I drove to St. Charles, IL, today for my monthly lunch with my sports car pal Larry. It's always a good time: gearhead talk over expensive pasta in a downtown restaurant with curbside views and a "traditional" ambience. Al fresco, if we like, from May through September. The ambient temperature was 48 degrees on the drive home today. I drove the Fox River Valley with the sunroof open, enjoying the views.
Chicago has a reputation for brutal winters. It is mostly well-deserved on the Loop, where you're close to Lake Michigan and the wind howls between skyscrapers. The clockwise flow of most weather systems dumps lake-effect snow from Milwaukee around the shoreline to South Bend, Indiana. But today was delightful. Minneapolis and Cleveland, the two other major metro areas I know best, have already seen crummy weather. Earlier this week, the Twin Cities got twelve inches of snow with temperatures in the teens and bone-chilling wind.
Probably, in January and February, my monthly lunch with Larry will be with a drive through sloppy or icy sub-zero weather. By March, the weather gets tolerable. By April, it's reasonably nice. Ten months out of twelve ain't bad. Last winter, I didn't have my snowblower out at all. Granted, I have one, and sometimes need it. But on days like today, I'll take Chicagoland for winter in the upper Midwest.
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