295/365 Just another dusting

Chicago got ten inches of snow over the last couple of days.

And we got this: a dusting.

Sigh.

Shortchanged on the snow total yet again.

The last crippling snowfall we had was on New Year's Day 1999. Why do I remember this so clearly? Because Mom and I had the misfortune of trying to fly into Indianapolis the following day, and the airport was closed for the first time since the blizzard of '78.

We were in Orlando, Florida that week in 1998 while I performed in the Citrus Bowl halftime show. I distinctly remember watching the Weather Channel as the storm began forming over the northwest United States and slowly moved toward Indiana.

The storm hit on New Year's Day, the day of the Citrus Bowl, and when we arrived at the airport to fly home on January 2, we immediately had to begin securing an alternate flight home.

The three other people who were with us were able to fly stand-by on a flight the next day. Unfortunately, Mom and I had flown on frequent-flier tickets, so in the eyes of the airline, we were the lowest priority on the rebooking list.

It took us three days of attempting to get on four flights per day to get home. We learned a lot from that experience, not least of which is: we will never fly on Delta Airlines as a frequent flier ever again.

When I wish for snow, I don't necessarily want those crippling inches. But would a good six inches be so bad?

Camera: Canon 40D, 1/50s, f/4 at ISO 1600, lit by an incandescent flood light at about 5:30 p.m.