Winter Storm, Schools Closed Today

The telephone rang at some unearthly hour of the morning today. Happily, my wife collected her wits faster than I did - didn't take much - and picked up the receiver.

It was a recorded message. School's out today.

Right now, around 8:25 a.m., big fluffy flakes are falling. Lots of them. Sometimes they're getting blown around, sometimes not. Here in town the driving's not so bad: thanks in large part to the plows that have been going by at intervals since the storm started.

And, despite looking like a picture postcard, this is a "winter storm." According to Wunderground.com, there's 5.9 more inches of snow in St. Cloud (as of 6:00 a.m.), about eight inches in Albany (7:00 a.m.), and four in Kimball (6:00 a.m. again).

And a record's been set, although not in Minnesota: "... Record daily maximum snowfall set at Eau Claire WI...

a record snowfall of 9.5 inches was set at Eau Claire WI yesterday.
This breaks the old record of 5.5 inches set in 1937."
(Wunderground.com)

I'm impressed: The Sauk Centre schools didn't even pull the kids in, possibly to get a 'day of school' on the books. That's smart, in my opinion. Also common-sense safety.

And now, a plug for my webcam, streaming video of Sauk Centre at the corner of Ash and South 9th, displayed at Small Town America: Minnesota.

About yesterday's entry? I didn't get it written. I'm hoping to do so today.

Lovely Spring-Like Weather, and an Explosion on a Pig Farm

Sunday, February 13, 2011. It's been a beautiful weekend: apart from
an energetic wind that's whooshing by at intervals. There's a wind advisory out, according to wunderground.com: we're supposed to have winds "sustained between 25 and 35 mph with gusts around 50 mph" until about six in the morning.

It felt like spring when I was at Mass this morning. Above freezing by several degrees, and it's mid-February.

I've had the flu - or something very much like that. Whatever it is, it seems to be popular. The nursing home, I hear, is asking folks to stay away: and if they come, to be really careful.

It's like the fellow said: 'I only know what's in the papers.' Specifically, the Sauk Centre Herald. Hog farming is an important part of the economy around here - like the farms Paul Fiedler owns.

The good news is that it doesn't look like anybody got hurt.

The bad news is that one of Mr. Fiedler's maintenance buildings exploded - some pieces hit a quarter mile away. Between that, and the fire that came after, around 4,800 hogs had to be moved in a hurry.

One more thing: Tomorrow's Valentine's Day. I got something for my wife: but don't be too impressed. One of my daughters picked it out for me.