2,100 Miles of Hyperbole

I came across an online slideshow today called "A New American Tradition: Snowstorm Hyperbole." My own favorite cited headline is the "Storm for 2100 Miles." Still, it was hard not to be a little hyperbolic about the recent blizzard.

Look at it -- as geosynchronous satellite did two days ago. How blasé do you have to be to be unimpressed by such a kick-ass storm?

Of course, it wasn't enough to receive nearly two feet of snow at a single blast. Afterwards, the temps slid into the cellar. When I got up this morning, various sources put the outside temperature at -8 F. or so (zero at O'Hare, where the record-keeping is done). By afternoon, we'd gained about 20 degrees, which is cold enough by my reckoning.

School was canceled again today, partly due to the chill, but also (I think) because it was only supposed to be a half-day anyway, with parent-teacher meetings slated for the other half. They too have been canceled.

Such is February in these parts. Whatever hyperbole spawned by the storm is now part of the event. The snow has been (mostly) pushed out of the way, and that's that, until the air warms up a little and all these water ice crystals continue on their way to the Mississippi River. Hope that process is nice and slow.