I see a theme here…

I’ve been on the road for a couple of weeks, meeting with R&D teams at Open Text Ottawa and Chicago.  While in Chicago last week, a storm rolled through and dumped a load of snow on the city.  I must admit that I’m surprised at just how much Chicago freaked out over the storm.  It was a big storm, yes, but then again it’s not like they don’t get this sort of thing all the time.  On Wednesday of last week, the office was closed, the Mexican restaurant we tried to go to for lunch was closed, and when I tried to go shopping in the evening to get a birthday gift for my lovely wife, the mall was closed.  The city literally shut down over a foot of snow.  Odd.

When I got home, I found that there was even more snow at home in Milton.  Jodie and my neighbour Steve valiantly battled the accumulation on the driveway and several passes from the plow dumping ice at the end of the driveway.  It was deep, and still is much deeper than I’ve seen in years.  Over the weekend, the temperature rose to above freezing and turned most of what was left on the roads to slush.  By Sunday night though, the temperature had dropped to -30 (with the wind-chill) which has converted that slush into rock-solid ice.  It is dang cold!

And finally on the topic of cold, I started to get that telltale tingle in my sinuses in the middle of last week that signals to me a pending cold.  By Friday, I was coughing on everyone and by Sunday I was in bed with a fever and feeling completely run-down.  To the delight of my coworkers I’m sure, I decided to come in to the office today (Monday) because I have just too many things that I need to get done.  Maybe I’ll put up a quarantine barrier over my office door.