{"id":9852,"date":"2026-01-22T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=9852"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:37:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:37:05","slug":"very-cold-weather-sewer-problem-but-otherwise-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/very-cold-weather-sewer-problem-but-otherwise-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"Very Cold Weather, Sewer Problem, But Otherwise Fine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"National
It’s COLD outside, here in Minnesota. (4:28 p.m. (22:28 UTC), January 22, 2026)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
\n
\"Louis<\/a>
Eager readers and a jester-journalist with “Appeals to Passion”, “Venom”, “Sensationalism”, “Strife”…. (1910)
More than a century later, still familiar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Minnesota’s in the news, but not because of the weather. That’s another topic, for another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Extreme Cold Warning has been in effect for my part of Minnesota since 3:00 this afternoon. It runs until noon tomorrow, when a Cold Weather Advisory starts. That’ll run until Saturday noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the weather my news feed has been showing me is about the “heavy snow, crippling ice and frigid temperatures” of a winter storm that’ll make life interesting for folks in “more than 2 dozen states”. Maybe excessively interesting. Focusing on states from New Mexico and Texas to Maine and the Carolinas does make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things I like about Minnesota is that our weather isn’t boring. Besides adding variety to our lives, that’s encouraged us to have equipment on hand for dealing with snow, rain, heat, cold, and various combinations thereof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the next few days will be distinctive. At the moment, 5:40 in the afternoon, it’s -17\u00b0F, -27\u00b0C. There’s a wind out of the northwest at 18, with gusts to 23 mph, which gives us a windchill of -43\u00b0F, -42\u00b0C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll gladly stay inside, where there’s a very good chance that the furnace will keep working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>A Sewer Situation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Brian
Tuesday afternoon: Sauk Centre Utilities crew checking out the ‘city’ sewer out front. (January 20, 2026)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that we noticed the trouble early, and the kids found an outfit maybe an hour down the road with equipment that could deal with what seemed to be a clogged sewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The frustrating news is that we’re still in mid-process, but at least now we can run water out the municipal sewer system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There wasn’t much damage in the basement and elsewhere, and if the fellow who was supposed to come today gets over the flu, we’ll know more some time Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flu? Seems it’s going around these parts just now. Which might explain how we’ve been feeling, and that’s yet another topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, aside from a sewer situation and feeling the occasional draft \u2014 my desk is in the northwest corner of this former farm house, and in the four decades we’ve been here we still haven’t found and blocked every gap and cranny. Never mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from that, we’re doing fairly well. And life hasn’t been boring. At all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, yes; we do talk about the weather quite a bit in these parts.<\/p>\n