Cold weather has arrived in Chicago.
I left my house today in a leather coat and flannel shirt. I am an idiot. It was so cold by the time I left work tonight that I thought my jowls would freeze and drop from my face. I don't think this would have been a good look for me. As much as I like my high cheekbones, I prefer them covered with flesh and skin.
There was also snowfall all day today, mostly very light and wimpy snow, small dry flakes with no hope of maintaining their integrity once they hit the relatively warm ground. All the weather forecasts I saw leading up to today pronounced that there would be no accumulation of snow.
I walked to the bus stop at around 8:00, the ambient temperature about 20 degrees, wind gusting up to 30 mph. The snow picked up considerably in the 6 minutes or so that it takes me to walk from my building to the bus stop. As I stood waiting for the bus, I noticed that snow was moving in rivulets along the street in front of me, slithering like icy snakes under the power of the gusting wind. Watching the playful, rhythmic movement of the snow drifts was a pleasant diversion from the frostbite setting in on my face.
The wind and snow picked up. The serpentine snows grew into larger, fatter snakes. And then the damnedest thing happened.
The snow began to accumulate.
In no more than five minutes, the completely clear road, grass, and sidewalk began accumulating light, dry snow. The grass went from verdant green to frosted. Snow, still blowing down the street, began to pile up in the uneven spaces of the asphalt. The cracks of the sidewalk became white with snow, as did the edges of the manhole covers. And it didn't show signs of stopping.
The bus finally came, and eventually the train. When I got out 30 blocks north and 12 blocks west at the Chinatown station, the snow had nearly stopped, although there was similar accumulation on the streets and grassy areas in my neighborhood.
Suffice it to say, winter is here. It may not have a firm grasp yet, but it's closer than any of us dare think. And I think it's going to be a bitch.
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1 comment:
Dearest Lorelei:
The answer to your question is really, really simple.
I write this blog for me. Not for you, not for anyone else, just for me. It's an outlet for my random thoughts, and it helps me focus my writing (all apperances to the contrary.)
So why do I make it public? Because it keeps me honest. I don't expect anyone to read this, but knowing that anyone can read this forces me to think carefully about what I put down.
Even these answers are more for my benefit than for yours. Sorry, but that's the truth, an example of that honesty that I extolled earlier.
And, sweetie, the "internet life" is what you make it. I hope you'll try to look at it less as something to which one becomes addicted, and more as something that one can use to make one's life even more fabulous!
Cheers to you!
HO
PS -- No offense taken, dear. Sometimes, in the face of brutal honesty, it's good for me to remind myself why I'm here.
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