The Twin Cities are digging out today.

[MineralMan]

We got 10-12" of snow yesterday and overnight, with drifts up to 24". The state and city plows were out all night, and got the freeways and main roads clear, and will be doing side streets today and tomorrow. I and my neighbors were out early this morning, using shovels and snowblowers to clear out their driveways and walks.

I just came in from snowblowing my driveway and my neighbor's driveway, along with the city sidewalks in front of three houses. My new snowblower did the job easily as I just sort of walked along behind. That's a good thing, since I'm 70 years old now. I'm done. My neighbors are finishing up. All that's left is the big berm the snowplow will dump on the end of my driveway later, but that will be gone in five minutes.

We're used to it here. People are equipped for it. Cities, counties and the state have plenty of equipment. Flights are no on time from MSP airport and everything will be close to normal for this afternoon's rush hour. Storms like this one slow us down for a bit, but we dig out and get back to the business of living in one of America's best metropolitan areas.

I hope everyone's recovering well from whatever weather passed by.

[snooper2]

1. You should make a snow grave, or a snow penis

Snow penis is all the rage these days

[MineralMan]

2. Not my style at all.

I'll leave such "artwork" to others.

[Snobblevitch]

3. I live in the suburbs. My street was clear when I got up this morning.

I blew out our driveway and my 85 year old neighbor's (widow) driveway. Yeaterday I brought up her recycle bin and trash bin from the end of the driveway through about eight inches of snow.

[MineralMan]

4. That's great. It takes a day or two to get

the residential streets clear in St. Paul. However, there has been enough traffic on ours to pack the snow down, and I used the snowblower to clear away to the center of the street to make it easier to get out of the driveway and get going.

The main streets are plowed down to the pavement.

I haven't gone out today, yet, though. Thanks for doing your elderly neighbor's driveway. That's the Minnesota way.

[Snobblevitch]

5. I used to work in the Selby/Dale area.

I remember how bad the residential streets would get and sometimes the ruts stayed for the entire winter.

[MineralMan]

6. Yes. That certainly can happen.

Part of the problem is the traffic that occurs prior to plowing. It packs the fresh snow down and makes it difficult to plow the streets completely. In addition, the city is skimpy on salt use on secondary residential streets. Then, there are streets where cars are left and plows have to go around them.

Some winters are especially bad, too. This year, we've had little snow, so the streets haven't been terrible so far. We'll see how the city does after this storm. I'm waiting to hear the plow go by so I can remove the berm at the end of my driveway. I keep it minimal by snowblowing up the street for about 75 feet, removing all the snow in an 8' wide path from the curb all the way. That generally keeps the driveway berm small. I started doing that after one horrible storm when the plow left a berm almost 4' high at the end of my driveway.

[sarisataka]

7. The worst part of this snow

is that t has buried the medallion with only one more day to go

[MineralMan]

8. I don't do the medallion hunt. I do follow it in the Pioneer Press, though.

But you're right. This will throw a big obstacle in the way of medallion hunters.