The Blizzard of 2011

We had a Blizzard the other day. Watching the intense snowing and blowing was pretty amazing and I can officially say I'd never seen anything like it before.

The newspapers reported the main streets would stay cleared for emergency vehicles, but all other streets would be left alone until the snow stopped.

Snow started coming down hard and fast around 10:45 am on Tuesday 2/1/11. The news reported the county plows were pulled off the roads around 5:30 pm, and a couple of the main streets in town intended to stay cleared were abandoned. Couldn't keep up.

I live on the corner of Main Street, and those plows went up and down about every 15 minutes all night.

Daylight came on Wednesday and the snowing stopped around 9am. The heavy winds continued until the early afternoon.

I carved a walking path out my front door and the reality hit me hard when I got to the driveway.

The driveway was mostly covered in 2-3 feet of drifted snow. I had an approximately 10-12 foot section of driveway that was spared with only a few inches of snow, and for that I was thankful. I'd never been so overwhelmed by the shoveling, and it was clear we were not getting out until I shoveled the WHOLE THING.

I felt like giving up. I went inside. I called my mom. I heard myself whine about being unsure how I'd do this, maybe I'd have to hire somebody, maybe somebody would come help me, etc.

I got off the phone and realized I'd sounded like I'd quit before I even started. I decided if I had the mindset of being overwhelmed and wait for the cavalry to show up, I'd never get done. I adjusted my attitude and came up with a shoveling plan.


BABY STEPS
I couldn't open my back porch door more than 6 inches due to drifting, so carving a path to the garage was a high priority. I was thinking we needed that door open in case of a fire. Sound dramatic? Yes...but it was that very thought that got my butt outside to work.




















I was feeling good after the back door was cleared. My next Baby Step was to be able to back the car out of the garage.

The top end of my driveway consisted of big individual drifts. I knew I could clear out drifts 1 by 1 and make progress. That felt more do-able in the moment than tackling the mass 2-3 feet at the bottom of the drive.

To make a long story short, I did it...the whole thing!

It took me all day. Shovel, take a break, shovel, take a break.

Ava was outside playing for a good portion of the time. She'd never seen mountains of snow like that.

She was very understanding when I explained that I couldn't play in the snow with her.






It was about 5 hours of shoveling over the course of 8 hours.

I'm not sure how much snow we ended up with. Some say 16 inches, some say up to 20 inches. It doesn't matter.

It's now 2 days after the shoveling. My fingers and hands are still swollen, but my muscles are starting to loosen up and feel normal again.

After this, any typical Illinois snowfall will be no big deal.