. It’s the book that led to the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry” that won Hilary Swank the Best Actress Oscar. This is the description of the book from Amazon: “Living as a man, twenty-one-year-old Teena Brandon hit the dust bowl town of Falls City, Nebraska, on the run from her family in Lincoln – and from the law for forging checks. Handsome and sophisticated, Brandon was an instant success, with young women hanging all over him. But when Brandon started to date the beautiful blonde Lana Tisdel, her luck ran out. In a terrifying incident on Christmas Eve, Brandon’s true sexual identity was unmasked. On New Year’s Eve, Brandon, her roommate, and a friend were found shot to death in an isolated farmhouse.”

It was interesting to learn the backstory of pretty much all those involved, from Brandon, to Lana and to those who did the killing. I always wonder why people do the things they do.

Sunday was more loafing around. I did venture outside to see how much snow would be on the hood and windshield of my Jeep. I expected to see 20 inches, but fortunately, it didn’t seem like a lot. Thankfully, I think/hope this is the last of snowstorms for a while.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today