[Magdalen] ATTN The Scotts !!!

[Scott Knitter]

Hi from Chiberia! Here cometh the Polar Vortex. <ominous chord>

I did trudge the two blocks to our nearest supermarket last night to get
some potentially essential provisions: a frozen pizza, mac & cheese,
pancake syrup, sliced gouda, and high-fiber cereal. And a freshly made
Bosnian cheese-filled pastry thing (like a spinach pie only without the
spinach, I guess). Obviously I did not run my shopping list past a
nutritionist. But I feel prepared not to leave the house until at least
Thursday. Cats have enough food, wet and dry.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the historic record-low wind chill day. The lowest
I can remember experiencing is -56 while a student at Michigan State U in
East Lansing. There was something so essential I had to brave the wind to
walk a block to the Mini-Mart convenience shop. Can't remember what;
perhaps generic chicken franks? Rum? Cans of Tab? Anyway, that level of
wind chill defies all thicknesses of sweaters and multiple shirts and
undershirts. Not to mention the exposed bits of my face. But I did have to
expose my eyes to see where I was going, at least periodically.

Won't be venturing out in that tomorrow. I pray for any who have no option:
no place to go, or heaven forbid a fire or something that requires
evacuation. But the city is doing a great deal to make warm places
available: every police station, 66 field houses in city parks, off-duty
CTA buses, libraries, our neighborhood's wonderful indoor park/gym (The
Broadway Armory), and I'm sure more will open up as needs arise. Some of
the kinder bus drivers are amenable in such weather to bend the rules a bit
and pick people up who wave them down, even if they're not strictly
standing at an officially marked bus stop. Actually, I hope they all do
this. (Normally, even in torrential rain, a driver will point to the stop a
block ahead and make the person run to it if they want to board, or wait
for the next bus...a few do have more mercy than that, but some draw the
line sharply either because they're a-holes or because of safety concerns
with nonstandard boarding points.)

Anyway, lots of school closures (the Chicago Public Schools are waiting
until tomorrow to close...I'm sure they'll get angry responses from parents
about being open today). Current conditions: 1 degree Fahrenheit; wind
chill is minus 16F (what it feels like in the wind).

Thank you, Mike, for thinking of us Scotts here in
soon-to-be-historically-cold Chicagoland!

On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 7:09 AM M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

> >>>It's 3:30 am here, so you might already be in the thick of what's being
> predicted for Chicago "tomorrow".  -51 degrees !!!<<<
>
> I must have misheard.  But still, damn cold!
>
> M J (Mike) Logsdon.
>


-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA