Where’d it go? Where’s the snow? Can’t hold it back anymore

Blizzard Elsa rolled into Appleton like an out-of-control party guest no one recalled inviting.

She spewed her icy rage all over town, and left a real mess in her wake. Officially, Elsa dropped 27.5 inches of snow on our fair city, and we were all glad to see her go.

Even Midwest hospitality has its limits.

As happens with all parties after unruly guests depart, the cleanup after Elsa’s tantrum began immediately. But it’s been a tricky task with that much snow to clear. The snow piles on College Avenue were so deep that city workers had to spray paint pink circles around the metal benches and planters so snowplows would know to go around them.

You can shovel the stuff all day, but where are you going to put all that snow?

Fortunately, Appleton has a plan for that. Some of that excess snow goes into deep wells in the city’s parking garages, others is trucked off to alternate sites away from the congestion of downtown.

Yesterday, I spotted one of several little yellow snow elves darting through downtown, scooping up snow, carting it off to the parking garage pit and dumping it there.

Having seen other parts of the country struggle to clean up in the wake of giant snowstorms, I have to hand it to the City of Appleton and other Wisconsin municipalities. They have a pretty slick system for clearing the snow, and then carting it away.

Still, we’ll be celebrating the Vernal Equinox today in the company of snow piles taller than we are.

That seems about right for this year.

I hope your spring is warm and wonderful and, if you live anywhere in the path of Blizzard Elsa, I hope you thank your friendly, exhausted snow plow drivers.

Also, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate spring in Wisconsin than heading over to Appleton North this weekend to see their excellent run of Frozen the Musical.

Happy Spring!