Since the winter of 2005-2006, the City of St. Paul's Public Works department has been using an automated system to telephone city residents when a Snow Emergency was declared. Code Red, a voice messaging notification system, had the capacity to telephone every household in the city, plus cell phones and other numbers registered with the system, in less than two hours.

Code Red costs the city of St. Paul around $50,000 a year. And despite being such an efficient system, no link could be found between calls made and a reduction the number of cars towed. Even though the cost to the owner of having a car towed during a snow emergency is around $250, the city says that it looses money every time a car has to be towed, and the plug on Code Red is going to be pulled.

Most St. Paul residents who park their cars on city streets are aware of the Snow Emergency rules, and heavy snowfalls are hard to miss, so many of the cars that are towed belong to people who can't move them for some reason, regardless of whether they received a Code Red call. Still, I liked to receive the calls last winter, an extra reminder to trudge out in the freezing cold to move my car almost a quarter-mile to the nearest day plow route street. Living in downtown St. Paul has drawbacks.

St. Paul drivers can still get Snow Emergency alerts by email, and can check if there is a snow emergency at the City of St. Paul's website, and from news media outlets, local television, radio and internet news sites.

The greatest number of cars are towed on the first Snow Emergency of the winter. Don't be one of them: sign up for email alerts, and remind yourself of the Snow Emergency parking rules for your city.

PostSecret, one of the most enduring sites on the internet, has an exhibition at Minneapolis Central Library. The PostSecret project began in 2004 with Frank Warren distributing 3,000 blank postcards with the invitation to decorate the card with a secret, and mail it back to him anonymously. The secret could be anything, but it must be true, and never before revealed. The cards are scanned and displayed on the PostSecret website.

The project has received thousands upon thousands of illustrated postcards, with secret wishes, embarrassing tales, admissions of criminal acts, confessions of desire, and poignant hopes and dreams.

A traveling exhibition of 400 PostSecret cards are on display at the Cargill Gallery in Minneapolis Central Library, during library hours, until November 30.

PostSecret Exhibition at Minneapolis Central Library

After spending the summer cycling, running, and taking a couple of trips out of the Metro area to go rock climbing, I'm getting twitchy and feeling very unfit now the weather is too cold to cycle. "Too cold" is of course debatable, since many Minnesotans commute to work by bike year-round, and there are still plenty of bundled-up runners on Summit Avenue and on the trails around Lake Calhoun. On reflection, perhaps I'm a bit wimpy?

Minneapolis and St. Paul consistently rank highly in lists of Americas' healthiest and fittest cities. While there are plenty of opportunities for outdoor sports and recreation here, there's also many ways for us to stay fit and active indoors and out of the snow in the Twin Cities. My favorite? Vertical Endeavors, an indoor rock climbing gym in St. Paul.

• Ideas for Indoor Sports and Recreation in Minneapolis and St. Paul
• More Resources for Surviving Winter in the Twin Cities

We can spot newcomers here. Especially ones from warm, snow-free places like Arizona or Florida. It's not because they admit they've never tried walleye or Surly Bender. They are the ones driving cars with little portholes cleared in the snow on the windows.

The snow is falling, and if you have to clear it off your car for the first time ever tomorrow morning (and if not, you will have to soon) clear all the snow off the roof, windows, all the windows, and the hood. If you omit to remove snow from the hood and roof, it will blow on the windshield as you drive and fall over the windshield when you brake.

This might be the most crystal clear concept to you, the Minnesota native or alumni of previous winters. But it continues to escape the many new motorists peering through the little holes on their car that are driving around after every snowfall. Perhaps you can be excused the first time (as long as you don't cause an accident) but please be safe and get all that nasty cold white stuff off your car before you drive off this winter. Minnesota's other road users thank you.