[Magdalen] ATTN The Scotts !!!

[Juli Tarsney]

Rum and Tab - really?

On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 9:27 AM Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>