This is what I don't get about winter: I need a fricken dehumidifier in the car and a humidifier in my house (for facebookies, yea, I JUST posted this as my status).

I do not like waking up in the morning to a cough and chapped lips, hands, and other body parts, then I go to my car to scrape snow-like particles all over myself.

File this as "bitching".

1) Use your brush to remove any snow that ends up on your seats, etc.

2) After thawing the windshield, switch the heater to defrost/floor to melt the snow on the floor.

3) Crack the back windows as you're driving to allow the moisture to escape.

Leaving windows slightly cracked will help to prevent this.

I like the photo....the essence of Minnesota winter!

Make sure the air intake setting on your heat control is set in the open position, e.g., the little draphic shows an arrow indicating air coming into the vents outside the bottom of the windshield. If this setting is closed, you'll be reciruculating your breath all winter - moisture included! I'm surprised by how many people, even in Minnesota, make this mistake.

Also, running the A/C in winter will dry out the air, and if the heat's on the A/C won't cool your car - it will still heat - but it will be a dry heat that removes the moisture from the interior.

Yeah, um.. Duluth...

after being on a trip recently to the normal parts of the country, I can't believe what people accept here in the winter. In large portions of the US, it's 50 degrees with no snow on the ground right now. You can go outside without experiencing pain and discomfort. You can walk around your yard and actually see the ground. There's no shoveling. There's no ice on the roads. There is no five feet of snow piled up on the sides of the roads.

This place is freaking insane.

Suit yourself, I guess. I just came back from Ohio, where it was 60-something degrees on 12/27, and I was overjoyed to return to Duluth, where we are having Proper Winter Weather.

Yeah, I can never figure out why people who don't like winter live here--it's why I moved here. Also, if you aspire to normality, Duluth may not be the best choice.

I was with the Big E on the trip and I can say that the only good thing about warm weather for Christmas is loading the car on the return trip isn't so bad.

I can also say this phenomenon happened to me with great frequency in graduate school in central Ohio. It's got nothing to do with the craziness of Duluth.

Third the suggestion to crack a window in the car. Especially when the sun's out.

There's something wrong with you two.

There's a reason Duluth has not grown to be the size of Chicago, Minneapolis or even Madison - it's because normal people think freezing to death sucks.

Is there some reason you put yourself through this?

As Utah Phillips used to say, "He is normal, what you meant to say was average."

Or even better, Thoreau, "Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary."

I'm glad there's still a place to escape from all those average people in Chicago, etc.