I’m not sure how much more winter I can take. And, it is not even the middle of January yet.

I’m sick of snow and tired of walking like a little old lady because I am worried I will slip on the ice and fall and break a hip. I am sick of freezing rain and freezing fog and driving on packed snow that is frozen in place and can’t be removed without the use of dynamite.

There is not a perfectly clear sidewalk or parking lot in Blue Earth. That is due to the snow falling, then getting covered in freezing rain and ice, then turning into a solid mass. It is nearly impossible to shovel, snowblow or plow.

I’m tired of not seeing the sun for days on end. Or seeing above freezing temperatures for long periods of time.

I know what you are thinking. I am being a cranky old guy, and do I want some cheese with my whine.

In my defense, let it be noted that I was born and raised in southern California and I have never acclimated to Minnesota winters. And, I actually am a cranky old guy.

Plus, I think I am suffering from seasonal defective disorder. You know, that feeling of being depressed because the weather is defective.

Weather did not make it into the Register’s Top 10 Stories of 2022 List, but it is already a top contender to be No. 1 for 2023 as far as I am concerned. Perhaps Mother Nature is ticked at me because she didn’t make that list last year.

Sure, those days when the trees were covered in ice and frost and the sun did shine for a few minutes, it was kind of pretty. But then we had one nice day and all the frost came down as snow and the ice came off the branches and pelted my house, sidewalks and vehicle just like hail. I am sure I have some hail-type damage on my Ford Explorer. I wonder if my insurance covers that?

A chunk of ice even hit me on the head. Maybe that concussion explains my crankiness.

But more than likely I have this feeling because winter started so early. January has been rough with ice and snow, but December was bad with snowstorms and blizzards and dang cold temperatures. Remember trying to travel for Christmas?

We had tons of snow before we had the official start of winter. We have had to do a lot of shoveling and snow blowing this winter, and it seems like it has been a lot more than many of the previous few winters. Some folks said they used their snow blower more before Christmas than they had for an entire winter season for the past few years.

And now it feels like the first days of spring are a long, very long, ways off. And I am sure winter is going to hang on for a while. Maybe we can have spring before April 1.

Someone told me the other day that the town should hold a raffle where everyone picks a time and day that Mt. Juba will finally melt away and disappear. Mt. Juba is, of course, the mountain of snow piled up from snow plowing Juba’s Grocery parking lot.

That person who gave me the suggestion for the raffle did so on the day before he was flying out for an extended stay in Florida, by the way. I think he plans on coming back when he hears that Mt. Juba has melted.

There are a lot of snow mountains in the area. There is even a Mt. Register, on the south end of the parking lot behind the Faribault County Register office. There is a mountain range on West 10th Street and in the Faribault County Fairgrounds where the city crew hauls all the snow from plowing the streets.

Those guys deserve a little bit of a thank you for keeping the streets open, by the way. It has not been a piece of cake this year. Just like the rest of us trying to scrape that frozen ice-snow layer off our driveways and sidewalks, they had to deal with it on the streets.

So, by the time you read this column this week, it is predicted to be a fairly decent weekend, with temperatures in the upper 30s. It might melt the ice and snow off the sidewalks and streets a bit. We can only hope.

At least we could get a little reprieve before the next storm hits. I think there is more snow coming this next week.

I guess, like Minnesotans always say, it could be worse. We could be like California and get washed away in a deluge, or southern Florida and get blown away in a hurricane, or be in Buffalo, New York, and get buried in snow that is measured in feet, not inches.

Yeah, maybe it is not so bad here. I think I will go outside for a walk this weekend between watching NFL football and cheering for the Minnesota Vikings and scraping packed snow off my sidewalk. And see if I can do it without slip-sliding down the street and falling.

Stay safe everyone. And remember, spring is only two months away.

Two long months.