A Long Winter

I began wearing my Lands' End hooded down coat in mid-October, 2008. Today--April 13--the day after Easter and the day of the Cubs' home opener, I'm still wearing that coat. And a space heater still hums next to my feet in my office.

I'm in the midst of my 11th winter in Chicago. The severity no longer surprises me: Every year, I expect feet of snow and sub-zero temperatures, possibly even burst plumbing in the condo above ours.

But the duration ... the duration grinds on me every single year. Six months in a down coat. Too long.

But 60 degrees is on the horizon, maybe even by the end of this week. :-)

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Saturday Diary

6:30 a.m.
Enter sons' room. Notice oldest son is covered in poop. Both socks. Outside of underwear. Sheets. Shirt. Oh, and poop on the floor. Son is playing with matchbox cars.

6:35 a.m.
Sheets, socks, underwear, blankets are in the washing machine. Oldest son is in the bath.

10:35 a.m.
Youngest son completely wigs out at the indoor gym we attend on weekends. Seriously. He's freaking out. I literally wrestle him into his coat and out the door. In front of about 35 other people.

10:51 a.m.
McDonald's drive thru. I order a Happy Meal. They won't even let me order Happy Meals until 11 a.m. I wait 9 minutes and drive through the drive thru again.

2 p.m.
Youngest son wakes up from nap and cries. I let him cry for a few minutes. Hey, I'm drinking a cup of hot tea, and he can wait.

2:03 p.m.
I go to get my youngest son out of his crib, and notice his diaper is around his knees and he has two handfuls of poop.

2:05 p.m.
Youngest son in the bath.

2:30 p.m.
I hear water running. Well. Dripping. Uh, oh.



Yes. Pipes froze this week when we had 40 straight hours of below zero weather. Today, Chicago reached a balmy 18 degrees, and the pipes that were frozen solid thawed. All over my bedroom, bathroom and hallway.



6:30 p.m.
I open the mail and find that I've been called for jury duty. On February 13. That's Friday the 13th.



7:30 p.m.
This is my bathroom ceiling, after a four-hour visit from the plumbers.



Tomorrow will be better. Right?

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The Bammer

Freeze nails. Pound a banana with a hammer. From a FOX news interview this morning. Yep, it's really that cold here. The Bammer.

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Snow Days

It began snowing this morning around 5, and nearly nine hours later, it's still snowing. Not a blizzard at all; in fact it's beautiful fluffy stuff.

We have more than 6 inches of snow now and we're supposed to have about 10 inches by the end of the day.

Here's a pic from the courtyard just a minute ago:



I started thinking about what a 'snow day' meant to me, as a kid growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas. Basically, if the sky looked like snow, school was cancelled and there was a run on milk and bread at the grocery store. Any kind, or any amount, of freezing precipitation meant we were staying home. That was a great feeling, but I'm glad my kids won't have the same experience.

A foot of snow in Chicago just means it will take about 30 minutes for my wonderful husband to shovel my Freestyle out of the snow so I can take the kids to school before I drive to work.

As it should be.

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