Midwestern ice/snow storm

Apparently you can't have a conversation at my office today without talking about the snow. 8 to 10 inches of snow in some areas, 10 to 13 in others, and a little further east it's 13-17. I just saw my front lawn for the first time in about 10 days on Saturday, so I'm not really looking forward to this, but come on, we're right in the middle of the midwest. It's not like this is the first time we've see snow.

Although if I learned anything from grade school, it's that anytime there's predictions of the Snowpocalypse, it's probably going to underwhelm.

 

I'm not sure many folks learned from that, either.

Powerlines are still near trees. Counties/cities didn't upgrade their snowplows. Many folks bought generators and then sold them.

I didn't have power or running water for a week. Luckily my house has two fireplaces and a propane heater in a fairly large enclosed porch (slept on a air mattress out there a few nights). Had to take showers at the office.

I think deadline was like 6:45 p.m. most nights of that storm. Deadline is usually 11:45.

Snow's not an issue. Ice, on the other hand, made that week miserable.

 

Yawn.

 

I'll take two feet of snow instead of the one inch of ice and sleet that's predicted.

 

And Environment Canada says it's heading to Toronto.

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?on61#on61-200cwto-043100

With any luck it'll go over Mimico and land somewhere around Double J country

 

"BREAD! MILK! EGGS! MAKE FRENCH TOAST WITH YOUR NEW ICE SCRAPER, 'CAUSE WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE IN THE SNOWICEPOCOLYPSE OF DOOM!" - My local weatherman

 

Jim Cantore's tweet: "Tuesday Night at the Chicago Lakefront: Blinding HVY #SNOW, WINDS gusting to 50mph, THUNDER possible & 20 foot WAVES !! What a ride!" I guess this means our city will have the dubious honor of hosting his storm reports. And that you lake surfers should hurry up and get your boards waxed.

 

Most people who had generators sold them. The rest of them blew their house up trying to use the generators.

 

This is just fucking great. Second time this year I'll have to wait for a storm to pass before I can travel. I love spending a couple of days in a hotel room looking out the window at the snow coming down. No, really, I do.

Bob Cook, what are the chances I90 is going to be passable Thursday? Does the Illinois DOT handle snow well?

 

Can the Man seems like a ballbuster to me.

 

Double J Country, which is Ontario's traditional snowbelt, looks like it's going to be spared the misery - the forecast is only for two to four inches.

This seems to be the norm the last couple of years. London and Kitchener and other inland communities are just getting clobbered with the big storms while Owen Sound just gets steady stuff, never too terrible.

 

I can't say for sure, because I'm in the south 'burbs, and I don't drive the freeways much. There are plenty of web sites to get real-time traffic updates in Chicago, so you should be able to get plenty of information before you go.

For our family, the more immediate travel impact is that we're supposed to go to Disney on Ice Wednesday at the United Center. (It's Toy Story 3, so maybe they'll skate toward an incinerator.) You know there's no way in hell that Disney, already in possession of money, is going to cancel or postpone the show for the safety of its patrons. So we're faced with either killing ourselves to get there or flushing money down the drain.

In other news, my son's 8th-grade registration at Dwyane Wade High tomorrow night has already been postponed.