2-4 - Spent part of the morning digging out the fire hydrants on our street and touching up the snow piles - the sun came out and it was beautiful! - ran a few errands and then started sorting out gear for our ski trip north to Ironwood Mi - it looks like we are going to have cold weather this year - the current forecast is OK for the trip up (low 20ºs} and then from Mon. thru Thurs. the early mornings will be below zero and only warming to the low single digits for the daytime highs - then it warms very slightly for the trip home - if it is sunny and no wind in the woods the skiing should be OK - Brad would feel right at home, - We plan to leave at 7:30 am on Fri. 2-6 - it is about a 7 hr drive - LET'S GO HAVE AT IT!

2-2 - BLIZZARD YES!!!! - We really got it - Continued to snow all night and until about 10:00 am - I planned to get out early but the wind was still gusting - I understand we had gusts as high as 50 mph - at the lake front they had gusts as high as 70 mph - they had a couple of of minor accidents along northbound Lakeshore drive one of which involved an articulated bus that jack knifed and blocked all lanes - traffic came to a complete stop - heavy snow and high winds slowly filled in between cars - EVERY THING was slowly buried trapping hundreds of cars. - there are still more than 100 cars waiting extraction - I understand there was a total snowfall of 20.2" making the accumulation the 3rd highest in the history of Chicago - I finally was able to get out and start shoveling about 10:00 am - the entire neighborhood turned out to help each other with snow blowers and shovels - we were all dug out by late afternoon then they started a fire in one of those "fire pit things" broke out the hot dogs etc and had a picnic - the kids were having a ball and the adults enjoyed watching them frolic in the deep snow piles - we are now to get a couple of days of near 0º and then back to normal - we will leave on sunday (2-6) to go up to the UP of Mi. for 6 days of X-C skiing with the EBC bike club - the Blizzard was quite an experience.

2-1 - Managed to get the last hike in (Ted's Tours part 9) - had 17 hikers - finished up about noon - wind was picking up - 23ºcl - had lunch at Portillo's - snow arrived about 3:00 pm with high gusty wind - snowed steadily til I went to bed 10:30 pm - I looked out the window at 9:30 pm and saw Steve and KT busily shovelling my drive - I joined them and then they quickly left to go to the Sr.Roesslers to shovel them out - I stayed out about another 1/2 hr moving snow around (like shovelling sand against the tide) - at this rate we may get our forcasted 2 feet - wind gusts reported up to 50 mph. - may be a record breaker.

1-31 - Went on a EBC hike at Blackwell FP (near Warrenville) led by Laurel Savador - about 5 mi - I had not been out that way for quite some time - still significant snow on the ground but the footing was OK - we had lunch at the Warrenvill Cafe & Pancake House (corner of Rt 59 and Batavia Rd) - good spot and good food - Home by 1:30 pm - Temp 23º at start - warmed to high 20º cl. Big news is that we are to get a BIG BLIZZARD starting tomorrow nignt - they are forecasting 1 1/2 to 2 feet of snow with winds to 40 mph and gusting higher-we will see. - Can't wait (or can I)?