African Garden + winter

How Can You Live There?

Temperature -1F
Windchill -13F

January in Chicago can be a really downer. Twice the other day I found myself giving reasons for why my family and I live in the Chicago area, aside from simple inertia. (I must point out that my great-grandparents emigrated to Chicago because some of their family and friends had already come west to Chicago after first emigrating to the New York area.) So, without further ado, 10 reasons why the Chicago area is a good place to live.


  1. No hurricanes

  2. No major earthquake fault lines nearby

  3. No tsunamis

  4. No wildfires

  5. No active volcanos

  6. There is no number 6

  7. No summers with temperatures regularly over 110F

  8. No hurricanes

  9. No excessively long winters or extremely short days

  10. No mudslides or avalanches

There, now I feel better. I managed to get the tree peony covered with shredded leaves before it got so cold.

I took this photo through a window because I'm not going out in this weather if I don't have to. Oh, and the forecast calls for temperatures in the 50s by Saturday.