Chicagoans...

[Big Bad Kitty]

Those of you in N IL, S WI, and NW IN, brace yourselves. We are in for possibly a foot of snow tonight!

Leave your wipers sticking out so they don't freeze to the windshield. Get your running around done today, if possible. If you have to go out during the storm, drive CAREFUL!

 

[Lothlorien]

Stay warm! I'm sure we'll get the tail end of it. They are calling for it.

 

[totoro]

Hey I am suffering her as well! It is only supposed to reach the 60's here today.

I am kidding... I was just watching the weather on the computer and was thinking of all of you. Please bundle up and NO driving tonight!
Keep your furry ones safe as well... Lots of hot cocoa!!!! Oh and donuts.... mmmm

 

[trinityroyal]

Good advice, BBK.
We've got about 8 inches on the ground, and expect another fall of about 10 inches overnight tonight.

I suspect that if we're in for a snow-dumping in Toronto, that those of you in NY State and NJ will be getting much the same.

Bundle up eveyone!

Trinity

 

[flutterbee]

We're not going to get any of it. Which, I guess, is good since I have to take Devon to the airport Friday.

 

[Mayapple5]

We live West of Chicago and are expecting at least 6" - 8" along with the 2/3" of ice first! We had the first go around Tuesday night. It normally takes my husband an hour to get home from work, it took him 3 1/2 hours Tuesday, boy did I do a lot of praying! So tonight he is going to be watching and no matter when it starts he is going to leave work, no matter what the wicked witch of the north says, he said he'll even aske to use her broom to get home! LOL She is terrible to work for and yes he does speak to her that way! He has 7 months to go and he isn't going to get fired (works for the state) and he still gets paid no matter what his annual "progress report" says and it is never, ever anything positive from her, no matter what he does to try to satisfy her demands, he can never satisfy her! And he's not the only one!

Sorry, I got carried away ;( any way I have lots of hot chocolate and I just made a big batch of Chai Tea Mix for a Christmas present and have some left over for myself and that sounds pretty good, we have lots of popcorn for difficult child and daddy, and lots of movies to choose from, adn the oil lamp is out just in case of an outage, we're set!

Please be warm and safe, everyone!

 

[janebrain]

We have a winter storm warning here in central NY for tomorrow--expecting 8-14 inches. Whoo-hoo! I think it will be fun....my husband will be the one driving us to work and back....not very far.
Jane

 

[Abbey]

I'm keeping my curtains closed and pretending it did'nt happen.

Abbey

 

[slsh]

BBK - having wipers that work doesn't do me much good when the doors to the van are frozen shut!!!! I think it was Monday, or was it Tuesday... I don't remember, it's just too darn cold every day lately.... anyway, I went out to warm the van up and the driver's door was frozen shut. Passenger door too. At that point I was imagining the phone call to the kids' schools to tell they would be absent due to a frozen vehicle! No way was I going to make the kids walk in 7-degree weather! I was able to finally pry open the side doors.

We got our driveway redone this summer and it has a bit of an incline. Because it's concrete, the guys told us not to use salt on it because it will eat the concrete. So one of the very first snowy days, I went and picked up the kids, came home, parked as normal on the shoveled but still icy driveway. When Boo's bus got here, the van had literally slid down the driveway and ended up sideways!!!!! His nurse must've thought I was drunk. Thank goodness it didn't end up in the street!! Needless to say, we're using chemicals on the driveway now.

Diva was shocked when we pointed out that it's not even officially winter yet. May I just say that this autumn has been the *pits*!! :frostbite:

 

[Star*]

MY FLIGHT WAS CANCELLED!!!!!!!

and for those of you who think this is just going to be a bit of snow? There is currently thunder and lighting OVER the top of this system - it's currently in NE.....(MUTTMEISTER CHECK IN SOON)

SLSH -PUT WD-40 on the door jams - it may help -

BBK - In all my years I NEVER thought to pull the wipers out -

My little tip calendar said to put a towel over the car windshield and just pull it off in the morning and voila - no scraping - wonder if that works.

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

I like the towel idea. They actually sell these windshield covers that you put over the windshield, then close each end into the front door to keep it in place.

SLSH...I would bet that it was Monday that your van was frozen. I remember it raining Sunday night (remember? it was 53 degrees) and then the temp plummeted overnight and the rain turned to ice. I had about 1/2" thick ice on the front and one side of my van. I had to crawl through the hatch!

It hasn't started here yet, but I've heard a couple rumbles of thunder.

We were due for a killer winter. The last few winters have been kind.

 

[flutterbee]

How is it hitting Illinois and moving to NY, but skipping Ohio?

I want some snow!

