Well, we are almost dug out--at least in the parking area on my block.  They still have a lot of work to do in front.  How much did we get?  Estimates range from 16 to 20+ inches.  Our mailboxes looked like someone gave them mohawk haircuts.  This is part of our patio.  The fence is behind the snow sculpture the wind created.  We had blizzard and white out for some of Tuesday.  At that time, according to the weather people, the snow fell at 2+ inches per hour.  For nearly an hour we couldn't see the houses across the street.
Here is another view of the patio--on the opposite side.  That is our garbage tote which had been blown clear of any snow when we went to bed about 9:30 Tuesday night.  The patio between the tote and our little mountain was also windswept clear at that time.  As you can see we had about 16 inches when I took this picture next morning.  And the snow was still falling.
About 2 PM yesterday afternoon one of our landlords called and asked if we could try to move our cars because he had trucks with snow blades and a front loader trying to clear the parking areas.  We waded through a drift that extended from our gate to the cars (more than 15 ft.) that reached mid-thigh height all the way.  We did get Mom's car our but had to leave mine.  We had to cut through a drift behind the car was close to 30 inches and extended from the bumpers to the path about 4 ft away where a path had been cleared through the middle of the street.  By the time we quit the shovel crews and the plows were almost at our place.  They did a wonderful job clearing around my car.  I usually like the seasonal changes, but this year---I am so ready for winter to be over.  We had already exceeded our yearly average snowfall in mid December.  If we don't set a new record I will be mightily surprised.  And we didn't get the most snow out of this.  That went over into LaPorte County and into southwest Michigan.  We are both definitely too old for this nonsense.

Now, we are expecting temperatures to break freezing, with several days in excess of 40 degrees and perhaps a couple of 50+ days, for the next week.  One of the news anchors  last night used the f-word--'flooding'--hoping it won't materialize.

On the 'I can't believe these people can be so crass, greedy, and just plain asinine' category is this story I caught on MSNBC as I was going for my e-mail.  First one jackass dressed as Santa Claus murders a mother and her son while murdering the woman's sister (his ex-wife) and several other friends and family.  Then the jackass landlords dun her ex-husband for more than $2000 in rent because the victim didn't give them adequate notice that she would be murdered and therefore 'broke' her lease.  I have many words to describe this kind of greedy, grasping, inhuman insensitivity.  However, since I could probably teach Rahm Immanuel something about creative profanity, I will refrain.

I am going to go and play now.  See ya all later.