HERE COMES WINTER!

Today marks the beginning of winter up here in the Northern Hemisphere, or as the scientists call it the Winter Solstice.  Living in the Arizona desert, actually properly known as the Great Sonoran Desert, we welcome winter as a time of moderate temperatures, a relief from the freaking days of 100+ temperatures.

But I remember winter.

That picture was taken some time in the mid-1940's in my home town of Stanley, North Dakota.  That's me on the left, my older brother, Wayne, on the right with his hand on the shovel. Apparently he had been detailed to clear the sidewalk and steps in front of our home.  I gather I was supervising and generally getting in the way.

This picture was taken just after the big blizzard of 1966 in Bismarck, North Dakota.  My Chevrolet Impala with my personalized ham radio license plate had been buried by snow drifting off the roof of the home I lived in then.  I had been shoveling it out but stopped to take this picture.

This one was taken in 1975 showing the frosted trees in front of the home I grew up in.  (Note the television antenna on the roof.)

So I can sympathize with you folks in other parts of the country that are currently (and many for the past several weeks) fighting their way through snow and ice and freezing rain.

But as we say in Arizona - "You don't have to shovel sunshine!"