Driving between the Michigan state line and the Illinois/Chicago line along the southern shore of Lake Michigan is where I learned the trick of putting on the car’s flashers while driving, because regular headlines and/or fog lights are not good enough to be seen by others in winter conditions there. And that’s with decades of driving experience in Wisconsin, Minnesota, New England, and Canada. Nothing prepares you adequately for the Snow Belt of Indiana.
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I’ve been caught in squalls off the lake on Indiana where the blinking lights of the vehicle immediately in front of me were not visible at 5 feet of vehicle separation. Never in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa or Michigan have I seen such complete white-out conditions.
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An extra laptop that can be brought to school for the day is not something we have lying around, unfortunately.
However, we DO have friends who live near my dad who were willing to do the favor of picking up the laptop and bringing it to us the following morning on their way to work. Best Friends Evar!
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Tonight is supposed to be coldest night of the year so far.
Wednesday is the day that the Powers That Be have decided to replace the electricity substation.
Generator and fuel - check
Battery banks charged
Solar panels off
Electric garage doors open
Rest of checklist to be dealt with before bed.
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Also the worst hail I’ve ever driven through has been in Merrillville. It was in May, if I remember correctly
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And…cold but dry with bright sunshine. Substation changeover was finished over an hour early due to unexpected good conditions. At one point we had 8 vans plus one crane truck for the new packaged substation.
Prepare and you don’t need it, fail to prepare and prepare to fail.
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Hey, @Wisconsin_Platt, this is my third day of shoveling in four days…you too? Guess that means we only have one more to go before the weekend, according to your weatherman.
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Somehow we dodged one of the higher total events for the week by only getting an inch, but we’ll make up for it on Friday with at least 7”.
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Yep. Third shovelable day and since tomorrow’s snow looks to come in late enough I won’t worry until Friday to shovel.
But the 9-12" on Friday means I’ll probably finally break out the snow thrower.
I already told my people that Friday was a Work from Home day, because I am not having ANY part of that commute.
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Was taking the trash out after the plow guy plowed the driveway. He came back up to salt and sand and I got to watch as the plow truck was still sliding and getting stuck.
Not as bad as the year my friend’s truck got stuck on the ice so we had to call a tow truck, which got stuck and called another tow truck… Ended up taking a train of three tow trucks hitched together to tow a pickup truck out of the driveway. 
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4th Shovelable Event Confirmed.
And it’s a doozy.
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1.5 hours shoveling so far, and it hasn’t stopped snowing so I assume this will not be the last Extreme Physical Exertion for the day.
Fist bump to my fellow Chicago-area shoveler!
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Hey, {non-slur insult}, today is going to be 60 degrees, and tomorrow is supposed to top out in the low 20s with freezing rain.
I can haz SPRING nao, plz? kthxbye.
OK, on re-reading this, {non-slur insult} looks sarcastic, but I don’t mean it that way. I’m trying to find insults that are not slurs against people I’m not trying to malign, but I haven’t really landed on anything yet, besides “asshole” and that didn’t seem to work here.
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I find that fecal comparisons are generally my go-to for non-slur insults.
ETA: and, no matter how much you beg and plead, spring will not show up a moment before 2018-03-20-16:15:00 UTC
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The neighbor and I share a drive (2/3 on my property, 1/3 on his) but the main driveway part we usually do the whole thing if either of us has the time.
I spent an hour clearing the top apron where the drive meets the road with a shovel (since it was 6AM and I’m not an ass, but Brother-in-law needed to get to work and Mr. Plow had left quite the berm)
Went in to get some work done, heard the neighbor out with his snow blower and he did the rest of the drive. Leaving me the courtyard in front of the garage.
Took a break after a conference call and finished off the courtyard piece of the drive. Snow blower kept giving me fits until I just left it running for a half-hour while I shoveled.
Definitely got my steps in today.
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( i am actually on the west coast, where it is unseasonably warm )
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It has not stopped snowing in something like 24 hours, having snowed all week already. The pile of snow on top of the garbage bins, in a protected area so not due to drifts or anything, was 2’ high when I left.
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Not for long, though. I hear there might be FROST tonight here in the PNW.
Brrrr…
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Oh look. I guess since my frequent shoveler card got 4 punches this week, they threw in one more at no extra charge.
Yea! Now where’s the ibuprofen?
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