Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Ice Carnival - An Excerpt

THE ICE CARNIVAL

"So he's really going through with it, is he?"

"Who is?" Christal leaned forward, nearly toppling out of her chair in her excitement. An ice carnival!

"George Thompson."

Christal hadn't met the St. Paul Dispatch's publisher, but she had certainly heard his name.

Dr. Bering looked at them all over the top of his half-rimmed glasses. "It's not totally official yet. Thompson and others are organizing a committee that will meet soon—November 2nd to be exact—and things will get started. He's got big plans for St. Paul."

Aunt Ruth tsked. "Why on earth, though? What would have possessed such a normally intelligent man to do such a thing?"

Dr. Bering chuckled. "Rumor has it that he was prompted by a certain cheeky New York journalist who declared St. Paul uninhabitable during the winter months."

Christal hugged herself happily. This was wonderful news! An ice carnival! What could it be? Her mind spun with the possibilities, all painted with the bright illustrations of the books she'd read.

"But there's more. My nephew is coming to live with me."



"He casteth forth His ice like morsels: Who can stand before His cold?" Psalm 147:17


Question of the Day: As a transplanted Kansan now living in Minnesota, I was unprepared for the winters here, though after almost 18 years, I'm becoming more accustomed to the snow and cold.  The winter of 1995-96, our part of the state had a long stretch where our high temps never got above zero. I remember this because on the day my son was born, the high temperature was -33 degrees. Wicked cold!

So, what are winters like where you live? Any freezing cold horror stories?

6 comments:

  1. The evening we got married, in Minnesota, in December 1983, the high was -23. And that's a story about a cold day, but not a horror story. The cool thing is that didn't seem to stop anyone from coming. And it still holds the record, yay!

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  2. An ice carnival sounds like fun!

    This winter has been brutal with back to back storms. We've had entirely too much snow, in fact, it snowed again last night. Waiting for spring....

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  3. Linda, your brother still remembers going out into the cold to start people's cars at your wedding.

    Georgiana, SNOW last night? Argh! You really need to move to MN. It's warmer than AZ!

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  4. Don't you love winter up here? Sort of redefines "cold"!

    Georgiana, the Winter Carnival is still a huge event in St. Paul. Loads of fun!

    I'm with Erica--SNOW? Last night? It's finally spring up here...no, wait. We don't do spring where I live. We leap directly from winter into summer. Crazy!

    Linda, that's cool (haha, no pun intended--oh, maybe it is) that you got married when it was that cold! That's funny, Erica, about going out to start cars. I think our winters are why automatic car starters were invented. (And block heaters!)

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  5. Here in Georgia we usually have mild winters. However in early February we received six inches of SNOW in my little town!! Of course this was the most snow I've seen in my life, LOL! I cannot imagine living where winter temps plummet below zero, but admire folks who can tolerate that weather. Blessings, Patti Jo :)

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  6. Y'all should all come down to Florida for the winter. Everyone else does, but this year the joke was on the snowbirds. We got down to freezing a couple of times.

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