When two feet of snow melts

It magically turns into nothing but garbage and dog crap. It's like a miracle, but gross.

Panhandler of the day

I passed a Gentleman of the Street yesterday afternoon, who asked me for some change, as is according to custom. I smiled, and said no, but wasn't prepared for his most excellent response:

"If you wasn't so tall, I'd marry you. ...You a little tall."

Headline of the day for evoking unintended imagery

A CNN followup story about the overdue resignation of Egyptian president Mubarak is headlined as follows:

"Longtime spy chief now atop Egyptian pyramid"

Here's what I immediately imagined -- you tell me if you're thinking the same thing.

"Chicago Dibs" comes to Argyle Street

After we moved here, we heard about a decades-old tradition of "dibs" that pops up every winter in some Chicago neighborhoods. The rules go like this: after a big snow, if you're parked on the street, you have to shovel out your car, before the snow hardens into a nasty ice cocoon around your vehicle. It's a lot of work. Once you've shoveled out said car and drive it somewhere else, you may hold your spot with any old crap you've got sitting around -- favorite items are lawn chairs, buckets, and sawhorses. This way your hard-earned spot is still there when you come back. Should someone else move your crap and take your spot, it is acceptable to seek revenge upon the offending car. Revenge may include, but is not limited to, "icing" the vehicle with repeated applications of a garden hose, shoveling several feet of snow back on top of the car, and in more anger-prone individuals, keying and even breaking windows.

Yeah, I think it sounds really childish too. This is our third winter in Chicago, and every year I hear stories and see pictures of "dibs," but up until now have never seen it with my own eyes. I guess it took two feet of snow for the practice to make its way to Argyle Street -- from what everyone tells me, this is a lot more common in the western and southern neighborhoods.

Here you've got a CrapCam view of the spot in question. This person has chosen to adorn their parking spot with two or three doors. No, I don't know where you get spare doors.

A few more blizzard pictures

Maggie and I tromped all the way across our side of Lincoln Park in the hopes of finding a beaten path. I soon realized that it was all knee-deep for quite a ways in each direction. The best option was to get out onto Lake Shore Drive and keep going. It's certainly not something one gets to do very often -- the drive was closed in both directions for a little over a day. Just south of us, the northbound lanes were clogged up with hundreds of abandoned cars that had to be towed one by one.

What a view! You can see the Hancock tower from where we are.

Here we are trying to find a way down onto the street... but when the snow's as high as a bicycle wheel, it's tough going.

And still, people had already gotten out and shoveled so the sidewalks were pretty clear. It's called the City that Works for a reason.

The Blizzard of 2011

...one week later. It really was as huge as they were forecasting -- this storm ended up being the third largest blizzard in recorded Chicago history, which is saying something. Chris and I both got a day and a half off of work, amazing in a city that doesn't shut down. It just doesn't. The last time locals remember getting a snow day was in 1999, and even the public schools didn't shut down for that storm.

We ended up with about two feet of snow, I reckon. It's so hard to say once you see the huge difference in drift heights. O'Hare got just over 20 inches, so we definitely got more on account of the lake effect snow.

Maggie and I headed out last Wednesday afternoon, a couple hours after the snow stopped, to take some pictures for posterity.

I took this last one out the window of our back deck -- we got enough sunshine to barely melt the snow in the window, so it curled around on itself. So pretty!

Is it hunkering down or bracing?

I think it's the former for hurricanes, the latter for snowstorms. Now that's sorted. We're bracing for the Great Blizzard of 2011 here in Chicago, where they're forecasting anywhere from 14 to 23 inches of snow, accompanied by sustained winds of 45 MPH, with gusts up to 60 MPH. My office closed at 1, and we're not coming in at all tomorrow. To give you a good idea of how serious that is, most people had to go back to 1999 to remember the last time my company had a full-on snow day.

So that's pretty awesome.

I just got back from the grocery store, which is packed, and I'm somewhat disappointed to report that there's plenty of milk available. I didn't even need milk -- I just went over to the dairy aisle hoping to see a vast wasteland bereft of milk. At the risk of sounding like Jerry Seinfeld, what is the deal with people needing huge quantities of milk before a storm? WHY MILK? Also, orange juice and toilet paper.

Oh, you want to know what I had to rush over to the store to buy before the Huge Whiteout of the Decade. Yeahhhh... about that. I subscribe to a little different philosophy than the milk/TP people. I came back laden with Oreos, Ruffles, and Cheez-Its. And mac and cheese, bacon, and eggs for "real food" options. I know, that sounds way better than the juice-having household, right?

Maybe I'll change once I'm a mom, but I really really doubt it. Old hurricane-preparedness tactics from one's twenties die hard. The kid will be lucky I don't want to open all the windows to avoid a glass blowout.