I should have bet the over: Yesterday's snow a new Chicago record

We got 12.6 inches of snow officially yesterday at O'Hare Airport, just a few miles from where I live (where we got at least that much). That's a new February one-day snowfall record in Chicago.

In Baltimore, given what's been going on there of late, they'd consider 12.6 inches a reprieve. Or, at worst, a minor inconvenience.

The storm that brushed Chicago (we got lake effect snow, meaning that winds from the back end of the storm came down Lake Michigan to give us our accumulation) has headed off toward Baltimore and Philadelphia and Washington today. These areas may get twice as much as we did. When it reaches the Eastern Seaboard, the cloud structure of the storm, according to one radio report I heard, will resemble a hurricane as much as anything else.

Still, it's an ill-wind that blows no good: Congress can't meet with all the snow coming down and it will be going straight into a Presidents' Day recess. That's a couple more days that they can do no mischief, at least.

I was a smart-aleck yesterday, doubting our weather prognosticators who'd been promising 8 to 12 inches of the white stuff. I said the over-under in Vegas was only three inches -- and that I was taking the under. I was reminded of this every time I shoveled yesterday.

Every. Single. Stinking. Time.

Long Suffering Spouse was really hoping for a snow day today. But her school did not close. Even with the earthquake this morning. Yes, we allegedly had a magnitude 3.8 earthquake at about 4:00am. You can't prove it by me.

The opening of Youngest Son's school was delayed for two hours this morning. (I just called to wake him up.) But that was the only compromise that we made with our normal routines, despite Mother Nature's record-setting efforts.

There's one pile of snow adjacent to our driveway that's about four feet tall. That's going to last awhile... even if we don't get the next snowstorm that may or may not be heading this way this weekend (opinion is divided).