Spring would be nice about now.

It has snowed 3 times in the last 4 days.

 I'm SO over it.

Some things never change

I don't write here when I'm feeling bad.

Especially if I don't want to elaborate.

That is all. 

We had snow today. It is the day before April, God! C'mon, man!!

Through The Eyes of a Child

 My sweet 4 year old Granddaughter. Sound on.

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~ * ~

Over it!

Cold.  Record cold.  Went into work this morning, against my better judgement.  Saw a car that had hit a wall on the expressway, another with a fire truck and ambulance along side.  There were several cars pulled over with flat tires when I got to work there weren't nearly as many cars as usual.

Giggled with the younger co-worker who literally had pajama pants and tights under her dress slacks, as well as 2 fleece jackets under her coat.  COLD.

Still, you're there - you work.

One of the bosses decided we needed to have a call at 4:30 (I generally leave at 5:00) which lasted till 6:00.  6:30?  It's a blur.

Out to my car there was my boss (not the one who who arranged the call) in his car, cranking and cranking but not starting.  We tried to jump it (by we I mean HE) and that didn't work.  He decided to let me give him a ride home since it's close to where I live and at the point - he realized he had lost his keys.  The car wouldn't start, it was well below zero - he'd already been outside longer than advisable and his keys were missing.

Ai yi yi.

Meanwhile, my daughter was stuck in an Amtrak train with her husband, hours from home on their way back from her mother-in-law's house.  The train immobilized by snow drifts and God knows what else, information has been scarce.  They started giving people free food which is never a good sign.  At

Except it was at night and there was more snow
and we were coming from the opposite direction ...

least they were warm and were apparently able to charge their cell phones because Dani had been texting me a good part of the day.

Back at my car, my boss decided to just go home.  Leave the car there and go home to his warm house where he had another car in the garage.  So I drove.  A mile away from the office was a car nose down in a ditch where he had obviously parked his car precisely on the grill - with his back end up and flashers flashing.

We stopped.

Boss-man (I am protecting his identity so he will not be incredibly embarrassed by losing his keys in the space of 6 square feet) went and checked with the guy - he was okay, triple A was on the way - thanks.

On our way again.

Slow and steady, Boss at his house and me at mine, and my daughter and son-in-law - still stuck on a train.  By that time they were waiting for a tow - they had already been towed backward for a while, were hoping for another tow - um - anywhere.

I am tired, it's been a long day.  But how do I sleep when it's beyond frigid outside and my daughter and husband have been stuck on a train for over 12 hours - on a trip that should have been 4 to 5 hours, tops?  Argh.

So.  How's your day been??

** Update - Sometime around 3:00 am they managed to get the train to a station where Dani and Dan were put on a bus bound for home.  All told - after the 1st reservation was cancelled on Sunday, the train leaving late on Monday morning, being stuck, bused, driving from the train station to pick up their dog - they made it home about 8:00 am this morning.  See details here!

I thought I was gonna die!

The snow was coming down!  It was blizzard conditions and cars were moving slowly as the snow worsened.  A commute that normally takes 30 minutes took 3 times that long!  Visions of being trapped in my car for days ran through my head.  Running out of gas from idling too long, having to melt snow for something to drink before help could arrive .. slowly starving ...

Wait!

Heh.

There's always a bag of trail mix in my car.  :)  Yes there IS something in there besides chips!

Anyway, here is a tiny slice of my commute tonight when I was on one 5 mile stretch of road for a good 45 minutes.  And don't start with me about using my phone while driving.  When I was moving I was going about TWO MPH.  I don't call that driving!  Oh, and somebody needs to tell me that when I shoot video with my phone I really oughta turn the dang thing sideways.  Sheesh!

Lady B - you sure you'd like more snow in London?  

It IS spring, right?

Or almost? You sure couldn't tell in MY neighborhood!





Make it go away!!!

Off to get the laundry out of the dryer.

No, I didn't forget to put the stockings away, I just miss Christmas and all the decorations already. But yes, these have been boxed up and put away for next year.

And here, on my cluttered kitchen counter, with fun-fetti forced into the frozen frosting on top and smoking candles - is the cake. THE cake. Isn't it sad? It's the first time one of my kids did not have their name on their cake (it was melting) and the first time one of my birthday cakes has ever looked even close to inedible. It's also the first time I did not put all the candles on one of their birthday cakes as well, but the time element and closeness of fire (warmth) seemed prohibitive. While I learned a lot about what NOT to do if I attempt an ice cream cake again, and it looked downright nasty, it tasted fabulous! Chocolate cake with Fannie May mint melt-away ice cream. Mmm-m-m...

