Blizzard Warning! That's enough to get a woman away from her desk. My Girl Scout training is in full swing: "Be prepared." Must find firewood, get the sleeping bags out of storage, get Ken to shop for a camping one- or two-burner stove, and find matches, flashlights, candles, blankets, and food. We once lost our power after a horrible snow storm on April 1, 1997--it was gone for four days and, since the weather was extremely cold, I was freezing all the time. Now it's January and record-low temperatures to boot. How will we fare this time? Of course, I pray we don't lose the power, but we tend to whenever there's a bad windstorm because of Elm Street. Yes, dear old Elm Street is a nightmare for the power company because trees hug the road and drop on powerlines whenever they feel like it. Yet I have to remember, during the Blizzard of '78, which I will never ever forget, my roommates and I did not lose power. So maybe there's hope!

To the anonymous commenter who asked if the Children's Blizzard of 1888 was during the blizzard winter that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in The Long Winter, I now have the answer and will post late this afternoon sometime. Stay tuned!