pant... pant... pant... (gulp)... damn that snow is heavy... just shoveled the sidewalk to the front door... the snow is heavy and wet (it's 34° outside) - your typical "heart attack snow". So far, none reported on the news, but a guy in LaGrange lost two fingers in a "snowblower incident". Ew.

So I get up this morning and was watching the local news to see how bad things are outside. Then I decide to see what else is on - I flip over to BBC America, and... nothing. Black Screen. Hmmmm... I flip over to ESPN. Nothing. What the.... I have local stations and NOTHING ELSE. I have now experienced what is probably the single downfall of DirecTV - SNOW. The local channels are spot beamed down to the Chicago area and are at a high signal strength. It's getting through the snow on the dish (Normally I get 100% signal strength on these channels - I'm getting 78%), The signal strength on the other channels is ZERO. No lock on the satellite. I look out the family room window and see my dish covered in snow. Crap. I get dressed, grabbed a ladder and trudged through the snow to the side of the house. Only twisted my ankle once and went down in pain, but I'm OK. Got on the ladder and brushed the snow off - it just slid off. If I just waited longer, I bet it would have slid off by itself. Now, I'm back to 84% signal strength on the other channels and everything is fine. Got online and went to American Satellite to order what Carol calls a "sweater" for the dish - it's a cover to keep the snow off so I won't have to do this again.

Holy crap, it snowed! I mean, IT SNOWED!!! There's 10" of snow out there! It really came down!