Sing the praises of your fruit

Well I survived the great blizzard. It really was extraordinary. I have never seen snow falling so hard, nor have I ever before witnessed thundersnow (with lightning!). Lightning and snow really make a disconcerting combination.

We had an unprecedented two days off from school because after the storm almost all roads were impassable.

Here's the back door to my apartment building (leading to the gangway of the manhole):

Here's my car:

Actually in this picture my car is in pretty good shape. Today I went out to see if I could dig it out and the jack-knobs on either side of my car had dug their cars out and thought it was okay to pile all of their snow behind by car, so now I have a 5 foot pile of packed snow behind my car.

But I realize that my problems pale in comparison to the people who were stranded for 12 hours on Lake Shore Drive, one of the busiest streets in the city. (I did not take this picture.)

These people were trying to get home from work when the storm hit. But every weather report said to avoid Lake Shore Drive because there might be 30 foot waves, so these people are 1) dumb forgetting stuck, and 2) lucky they are not dead.

The two days off of school were nice, and last night I had a great and rare Wednesday night out with friends. However, the snow days have created chaos for musical auditions, so that will be a headache to work through.

Anyway, the storm was crazy and a bit exciting, and now we're all cleaning up.

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Elsewhere . . . R.E.M.'s new single has a strange title--"Mine Smell Like Honey"--and a strange video. But the song is great.

So tomorrow is Friday, and then the weekend, after we just had two days off! This weekend will be a great one, with The Decemberists tomorrow and a pre-birthday karaoke extravaganza on Saturday.