Monday, February 7, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
THE THUNDERSNOW BLIZZARD OF 2011
Well the Midwest really got a whopper of a snowstorm this week!! It was the third largest storm in Chicago history. I heard on the news that 50 % of the states now have snow and over 5000 flights were cancelled at airports on Wednesday! We ended up with 20+ inches of snow and Ohare airport ( about 30 min from us)registered winds of 70 mph and everything virtually stopped on Wednesday February 2nd. They were calling it a "Thunder snow" blizzard as the snow was accompanied by alot of thunder and lightening. The winds were ranging between 20-5mph and i experienced a full white out just 2 blocks from home when running one last errand to Walgreens. The winds got to 50mph and waves 25 ft on Chicago's lakefront, with 300 cars abandoned on Lake Shore drive in Chicago, when a jackknifed semi truck and other car accidents in the snow blocked the cars on their way home from work Tuesday just at the height the storm. Can you imagine having to leave your car and walk to find transportation home and then having to coming back a day or to later to try to find which lot your car was towed to!!This was a historic snow STORM!!
This was a snowstorm that required snow blowers or plows to dig out driveways, as the 2-4 foot drifts that filled our driveways. It would have taken 3 shovels of snow for each foot of snow removed and hours and hours of shoveling...more than one person could possibly do without harming your back or shoulders!! I actually don't mind shoveling snow if can do it 4-6 inches at a time, as it is one of the only forms of exercise i seem to do at home in winter. Although i am active in cross country skiing on many winter weekends when in Michigan or Wisconsin...shoveling gets me that winter exercise i need on a weekday.
It looks as though the whole neighborhood is frosted with white frosting..like gingerbread houses with the snow even folding over some of the roof edges like scalloped edges.The snow stopped mid morning on wed. so when we finished shoveling it was really done. Although they now predict two more storms headed out way next week!! I guess snow shoveling is like doing laundry...feels so good when you are done but you know( if you live in the Midwest) you are bound to have more to do in a few days or weeks ahead.
After cleaning our driveways then the snowplows do their finishing street clean up, dropping a few more feet of heavy snow at the end of each cleared driveway!The end of our driveway snowbanks are now officially over my head. I have developed a new technique of shoveling that involves throwing a small shovel of snow over my head backwards in hopes it doesn't roll back down or walking backward 6 feet to throw it between driveways in a small grassy spot.
It was amazing how our neighbors all helped each other for the snow clean up Wednesday morning when the snow stopped, as the ends of our driveways leading to our street were totally a wall of 4 ft compacted snow. Between 7 houses we had 4 snow blowers and the shovelers broke down the big banks of snow so the machines could blow it away. There were about 10-12 of us out snow blowing, shoveling and chatting...it made the work of 3 hrs alot less work and even fun in an exhausting sort of way. We live on a busy street so seldom talk to neighbors across the street , just wave as they go by in their cars or are out cutting grass or shoveling snow. I guess it was like our version of a snow shoveling "block party" in a neighborhood of older houses and a mix or all ages.One neighbor even invited anyone over for pancakes and eggs when the shoveling was done!!Dave and i didn't go however as we had helped others before shoveling our own driveway and had to finish it when others were done.
Please excuse this digression.....
I have always loved living in a regular neighborhood...never liked the suburban subdivisions---not for me. This was intentional when we bought our house in 1985. I love the fact that when my youngest daughter was in grade school she wrote a story about her best friend. And this best friend was our neighbor Todd who we shared a backyard with (as no alley or street behind our house). Todd was 73 when Liz turned 3!! Liz was born on Todd's birthday while living in this house!Older neighborhoods have such a nice mix of ages and kids get to meet and know older people besides kids their own age. Yes it took a bit of carpooling to get some kids over to play some years but this is ok by me if kids were not their age in our immediate neighborhood.
I had the fun of living in a Milwaukee 2 flat with my grandparents living just upstairs from us when young. I had access to this mix of ages everyday. It was a great blessing! Todd was kind of our neighborhood on site grandparent for the girls when their real grandparents lived in Milwaukee,Wi and Prescott ,Az. Todd was a widower with 3 grown sons with grandchildren who lived in the area but not in the same neighborhood. He saw his sons on holidays and here and there but the girls were present every day. So Todd and the girls enjoyed a great daily friendship.
Todd would sit on his picnic table to play cards, pretend to fish( casting with short ice fishing poles) or watch the girls perform on our swing set. He would bring over his special mint brownies he baked himself if he knew the girls had friends over , mini homemade white castle hamburgers on a weekend ,or his deviled eggs on a holiday. He went to many school and church programs the girls were involved in. I remember one spring day when Liz at age 3 planted some apple seeds from the apple she had eaten in the backyard and Todd came over in the dark that night to place a small twig with apples attached by strings, so Liz would see her apple tree the next day.He also would make the first snowman of the season on our back patio so when i opened the blinds next to our kitchen table the girls would see the first snowman of the season.
He also invited the girls to come over to his house to color eggs Easter week and would leave Easter baskets on our front porch Easter morning. He would also send the girls cute cards with a stick of gun in them and short note when we were at our summer house in Wisconsin. He celebrated many the holidays with us and even went on vacation to Washington Island a few times with us. He would always buy my mom a bottle of oil of Olay lotion( her favorite) and a box of chocolates on Christmas. I considered him my "kindred spirit" friend too, for as a stay at home mom with 2 little girls i would get a sitter and play an occasional round of golf with him and then go out to lunch. He even let us build a construction temporary drive across his backyard, so construction trucks could access our backyard( as it was not wide enough to do so on either side of our house) while doing an addition onto our house. Todd died of cancer when Liz turned 9, just before his 79th birthday. We miss him but feel blessed he was in our lives for so many years when our girls were young, and i think he enjoyed our company too in his widower years at the end of his life.He was truly a unique and special friend to all of us and a great blessing in our lives!!
