Thankful Thursday

This has been quite a week, and it's not over yet!

For quite some time the weather forecasters had been predicting a blizzard, a monster storm that could rival the mother of all storms -- the Great Blizzard of 1967.  There were quite a few skeptics who refused to believe the dire warnings and ominous forecast.  After all, this is the upper Midwest; those of us who've lived here for any length of time know that our weathermen and weatherwomen are wrong at least 50% of the time.  Surely this would be one of those times when the actual event failed to live up to the hype.

WRONG!  Oh so very wrong!

Tuesday afternoon, just a little bit ahead of schedule, the snow began to fall and the wind began to howl.  As afternoon turned to evening, the snow intensified and the wind grew even stronger.  Even people who planned ahead and left work early were caught in traffic that barely crept along as the snow piled up faster than any plow could clear it away.  Hundreds of cars were stranded on a three mile stretch of northbound Lake Shore Drive.  Hours later, as their cars ran out of gas, drivers and their passengers were forced to abandon their vehicles and seek shelter from the frigid 45 mph winds that whipped the shoreline of Lake Michigan.  As the night wore on, people all across Chicago and the surrounding suburbs waged war with the elements, fighting a losing battle to stay ahead of the snow.

Fortunately I was reasonably warm in the safety of my home.  Periodically I peaked out the window to observe the growing drifts on the porch and the cars in the driveway that were disappearing under a thick blanket of snow.  Once when I looked out, the sky lit up in a flash of light and a low rumble rattled the windows in their frames.  Thunder snow!  The snow fell so thickly I couldn't see the houses across the street.

The forecasters had predicted 12-18 inches of snow, then adjusted their prediction upward to as much as 24 inches.  Judging by the amount of snow on the ground when I finally went to bed Tuesday night, 24 inches looked like a definite possibility.

When I woke up Wednesday, it was still snowing steadily.  Shortly after noon, the flakes were few and far between.  The Blizzard of 2011, at least the actual actively snowing part of it, appeared to be over.

Even though I don't like winter or snow, I had to admit that the sparkly white drifts did look pretty.  Unfortunately all of those massive sparkly white drifts needed to be shoveled off the porch, the walkway, and the looong driveway.  It was a daunting task I was not looking forward to tackling.  Overwhelmed by the thought of 1.) all of that snow, 2.) dropping temperatures, 3.) a killer headache, and 4.) the fear that I might drop dead while shoveling, I decided to take a nap.  The snow would still be there when I woke up.