Good Morning. I would like to invite all my California relatives and friends in the west and south to visit today. It is an excellent time to experience the beautiful state of Minnesota. We are all on vacation today and tomorrow. I can promise you beautiful landscapes. You can view frozen lakes, frozen breath, frozen pipes, slippery roads, frozen toes and noses and the clean air will take your breath away. I promise you ice cold drinks and weather you have never experienced before. Don’t miss the chance to visit our state today and tomorrow. It will be the experience of a lifetime.

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I never deny my age so it is with interest I watched the news reports and the warning of our possibly -60 with wind chill weather conditions the next two days. I don’t remember ever feeling anxiety about the cold settling in such as we have now.

It used to be a fact of life that winter would be dangerously cold. I don’t remember my parents being alarmed about below zero temperatures, or anyone else for that matter. They bundled up or stayed in out of the cold. People were prepared with food because much of the food was grown during the summer and canned and stored on shelves in the pantry or basement.

We didn’t worry about whether the grocery stores were open because grocery stores didn’t have the hours we have now, and would close at five o’clock and open at eight in the morning. We were used to always having food on the shelf. In those days people were prepared.

All of us were the owners of heavy winter outer clothes and boots. We knew to layer up and our parents would tie scarves around our faces so only our eyes peeked out. I actually do not remember school ever being cancelled because of cold, although I now think it is a better idea.

That brings me to the fun of listening to the radio to see if our schools were closed. Us kids waited with baited breath to hear the name of our school being announced on WCCO radio. We sometimes would have to wait hours to hear our name depending on the weather conditions. If school was going to be closed after it already started it would be announced on the radio. There were no texts or cell phones or machines set up to automatically alert the parents. I feel badly that today’s kids don’t know the anticipation of radio announcements.

Yes, things have changed. Mostly for the better with schools alerting parents by texts. But I do have to say we shouldn’t need to be told to use common sense when it comes to the cold. We maybe have lost a little of that in 2019.

I felt a little trepidation at the approaching cold weather warnings. I figured out it had to do with the media. What in the “olden days” we just accepted as part of life, now has the media blasting warnings so dire it scares even the hardy Minnesotans.

My weather alerts ding multiple times during the day. Weather alerts scroll the bottom of the screen constantly. The weathermen predict dire life threatening, as if the world is going to end, predictions. It puts us on edge. I think especially those younger who don’t know the old way of life. The news media is telling them they aren’t capable of rational thinking when it comes to the cold. Even a Florida news station told people to stay in when it was 50 degrees. Us Northerners had a good laugh at that.

So come to Minnesota today and tomorrow. Right now the sun is shining and it is a beautiful, cold crisp day. We should be careful. We should respect the cold but we should also enjoy the sun making the snow sparkle and see God’s work in the icicles which form a sculpture of their own.

It’s 9:55 as I write this and I am still in my pajama’s under blankets with a hot cup of coffee to start my day. I respect and pray for those who have to go out into the cold to keep our frozen world running when it comes to mail carriers, emergency personal and those whose jobs won’t give them a break today to stay in and be cozy. The world slows down on days like this in Minnesota. Don’t fight it. Wallow and enjoy.