Good gourd, that was a lot of snowy driving. I understand that I live here in Minnesota and some harrowing driving experiences are to be expected, but it sure seemed like old man winter was out to get us over the course of this weekend.
Kerry and I strapped lil' Gwenner into her car seat on Saturday morning and headed up to Bemidji. It was snowing like crazy when we left, and once we hit Highway 94 headed in a nor'westerly direction, it took roughly a second and a half before we saw the first car in the ditch. There were several more after that. The weather let up for a while about halfway through the journey, but the roads got nasty again before we arrived. So, a 3 1/2 hour trip took about 5 hours. Sucky. Oh well, it wasn't as bad as my brother-in-law's trek from Duluth to Bemidji on Saturday night. Duluth had received about 10 inches of snow that evening. I feel for him.
We headed south again on Monday (Christmas Eve), this time to my grandparents' place near Taylors Fall, MN. Once again, it was snowing and the roads were yucky. The biggest problem on Monday wasn't the snow, though. The snow was relatively light. The biggest driving problem on Monday was the entire city of Cambridge, MN, whose stoplight system was obviously designed by some complete moron. Seriously, it's not that big a town, yet it took us at least 1/2 hour to get through. Someone seriously needs to do something about that. Um yeah, I'm too lazy to write to anyone, though. Heh.
Our driving woes weren't over, though. We left my G-parents' place on Tuesday toward home, which is usually only a 45 minute drive. Yeah, it took us an hour and a half, because of snow (again!?!) and moron drivers who manage to completely forget how to drive in the snow over the course of a relatively short Minnesota summer. Seriously, people. Teach your idiot brains how to retain the ability to drive in snow. I'm not gonna describe the technique here, because I pray that anyone reading this knows that it's not usually necessary to drive 10 MPH, and it's even less necessary to attempt to drive 300 MPH in your tiny lil' rear-wheel-drive sports car.
Christmas itself (aside from the driving) was wonderful. It's so fun to see my little girl's eyes light up when she sees a lighted Christmas tree or hears people singing a carol. Of course, she doesn't really understand the concept of the season yet, but she loved it all the same. We taught her to say, "Ho Ho Ho!", which provided hours of hilarity. My dad provided an overdose of cuteness this weekend when he read "The Night Before Christmas" to Gwen and her cousin Charlotte, along with the youngest of my cousins, ages 7, 5, and 1 (or so)
I'm kind of freaked out today because I have to go in for an MRI. I've been having these dizzy spells lately, and although I'm positive that it's due to stress or an inner-ear infection or something, we've got to rule out all of the less pleasant possibilities. Like, I suppose, brain tumors or something. Thus the MRI. I also (lucky me!) get to subject myself to an EKG (in case it's something heart-related) and a blood test (in case it's vampirism or lycanthropy, two very distinct possibilities knowing the circles I run in.)
Other than that, I don't have much to report at this time. I thank everyone that got me awesome stuff this Christmas (especially my lovely wife, who knows me better than anyone in the universe...thanks, babe!!!). Happy holidays to everyone.
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