What, are you stupid? It means it's damn cold out! And that's not good! Yeah, yeah, try to placate me with the whole 'you live in the Midwest, it's what the weather does, suck it up and consider it a badge of pride that you survive such conditions' but I will NOT like it. We are a people who have words like 'Lake Effect' and 'Snowstorm' and 'Windchill' as daily facts of life between November and April. But 'wind chill'? ::shiver::

The radio informed me, in soothing dulcet tones, that today's temperatures would have a high of 2 (that's F, not C, people), and a low of -11. However, the wind chill would be -25, triggering a 'wind chill advisory' to be tacked on.

Um, any wind chill factor is cause for advisory-ing. Wind chill is not good; it is not something that people hope to hear about. In fact, we avoid it at all costs. The meteorologists got together last winter and redefined 'wind chill' and the method to calculate it. If you ask me, nothing's changed. Instead of being -15, it's -10. Woah. Now I can go outside to play with that extra 5 degrees of warmth! Who needs a scarf when it's only 10 below?! Gah. I still have to walk to and from the el to get my job, and it's too cold to enjoy. Or breathe. Or think. Oh well...at least the el is warm.

~~~~~

A public note to Mr. Frank Kruesi, President of the CTA:

If we are known for our cold weather, and you pride yourself on providing the city with a viable alternative to personal transportation, don't you think that it would behoove you to run MORE trains that are weatherproofed instead of the FEWER which don't function in the cold?

Freezing at the Addison stop for 15 minutes at 7a doesn't make me want to support you, Daley, or the CTA very much.

Sincerely, mm

~~~~~

Yeah, the 7a train was 15 minutes late, and when it approached I could see it wasn't going to be pretty. All the people who usually had 2 or 3 trains to board in that time were squished onto one train. It was like the 5:30p crowd, but at 7:15a I am not capable nor willing to deal with them. It's the amount of people, frankly, and their halitosis issues. More specifically--they don't seem to notice that they could kill a man at 50 paces by simply opening their mouths. And in this season of cold and drippy noses, people turn into mouth-breathers...with devestating results. ::shudder::

It's enough to make me all puffy and prickly and *not* give the little old lady the lone seat because I just can't deal with another mouth-breather at this hour.