Adventures in Cleveland

A few months ago I moved to Cleveland to live with my boyfriend. Having been dating him for three years I was well aware that snow was common in this area. I have been trapped in his house on many a visit by the snow. At the time I was rather thrilled to have snow to play in, and snow angels to make.

This is my house on an average December day

In Indiana snow comes and it goes. There is enough that you need to get the shovel out and go for your driveway, but a little bit of salt covers all the roads and keeps them safe. We have only had a few white Christmas's in recent years. I would say that normally we get one good blizzard, that is only about a third of a foot.

Two days ago I got to experience my first white out. Which was a little bit like having a panic attack while being trapped in a moving box surrounded by a sheet, no that is exactly what it was like. I was not driving at the time but I was freaking out totally. The worst part of it was that the snow appeared to be centered around this house. I checked and I now literally live in the area that receives the most snow out of all of Cleveland. There is a giant white cloud that hovers over us and poops endless amounts of snow on top of us. I am not kidding, google it. Chesterland Ohio has a snow vortex. It gets worse because they use well water around here there is no I repeat no use of salt on the roads. Factor that into your head. Tonight I saw at least eight people using snowmobiles as a legitimate mode of transportation and not something to do that was fun.

This is my boyfriend's house on an average December day. Ten points if you spot the driveway.

I have been watching the weather and its pretty much going to be snowing on and off for the rest of the week.  I had to break out the car with snow tires the other day because it was coming down that hard while i was driving. But I was starting to get used to the level of snow we had. I have to wear boots all the time, but I like my boots so there is nothing really wrong with that. This morning my boyfriend asked if I would come downtown with him so we could go out to dinner. At the time the snow as around the house but not anywhere else in the city. This is pretty common that we get about six miles away from the house and it is suddenly clear.

That was not the case today. According to the local news the city hasn't been hit this bad in a decade. About twenty minutes into the drive the traffic began to slow. We weren't worried it was an hour and a half before class was even going to start. It took us about twenty minutes or so to get passed a car that had spun out and hit the wall. There was some snow so we realized that all the cars were slowing down.

And then about half a mile from the exit all traffic stopped. The snow came down in total white out. We sat for two hours within normal viewing distance of where we needed to be. It was all kinds of fun. Not to mention the boyfriend missed his class and only walked in right before the teacher told everyone to leave. The local news people didn't make it to the station on time. Several of the basketball players showed up late to the NBA game tonight because they were stuck in traffic. Professors said they were just going to spend the night downtown rather than risk it. Cleveland State campus was officially closed but they couldn't leave because the parking lot was gridlocked. The student center was packed with kids unable to leave.

This is a new level of horror involved with snow, the likes of which I had never seen before. As the song so clearly states, "There's nothing wrong with Ohio, except the snow and the rain." That pretty much sums it up.

I end today with a selection of photos that the local news put up of what Cleveland looked like.

This is what I looked at the entire time.

I was at this street. It looked like this for about two hours. I think I saw this car...