More on snow, and other things.

So, yes, we survived the snow.  (Actually, it has snowed considerably in the last few days, in addition to last week's dump.)  I suppose the most outrageous thing was that our post office was closed last Wednesday.  The United States Post Office.  Not that it mattered much, because they couldn't deliver my mail anyway.

 

Under that awning is my front door and mailbox.  Didn't get cleared until sometime Friday. Good thing, too, since I don't know how I could have gone another day without my pile of superfluous Eddie Bauer catalogs.

I realized it's been a while since I last dealt with that kind of storm - offhand, I can't recall the last time I had to undertake lots and lots of serious shoveling to pull out the car, but it happened a few times a year when I lived in Boston.  Oh, well, it's colder here. 

And speaking of shoveling, there's no way I could possibly handle it right now, physically.  Fortunately, my sister is here to very generously take care of things like that.  Which requires some explanation in the way of general update.  My Sister the Blond Artist is living with me for the next several months.  This was planned before I discovered that my entire body was going to be down for maintenance - she was needing a home base for one of those transitional life-gap phases, and a way out of an untenable work situation - but, given the timing, having her here has been invaluable to me.  She's taken over most of the food-related tasks and anything with the potential to involve physical labor.  

And she brought with her a fourth member to round out our little household, the Most Handsome Mr. Bakerloo.

. 

It took a while, but he and Lexi have been able to negotiate a delicate truce.  Mostly.  He's younger and very playful.  Under the influence of string, he can sometimes be persuaded to do backflips in full layout four feet off the floor. 

.....

Overall, things are...difficult, right now.  Sometimes exhausting, frustrating, worrying, overwhelming - physically and emotionally, sometimes both.  At times, I think the only thing that keeps me from dissolving into a bout of panic is the fact that I have too many feelings about too many things to know where to start.  

It's going to be ok, one way or another.  I really do believe that.  But it's hard to be here, now.

Temperature Drama

Marathon weekend here in Chicago, right on the heels of our first nights of real freeze.  No snow yet, such as our Canadian associates are enjoying this Thanksgiving, but we've decidedly made the transition from not-really-very-summer to decidedly-late-autumn.  I'll point out that marathon day two years ago was so hot they canceled the race by 9:30.  I think the highs that day were warmer than anything we saw this summer.  These are the days I feel more than a little sheepish lecturing my clients on emerging climate change legislation.

Look what I made!

Apparently I'm one of those class taking yuppies now... but I made this, and it was fun!

In other news, I seem to have moved to San Francisco without noticing... July 1 (Happy Canada Day) and a high of 62F. I'm not exactly complaining, as this is just about my ideal weather. It's barely broken 80 this year, with the exception of all of last week, when it very suddenly decided to hit 100 every day.

Miscellanea. Cold Miscellanea.

1. It's cold, and getting colder. There was a noticeable temperature drop over the 45 minutes I was out for lunch. (Lunch was soup. Warm, but not terribly filling, to be honest.) Forecast high tomorrow is -3F.

The cat is also cold, and has been experimenting with the best ways to take advantage of baseboard heat.

No, my Christmas tree isn't still up, I took that last month. Speaking of Christmas, she was thrilled to discover this newfangled gadget called a fireplace while at my parents' house in NY.

There actually is a fire in there, you just can't see it. Her latest move has been attempting to share my pajamas in the middle of the night. It may be kitty sweater time.

2. In other news, I have done a little bit of Making of Stuff. Scarves, specifically.

These were done as a part of the Special Olympics Scarf Project, in which knitters and crocheters were invited to make scarves in the official Special Olympics logo colors for competitors to wear during the 2009 opening ceremonies. I have a weird fascination with charity crafting, despite being skeptical of the underlying philosophy (the issue of the man-hours vs. significance of accomplishment). Regardless, I like them occasionally as an excuse to try new colorways and/or patterns. For anyone interested in the technical, the one on the lower left is hdc 2 strands; the bottom right is sc back loop alternating colors (reversible crochet? nifty). The top, inexplicably, is granny squares. I hate making granny squares, and I hate SuperSaver (the authorized yarn - it scratches and squeaks), so I don't know what I thought I'd enjoy about the two in combination.

3. And speaking of scarves, I got something immensely awesome from friends for Christmas. No photo, because it doesn't really look like anything, but it's this. A microwaveable scarf. Detatchable grain-filled inserts that heat up and keep you toasty. It's getting heavy use this week. Combined with this - another Christmas present and really, really, Really, REALLY fabulous - I can be in my own rather icy little heaven.

Kind of damp

Slosh, slosh, slosh goes Chicago.

Far from hurricane conditions, but this isn't what I expected to see out my kitchen window first thing Saturday morning.



And then it rained nonstop for the rest of the weekend. Heaven knows there are worse conditions elsewhere right now, but I'm still thankful to only have suffered minor inseepage (I'm at garden level). It did go down enough to get out and about, but some of my immediately local roads were significantly worse. And other parts of the metro area worse still (hint: I live miles from the nearest river, in a river-rich region).

Counting down the seconds until Mayor Daley calls for the CTA to introduce ferry service between O'Hare and the Loop.

.

Messy Season*

The month became February, and just as suddenly, the snow transformed from "white and cold" to "wet, heavy, icy, sludgy, driving, persistent." The kind of snow that actually hurts when it blows into your ears.

From a distance, evil snow looks a lot like nice snow.

Oh well...only three more months of winter, right?


*You know, like dry season, monsoon season, hurricane season...

Winterwear: Single Digit Edition

Temperatures this weekend have broken into positive values by late afternoon. The heat was broken at church this morning. Yeah.

Anyhow, here's some new cold weather wear. The (joyous teal) scarf I made mostly over Christmas vacation, and is pictured here with some Nepalese glittens, purchased by my father at some sort of head shop at the Rustingham mall. They still smell like patchouli.

I crochet mostly as a means of keeping myself sitting still while watching movies or otherwise pretending to be sociable. A close-up of the texture:

Freezing Fog Advisory

That's the forecast for tonight. I admit it's a new one to me. Speaking of forecasts, here's a preview of things to come:

Minnesota is Cold

But rather pretty:

Note: Prettiness in now way diminishes the discomfort of a one-day, out-of-state business trip. Nobody should have to depart from and arrive at O'Hare on the same day.

Note 2: Actually the trip was quite good, other than the exhaustion factor. Much of it was spent driving about southeastern Minnesota, which I'd never seen before and which was really quite lovely.

ETA Note 3: This is the picture I've been trying to take in my own neighborhood for the last three weeks, but the gray skies haven't cooperated.