Maybe the worst thing about existing on the northern plains is the noticeable decline of one's brain power. For instance, I can't remember if the current arctic high pressure system is the fourth or fifth of the season.  Or whether Al Gore invented global warming and Al Sharpton the internet or the other way around.

There are small compensations. As the neurons freeze, it takes less to amuse myself. I just ran a sunrise errand without carefully brushing all the new snow from the hood. "It will blow off on the highway, and that's very pretty."

The  best thing is reading my friends down in the malarial zones.  For instance,  a Texas lady I know is writing that it may snow on the Rio Grande and using a full year's allocation of exclamation points, and that's almost as amusing as scratching designs on my frosted windows.