Late Winter Colors

A winter storm moved through Minnesota Tuesday-Wednesday. North and west of here, a lot of snow accumulated. We, instead, got rain,  a bit of sleet, and a bit of snow. I took a walk this morning and found the only colors out in the world are gray, black, and white. We surely need a bit of spring to add some zest to the colors of the world.

However, close to my building I found a scene that may make someone "see red" or "feel blue." The snow fall was enough to cause a snow emergency to be declared. When this happens one needs to leave cars parked in the correct locations. The snow emergency is declared and announced on the radio stations, TV stations, on web sites, and in my building with big yellow signs in all the elevators and also on a bulletin board in the mail room.

In St. Paul, one side of north-south streets are plowed beginning at 9 PM of the night of the snow emergency. One can park on the opposite side of the street or on an east-west street. The next morning one may park on the plowed side of the north-south streets or, what most people do, take the car to work anyway. Meanwhile the east-west streets are plowed and the other side of north-south streets are plowed. The first plows came into my neighborhood about 9:30 last evening. St. Paul has some new plows and they are really noisy. It sounds as if the nearby train is actually running down a track right outside my window.

But despite all the notice of a snow emergency, there are always some oblivious to the world out their door. And that leads to this:

Bye, bye car to the impound lot. This will end up costing the owner at least $200. The fee is a combination of the ticket for the parking violation and then the fee for the tow truck. After a certain number of days, too, a daily fee kicks in for storing the car in the impound lot. That's why I said there may be someone "seeing red" (for those of you who speak other languages -- meaning being angry) or "feeling blue" (being sad and/or upset).