(Lake Shore Dr. the Day After The 3rd Largest Blizzard in Chicago's History)
While the top story throughout much of the world was the fascinating and incredible protests/riots in Egypt, the top story here in the United States (especially in the Midwest) was the massive snowstorm of which roughly 100 million Americans from Texas to Illinois to the New England region suffered through these past two days and, in turn, has caused massive traffic, cancelled flights (over 13,000 in all), declared state of emergencies in four states, record setting snowfalls and even the stranding of hundreds of vehicles in one of the Windy City's bustling downtown roads. Six foot snow drifts were reported in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The residents of Denver suffered through below degree temperatures. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including its suburb of Arlington, the site of this Sunday's Super Bowl XLV (of which I will be writing a preview post of sometime later this week, by the way), the area experienced some freezing temperatures with icy rain and hundreds of flights in DFW Airport cancelled. And then there's the situation in the Northeast, where the blizzard has only just arrived and is expected to have as big of an impact as the other areas of the country of which I have just mentioned.
Then again, none of those areas have been hit as brutally and as epically as in the Midwest in areas like southern Wisconsin, northern Indiana and especially in the Chicagoland area. As someone who is a resident of Chicago and who has managed to survive the the great Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011 (or whatever the nickname for it is), I can tell you with full certainty that the situation during these past forty eight hours have been as astonishing as it has been made out to be in the news. From 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon to nearly 24 hours after on Wednesday, an estimated 20.2 inches of snow were recorded, with an average of 3 inches per hour at nighttime, making it the third largest snowfall in the city's history behind only the massive blizzards in 1967 and 1999. Winds were gusting between 35 and 50 miles per hour, with a high of 60 miles an hour during its worst period. Chicago Public Schools, notorious for refusing to close down school because of snow days no matter how bad the situation was, finally gave in to the snow's mighty force and decided to give its students and faculty members a day off not just today but tomorrow as well for the first time since '99 (all Catholic schools and city colleges were also closed). In terms of public transportation, both the CTA and Metra were forced to either reduce the amount of train rides or cancel certain service lines altogether.
It gets worse! Nearly 80,000 ComEd customers in the Chicagoland area spent a certain amounts of time last night and/or today without either electricity or heat. An estimated 1,300 flights were cancelled at O'Hare airport, with around 300 flights cancelled at Midway Airport. Visibility was so poor that when I drove with mj50 to our local supermarket to buy some food for ourselves and the rest of our family for the night, we could barely see past 10 feet as winds were gusting snow at white-out conditions. Illinois governor Pat Quinn even ordered to send down around 500 National Guard troops to several rest stops across the state. At least seven deaths have possible snow related causes. And then...there was the thundersnow, one of the coolest aspects of the blizzard that I experienced and now my favorite weather condition of all-time.
And ,of course, there is the situation down in beautiful Lake Shore Drive, where (after hours of being trapped inside their cars due to congested traffic and a possible flood warning was in effect near Lake Michigan) hundreds of people were mandated to evacuate their vehicles following an accident, leaving the highway filled with nothing but an eerie site empty vehicles, tow trucks and people trying to find their vehicles. Mayor Daley's Chief of Staff Ray Orozco (not a bad way to experience his final month on the job, huh?) said that the move was a judgment call and believed that he made the right call, but of course there are many doubters out there. The worst part, of course, is that while the blizzard may have passed the area, the city and its residents have yet to finish its suffering. As I am currently writing this sentence for your viewing pleasure, a wind chill advisory has now been set into effect as residents are bracing themselves for below degree temperatures and a wind chill that could dip as low as -8 Fahrenheit in the city and as low as -20 in the suburbs. I was only 5 when the massice storm of 1999 hit, so I don't have a lot of recollection of that. But this blizzard? I think I might be able to tell my grandchildren about it (at my future $5 million mansion in Santa Monica, of course).
But why should I simply tell you what happened through words! Over the past day and a half, I have taken snapshots of over 150 photos from outside my home and on various local TV stations. Millions have their photos and video recollection of the storm, here are some of mine:
Here is the look of the storm from outside my home during Tuesday evening:
And now, here are three photos from the night of the storm, when it was reportedly at its worst:
And now, from the morning after...