 

[dreamer]

it figures. Tuesday me and kids were standing in line for a food distribution and it was so windy and so cold and snowing like crazy........and the delivery truck turned out to be over 90 minutes late, while all 1,000 of us people waited in line outside i the cold. The distribution people came out and passed out blankets, sweatshirts etc to all of us that were wating......but goodness, I did not think we would ever feel warm again, even tho we all had 2 pairs of pants on and tshirts, sweathsirts and our coats and easy child even had feet warmers in her shoes.....

Last week, I shoveled nonstop for like 6 hours to keep up with that snow becuz I cannot shovel it if it gains any depth..and with easy child preg.I want our drive clear. It was OK in daytime last week cuz it was not too cold......but once it got dark, whew......it took me 6 hours to feel my hands and feet again.

of course tomorrow? UG.....husband has an appointment with veterans affairs independant examiner re an appeal on some of his benefits.....(this is very similar to soc sec independant evaluation) Higher ups pulled in favors to GET this appointment for us.....and if we cannot do this appointment....then the appeal could wind up taking 5 YEARS to go thru......they are hoping to do this exam and get a reconsideration instead........
BUT it is NOT close to home. and it is at 8 am. AND easy child has a ob appointment.....and they are FINALLY gijng to truly "examine" her, FINALLY (her first) and I will be with husband at HIS appointment....and daddy to be has to work from 11 tonite till 11 am.......so he cannot go with her.....and she has never been to doctor alone before, so she is upset and nervous.....and now will be going in crummy weather, too.
and yeah we are north here, as far north IL as we can be and still be IL......and yes, they are sayng could be as much as 13 inches.....and another storm right behind it, and this weekend we are supposed to travel to the city for my family holiday. :-(

Goodness, it just figures, I seldom have places we HAVE to be these days.......yeesh.

 

[dreamer]

oh yes..last MOnday? Yes. what a mess. I took my lil vw bug and went up to our VERY popular picturesque town square on an errand. i got there and there were 3 ambulances in rfont of me.not sure why..and we were not moving on the street leading into the square. we were there maybe 20 mins! so we are watching, and next we see cars going backwards.......oh wait, being PUSHED.and cars going the wrong way.....but we cannot tell whats going on cuz the ambulances are in front of us.
we finally begin to inch forward.....and we are watching walking pedestrians slip and fall on the sidewalks.....WOW!
one ambulance tries to enter the square area......it is brick....and it is banked....the center is highest, and there is angled parking on inside and outside. (it is one way around in a circle and 4 exit/entrances to square) The cars were sliding from the driving lane to the parking spaces around the outside. Even the ambulances were. so the first ambulance slid and came to rest against a few cars parked.....so the 2nd and 3rd ambulances did not go BUT....behind me were at least 8 more cars....we were on a one way street going in....the 2nd ambulnce finally did try to get around the first, and it slid, too.....eventually..city workes came on bobcats....armed with tons of salt.....and they spread a thick layer of salt around each of us....and then gathered and lifted each vehicle and set it upon the salt and then pushed each vehicle out of the square. It happened very suddenly, one minute the square was just fine and then wham.....when the ambulance directly in front of me moved forward, I tried to move, and crept forward maybe one foot, and WHOA......my lil bug just drifted itself and came to rest against the sidewalk. sideways. Not a thing I could do about it. Once the crews set me on a surface I could drive on.I had to think carefully what way to go to stay off any hills and away from curves....so I wound up going kinda far out of my way to go home, to avoid a repeat. Yesh. and it was afternoon rush hour, it was a mess.

they are not salting and plowing as much this year becuz of economy and last years snow removal (it destroyed the budget so bad and created a salt shortage) .we had record breaking amounts of snow LAST year and they say this year we are getting twice of last years.YIKES.

 

[Wiped Out]

It's bad here right now and I'm regretting that I was too tired to go get extra groceries for today-it will be mighty slim picking for the kids today. No school thought so that is a good thing-we don't have to go out in it!

Everything is closed except the University-they are still holding exams which seems highly unfair-the weather is bad-other campuses around have closed but not ours. I hope the students exercise caution when deciding to go or not-and I also feel for the professors.

 

[Mayapple5]

WE actually got a lot more ice than snow so far this morning. There aren't any schools open for counties around! I slept on the couch most of the night (normal lately) I heard thunder quite a bit last night and ice hitting the window most of the night. I don't know how thick it is but there sure isn't any traffic out there this morning. We normally have trash pick up this morning, they are saying it will be tomorrow before they pick up.

Nice thing is my husband is going to be home and his week of vacation starts next Monday, so he is going to get an extra day. We have our kids over tomorrow for our family Christmas so he is making is famous batch of fudge and I'm going to be making my mom's recipe for date nut bars and difficult child is going to be helping us both! We are just going to have fun today! I hope others can find family time in being shut up in the house today, either playing a board game or watching a great movie together like "It's a Wonderful Life" or doing some Christmas baking, just have fun being together.