Winter Wonderment

January 27, 2026

It’s winter in Michigan, and this year it’s a bit of a real one.  It started snowing at Thanksgiving and it’s been snowy and cold ever since. Yesterday’s high temperature was 8 degrees Fahrenheit.  Right now, at 9am, it’s -18F. That’s really cold!  Rumors abound of exploding trees, with videos on the internet. But who can believe anything from that medium.  Remember the last time we were together, we discussed that.

Today, as I sat inside all warm and toasty with my coffee, I could literally see every bird’s breath as they shivered and gobbled at the seeds I had scattered on the snow-covered rail on my deck. I don’t recall ever seeing that before.  I have a heated bird bath there too, and multiple species are huddled together around it, like a bunch of hobos around a barrel of burning garbage. I’m not sure how they survive. 

It gives me pause to ponder the oddities of winter. Both in people and in animals. It certainly changes behaviors of everyone and everything.  Even people that are accustomed to winter, exhibit interesting characteristics during the long months of cold weather. Especially if they think a storm is coming, which the media tends to embellish. The goal seems to be to keep people safe, but I also think it is a way to make a good story.  Which means making money.  The supermarkets definitely benefit from this.

It hasn’t only been cold.  We’ve had a lot of snow lately.  Every day it snows at least a little. Some days way more than a little. I was driving to the store yesterday after a light snowfall, and my first observation was regarding what I’ll just call, “driveway behavior”. Basically, how people prioritize and execute the clearing of the entrance to their homes.  It is amusing to see how people react differently to snow on their driveways.  

Some people do nothing. Just tolerate a fully snow-covered driveway that might become a glacier before the next thaw.  It’s like a mini off-road simulator. I have to chuckle when I see someone whose car gets stuck in their own driveway.  Some of these people with unplowed, artic driveways are actually snowbirds and fled the winter season long ago.  So, they don’t have to worry about their driveways.  Often, if the snow is deep enough, you can’t even tell where the driveway is.

Of course, lots of people have snowblowers. Some people have ultra-huge varieties.  They need at least a foot of snow for them to be functional. Others have little tiny snow blowers and go out to use them very early after a snowfall. Some seem to be chasing the first falling flake. Annoyingly, some of these people do this noisy activity before the sun comes up in the morning.  Which in January in Michigan is well after 8am, so I guess that’s ok.  Recently, I have noticed that snow blowers are going through a bit of an evolution. I saw one today that was a shovel that had a blowing mechanism in its head. That’s a new one for me. It looked fun.  I have even seen people use leaf blowers when the snow is light and mobile. Whatever floats your snow, I guess.

Me? I shovel. I don’t recall ever owning a snow blower myself. So, I try hard not to let it get too deep before I get out and move it.  I also try hard not to let people drive on my driveway and pack it down until after I have shoveled. Which makes shoveling much more difficult.  I like to just use my shovel like a plow, pushing the snow forward.  That is, until I hit a raised crack in my driveway and nearly castrate myself.  You have to pay attention, especially at my age.  Shoveling can be dangerous. All jokes aside it truly can be, if you don’t know your limits.  Because not all snow is created equal, in terms of density.  Six inches of light snow is nothing.  Two inches of heavy wet snow can be a back breaker and unsafe.  That concludes my public service announcement.

As I continued my drive to the store, I reconfirmed that another dangerous activity is driving itself.  In general, Michigan drivers are pretty good, due to the great deal of experience we get from November through April.  Our skills improve dramatically after the first snow. It seems people need to be retrained regarding driving in the snow on an annual basis.  Including yours truly.

Regardless, some people are just too cautious, making a hazard out of themselves by creeping around like they are at risk of sliding off a precipice.  Cars nowadays will barely allow you to slide at all.  I used to like making my car do donuts in a snowy, empty parking lot.  My truck won’t even let me fishtail.  Anyway, overcaution in these people creates an obstacle that produces risk, in my opinion. It makes everyone else frustratingly work around a creeping slug and into each other’s way. Making poor decisions because of someone else’s unfortunate driving.

On this day, I was following a car that was fully covered in snow.  Another odd winter behavior.  Although I guess being lazy is really a yearlong thing for some inconsiderate drivers.  People not scraping off their car’s windshield is a huge pet peeve of mine, and a genuine safety issue.  It’s hard enough to see in winter, yet you wouldn’t believe the idiots that drive around with just a peep hole in their front window, with all the others covered in snow.  Just another idiotic, self-centered POS creating risk on our winter roads.

The current snowy, cold weather was forecast a few days ago.  So, people are led to believe that they are going to be stuck in their homes for weeks or eternity, at least given their change in behavior at the grocery store. Supermarket stockpiling becomes a pastime. When I got to the grocery store the shelves where milk, eggs, and bread normally sit well stocked, were decimated.  Oddly enough, so was the beer and mysteriously, toilet paper. I find that a real peculiarity.  One person buys a cartload of it out of paranoia and everyone else follows suit.  I can just hear people thinking, “That guy must know something”, as they scramble to grab a 48-roll pack. I think if I filled my cart with Spam I could start a run on that canned delicacy. People look around to see what others are stocking up on and just react. That’s just being human, I guess.

Now for my final observation regarding oddities of human winter behavior.  I have a friend that works in an emergency room. We were talking about how a super cold winter stretch changes what brings people into the ER.  Other than flu and such, I assumed that they would see their fair share of people that slip and fall.  And you would think that frostbite might be a big deal too.  Not so much, I was told.

My friend explained that more people come in during times of extreme cold, not from frostbite, but from burns. I asked him to explain this. He said it was from them throwing boiling water in the air in this intense cold to watch it freeze in flight.  They end up being clumsy and burn themselves. Some quite severely.  Talk about a science experiment gone wrong. Wow!  He said they had 5 people the night before that had done this. Now that is an unusual behavior you would only find on a frigid winter day. And those idiots probably drive to the hospital without brushing off their car.