Groundhog Day

The Storm Begins
View from my Office

     I thought that Groundhog Day, with its ephemeral hopes for spring, would be a good time to start up my 2015 blog. Unfortunately, Chicago groundhogs were buried under two feet of snow, so my timing was not auspicious.

     As usual, my first heads up came, not from Chicago news stations, but from my friends in North Carolina. Do you detect a note of glee in all these long  distance warnings?

     Chicago got 19.3 inches of snow in 24 hours -- the fifth heaviest snowfall since 1880. Wan had to be at work on Monday, so instead of spending my Sunday blogging about the springtime ahead, I spent it with her trying to get a head start on digging out her car. We ran my car up and down the drive and then parked hers by the back door.

     I knew we should really go back out around 6 pm and do the whole thing over again. But did I? No. Instead I asked Wan if she thought I should brave the blizzard once more. Feeling sorry for me, she said, No."

    You know the result already. I stayed warm and dry on Sunday night, but come Monday morning Wan's car was buried worse than before. Still stuck an hour later, Wan finally called work -- only to find out that there was no place to park at the job in any case.

     We spent the rest of the morning digging out once more. All my thoughts of spring had long since departed.