MMM: Shout-out to my frozen homies

This week's Meltdown is a call for an actual meltdown of a sort -- consider it a plea to the weather gods for some relief in the Upper Midwest. They've been having a "spring" like none I can ever remember. The StarTribune of Minneapolis reports today that if the flurries that are forecast for today actually arrive, it will be the first time in almost 100 years that the Land O' Lakes has seen four straight days of snow this late in the season.

My in-laws live in the beautiful lakes region in the north-central part of the state, and they've thrilled the Little Gophers with e-mailed photos of fresh snow drifts piled up on their property throughout April. The images thrilled me too, in the sense that I'm not there having to deal with that snow.

Minnesotans are a hardy sort, of course, and most of this snow will melt quickly -- the forecast calls for sunny and 63 by Wednesday in Minneapolis -- so I'm not worried that suicide hotline calls will spike in the Twin Cities the way they did, say, in Green Bay when Breffarve sort-of retired last month.

But this kind of late snow can have a debilitating short-term affect on the psyche of the citizens. I only recall one brutal April snowstorm -- 1982, the year the Metrodome opened, and the Twins were patting themselves on the back for their good fortune as the Teflon bubble protected them from a nasty squall about 10 days into the season. But by the time that March rolls around, every Minnesotan worth his or her road salt is sick to death of the white stuff and is ready to get outside and play baseball, hit the links, or just dig around in the garden and get some dirt under his or her nails.

So to be faced with this kind of extended brutality in the last week of April is nothing short of cruel. I mean, a number of high schools from northern Minnesota have yet to play their first baseball game, outdoors at least. St. Cloud State had to cancel its spring football game because of the latest snowstorm. Schools are still closing early or starting late due to inclement weather. Bring on spring, once and for all, in the Upper Midwest!