Yeah. They didn’t bother beginning to plow many of the streets in the city where I work until four, so my normal 25 minute commute took 65 minutes. Bastards.
But yay! For once the company has already decided against being open tomorrow, so I don’t have to worry about getting to work. Getting rid of a shit-ton of snow, however, still lies ahead…
Oh the grim mockery of it all. For the first time since 1999, Chicago is closing its schools due to the weather. Over on Clark street, despite cars and buses and trucks, snow was starting to drift in the lanes as if the traffic wasn’t there. The sidewalks are becoming impassable.
And according the latest reports, from 9pm today to 5am Wednesday we are expecting an inch and hour of snow. Lake Shore Drive has been closed. How could this happen? This isn’t Buffalo, New York, this is Chicago!
The Wheels of Commerce are shutting down! The very soul of capitalism is being put on hold.
No one knows what pork bellies will sell for any more! The entire system is being shoved aside so Mother Nature can dump a bunch of frozen water upon our Mighty Shoulders. Oh, the indignity of it all. Captains of Industry force to idleness and despair. Engines of Wealth, shut down like cheap toys. Power and Prestige replaced by the guy with the snow blower who always seems to start up his machine at 5am, no matter what the snowfall. The ignorant swine.
Reports of cannibalism are coming in from Financial Center already. Unable to feed off the labor of others, the stock brokers are turning upon each other in a blood frenzy. Horrible! Horrible! Portfolios worth millions are being cast aside for a chance to get in front of the space heater. Anarchy and chaos have ripping down State Street and mass looting of the Water Tower Place is sure to happen at any moment.
By Friday, the survivors will be back in place, back to working their dull routine. But they will be forever haunted by their fragile existence. Forever exposed by the grip of real power in the form of the blizzard of 2011. May the Gods of the Arctic have mercy on our souls.
Having beaten the scootered disabled to grab the last of the required 2 gallons of milk and 3 loaves of bread, I was all prepared for the ice apocalype. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to find the streets completely dry.
You’ve got to love the Ohio Valley. In the summer, its humidity keeps all the heat and smog in like a woolen blanket. It comes in handy in the winter, though, because major snowstorms tend to avoid us.
Have fun shoveling the rest of the country!
We got about 7 inches here in suburban Detroit. Not quite the foot that the weathermen were gleefully promising us, but still pretty bad. Every school system has a snow day, and a few auto plants even said “Screw it” and shut down for the day. The roads are a huge mess pretty much everywhere. I didn’t get in to work until lunchtime, and I’ll be using a half-day vacation to cover the time lost.