beautiful winter storm over the lake today — the lake has been in that wintery phase where it wasn’t frozen over solid, but near the shoreline it is entirely skinned over with chunks of snow-covered ice, making for a white blanket that undulates with every wave. when the storm arrived today it brought huge, grey-green breakers that smashed on the shore and shot spray up 20 feet in the air. officials closed the lake front path to keep those crazy-hearty runners from being gobbled up. by the end of the day, the lake had deposited all of the icebergs in huge piles on the shore, 10 feet high mounds of ice chunks, with waves breaking over them, each waving adding a thin layer to the ice pile. (unfortunately i had to admire all of this while driving, so no pictures.)

Dear Winter: Please stop making all the vegetables in Chicago taste like styrofoam. It’s only further reinforcing my desire to stay indoors and eat cookies. Okay thanks.

Walking home from the bar tonight I finally got a taste of that winter solitude, the one thing I can wax poetic about when it comes to chicago winters. At night, after a fresh snowfall, walking down neighborhood streets, it’s the one time that chicago can get really quiet. The snow deadens all the usual city noise pollution and isolates each block into its own soft white world. The little architectural details of older buildings are highlighted in the snow, each iron curl and stone ledge, peaked eaves and decorative railings, the occasional gargoyle — all the details that they don’t put into buildings anymore — and the only sounds are the squeak of snow underfoot and our misty puffs of breath.