This is what I have been doing the last two days. Going through beads and sorting the good stuff from the not-so-good - threw a lot out and organized a lot. Discovered there were beads I bought more than once because I couldn't find the ones I already had. Mostly spacer beads and stuff. But - I will be organized soon!

Oh, and the snow? I'm not sure how much we actually got, but they are predicting more tomorrow when I AM going to work. And this is my car in the deep freeze - if you look close there is even a layer of ice across the grill. If I were smart I would have warmed it up and cleaned it off when the sun was shining this afternoon, right? Not that smart.

Br-r-r-r-r!!!!

I want my May flowers, NOW!

It started raining last night. There was rain, thunder and lightning. Or, lightning and thunder if you want to go by the order you see and hear it. It rained all night. It rained all morning and all day. It is still raining. And look what we have to look forward to for the weekend! I am SO excited! NOT.




Snow. Can you believe it? I mean, I'm sure it won't be heavy, accumulating gobs of snow. But snow! I'm sorry, I know I'm being whiny and redundant. But it's the 2nd week in April, can't we be done with the snow already?


And to the guy filling up his car at the gas station on the corner yesterday evening just before it started to rain, yeah, that was me putting air in my tire. Yes, I had to go back into the car when I realized the cell phone in my hand was not my tire gauge and yet again when I re-discovered that I can't read my tire gauge without my glasses. I'm going to assume you were thinking what a wildly attractive woman I am - I mean - what other reason would you have for watching me so intently with THAT SMIRK ON YOUR FACE????



Yeah. Wildly attractive. I'm going with that.

I didn't see anything this pretty today

Because yeah, it snowed. Again. It was a rainy, snowy, and very gray day. Sigh-h-h.


Male Northern Cardinal seeking a little shelter from the snow. Puffed up bird with snowflakes on its head and chest is sheltered in a Hawthorne Tree near the Ryerson Forest Preserve in Riverwoods, IL.

My pictures aren't that good

My snow pictures?

Not so great.

Whining about snow anymore?

No.

Not since I've been following Leesa who has a blog called Peace of My Mind. She is a photographer who lives in Montana and measures her snow in feet, not inches. And of course - she posts beautiful pictures all the time!

Sometimes when I've had a long day - her photos are like a reward I give myself like putting my feet up or taking a long hot bath. Take a look, you won't be disappointed. :)

More snow

The snow we were supposed to get last night, is coming down now. I could probably get to work, but coming home would be as long as my work day I think. I've been looking for more pictures of that 1967 snowstorm and they are surprisingly hard to find! But I did find this. It would be nice if it had some sound with it, but really - the pictures tell the story. 1967, some super 8 home movies. The cars were pretty cool back then, what you can see anyway! I tried to embed that video but could not do it to save my life. Still, take a peek!

Here are a few more pics I was able to find.

The snow drifts were huge

A little blurry but you know these kids were having fun!

I love the walk to the house, the snow is piled as high as the kids!

Hopefully I can get some pictures of our current snowfall, sometime during the day.

1967

In 1967 I was 8 years old. Here in Chicagoland, we had a wonderful blizzard and ice storm in January of that year. I say wonderful because I was 8 years old! I mean really, what more do you need to know? Can you imagine the delight in getting somewhere near 2 feet of snow over the course of 2 days? Magical!

Of course I did not have to drive in it, all I had to do was play in it. What a terrible job that was!

We have had more snow this year than in recent years, or so it seems to me. Never let my memory get in the way of the facts. Now we are waiting for more. The last time I looked outside it was raining, but it is supposed to turn to snow and do the worst damage between midnight and 7:00 a.m. Oooh, I can hardly wait! NOT. Not anywhere near '67, but north of the city they are forecasting possibly 8 to 12 inches by morning. Yikes!

I wanted to post some pictures of the snow but seeing as it's being rained on right now it wouldn't be very impressive. So instead I searched and found a few pictures from 1967 when snow meant staying home from school and endless hours in rubber boots, coats, and mittens with scarves over our faces. They aren't my pictures, but they are from that snowstorm from so long ago that some of us still have fond memories of. Only a few, but you'll get the idea.

Yes, pictures were still black and white back then. And so was the TV! Wanna make something of it?

Buried cars in Chicago, Lake Shore Drive and Foster Avenue.

People dug their cars out and started to get around, but mostly still on foot. One of my favorite memories of that snowstorm was once we went back to school there were fabulously high snow hills all along every street and on either side of every driveway. I have no idea whether the sidewalks were shoveled because we kids didn't take that route anyway. We climbed to the top of the snow hills and walked up there - sometimes falling through, rolling off, or stepping down onto driveways and scampering back up in the other side. I don't recall ever being tired or out of breath - or even very cold for that matter. It was a terrific time to be 8 years old!