I think I should explain the last two. The first one is a photo taken of my garage when my family and I went outside to shovel the snow for the first time (yes, it took this long! stop making fun of us!), with the accumulated snow covered literally half of the entrance. It ended up taking us three hours to finally shovel the snow clogging up the path of both of the cars in the garage. Let's just say that the amount of muscles that did feel sore was bigger than the ones that didn't. The last one was a photo taken of a car stranded in the middle of the road with its owner abandoning it. Just goes to show you how one simple snowstorm can effect normal every day activities like driving.
If you would like to see more photos that I took of this historic blizzard, please feel free to check out my Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59061847@N03/. I'm sure that there will be at least a few of them that will make you glad that you viewed (you even get to see a quick glimpse of myself holding a shovel!). Punxsutawney Phil today predicted an early spring during the annual Groundhog Day festivites. Let's just hope that he's as right as the meteorologists who predicted how bad this storm would be. And now, because January 2011 wrapped up not so long ago, here is this month's edition of "End of the Month" to conveniently wrap up this blizzard of a post (I should just stop writing now):
END OF THE MONTH:
Unification of the Month: Republicans and Democrats Sitting Together at 2011 State of the Union Address
And to think that it might not have happened without the help of a crazed lunatic and the national tragedy of which he caused!
Stories of the Month:
- The Most Disgusting: Man Defacates in Store, Steals Candy Before Leaving and Lashes Out at Children
Another example of how powerful your bowel movements can be.
- The Most Mafia Tastic: More Than 100 Americans Arrested in Largest FBI Raid Ever
So...they arrested all of the state senators in Albany?
-The Luckiest: Famous LOST Numbers Help Over 40,000 Win Lottery Money
Ironically, the news is about as head scratching as most of its plot.
- The Dumbest: Man Tattoos Word "Mini" on His Penis To Win Free Mini Cooper
The length that corporations go to get their name known is insane these days.
-The Most Scandalous: Silvio Berlusconi Arrested in Teenage Prostitution Case
It was a matter of time before one of his sex acts was deemed illegal.
-The Most Revolutionary: The Uprising in Tunisia
Out goes President Zine El Abidine Ben Alli, his 23 years in power and the RCD, in goes Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi. Knowing history, I'm sure that this isn't even close to being finished.
- The Most Life-Changing (At Least For Some People): The New Zodiac Horoscope
I'm a Cancer?!?! Great, now what will I do with my precious Leo tattoo on my FUPA?
-The Other Most Revolutionary: The Uprising/Protests in Egypt
Like the uprising in Tunisia, the Egyptian uprising also features a pro-democracy protest in which millions of people fight to eliminate a current President (in their case, Hosni Mubarak). However, unlike Tunisia, the protest is going on a larger and much more violent scale (thanks to the events that took place during the past few days) with its revolt continuing to this day.
-The Most Sheen-Tastic: Charlie Sheen Sent to Hospital After 36 Hour Drug-Filled Bender With Adult Film Stars
Can't wait until CBS responds to this by giving Sheen even more money!
-The Most Tragic: The Shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords and Dozens of Others
Most of you reading this already know the story by now. On a lovely Saturday afternoon in a Tucson grocery store, a man by the name of Jared Loughter fired shots that were mainly intended to Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords but ended up not only shooting Gifford in the head but also killing six innocent people. It was a tragic event, a moment that made many Americans question how this event could have possibly happened. However, the fact that Loughter is in bars and Gifford is recovering at a magnificent rate is a very nice bright side to the story.
Tattoo of the Month: Gucci Manes'
Because there is no better way of celebrating your release from an insane asylum then putting a picture of an ice cream with thunderbolts on your face!
Improvement of the Month: President Barack Obama's and Congress's Approval Ratings
Thanks to a number of factors that include the passing of the new tax cut laws, the repealing of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the State of the Union address, the President's speech during the Tragedy at Tucson Memorial and the fact that the 112th Congress is only in its first months, both the legislative branch and the executive branch of the United States have risen over the past few months. Can't say the same thing about Jay Cutler's approval ratings, though.
