North Dakota Winter

W-e-e-e-e-l-l, I'm thinkin' winter is beginning to make itself known here in Grand Forks.  We had snow on Saturday - not a lot, but enough to make for huge piles in parking lots where snow plows have been hard at work.

Grace Baptist Church, Grand Forks, North Dakota

This morning was -7 degrees with a wind chill factor of -23.  Sounds awful, huh?  Well, not so much.  Folks in Texas don't faint dead away when it's 115 in the shade, do they?  Of course not.  If they have any brains at all they hydrate, drinking lots of water (but not too much because it IS possible to overdose on water.  Too much washes all of the electrolytes out of your system, and then ALL kinds of trouble start to cascade within your body.)  They dress down, and what clothes they do wear are light colored so as to reflect light rather than absorb it.  They live in air conditioned homes and drive air conditioned cars to work in air conditioned buildings.

Same thing here in North Dakota.  They dress for the weather, layering on clothes until they're wind-proof (because it's the wind that will get you first and worst), and they live in heated homes, drive heated cars and work in heated buildings.

God has amazingly blessed us with a home here that even has a heated garage and the home-owners association gets out every morning before folks go to work and cleans the snow off of all the streets and even out of the driveways!!  Rob and his family are our angels of mercy!

This cold, though, is not to be taken lightly.  I take Granpa to work every morning, so he doesn't even have to walk in from a parking lot.  However,  I make him take scarf, gloves, snowhat and heavy winter coat. He doesn't have to wear them - but he has to at least take them.  That way if the car breaks down or (heaven forbid) we have an accident, he's prepared to get out of the car and do what has to be done.  (One thing I've noticed here:  everyone stops well back from an intersection.  I'm thinkin' that's so if another driver spins out on the ice there's less chance of him hitting them.  I'm trying to train myself to do that by saying to myself, "Stop back from the intersection."  In my mind I sound like that car alarm that says, "Step away from the car."  :)

Nine more weeks here - unless they offer an extension!