What Does "COLD" Feel Like?

I've lived here for 22 years. We get used to severe cold weather in the winter months. We get used to "lake effect" snow. We currently have 17" of snow on our patio table. We've had more than that in years past. But, I do have to say that when I woke up this morning and turned on WNDU and looked in the lower right hand corner of the screen, I had to blink and move in closer. That couldn't say -19 could it?

Yep, that's exactly what it said. -19 degrees with a windchill of -30 degrees. The newscaster demonstrated how cold this is by taking a cup of boiling water outside and tossing it into the air. It immediately turned to snow. Schools have been cancelled - too much risk of frostbite for kids waiting at bus stops. Today's temperature is a record for South Bend - dating back to 1976. They're telling us that we'll be back to normal by next week - back into the 20's. That will seem balmy, compared to today.

Somebody PLEASE Remind Me......

Why I choose to live here.....

Ice, Ice Baby.....

The day after Christmas is a day to hit the mall for all the great bargains!!!! Except when the roads are covered with INCHES of solid ice! What a mess!! By noon, Colleen was stir-crazy and ventured over to our house. Kelli and Kevin entertained Benjamin while Colleen and I and little Andrew headed to the mall. Once we got out of the subdivision, we were "ok" - that is, until we reached the mall parking lot. Total strangers were helping each other maneuver across patches of ice. While I pushed the stroller, a nice gentlemen helped Colleen and Andrew make it to dry and non-slick ground. Once inside the mall, Andrew slept for 3 hours and his mom and I hit the sales!!! We met Aunt Chrissie and Aunt Katie for lunch and little Andrew slept through the entire event. Even though I found some GREAT buys, I'm glad to be home in my warm, dry house for the evening - and hopefully I can keep Kevin and Kelli off the roads.

Night Time Visitors

Saturday, it snowed all day and most of the night. Sunday morning, I woke to bright sunshine and a pristine front lawn. Unlike when the kids were small, and running through the fresh snow and building snowmen and snow forts - I now have a beautiful, untrampled front yard.

Pretty, huh? Not a footprint to be found.

Wait a minute! What is this?? Look at this MESS under my crabapple tree! Just who might the guilty culprit be??

Well, last night I was laying in bed about 9:30 watching a movie and the phone rang. It was Bill, our next door neighbor. "Patty, go look out your front window". Ah-ha! I'm going to be able to catch the culprit! It turned out to be four culprits - four beautiful deer. Two standing "guard" in the street and two, standing under the tree, munching on the crabapples.

Kelli and I sat for a few minutes watching them from our dark living room window. They were no more than 8 feet away from us and I'm sure they could hear us whispering, because a few minutes later they looked at the window and with a hop, skip and a jump they were across the street and into the woods.

It's November - for Cryin' Out Loud!!!

It's November. Not January. Not February. I've known my son-in-law to play golf up through Thanksgiving. So what the heck are we doing with 9+ inches of snow this morning??!!! I stuck my head outside and all I could hear was the "buzz" of the neighborhood snowblowers. Is this a sample of the winter ahead? If so, I'm going to be a stark-raving maniac come February!

Even the dog looked at me kinda weird this morning - you know the look. Like, "you don't really expect ME to go out there and do my thing, do you?" Poor Rigby - his ears were dragging in the snow. He quickly took care of "business" and high-tailed it to his favorite warm/dry spot under the dining room table. Makes me wish I could spend my day there too.

Good Day Sunshine.....

As hard as it is to get up and going on a cold and snowy morning, the morning commute is a little easier when I'm met with these views. Next to a good cup of coffee, this will make me go "aahhhhhhhhh".

Back Yard Guests

We've had back yard visitors all winter - but usually late evening. This morning, just as we were getting ready to leave, I heard Kelli - "MOM, come quick!!" She held the dog back and I grabbed the camera. (Once the dog gets a glimpse of ANYTHING that dares to enter HIS yard, all hell breaks loose). The pictures didn't turn out very good - looks like the flash was reflecting off of the falling snowflakes. By the time I turned the flash off, they noticed my presence, flashed me their little white tails and took off for the woods.

