The Chicago Blizzard of 2011

History. It's quite amazing to experience history in the making. Even though the number of inches of snowfall did not officially beat the blizzard of 1967 (23 inches) this one is down in the record books. There was thundersnow, near 70 mile per hour winds, and 20 inches of snow drifting and blowing for 18 hours. Entire counties had 'driving bans' and even now I don't see any cars traversing my road. Virtually all schools are closed today and many businesses, including our village municipal hall. Trash service is delayed (hurray for me) and no newspapers were delivered. Power was out for tens of thousands (not us, hurray again). Fifty cars were stranded on Lake Shore drive in Chicago all night and the people were eventually rescued and taken to warming centers. Their cars are still being towed somewhere throughout the day today. What a mess, but no reports of injuries or deaths. Lucky.

I feel extremely lucky. All I had to deal with was dad's worries and my egg-layers out back (still trying to figure that out actually). I had to dig my way out to their coop and gave up finally just tromping through hip high snow drifts. Their entire coop is filled with snow even though it's covered and only open on three sides. The girls remained safe inside their hen house until late this morning. All seems to be well for now, except all that snow inside their coop will eventually melt and I have desperately tried to keep their coop dry until now. They are serious egg-layers though, as they continued to provide three eggs so far today. They just refuse to give up on their winter laying. Sweet, they are.

Speaking of sweet, three neighbor angels showed up this morning and cleared tons of snow off our porch and driveway. They said, "Deb is there with her dad and we have to get that driveway cleared in case of emergency."

Living in the Midwest is different from a lot of places in our country. People care about people and put others' needs above their own. All I could think to do in return was share fresh eggs.

I think Dad is feeling better about things now, but I can't be sure. He's not big on sharing his fears with his little girl. He's watching the news now, so time will tell...the sun is shining and the blizzard has moved eastward.

Note: Yesterday's blip was taken twelve hours prior to today's. What a difference a day makes, huh?