There comes a time in every ones life when they realize they are getting older and they are no longer invincible. To me this was never more evident then on Tuesday night of this week. The weather forecasters were calling for "Snowmeggeton" or up to 24" of snow in an 18 hour time frame. During the heaviest of the snwfall, I was, of course, at work. Costco finally closed at 7:30 and the employees went home at 9:30.Living in Arlington Heights, my commute is normally about 25 minutes from the Glenview Costco. On Tuesday night it took me 5 1/2 hours with me arriving home at 3:00 A.M. My ride home usually consists of me taking Willow Road West to the Milwaukee exit and taking that to Hintz Road and home, Willow Road is busier, and therefore usually plowed better. When I got close to the exit for Milwaukee, I stayed on Willow because the exit was not plowed, and I thought originally that this was a good thing. The next exit off of Willow Road is Wolf Road, which you can not see from Milwaukee because of a hill. Willow Road is a four lane divided road that normally has two lanes going in either direction. When I crested the hill, still some what of a distance from Wolf Road I started to see brake lights, not a good sign to say the least.
There were cars stopped all around in front of me and then, of course, there were cars behind me, and we were stuck. We figured that if we all turned around and went the wrong way on Willow we might just be able to get out of there. Getting people motivated wasn't the hard part, the hard part was getting the small cars with little to no ground clearance and those who had bald tires to turn around and get them out of there with the poor traction. We had to push cars, and vans back up the small incline which they had just come down, and of course, cars were getting stuck. With little regard to his health, Jessie got out of his vehicle and started pushing cars. This, of course, made me go join him. Eventually there were two other guys helping us, but, I think it was because one of them was still stuck and would be needing our help to push him out. I think I can say, without exaggeration, that we probably pushed 15 cars out that night. Personally, I don't think I would even have gotten out of my car if if it hadn't been for Jessie, heck who knows what time I would have gotten home that night? Now, two days later, having time to reflect on it,I realize what a true hero Jessie was that night!
The last picture attached was taken today. Nicole, my daughter Lily, Hailey and Ty were all playing this afternoon. Me, if I never saw that white stuff agin it may be to soon, but, the kids loved it! I don't think you can really appreciate snow, wind and cold until you look at your child or children playing! They enjoy it, which made me enjoy it...just a little. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and my story of the perils of driving home in the Blizzard of 2011. Please stop back and check on my progress as a photographer, and let me know your thoughts. I can be reached at mwnphotography@gmail.com. Thanks for viewing and I look forward to any and all comments. Michael W. Noonan
Posts
1 comment:
I love the shot of the 4 kids in the snow. That one says it all. I don't think you need the other snowstorm shots since this one tells it all so succinctly. My only advice on this one is again, try to use a shallower depth of field to draw our eye to the kids. This will also let the background be more out of focus and less distracting. Speaking of backgrounds, remember to watch your background so you can eliminate trees growing out of heads!
I commend you on initiating a blog. I may be asking you advice when I get to the blogging stage!
Post a Comment