Old Man Winter....

...is holding on for dear life. Yesterday, I could actually see about 80% of my yard. Today, it's buried AGAIN under six more inches of snow. COME ON!!! Old Man Winter just needs to find a place to crawl off to and DIE! Saturday is March 1st for cryin' out loud!!!! Kelli has her first high school game three weeks from Saturday. They'll be lucky if they even get OUTSIDE to practice by that date. Anyway - this was my view this morning as I drove Kelli to school.

It helps knowing that six weeks from today, this will be the early morning view from my balcony on the Empress deck - somewhere off the coast of Belize.

39 days - 39 days - 39 days - 39 days - 39 days - 39 days

So, Here's How It Is....

I'm REALLY Getting Tired of....

• Single Digit Temperatures
• Sub-Zero Wind Chills
• Blowing Snow
• Cloudy Days
• and POTHOLES

I'm REALLY Looking Forward to....

• Sunshine
• Flip Flops
• The Sound of the Ocean
• Friend's Laughter
• and FOO FOO Drinks

46 Days and Counting!

Snowy Winter Day

Everyone needs a day like this now and then. The local weather man warned us that today would be bad - sub zero wind chills and blowing snow. I planned my weekend around it. Went to Mass last evening, got my groceries and even started a crockpot of vegetable beef soup. Woke up this morning to the soothing smell of soup and the sound of a howling wind. I didnt' get dressed all day - flannel pajamas and fuzzy slippers were the order of the day. I managed to watch five days worth of tivo-d episodes of Days of Our Lives, made a pan of peanut butter/chocolate brownies and enjoyed a roaring fire. Like I said - you need a day like this every now and then.

Lake Effect

I grew up in southern Illinois - just across the river from St. Louis. Four inches of snow would paralyze our little town. School would be cancelled, kids would be sledding and building snowmen. Twenty-one years ago this month, we moved to South Bend, Indiana and I heard the term "lake effect snow" for the first time. You see....there's system snow. That's the stuff the weather men can predict - the stuff that they can see coming through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. It's this lake effect stuff that throws a real monkey wrench in our lives in general. I guess they can tell us to expect it, but they can never seem to tell us how MUCH to expect. Lake effect works like this - the cold arctic air comes down from Canada and Wisconsin - sweeps across Lake Michigan where the water is still relatively warm and creates this phenomanon known as "lake effect snow" and dumps it on the first land mass - which in our case is southwest Michigan and northwest Indiana - and that's US. The weird part of the whole thing are the bands of snow that are created. For example - I live on the extreme northwest corner of South Bend - right on the Michigan border. I can get dumped on and drive to my office downtown and find an inch. We're only talking a seven mile difference - but that's like night and day in lake effect areas.

So, here I sit - looking out my office window and thankful that I'm somewhere warm and dry, but actually wishing I were curled up in my nice warm bed with the blankets pulled up under my chin. Welcome to JANUARY in northern Indiana.

Get Out the Row Boats....

Indiana weather is known to be a little crazy. It's January. In January, it's cold and it snows. We started off the New Year ten days ago with just that - cold temps and lots and lots of snow - more than a foot. It was beautiful.

Then something really weird happened. It got warm. It doesn't do that in January in northern Indiana. This past Monday, the temperatures reached 63 degrees and ALL that snow melted. Then Monday night, we had thunderstorms. Yep, thunderstorms in Indiana in January - lots of thunder and lightning and rain. So, the ground is already saturated with a foot of melted snow and now you add RAIN!!! There's no where for it to go. Now, instead of the streets being covered with snow - they're covered with flood waters.

My office sits just two blocks from the St. Joseph River. Luckily, we're up on the hill and not affected, but just a few blocks from here, Northside Boulevard has been closed for two days because the river has exceeded it's banks. As I drove home last evening, I noticed that the street is closed by the Duck Pond at Leeper Park - the river has covered the road. The ducks and geese are happy.

January in Indiana.....

Just a week ago:

• It was New Year's Eve and the snow started falling.
• New Year's Day brought us more than a foot of the cold, wet stuff.
• Temperatures fell to 1 degree with windchills below zero.