Controversy of the Month: Amy Chua's "Tiger Mom" Belief
On January 8th in an article for the Wall Street Journal, writer Amy Chua handed in a piece titled "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" citing how their strict parenting and borderline scary tactics is better than the typical Western style that many mothers end up sharing, like shockingly applauding an A-. Obviously, many people didn't like her argument, grew a hissy fit about it thus giving Chua her fifteen minutes of fame and life went on. Yes, readers in the year 2025, this actually was a controversy back then.
Videos of the Month:
- The Most Recreational: "Greatest Putt-Putt Shot of All-Time"
It's a goth ball!
- The Naughtiest: "Tracy Morgan Calls Sarah Palin 'Great Masturbation Material' on TNT"
TNT later apologize for that little clip. Its actually kind of funny, because that was really the only sentence that Morgan uttered during that entire interview. It was actually Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith who did the talking and were one of the causes for Morgan saying it. Oh, well.
- The Funniest: "Ricky Gervais Monologue at the 2011 Golden Globes"
It always feels good to see people set Hollywood's celebrities straight.
-The Best Parody: "Brett Favre- Rise: What Should I Do?"
He's deciding like a kid out there!
-The Most Epic: "Awesomest Action Movie Ever"
The movie with the action and stunts so insane...it actually IS sane.
-The Best Feel-Good/Tear Jerking Moment: "Elizabeth Hughes, 8 Yr. Old, National Anthem, Norfolk Admirals Game"
Is it wrong to say that the woman cackling in the background when the audio went out should be beaten up?
- The Much Needed: "The Marshawn Lych Touchdown, As I Saw It"
Anything that makes an already great touchdown run even more awesome is always welcome on this list.
-The Most Awesome: "The Man With the Golden Voice"
On a simple drive down an Ohio interstate, one Columbus Dispatch reporter met up with a homeless man who supposedly had the God given gift of a golden voice, and tried to see if that was correct or not. The homeless man, whether a plain brown jacket and hair that appears to not have been cut for months, proved his God given gift while mesmerizing the reporter in the process and then proceeded to give reasons why he became homeless in the first place. The reporter released the video to the World Wide Web, and thus the legend of Ted Williams, the first great Internet meme of 2011, was born.
The thing that has stood out to me about Williams is not how quickly he turned from homeless man to worldwide Internet sensation and, most importantly, employed, but just how he got to experience the journey of many famous Hollywood celebrities in just one month! First, he was a nobody, hell, worse than a nobody. Then, this video was released for viewers across the world to see, making him the big Internet star at the moment. He received countless job offers, praise of his voice from millions, took interviews from various radio shows and national TV broadcasts like "The Early Show" and "Today," was groomed, and even had that heartwarming reunion with his mother that probably made a few people cry. But then, just as things were going great, Williams's fortunes changed as he was arrested after engaging in a spat with his daughter and was then sent to rehab courtesy of Dr. Phil. Now, he's out of rehab, despite the fact that his own mother wants him to go back into rehab. Basically, he's living a VH1 "Behind the Music" documentary in one month! Crazy.
And this is the video that started it all...
People of the Month: Tunisian and Egyptian Protesters
Besides the fact that they dominated much of the top news stories around the world (especially Egypt in these past few days), they have also done something that nearly two previous generations of their country's citizens could never do: stage serious protests and uprisings that either immediately ended or will soon end the reign of their respective dictator Presidents that have been going on for at least twenty five years. Of course, with these protests and uprisings comes plenty of new questions that need to be answered overtime. Will Tunisia and Egypt eventually become sprawling democracies? How soon will Mubarak finally step down as president of Egypt? Will it eventually turn back into a dictatorship again? Time will answer those questions, but for now it it these people and their pro-democracy message that they also represent that has had a big spotlight this past month.
-Runners-up: Ted Williams, Ricky Gervais, Barack Obama, John Boehner
What a past two days it has been. Hell, what a month it has been! As always, thanks for taking the time out of your precious day to read this post. Now, if you will excuse, I'm going to spent the rest of this Thursday morning (a.k.a. day two of my unexpected free day thanks to the blizzard) resting. After a day in which I actually spent a combined four hours shoveling (three hours to get the snow out of my garage alone), I think that I somehow deserve it.
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or
tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment