Every time we’re forecasted to get a substantial amount of snow, I think back to the Chicagoland blizzard of February 1, 2011 (wow, ten years ago!) – the one that made national news because drivers were stuck on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago for half a day or more. Yikes. Chicago got 21.2″ inches of snow in that storm.
I have much better memories of it. I still worked downtown most days of the week then, but made it home safely that night, and was allowed to work from home the next day. Steven and I woke up in the middle of the night to see someone trying to use their car as a plow to get in to our shared parking area. We must have had well over a foot of snow by then. They were not successful, and we found it very amusing (that sounds mean but most of our neighbors were extreme a$$holes).
It was super windy so the snow drifted like crazy
That was back when we were allowed to work from home one day a week (for me, always the last working day of the week), and extra work at home days were a novel treat, so I was so grateful for it (although it was hard to see all my friends get a snow day off work when I had to work, ha!). I remember doing laundry since I was home and could get it done while working… then flooding the laundry room because the dryer vent on the roof was so overloaded with snow that the heat from the dryer melted it and it came flooding down into the room. Ha ha ha. What fun that was to clean up.
Data keeping me company while I worked
Soon after that, our work at home policy became much more robust. For the past several years (pre-pandemic), I was going in one day a week, and any extra days required for meetings. We immediately went to 100% work from home last March. I’ve always been grateful with how progressive our company is with allowing us to work from home (and providing all the technology to do so) but inclement weather always reminds me to be, well, mindful of how lucky we are!
A few more photos from that storm:
(I wrote this post last weekend because we were predicted to get 6-8 inches of snow, and so far, it looks like we’ve got an inch or two. We’ll see what the day brings and when Mr. Plow shows up!) Edited to add: I went outside to shovel and we had at least 4 inches of fluffy light snow and the sidewalk was lightly covered again by the time I finished.
Wow, that was 10 years ago?
Crazy, right?!
I remember in the middle of the night, our neighbors had 2 or 3 people out there, and they dug an “L” shaped path, the exact width of the car, to their parking spot. Needless to say, they had to revise that plan. Ahh, memories.
Ha! Ha ha ha. Thanks for sharing more of the details! That totally makes sense – a car should be able to do a perfect 90 degree turn, no problemo 😉
It just started snowing here a couple hours ago. My boss told me they got about 6″ near our office – what do you guys have there now?
Oh my gosh I can’t believe that blizzard was 10 years ago! I was loving all of the snow because I was WFH too, but then the power was knocked out in my apt building at about 10pm and the inside temperature dropped below 60 degrees! I was so thankful to at least have a gas stove at that time!!
I was actually just thinking about another snowstorm around winter 2007-2008 where my office CLOSED at like 11am (worth noting that was the only time my office closed prior to COVID). Of course I took the train in that day and the shuttle buses that went to the Metra stations weren’t running so I had to find a co-worker who was traveling near any Metra station to give me a ride. I ended up just missing a train, waiting 2 hours for another, having to go down to OTC (since it wasn’t my line) and I think I got home like 4 hours later. I definitely don’t miss that kind of commute!!
How much did you end up with? We got around 8″, we think. We used the skid-steer loader twice. (Well, then we used it a third time to take the heavy garbage can down muah ha ha ahahaha)
Oh my gosh! How long was the power down?! Did your dogs love the snow?!
Gah, what a horrible situation in that 07/08 storm! Do you think they’d be more likely to have people -WAH now during a bad storm if it was non-pandemic times? The office I worked at that year would have had us come in too! Your story makes me think of the time my family was in town for my SiL to try on dresses in the city and Mom and I took the train in so we didn’t have to drive in the horrible storm, then had long waits, and had to walk around a lot with wet shoes, etc etc. Yuck.
Hardly anything! It snowed for a couple hours but nothing stuck 🙁 We had gotten freezing rain the night before so the sidewalks were pretty slick until this morning.
I think the power was out for like 24 hours. We only had Jude then but he LOVED it! I remember letting him off his leash (there were no cars going anywhere lol) and he just bounded all over the neighborhood.
