This is how I feel.
Just like this.
Is there anyone you can sympathize with, more than our Good Ol' Charlie Brown?
I live in the Northern part of Illinois, 60 minutes directly west of Chicago, almost in the center of the Northern Illinois region. As the crops are coming up in the spring and the fields are a patchwork of color, it is stunningly beautiful. A little red tractor chugs on the horizon, a fat robin hops on the front lawn; I have lilacs. It's really a lovely place to be.
Why anyone would live here if they didn't have to, is beyond me.
I checked the Accuweather forecast for the predictions for the upcoming winter. I wanted to throw my laptop across the room.
If you are squeamish, I must warn you, the following picture might put you over the edge, like it did me.
My area says "worst".
Worst.
I cannot believe it could be worse than last year???
AccuWeather.com Long-Range Meteorologist Josh Nagelberg even went so far as to say, "People in Chicago are going to want to move after this winter."
WHAT???!!
Why would you say that??? How can we go on if the weather man doesn't like it here?
People talk of the snow like it's beautiful. Makes everything clean, they say. Quiets it all down.
Bull.
This is a more accurate photo of a snowfall.
Dirty. Wet. Painful.
Brutal.
I was raised in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. I learned to drive in it, spent my childhood in it.
My husband and I moved to Louisville, KY and then Memphis, TN and I promised myself I would never ever ever live in that weather again. I would watch the Weather Channel and see the storms hitting Chicago and think "why do they live there??" I remember one particular day, it was 12* in Chicago and 57* in Memphis while I planted sugar snap peas in February.
I cannot stop the snow or the cold. I cannot change the winter or my current address.
I can work on my attitude. (and my driving skills...)
I will start working on my attitude tomorrow.
I hated winter in Illinois too, but I love it up here at the top of Michigan---TONS of snow, but none of that WIND crap you have down there. We can be out daily here-skiing, snowmobiling,sledding. It's a more "user-friendly" winter up here, despite the 150" of snow.
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with you-I would NEVER go back. It's why I ALWAYS refer to it as HELL-inois.
I think I'd better start working on my attitude, too:) We haven't even had any snow, but the cold wind and rain a few days ago reminded me how much I hate winter at times. I'm on the southern end of that "worst winter" region and not looking forward to it at all. I've thought about pulling up the covers and hibernating all winter:)
ReplyDeleteHello "Worst of Winter" from "Stormy & Cold". Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteHi Sissy, I have been hearing the same dire forecasts for the worst winter ever. The only thing is that the forecast is hard to take seriously, when we have had unusually mild weather for all of November. Could the weatherman be wrong? Here's hoping!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in southern Michigan, where the snow was user-friendly too. You could actually go out and play in it, and not end up with frostbite. I've never gotten used to winter here in northern Illinois, with the deadly winds off the prairie, and the below-zero temps!
ReplyDeleteI've just stumbled across your blog and love it! I'm a 'newbie' blogger in England. Today the weather was just above freezing over here but everyone was muttering darkly about snow before Christmas. I suspect that we don't know what real weather is!!!!
ReplyDeleteAll the best, J
Oh, I sympathise with you as you must dread it so much. As Jan says is her comment I think over here we don't know these extremes of weather as you do. It is very cold here today and one of the local roads out to the Peak district has been closed due to snow but that is nothing compared to what you may experience in your 'worst winter'.
ReplyDeleteUgh! I am under the WORST also. Mark may have to work down south in Houston and Baton Rouge. Poor baby! Whose gonna shovel my long driveway????
ReplyDeleteWe can commiserate anytime you want. I'll be snow-bound at home like you!
We lived in NC years ago and the winters were mostly rainy (hence the gorgeous greens of spring), but the icy slush one December drove my husband crazy when he had to change a tire in it. We moved to Florida the next spring, right after a short vacation in Florida. He says he was ruined for NC because when we left NC it was 17 degrees and Tampa was 72!
ReplyDeleteOh I agree...Ohio is in that worst area too! We have gone through 2 of the worst winters I can remember. P.l.e.a.s.e. not another one:( I can't take it!!
ReplyDeleteJust saw this post Sissy. Worst than last year? Yikes! I don't mind the snow, hate the cold. Hope they are wrong. AND WHY DID YOU LEAVE TN?
ReplyDelete