Thaws

We have had a hard winter. Not a really terrible one, but in comparison with the past ten years the winter of 2013/14 has been more difficult. We have had long periods of below zero temps. Snow has fallen a total of 68 inches. The Chicago region usually gets 34 inches per year. In recent years we had as few as 18 inches for the season. But the ice, snow, salty mush on roads, and endless tracking into the garage, and from the garage into the house, have frayed our nerves a bit.

Add to this the closing of schools and other public institutions due to severe cold and wind chills; simply unsafe to be outdoors. Yet the commuters continue to march through winter hell to get to and from work.

This morning as I write this blog at 4:30 AM, it is thundering and lightening. Vigorously so. Rain and downpours are forecast today. We recently had two feet of snow piled up from recent storms. Drifted areas and plowed piles have exceed six feet. Yet temps in the past 36 hours have melted the piles. Rain will further erode the telltale signs of Old Man Winter, but wait!  Spring hearkens in our souls. And Mother Nature seems willing to give us more of that promise.

The thunderstorms today, however, will likely drop an inch or two of rain, on top of melting snow piles, on top of ice crust, and frozen earth. The fear today and this weekend is of flooding. The thaw will produce water flows toward streams, creeks and rivers. In turn they will swell. Rain runoff will add to the burden. Will an unpleasant flood of icy waters add to our misery this winter?

We shall see. Meanwhile I recall many past winters in which I drove to business meetings with a real fear of getting stuck, missing the meeting, and getting mired in an endless commute home. More than one evening dinner was postponed for 2 hours or more in those days.

Much of my early work years were spent commuting from the far out suburbs to downtown Chicago. The commute took 4 hours each day: a one mile walk to the train station from home, a 45 minute train ride, a one and a half mile walk to the campus from the downtown train station.  That’s 5 miles walking round trip, and hour and a half train rides counting both directions, and waiting for the train added in. Four hours each day. In all kinds of weather.

The walking kept me active and warm in cold weather. Much better to exert energy, get exercise and maintain proper body weight than stand frozen to the pavement at a bus stop, especially when the bus seemed never to arrive in the worst of weather!  So I walked.  It was good for me. It gave me more time to think and logic out office issues and work challenges.

Funny thing, though. Back in those days (late 1970’s and most of the 1980’s) bad weather was the norm during winter. It was in the 1990’s and first decade of 2000’s that winter softened its impact. Smaller snow storms. Much more moderate temperatures. Very little ice. And when weather was bad, it only lasted a day or so, and then melted.

Back then we thought we had it bad. Today the commuters think they have it bad. Records are being made, don’t you know. Actually, not!  The records were made in the past. That’s why they call them records!

But each new generation must feel they invented the records and survived the ordeals of magnitude. It comes with the journey of life, I suppose. Seemed normal enough to me both then and now.  It’s just funny to think about.

The perspective though still holds its humor. And lesson.

February 21, 2014