Snowstorms can bring back childhood and neighborhood memories. It is times when you have to slow down to pause to take care of the present and renew neighborhood friendships. There in lies the silver lining!! The last big snowstorm i can remember was in 1978 in Milwaukee!
This was a snowstorm that required snow blowers or plows to dig out driveways, as the 2-4 foot drifts that filled our driveways. It would have taken 3 shovels of snow for each foot of snow removed and hours and hours of shoveling...more than one person could possibly do without harming your back or shoulders!! I actually don't mind shoveling snow if can do it 4-6 inches at a time, as it is one of the only forms of exercise i seem to do at home in winter. Although i am active in cross country skiing on many winter weekends when in Michigan or Wisconsin...shoveling gets me that winter exercise i need on a weekday.
It looks as though the whole neighborhood is frosted with white frosting..like gingerbread houses with the snow even folding over some of the roof edges like scalloped edges.The snow stopped mid morning on wed. so when we finished shoveling it was really done. Although they now predict two more storms headed out way next week!! I guess snow shoveling is like doing laundry...feels so good when you are done but you know( if you live in the Midwest) you are bound to have more to do in a few days or weeks ahead.
After cleaning our driveways then the snowplows do their finishing street clean up, dropping a few more feet of heavy snow at the end of each cleared driveway!The end of our driveway snowbanks are now officially over my head. I have developed a new technique of shoveling that involves throwing a small shovel of snow over my head backwards in hopes it doesn't roll back down or walking backward 6 feet to throw it between driveways in a small grassy spot.
It was amazing how our neighbors all helped each other for the snow clean up Wednesday morning when the snow stopped, as the ends of our driveways leading to our street were totally a wall of 4 ft compacted snow. Between 7 houses we had 4 snow blowers and the shovelers broke down the big banks of snow so the machines could blow it away. There were about 10-12 of us out snow blowing, shoveling and chatting...it made the work of 3 hrs alot less work and even fun in an exhausting sort of way. We live on a busy street so seldom talk to neighbors across the street , just wave as they go by in their cars or are out cutting grass or shoveling snow. I guess it was like our version of a snow shoveling "block party" in a neighborhood of older houses and a mix or all ages.One neighbor even invited anyone over for pancakes and eggs when the shoveling was done!!Dave and i didn't go however as we had helped others before shoveling our own driveway and had to finish it when others were done.
Please excuse this digression.....
I have always loved living in a regular neighborhood...never liked the suburban subdivisions---not for me. This was intentional when we bought our house in 1985. I love the fact that when my youngest daughter was in grade school she wrote a story about her best friend. And this best friend was our neighbor Todd who we shared a backyard with (as no alley or street behind our house). Todd was 73 when Liz turned 3!! Liz was born on Todd's birthday while living in this house!Older neighborhoods have such a nice mix of ages and kids get to meet and know older people besides kids their own age. Yes it took a bit of carpooling to get some kids over to play some years but this is ok by me if kids were not their age in our immediate neighborhood.
I had the fun of living in a Milwaukee 2 flat with my grandparents living just upstairs from us when young. I had access to this mix of ages everyday. It was a great blessing! Todd was kind of our neighborhood on site grandparent for the girls when their real grandparents lived in Milwaukee,Wi and Prescott ,Az. Todd was a widower with 3 grown sons with grandchildren who lived in the area but not in the same neighborhood. He saw his sons on holidays and here and there but the girls were present every day. So Todd and the girls enjoyed a great daily friendship.
Todd would sit on his picnic table to play cards, pretend to fish( casting with short ice fishing poles) or watch the girls perform on our swing set. He would bring over his special mint brownies he baked himself if he knew the girls had friends over , mini homemade white castle hamburgers on a weekend ,or his deviled eggs on a holiday. He went to many school and church programs the girls were involved in. I remember one spring day when Liz at age 3 planted some apple seeds from the apple she had eaten in the backyard and Todd came over in the dark that night to place a small twig with apples attached by strings, so Liz would see her apple tree the next day.He also would make the first snowman of the season on our back patio so when i opened the blinds next to our kitchen table the girls would see the first snowman of the season.
He also invited the girls to come over to his house to color eggs Easter week and would leave Easter baskets on our front porch Easter morning. He would also send the girls cute cards with a stick of gun in them and short note when we were at our summer house in Wisconsin. He celebrated many the holidays with us and even went on vacation to Washington Island a few times with us. He would always buy my mom a bottle of oil of Olay lotion( her favorite) and a box of chocolates on Christmas. I considered him my "kindred spirit" friend too, for as a stay at home mom with 2 little girls i would get a sitter and play an occasional round of golf with him and then go out to lunch. He even let us build a construction temporary drive across his backyard, so construction trucks could access our backyard( as it was not wide enough to do so on either side of our house) while doing an addition onto our house. Todd died of cancer when Liz turned 9, just before his 79th birthday. We miss him but feel blessed he was in our lives for so many years when our girls were young, and i think he enjoyed our company too in his widower years at the end of his life.He was truly a unique and special friend to all of us and a great blessing in our lives!!
Snowstorms can bring back childhood and neighborhood memories. It is times when you have to slow down to pause to take care of the present and renew neighborhood friendships. There in lies the silver lining!! The last big snowstorm i can remember was in 1978 in Milwaukee!
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