My daughter Anne moved to Atlanta three and a half years ago while her husband attended chiropractic school.  (From which he will graduate with his doctorate this year!!)

The weather, in contrast to their native Michigan, is wonderful there.  Most of the time.  The last few days have been the exception.  We've had a lot of snow here in Ann Arbor this year.  But then again, a lot of snow is not all that uncommon for us.

Liz, who is in high school, has had 7 snow days already.  That is quite a few, even for here.

We scarcely have enough room to put the snow when we shovel because it just keeps coming.  But in Michigan  we know this can happen and we're prepared.  (Otherwise the state would be uninhabitable in the winter. :-)  After a bad snowstorm it's about 12 hours, often less, before the streets are just fine.  Even my own residential street is usually plowed within 24 hours.  And when a lot of snow is predicted our salt trucks are out sometimes before the snow even begins to fall.  They know what they are about.

Not so in Atlanta where my daughter Anne lives.  She left work Tuesday afternoon and just got home a few hours ago, some 36 hours after she had left.   There were some thousand accidents all over the freeways.  Nearly all the major streets were closed because of accidents.  The cars already out were gridlocked.  The salt trucks had not been out early and when the roads were bad they could not get down them because it was like a parking lot.  All snow and ice.  Even my daughter and son-in-law, very experienced snowy weather drivers, both got stuck on the ice.  My daughter had been on a hill and she had the momentum to make it up if someone in front of her had not stopped.  Then she could only spin her wheels.  A friend about a mile away came and picked her up and she spent the night with them.

As Anne ventured out today to make her way home she started to count the number of stranded cars on the highway.  She stopped when she got to two hundred.  Reports were that about a million cars were stranded in Atlanta.  In short, it was a disaster!!  A very dangerous situation for many, many people.

So...I've concluded that in bad winter weather it's much safer to live in Michigan.  Yes, we get a lot more bad weather.  But we are never in a situation where it can't be handled.  Yesterday as I drove my younger daughter Mary to the University of Michigan we saw a tiny plow clearing the walkway/bike path along Washtenaw Avenue, a major thoroughfare.  Nice, I thought.  This is why we can live here.

And God bless those road crews who are out there, day and night, in frigid temperatures clearing our way so we can travel safely.  May the Lord always keep them safe as they do the work that ensures that we are.

It's SO cold here!!  This morning it was 5 below zero.  Now, that's just too cold.  I like living in Michigan.  I enjoy the four seasons.  I even enjoy winter and I love snow.  The photo below was taken a few weeks ago.  We have quite a bit more snow now.

But sub zero temperatures are just hard to endure.  I have warm clothes.  We know how to dress and be comfortable here in the North.   But it gets to a point where the cold just penetrates whatever you're wearing.

Last night I took our dog for a walk, even though it was several degrees below zero.  She hadn't been out enough because of the weather.  I thought as long as I keep moving quickly and bundle up well, I'll be OK.  Well.  I have a knee length down coat.  But as soon as I shut the door behind me I could feel the cold starting to penetrate that coat.  It wasn't cutting yet.  But there was a coolness next to my skin that I never feel with that coat on.  From the knees down, the parts not covered by the coat, my legs immediately started to sting.  I had my collar pulled up over my nose which fogged my glasses.   Within minutes the cold had penetrated my best insulated mittens and my hands started to sting.

Needless to say we walked very quickly.  We did get in about a ten minute walk and the twilight was very, very beautiful and quiet.  (Who else in their right mind would be out in those temperatures. :-)

I do love Michigan but I"m longing for those balmy temperatures in the high twenties.  teehee

March for Life 2014

My daughter went to the March for Life this year on one of three buses from her high school.

What weather they had!  I believe it was 10 degrees with a wind chill of below zero.  While I have not seen an official count no doubt the number was in the hundreds of thousands.  THAT many people show up in THAT kind of weather and, as usual, there was very little media coverage.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, that CNN gave it some three minutes of a broadcast.  I'm hoping the link below will work.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/01/22/lead-tapper-march-for-life-abortion-rally.cnn.html

A lot of very positive, pro-life messages were given.  For CNN, it was not half bad!

Teresa Tomeo from Ave Maria Radio also made a very interesting point this morning on her show "Catholic Connection.  She said this is the first time she has heard the media use the term "March for Life," rather than "anti-abortion protest" or some such thing.  She felt the using of the real title was very significant and I agree.  Words matter.  Using the actual title allows the true meaning of the March to be conveyed and I was happy to hear it.

Perhaps, after 41years, the tide of public opinion is finally starting to swing.  Our Lady of Guadalupe, please pray for our country and for our unborn.