Crappy Chicago Weather

For those of you who live out of state, the weather here is unbearable. It's really cold, adn we've had ice storms that make mot everything impossible to do. The driveway is covered in a 4 inch deep sheet of ice that I cannot break with my shovel no matter how hard I try.

I had to chisel ice off my car, literally, in great falling sheets that cut my hands and flooded my garage. I went to the store, and where the parking lots were salted, there was sludge and giant puddles that were ankle deep, and everyone was fighting to get their carts to their cars, because they were all getting stuck. It was really horrible.

There are many trees that are coated in ice and bent all the way to the ground, or with broken branches due to the weight of the ice. All day long I saw people with shovels trying to chisel their garbage cans out of the ice because they froze to the ground after the garbage men came, and probably 1 out of 4 mailboxes in our neighborhood are gone or damaged. It looks like snow, but I promise you, it's all ice.

Here are some pics of the outside of the house to give you an idea.

My poor, frozen mums. I don't suppose they will be coming back.

These bushes are completely buried in ice.

These ones are getting there.

Here is a good shot of how thickly the branches are covered in ice.

A bush-cicle.

This tree in completely encased in ice. It's hard to see, but it's true.

This bush normally stands a foot or two taller. You can see that every single leaf and branch is covered in a thick coat of ice, and is weighing it down.

The poor bush. That branch on the ground snapped off when I walked by. Oops.

These are the millions of icicles hanging off the pergola in the backyard. These are everywhere, and at the grocery store cart return, they were horizontal from the wind blowing so hard. It was crazy.

This is my car, completely encased in ice. The hole in the ice over the windshield is because defog and heater were running for about 1/2 an hour BEFORE I took this picture.

More ice sheeting and icicles.

This took 45 minutes to get off my car. I couldn't even open the doors until after I had chiseled the ice off the handles, and the tracks the doors open along.

My windshield wipers took forever to get out of that! They were completely buried!