As you may know if you’re in the Midwest, on Twitter, or politely ignoring Midwestern Facebook friends filling your friends page with their weather-inflicted suffering, this weekend we got a blizzard with snow so deep it made the roof of our stadium collapse.
This is my route between the front door and the trash bins. Note the footprints where a neighbor much taller than me took four steps out into the snow, went “Nuh-uh,” and turned back.
Every sidewalk looked like that on Saturday. Now, many of them have had snow blowers taken to them, so the snow is cut away in long swaths, leaving tall mounds of snow on either side. On my walk to work this morning, my path alternated between walking in trenches between piles of snow up to my shoulders and clambering across unplowed patches that called to mind the Fellowship of the Ring climbing the snowy slopes of Caradhras. (When I arrived late, one of the consultants suggested I get myself a Legolas to carry me over the snow to work. Maybe I’ll put up an ad on Craigslist.)
As an added bonus, the weather decided to hit us with -10 degrees F temperatures and a -22F windchill this morning as I stepped out the door. Fortunately for me, this is the first year I’ve had a good collection of hand-knit winter accessories, so I was swaddled in wool for the trek.
Hand knits I was wearing on the way out the door this morning:
- A Garter Yoke Cardi, just finished this weekend, in a wool-alpaca blend
- A pair of Fetching fingerless mitts in a wool-cashmere blend
- Fetching-inspired mittens in wool
- A modified Clapotis scarf in wool
- An alpaca cowl I made up on the fly
- A floppy stranded hat knit from my own bulky handspun, which is basically like wearing a big wool astronaut helmet
- The only pair of wool socks I own
And I was still cold. I think I need to knit myself some legwarmers. And a nosewarmer. And maybe a big woolly hamster ball to roll around in, because there were some spots on the walk to work where the snow was thigh-high, and I’m not sure elves taking out ads for services on Craigslist should be trusted.
