Chicago Winter and Ice Cream

Men-tingnin: cold. Men-te-leledek: very cold.

These Kankana-ey adjectives are not enough to describe the current Arctic weather enveloping the Midwest.

Dreaming of Australia. It's summer in Australia, and I am just salivating at the prospect of watching top notch tennis in the 1st grand slam of the year - the Australian Open in Melbourne. Here in the metro Chicago area, we're in the middle of a 3-day cold spell; and this year's winter is supposed to be the coldest winter in the past 8 years.

After days of snow, the sun came out today and its really bright outside. But its a joke, the sun is but a flashlight - no heat, no warmth, just cold, frigging Chicago cold. At least the wind has died down and the accumulated 12+ inches of snow is not being blown against the windshield while driving.

Still, where is global warming when its needed?

Ice Cream, Anyone? What we've learned the past 3 years is that - life continues despite the cold weather. We had 12+ inches of snow in the past 3 days - it didn't stop the activities. I still was able to drive to work, my eldest's school classes went on, and we all had to troop to the boys AWANA classes on Tuesday evening. Nothing got cancelled. When we got out around 8:30 pm, whatever water droplets there were inside the car accumulated in the windows as a very thin film of ice which the boys had mighty fun drawing pictures on.

Last Saturday, there were strong winds and regular snowfall and the roads were not cleared at all. We planned to attend some cultural activities in the library. When I called the library to check if the activities were going to be cancelled, I was informed that the performers and the audience were all there and things were going as planned. So, our whole family bundled up and made the short but slippery ride to the library. And we're mighty glad we did! The Israeli music and North American Indian presentations were a treat to the kids and us too, and we got to taste some pastries from all over the world. The driving was scary but once we were inside the building, the place was buzzing with activity and the people acted as if nothing was happening outside. For us, relatively newbies in this place, I'm still amazed how the people treat such extreme weather condition as "normal". When we headed back home after 4 hours at the library, it took me 15 minutes to clean around 3 inches of snow from our car and to warm the car.

By the way, guess what was they served during my second child's "Night with Dad" class 2 evenings ago? ICE CREAM!

When 28F becomes Warm. We're so looking forward to this weekend when the temperature will go "up" to 28F (-2C), just below freezing. Compared to these past days, we'll be feeling so warm we'll be going out with just long sleeves and thin jackets. This friday evening, we're going swimming. I guess the idea is not to mind the cold, and continue with the normal routine as much as we can. In the bigger picture, we are still very blessed. Can you imagine living in Canada where there are places where winter lasts for 8 months or so?