Snow Day!

Today marked the first snow day of the 2017–18 school year. Elias was happy to sleep in a little later this morning, and I was happy I had no afternoon appointments, especially when the winter storm warning for our county was upgraded to a blizzard warning. It appears we received up to 16 inches of snow!

Our house in Northfield, earlier today.

It reminded me of those good old-fashioned blizzards of my youth—and it also reminded me of two photos in the Riggs family archives. My guess is that these photos of my paternal great-grandparents, G. Oliver and Islea Riggs (and their unidentified dog) were taken in Thief River Falls, Minnesota (where my dad was born) or in St. Cloud, in the late 1930s—a few decades before residential snowblowers became popular (The Canadian man credited with inventing the first practical snowblower, Arthur Sicard, was six years younger than G. Oliver; you can read more about him here).

Islea Graham Riggs

G. Oliver and Islea Riggs

Because of the storm warning, Steve switched his schedule around and worked in town today instead of in Faribault. This was a wise decision. By the time he got home this afternoon, the roads in town were slippery, visibility was poor, and numerous accidents had been reported on the roads between Northfield and Faribault.

The shoveling duo

After I sent pictures of the accumulation to my snow-deprived mom and my snow-deprived college kids, Steve and I got busy shoveling. It took us an hour and a half to clear our driveway and sidewalk, and the snow kept accumulating. I tried to take our dog, Waffles, for a walk, but the snow was too deep for his short poodle legs; since our neighbors hadn't yet shoveled, we didn't make it far.

According to the school district robo-call we received tonight, since roads are not expected to be cleared until late morning, there will be no school again tomorrow. Looks like there's more old-fashioned, shovel-based exercise in my future.

Waffles had an easier time on his evening walk.