Four years ago today the Women’s March on DC was held and there were numerous sister marches around the world and in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was the largest single-day protest ever held. It seems like a hundred years ago and like it just happened yesterday. It was held the day after former president Trump’s inauguration as a protest over offensive remarks he made about women.
There were so many people that there wasn’t room to march between Saint Paul College and the capitol building. If you look at the lower picture you can get a feel for the crowd size.
women’s March 1/21/20172017 women’s March in St. Paul
This time of year most of the exercise I get is from walking. One of the few places I can walk where there isn’t snow and ice on the walkway is down along the river. It is nice to be able to go for a long walk, especially in the winter.
Upper Landing park
The river is pretty too especially on a sunny day.
The city of St. Paul cleared out the larger homeless camps in the city in December. There are smaller sites throughout the city. We need more affordable housing and temporary shelters.
A couple of members of my family have birthdays in early January. Some years it has been hard to celebrate because of polar vortexes and Alberta clippers. This year the lowest temperature predicted in the first half of the month is 6 degrees.
In the picture, the thick cloud of steam indicates sub-zero weather. In the summer the steam cloud can be seen but it doesn’t cast a shadow and can not be seen for miles.
Temperatures at the end of January can be brutal. It was -27 on January 30, 2019. I remember it well, it took most of the day to gently thaw the pipes in one of the bathrooms.
If your house is vacant it isn’t too late to winterize it. I always recommend that for houses that are vacant and for sale. A furnace or boiler can malfunction and it doesn’t take long for pipes to freeze. Once the pipes have frozen if at all possible have a plumber thaw them out.
I have thawed out pipes using a hairdryer and by using heat tape. It is important to leave the spigot open and to be patient. My method is slow but I have successfully thawed frozen pipes without damaging them.
Severe cold and snowstorms can slow home sales. I like to call it the ‘blizzard effect”.
I may stay awake to welcome in 2021 or maybe just to make sure 2020 is gone. New years eve is best celebrated 2020 style by staying home and maybe having a ZOOM new Year’s eve party. Reading a book or watching a movie works too.
The picture of the sunrise was taken on January 1sr 2018. Taking a picture at sunrise is my prefered way to ring in the new year.
How ever you choose to celebrate please do so safely. We have a few things to look forward to in 2021. A vaccine for COVID-19 and a new president.
For Christmas Eve I thought I would share another picture from the before time. This is of Rice Park in downtown St. Paul. It was taken in November of 2011 before the snow arrived and as I recall we had a lot of snow that year.
The park was remodeled in 2018 and has fewer trees. The large tree was brought in for the holidays and we will probably see it again in 2021.
