Apparently central Minnesota hasn't had this much snow on the ground since the winter of 1996-97: the last winter I spent here. I don't remember that year to be particularly snowy--though I do remember the year before being particularly cold. That stuck with me. I was a junior at Hamline and living off campus. Three blocks off campus. Three long, cold blocks off campus. I had just purchased my first car, a piece-of-crap Ford Tempo. I didn't have a garage, so every night for about a month, I would put in a dipstick heater and a pan heater--I want to say there was a third one, but I can't remember where it went--and cover the car with blankets in the hope that it would start in the morning (at which point it would squeal horribly because of a pre-me after-market air conditioner that screwed up the fit of the alternator belt). The coldest week, I also brought my car's battery into the house so that it wouldn't freeze. I'm glad I have a garage now.