Is it hot in here?

I think it's been in the 90s for probably the last week. And today we breached 100. It may have rained once or twice in the last 3 weeks, but I haven't personally noticed.

Last weekend's storms, which I wouldn't know existed if I hadn't read about them, remind me that it was a year ago my power was out for four days. I try not to dwell on this, but I don't know how I'd have made it through those 4 days except that places a mile or two away did have power, so I could go to the library, or the McDonald's, or whatever. Even if I had the 6 month food supply like the doomsday preppers, which I don't, although I've thought about it for a lot longer than there's been a show called doomsday preppers, I don't know how I'd make it through a real disaster. I wouldn't be able to cook anything. And if it was a real disaster, I'd die of dehydration before it mattered anyway. Where's the water going to come from if the pumping stations run out of gas for their generators? If I ever buy a house with a well again, first thing I'll have to find out is if there's some way to get to the water when the electric pump stops working.

Somehow humanity made it through thousands of years without electricity. Hmm. What would Ben Franklin do.

There's No Business Like Snow Business

There's much chatter going on about the blizzard -- except for the people who delight in griping that it's just snow, it's Chicago, get over it.  But while you should be used to snow in Chicago, a ton -- like you hear about in Boston or Buffalo or maybe Minneapolis -- is pretty rare.  And thanks to our hard-working government employees, we can see that as far back as records have been kept (125 years), only 6 times have we seen snowfalls of at least 15":  Chicago Snow History

And, apparently, a "blizzard" means that there are 35+ mph winds accompanying snow that reduces visibility to a quarter mile or less for at least 3 hours.  How about that.