This morning:

• We woke up to temperatures of 59 degrees.
• Today's forecast - rain and 61 degrees.
• People were at the post office this morning in short sleeves.
• Last week's snow is 95% GONE.

Welcome to the wacky world of weather in northern Indiana.

It's Cold in Florida....

So my sister-in-law emails me this morning and tells me that it's COLD - 28 degrees and windy. Now granted, that is cold for those people who expect 70 degrees. She's used to going off to work in her capris and starfish flip-flops. As for me, I haven't seen my capris or my toenails for that matter in four months.

So sis, when you start talking COLD - be thankful it's not 1 degree with negative windchills. At least we have sunshine today - which I think it's been more than a week since we've seen it. But even with the sun, it's still ONE BLESSED DEGREE!!! Can you imagine what we'd have if it were cloudy???

Oh, and when you drive home from work today, it may be cold and windy but at least you won't be looking at this.....





Photos courtesy of South Bend Tribune.

Still Snowing....

It's 6:30 a.m. and still some snow flurries. Rock Star is running the snow blower for the third time in the past 24 hours. There's 13" on our patio table and the wind chill is 2 degrees. I really just want to climb back into my nice warm bed and pull the covers over my head.

93 days until we cruise!!!!

Winter Wonderland

We walked to a neighbor's house last night around 8:00. A gentle light snow was falling - very pretty - very serene. Five hours later we walked home in a virtual blizzard. There I was, with a little bit too much champagne under my belt, trying to follow the tire tracks left in the street. I did fine - made it all the way home and then FELL right on my well-padded behind in my own driveway. Rock Star didn't even help me up - because he was doubled over laughing. Oh well, I think I was doing a lot of laughing too!!

This morning, we woke up to a beautiful sight - I say beautiful because I don't have to go anywhere today. I can stand and enjoy nature's beauty from the comfort of my nice, warm home. Not sure how I'll feel about it at 7:30 tomorrow morning when I have to make my way to the office.

I actually put on my warm clothes, boots and was ready to go out and enjoy it - you know, take Rigby for a walk - breathe in the fresh air. Well, Rigby took one look at that snowdrift in the driveway, raised his leg, did his "thing" and ran right back into the house. What a wimp! Aren't dogs supposed to love running and playing in the snow? Well, not this pansy, house dog.

Then it was time to work on that driveway. Rock Star gave me the choice of the driveway or the kitchen sink. Tough decision on my part. He fought me tooth and nail a few years ago when I wanted to buy a snow blower. He wasn't giving me an ounce of backtalk this morning.

...and finally, I had to take a picture of these two - Rock Star and Kevin, our next door neighbor. They spend their summer months mowing their yards and comparing their golf scores over a cold beer in the driveway. Who knows what conversation is going on this morning....probably praying that they'll see their grass again soon.

December 5th - Remembering Back

This was my view this morning at 7:30 as I backed out of the driveway. Quite pretty....but not quite as pretty as the view LAST December 5th.

Today's current temperature is 21 degrees. This time last year, we were enjoying temps in the 80's. Of course, we weren't in South Bend, Indiana - we were somewhere off the coast of Belize - preparing for a day of snorkeling and swimming with the rays. Oh, the memories!!!

Tomorrow's Forecast....

According to WNDU - Saturday : Mostly cloudy. There is a chance of snow arriving in the afternoon, possibly changing to sleet or freezing rain at night. High: 33

Sounds like a good day to stay in my flannel pajamas, make a pot of vegetable soup and put up my Christmas tree.

Chill Factor...

You think 'ole man winter knows that my Florida family arrives a week from today? Hopefully, they won't see this forecast and choose to stay right where they are!!!

They want to see snow. OK - well we can maintain snow with 31 degrees - we don't need wind chills of 30 below!!!

January in South Bend

OK - so we've had a mild winter - that is, until yesterday. Old man winter must know that my Florida family is coming in ten days and wants to welcome them in style. Nine inches on our patio table this morning - and more on the way today and tomorrow!!