Snomaggeddonblizzardnadotsunami 2011

 

Deck. JUST shoveled. A path for the dogs. This was at 12:45 pm right before the storm hit.

I live south of Chicago, we don’t really measure in miles around here. Chicago people more or less go by time.

So I live about 1 hour south west of Chicago. (on a good day with traffic and weather)

Around 1:20 pm I took this…Just a dusting but only 35 minutes after the first… the ‘real storm’ didn’t hit till later. So fast forward… to 4:30 pm (yes all attempt of ‘sun light’ is now gone) it was doing the weirdest thing. Sticking to the glass on all the windows. So visibility was very low.

I want to show you my swings, and the yellow car to the left of the swings. You can still see them at this point. Oh and a general FYI our fences are 4 feet tall…

Then Spaghetti and Maggie went out around 9 for some sad attempt to shovel the deck.

In hopes for a path for the dogs…

 

 

Maggie thought this was THE best idea ever. I know she’s supposed to be all Boxer, but I beg to differ. She has a longer coat, sheds more, and her nose is a bit more Rott like. I say she’s a Rotten Boxer.

Anyway her coat was LAYERED in snow and ice from the wind!! She loved it though…

My Sophie Princess was more interested in going pee, then coming inside…

Thought it was cute that Spaghetti posed for a second for me, even though he was getting blasted with 30 mph winds of snow!!

Last nights storm we were told was supposed to be worse then the storm of 67’, with the closing of ALL major highways, the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the first time ever the Brookfield Zoo has EVER closed.

Then as we were watching t.v. we turned it to mute to hear what we thought were the ‘plows’ going by. Find out it was thunder!! Then we got to see the amazing blue lightning. It light up the whole sky! Very cool.

We heard that ALL schools in 5 states are closed. Illinois being one of them. Our airports, Chicago’s Midway, and Chicago’s Ohare Internation Airport were both OPEN. But all flights canceled. With great warning ahead of time, between BOTH airports only 85 people stayed the night. THAT was good planning on the Chicago Aviation, and people wisely calling ahead of time to check!

No one slept. At. All. Well Weaky did. Bagel started in our bed, (thunderstorms!) then back to her bed around 9:30, back to our bed at 1 am, then back to her bed around 5 am. And up at 7.

Spaghetti and I discussed A LOT about him going into work.

Sigh. I wasn’t going to win. He WAS going. He is a supervisor, for a local casino. THAT for the second time ever, was closing for the day. BUT someone’s got to go and watch all that damn money!! His boss stayed at the property hotel, so there was coverage. The grave yard supervisor went in too. Not wanting to have hourly employees there, only the Salary surveillance showed up. (one guy per shift. 3 shifts. One director)

Well from what I hear from Spaghetti he was SO anxious about the weather, he couldn’t sleep. Between Bagel back and forth between beds, and him just worried. He was up at 1.

He decided for some crack headed reason to stay up. Go work out in the basement. (talk about dedication) then start shoveling. He started to shovel at 4 am, and let me tell you a 4 foot snow drift is NO joke to shovel.

It takes about 3 attempts to move one section. top layer. middle then bottom.

He said he was SO proud it took him 45 minutes to make a path for the car to leave the garage and back down the drive…

Umm…. when the street is 3 feet high with snow drifts now what? He was stuck. He got into his car, in our driveway and pouted. But just for a second, then the village plows came by!!

Off to work he went. 20 mph, for 7 miles. And he was there by 5:45 am! He is hopefully on his way home soon (it’s 1:46 pm now) before the second wave of snow gets here.

6 more inches, then tonight –6 below. Fuck that is cold. Let me tell you the worst fear right now with everyone is NO power.

SO here is this morning…

Snow drifts up to the top of the fences. Now all our dogs could just walk up and chat, vs. through the fence… yikes.

This is from my bedroom window to the side of the yard. See snow drift, and the neighbors patio set is well under. My neighbor did go out, and it was up to his waist!

This is our deck. A cool shot from right above my head. There was a snownado going on right around the deck. To the left it was clear down to the deck wood. But in the center it was as high as 3.5 feet! In the center of the deck is my fire pit. Now burried.

Hands down my favorite picture. His words were… “Woah. BIG. Snow.”

Bagel was in a grumpy mood. And didn’t want her picture taken. But when I said no breakfast till you take ONE picture by the snow. She knew this momarazzi wasn’t messing.

Here are the before and after pictures. About 20 hours apart from each other.

I went out to get my shovel, my dear Spaghetti was so excited about the plows clearing him a path, he left it for me at the end of the driveway. (I needed it for the deck)

So what else would a momarazzi like me do, but drag along the camera.

Here is the side of the house, with HUGE snow drifts. Crazy some places is down to the grass, and some are 5 feet tall!

These window bottoms come up to my waist normally…

And here are the kids swings… remember the before picture..

This is my ‘summer picture’ when it’s 85 and humid as hell in July here, I will bring out this picture and remind everyone what it could be!

 

 

So while many of my neighbors are making a snow day of it. Playing outside, I’m staying in. The kids took baths, trimmed nails and painted. We are doing ‘spa day’ and laundry day.

Since I started this post, Spaghetti is home. And is now going to go BACK outside to shovel the holy hell of a driveway. Stay safe blog land!

Feisty!