In no particular order, we have the following local snow warriors... Many thanks to these heroes for making the walkways easier to traverse by foot!
The first time I passed Domenic of Lucia's, 1825 W. North, he was bundled up with gloves on, and standing two feet deep in the snow with a shovel, and I was on my way to meet a friend at Hollywood Diner.
"People are calling to ask if we're open," Domenic told me, answering his own question with, "well, first I have to dig myself out of my house, then I have to dig out Lucia's, and then we are open."
I did not have my camera because it was 'No Camera Wednesday,' a rule strictly observed to maintain sanity. Then, on my way back from Hollywood, and using a borrowed camera, Domenic was indeed open, with a customer ordering a sandwich. We 're-staged' the scene, because I clearly needed to make an exception to NCW due to the historic blizzard. This is a really long explanation as to why Domenic is not wearing gloves or a coat in this pic.
An unidentified landlord on Elk Grove Street, which still looked like a bunny hill near the end of the day Wednesday.
Standing next to his pick up truck and plow is Ray, of RP Snow Plowing (773-447-9415), and independent guy who had been working nearly non-stop since this past Tuesday, and taking naps to keep on going. On Sunday morning, when I encountered Ray while walking to the Logan Square Indoor Farmer's Market, he reported that the night prior he'd got 10 hours of straight sleep. He looked like he won the lottery. I feel that same way when the weekly pipeline is complete. Gotta love 4:45AM on Monday, which is the time I woke up to work on the next issue.
Inside of their truck are two guys from Kenny Construction, who were clearing an alley in Bucktown near Hoyne and Armitage around 2PM Sunday. Kenny Construction, per one of the guys, was contracted by the city to clear the alleys so that the dumpster trucks could pass through alleys and pick up trash.
In the blue jacket and bundled up is Julie, a dog walker and personal assistant who can be reached at letbefranck@yahoo.com if anyone needs their dog walked. Julie has 10 dogs on her case load, and walked most of them, except for a three-legged shih zhou (sp?) who couldn't handle the snow drifts.
Rusty, an intrepid pup who braved the snow, was a hero to me, along with Rusty's owner, Steven A. Jones, who had his camera with him as well when I encountered him on Armitage on Sunday. Steven was the second stranger I met this week who I randomly assigned stories or pics to, and then was surprised when I got them! We will be featuring some of Steven's images in the next Pipeline.
In the green vest is Greg of CleanSlate, a group which is contracted by the Special Service Area #33/WPB to augment the city's snow removal services. There are 37 special service area districts in the city, with the city's SSA program (link here) almost as difficult to describe as TIFs.
More snow heroes, as well as snow snafu stories, will be shared in tomorrow's pipeline, which is more like the Wednesday AM pipeline. I come home from work and work more tonight. Phlash pops by with his pics today while I'm in my cube. Pat proofreads and edits tomorrow during the day. I address edits late Tuesday, early Wednesday, and hit send before work.
"We have a system," Phlash told me.
Indeed. Or maybe it's called OCD.
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