#ChiBeria

Okay, this winter is out of control.  Right now, it's -14°F, with a wind chill of -41°F!  I've been reading waaaay too much about the weather on Twitter (surprise, surprise) and apparently, in these kinds of conditions, it would only take 5-10 minutes for frostbite to set in.

All the schools are closed, and many stores and businesses, too.  Despite the Illinois Department of Transportation and the National Weather Service urging people NOT to travel, Bruce still went into work this morning.

Emmie and I, on the other hand, are safely snuggled up indoors, and will be for the foreseeable future.  I have nowhere to go for a while.  On Saturday, I had an 11-4 shift at the store.  We were supposed to go to Bruce's cousins' house later that night with his family, and they live near the mall.  So Bruce drove me to work and went to hang out with his folks.  Well, it turns out, that was my last day at the store.  All the seasonal employees were dropped from the schedule because this year wasn't as profitable as expected.  Part of me was sad; I liked working there, and I really liked the discount.  The other part of me was relieved, though.  This winter has been awful and every time I had to work there were hazardous conditions.  It wouldn't be such a big deal if it was closer, but I have to take the expressway to get there and dark rural roads.

Last Saturday was no exception to this.  The weather people declared a Winter Storm Warning, predicting 6-12" of snow over the weekend.  Bruce's cousins ended up cancelling their party, so Bruce and Emmie picked me up from work at 4, and we made the slow, distressing journey home.  The roads were covered, and cars were skating around everywhere.  It took more than twice as long as normal to get home.

Once we were here, I was elated.  No plans all weekend! No worrying about traveling anywhere.  We had food, drink, and warmth.  We could stay indoors and watch the blizzard happen around us.

And it did.  On Sunday, we woke up to a world of white.  Neighbors were outside shoveling, trying to keep up with the snowfall.  After breakfast, Bruce went outside to brush off the car and shovel.  Two awesome things happened then.

I've written before about how there is an apartment complex with an unpaved driveway right up against the side of our house.  We share a driveway with our neighbor, and the apartment driveway is on the other side of ours.  It's really unsightly.  Well, it's actually a blessing in disguise, because the landlord contracts a snowplow to clear their entrance.  I've seen it come before, and it always plows part of our driveway, too.  So Bruce was out there and the guy drives up.  "Is it okay if I plow yours?" He asks, half kidding.  Of course it's okay!  The snowplow driver tells Bruce it's easier to go across our driveway and push the snow into our neighbor's yard, rather than into the street.  Bruce stood back while the guy did his thing.

Buh-bye, snow!

After the plowing was done, there was still snow to be removed.  Right then, the lady who lives in the other half of the duplex came outside.  She has a snowblower, and offered it to Bruce.  He's never used one before, but got the hang of it right away.  What a lifesaver! She said we could use it any time, which is a pretty nice deal.  She gets her half of the driveway plowed, and Bruce doesn't have to shovel.

Later, we bundled Emmie up and took her in the backyard to play in the snow.  It was really cold yesterday, but nothing compared to what today and tomorrow will be like.  We figured she needed to get out of the house, or she'd go stir crazy.  We played for a few minutes, then came inside.  We spent the rest of the day working on the house and hanging out as a family.  With Emmie's birthday and the holidays over the past couple weeks, we really can't remember the last time we spent a whole day together, just the three of us.

We capped off our snow day with a cup of hot chocolate and extra marshmallows.  Emmie even drank it out of a real (plastic) mug!  Us grownups know how bitter winter can be, but to her, it's full of sweet new adventures.

Emmie's checks out her igloo