On Tuesday, 2/1/2011, started the third largest storm in Chicago since 1967 (the second was in 1999).
What made this hellish? A ton of snow, 25-35 mph driving winds, traffic jams, backed buses and trains, stranded cars, weeks of ugly black snow banks.
What made this awesome? A ton of snow, driving snow, thunder and lightening, a beautiful white city scene (even if for just one day).
While much of the city departed work a couple hours early to make it home, I went about my usual routine - making it to the gym that evening, before walking home. My walk home was fine - lots of snowfall and a bit of wind. But when I rounded my last corner which faced the lake - BAM! I couldn't stand up straight. The wind whipped my face left and right like a classic Three Stoges scene. I turned to walk backwards the rest of the block and even that was difficult. In the end, after I made it inside, I shook my hood and head to dump the snow and grinned. That was fun.
Here is the after math of that night when I went out to explore...
Other happenings around the city as a result of the storm:
- a few power outages
- a thousand cars stranded on Lake Shore Drive
- of those stranded cars that got towed, owners/the city/tow-truck companies couldn't find their cars
- sadly an elderly man's body was found in the lake
- sadly there were deaths of stranded motorists from carbon monoxide
- the ciy handed out parking tickets to cars that were clearly stranded and stuck in tall snowbanks that required a city snow plow truck to get them out
Here's to looking forward to spring!
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