Oh for sure, even prior to COVID they were much more open to people WFH in bad weather. But back then it was such a radical concept! I was only allowed to WFH one day each week at that time. And I remember that visit from your family! My parents were in town too (it must have been right around Thanksgiving?)
Oh darn! Is it more common to have the rain there in the winter? Apparently that is what KC was like so Steven said it was just so slick and dangerous all the time.
Aww Jude! That sounds so fun!
It really was a radical concept! I am glad we’ve come so far with it… it just makes sense to keep people safe at home! (This makes me think of the time my team leader made me come in to work when I was sick, and they knew I was sick… instead of letting me take a sick day (we didn’t WAH then). Just blows my mind.) Oh yes! Your family was in town too, yep, November! It was right before we moved to our temporary home and I was sad I couldn’t do any last runs with my dad in our old hood. Your parents made it in and out okay, right?
I remember this storm! I was still in college, but I was actually doing an internship in Chicago at the time, so I was here for it. My internship sent me home early the afternoon before the storm, and someone gave me a ride to the train (typically I took a bus to the train, but the bus only came like once every 20 minutes, so my boss told one of my coworkers to drive me to the train station instead. I really appreciated that!). Got back to my apartment all the way downtown and hunkered down with my roommates. Our first day of classes was supposed to be the day after the storm, but we got a snow day. That ended up being the latest I ever started a semester – our first day of classes wasn’t until the second week in February! We lived near Ida B. Wells Drive (Congress Parkway at the time) and went and stood out in the middle of the road at noon because there were no cars on it. That’s one of my main memories from that day! Or at least memories of things I did that day – I certainly remember the LSD shutdown, even though it didn’t personally impact me.
Wow! I am glad you made it home safely and had that coworker to give you a ride! And how crazy it delayed school so much! Also I did not know Congress was renamed. LOL. Do you remember how long it took to clear the city up? Was it a couple of days?
I don’t remember how long it took to clear things out, but I DO remember that my internship supervisor was very impressed that I came into the office on Thursday! (Storm was Tuesday, shutdown was Wednesday). He even brought it up as an example of why I was a good intern when doing my final evaluation, haha. Little did he know that as far as I was aware, I was expected to go to work that Thursday and had no reason to believe otherwise, but I was happy to take credit for going above and beyond when I thought I was just meeting the basic requirements, haha.
Ha! That’s awesome! I would have done the same – assume you are going in unless they told you not to, right?!
Wow, I remember that storm. We didn’t get nearly as much as you did down (no lake effect). It looks so fun in retrospect…
This was such a good post to reflect on how things have changed and how quickly you get accustomed to things. Did you have snow days as kids? I was just telling my mom, it’s no fun now because you don’t get the joy of turning on the TV and waiting for your school system’s update to scroll across the bottom of the screen. Now, kids just check online I guess. Where’s the excitement in that?
As I write this, we’re having a lot of wind and rain, which is about as close as we’re going to get to a winter storm, I guess.
Ha, you’re right! I totally remember watching the screen, and we definitely got snow days. I think the parents get texts now too, although, since they can all learn at home, do they even get snow days anymore? Some districts here were playing around with NOT having them before the pandemic, and doing e-learning. I wonder if those kids realize what they are missing. Although it’s probably better overall not to extend the school year.
Gosh, so many days of rain there!
And over here in Florida, I turned my AC on because it’s gotten WARM! Hahahahaha.
Awwww Data!!!!
I hope you can enjoy the snow! At least you don’t have to drive in it for work or anything. Go make some snow angels and snowmen! (I’ve only seen snow once or twice in my life, lol, so all I really know about the stuff is what I see in movies.)
Ha!
I enjoy looking at it! And I loaned my snowshoes to our neighbor to use! I actually really like snow and the cold season, but this year I want less snow so I can hide rocks. People don’t go find them or hide them when they are buried in snow! (Also, none of my cold weather running clothes fit well and I can’t find things in my current size so I have like one outfit to run in, so that is making me want to run less)