Not-so fun memories of winters past

When I moved to New Mexico, friends asked why an extension cord peeked out the front grill of my car.

I smiled when I remembered that not everyone grew up where winters mean plugging in your car’s block heater each night before bed.

I attended a two-room country school in South Dakota that was 10 miles out of town. Farm families chipped in and kept food at the school, just in case we got "snowed in" by a blizzard.

Thankfully it never happened – one teacher overnight with 11 kids on a school site that was only a building, a flag pole and a swing set. Everything else was flat prairie.

My last apartment building in college only had two exits, which were twice frozen shut with snow.

The winter before I moved south, my pickup was actually frozen into its parking spot. (I had parked in standing water).

See why I love the desert?