Brrrrrrrrrrr..................

Oh baby it's cold down south.....maybe 16 degrees tonight.

I read my hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, and I got goosebumps looking at the winter blast snow pictures. I couldn't believe the photos of Lake Shore Drive.....900 cars stalled out in the snow. People sat in their cars for 12-14 hours.....okay my first thought.....did anyone have to go to the bathroom? And how?

In my own hometown, I'm worried about my little wild kitty.....she gotten a bit more tame.....we've moved from ear scratching....to back scratching to a slight tummy rub...(very slight)...I even gave her a name..... Snickers....but at this temperature a young animal could be in serious trouble. I turned on the heating pad under my door map...but she ran away....hopefully to someplace warmer and out of the wind. I'll be up early in the morning with canned cat food if she makes it.

I called my Auntie in Chicago to check on her and she is snug and warm...but my daughter in Ohio had lots of weather trouble. Buried under some snow and ice.....they lost power for 16 hours....around hour 15 they thought about trying to navigate their steep driveway to find warmth at a friend's house. Fortunately the power came on....and hopefully it will stay on as the wind chill is below zero there.

I pulled up the New York Times and read snow stories around the Midwest and got so cold and bummed out reading about the blizzard....I made some hot chocolate with a shot of mocha and a dash of whip cream and put some extra socks on and a t-shirt. Bundled up now, my eastern European DNA is screaming for carbohydrates.....eat candy.....chips....a nice slice of meat with some warm bread and butter.......anything to put the pounds on to protect myself from these winter temperatures...never mind that winter only lasts about three weeks in the south...my body is screaming lard me baby!

Sigh....I tell the cravings in my head to calm down....by the weekend it will be 45 degrees.....but you can't tell my inner ancestors that.....they are sipping the hot chocolate and protesting the lack of some cookies or cake to go with it.

Thank heavens we only suffer through a week or so of winter or else I would be a blimp.......

Stay warm and safe my friends up North....and East

Winter in the South....

I don't know why I try and save the geraniums.

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They're cheap... replaceable... just ordinary flowers.

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They sit in old clay pots with cracks and nicks and white lines etched by hard water.

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As the temperature started to drop yesterday, I passed them by and shrugged.

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So die this year....I'm too busy to fuss over you.

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But this afternoon, when the first ping of sleet pellets hit the window, I threw open the front

door.....and hauled them into the foyer.

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Leaves....dirt.....mulch....scattered on the oriental rug.

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I placed a couple of plastic bags on the carpet in the living room.....and moved them over...

their leggy arms reaching for the door and their former life.

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The ice thickens on the sidewalk tonight, the house is cold and feels dark

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the heater hums and we are all huddled together

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dogs....plants....people

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perhaps I am superstitious

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or prone to magical thinking

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but I am just an ordinary person too

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in a flawed and weather shell

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and like everyone

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I hope my presence

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in the lives of people I know and have been connected to

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is valuable enough

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to be saved.

~~~~~~~~~

We're Buried under Two Inches of Snow!

Yes...I know... you're astonished ....overnight....another 1/2 inch of snow fell...1-2 inches accumulation in two days....that's BIG for down here. But unlike yesterday when it was cold and gray and icy....today the sun is shining...and every time I look out the window, it's like viewing picture-perfect winter postcards.

I was out in the snow and walking around by 8am. I opened our back gate, which leads to the main street in our neighborhood, and was greeted by a happy "woof" from an exuberant boxer running and leaping like a rabbit. His owner, practical and cautious, was a half a block away and carefully navigating the sidewalk in big sloppy rubber boots. He waved...I waved back.

In a few minutes, kids' voices were booming from various backyards. It made me chuckle-- when my kids where little I held them back to the magical morning hour of 8 am too...just in case any adults neighbors actually thought they were going to sleep-in on this snow day.

I decided to see if any of our dogs might like to frolic. You can see the wildly enthusiastic response Mattie gave me to the idea of walking in the snow. Maybe white dogs don't do snow.....

When I brought Mattie back, I found this on my car....I felt the same way too...this will all be gone tomorrow....but we can boast to our Northern friends and relatives ....."Well, we made it through one big winter storm down here this season too."

And if anyone wants to come over...please do....I have 3 gallons of MILK, 2 loaves of BREAD and one steamy romantic movie left.