2011 Blizzard

Well, I don't think of last night's storm and snow was a blizzard like others I have seen. Yes it was bad, we had about 8 inches with high winds and I heard thunder overnight with freezing rain. I have not seen a car yet, everyone is staying home. Schools are closed and many businesses and offices. Detroit is shut down. Chicago got hit hard! Especially Lakeshore Drive. I am sure the Matts and Dana will have to get to the hospital to work. They were setting up cots in the basement for employees to sleep over. In Boston they are showing 5 story high snow dumps at the snow farms where they take it. I think the rain and snow has stopped but it is quite windy still. It is just cold! Glad to be home. KC was lonely and howled me awake so 6:30 was the best I could do. I heard the freezing rain and the wind. Airports are closed throughout the country. Poor Roseanne trying to get to Vegas for her nephew's wedding. Not going today! Good day to nurse this cold with lots of coffee and soup. Spring sounds so good right now! Picked up 2 movies and I just may watch both of them today. Secretariat and Eat Pray Love. High today of 24 but wind and colder air will make it worse throughout the day. I have seen many storms that were much worse. In 1968 the snow started in the afternoon and didn't stop until we had 6-10 foot drifts. Growing up in the country on the farm mid-state, we always had more snow and the drifts would close the roads for days, especially the north/south roads. Anyway, the busses took us home in the middle of the day and it took forever because they kept getting stuck. My dad worked in Battle Creek (13 miles away) and had to ditch the car after he got stuck on the way home and walk the rest of the way. It took him 8 hours and he nearly froze to death. The drifts were up to his thighs so it was grueling work. I remember my mother had called him and asked him to buy a 5 lb. bag of flour as she was nearly out and he carried it all the way through the snow. He said it weighed 50 lbs. going through those drifts. In those days we only had one car and you didn't stop at the store on a daily basis to run an errand or two. When he finally got home, my mother nearly fell apart she had been so worried. I think we still had to get to the barn to do the milking. We were out of school for at least a week, probably more because the bus could not get through until the snowplow came and that took a long time because all of the country roads were drifted shut. We spent the days shoveling the driveway and I know we took a photo of the drifts that were over my parent's heads, probably 8 feet high. My dad couldn't go to work as the car was at the side of the road in Battle Creek and the roads didn't just melt. When the plow finally came through, the milk truck was right behind it. Not the delivery truck, the truck that had to back down the driveway to pump the milk from the tank. That is why the drive had to be shoveled (no snowblowers and no plow). The tank was very large and it was full to the top that day. Dad only had to dump a little bit of milk. He had invited all the neighbors who could get out to come and get all the milk they could carry so it wouldn't go to waste. Now, that was a blizzard!

Second one I remember, Otto and I were living at West Lake in Portage in a little cottage. We had so much snow that the dog could practically walk over the fence of her yard. The biggest snow buried our little Datsun fastback that was parked in the front by the road. You could only see tiniest part of the roof. Western Michigan closed and so did Kalamazoo for a couple of days. It took forever to dig out the car. Glad we took photos, I will have to look them up. Our biggest worry in those days was running out of cigarettes and having to walk a mile to the store to get some! It is what it is!