<p>Useful suggestions to avoid frozen pipes:</p>
<p>[Freezing</a> Temperatures Cause Water Problems - WestportNow.com - Westport, Connecticut](<a href=“Westportnow.com - Westport, Connecticut's 24-hours News and Information Source”>Westportnow.com - Westport, Connecticut's 24-hours News and Information Source)</p>
<p>Saturday is just our normal shopping day. I couldn’t believe it. The snow is supposed to be bad but not snowpacalypse (as our cashier jokingly called it) bad. </p>
<p>I’m just annoyed because I have to go produce shopping now later in the week lol</p>
<p>To those of you about to be hit with sub zero temps…please, please advise your driving aged kids to WAIT for their friends (or have their friends wait for them) until they get inside their buildings before pulling away from the curb. Drinking or not, people can slip on the ice and this tragedy is so preventable. In Minnesota we have a beautiful college girl from Duluth who is about to have her fingers and toes amputated because she was intoxicated when her friend dropped her off (and left right away) and fell asleep on the wrong front porch.</p>
<p>Lordy, I had no idea.
[The</a> Midwest Is About To Face The Coldest Arctic Outbreak In Decades](<a href=“http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/the-midwest-is-about-to-face-the-coldest-arctic-outbreak-in]The”>The Midwest Is About To Face The Coldest Arctic Outbreak In Decades)</p>
<p>Well, I’m not looking forward to this artic blast. We moved here (to Minnesota) a year and a half ago from California. Wow, what a winter we are having so far. I still can’t believe that the high for Monday is predicted to be negative 13. The HIGH. We went out shopping at Target and a few other places, and enjoyed the balmy weather in the 20’s. Daughter is supposed to fly out of Minneapolis on Tuesday for a semester abroad. Hmmmm . . .</p>
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<p>This is not just a cold-weather tip. I have taught my kids to do this for anyone they drop off (especially at night). And I do it for my friends.</p>
<p>I agree, we do that here too.</p>
<p>My D got back into AA tonight. Went grocery shopping and found no canned soup, no eggs and lots of other staples not on the shelves.</p>
<p>Crazy.</p>
<p>mstee, I feel your pain. I went to high school in Miami. During my first winter at Northwestern, Chicago recorded its coldest temperature ever:</p>
<p>[Coldest</a> day ever 25 years ago - Chicago Weather | Examiner.com](<a href=“http://www.examiner.com/article/coldest-day-ever-25-years-ago]Coldest”>http://www.examiner.com/article/coldest-day-ever-25-years-ago)</p>
<p>I couldn’t feel anything walking from north to south campus with the wind off the lake.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the grocery mania either. The max anyone here would be stuck would be 2 days ad that would be major. It’s like some type of panic hysteria. I’ve had at least 4 fb friends from all parts of my state post Meier pictures and it was truly insane. Checkout lines going to the back of the store. Krogers about as bad. </p>
<p>S1 was to fly to DC tomorrow for training next week. I think flight going through O’hare. Employer sent him instead today and he is there. S2 to pick up gf on Tuesday at airport 1 hrs away, flight may be also going through O’hare. I’m hoping that one gets canceled until Wed.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the hysteria either - I was at Kroger because it’s my normal grocery day. I didn’t even realize there was something janky going on until I couldn’t find a parking space AND all the shopping carts were gone - ALL OF THEM.</p>
<p>Canned soup, milk, potato chips, produce - all gone. Empty shelves. People arguing over peanut butter. Madness!</p>
<p>I was taking pictures of the empty shelves and sending them to my mom because she thought I was exaggerating. </p>
<p>I don’t even remember it being like this during the blackout of 03 (?)!</p>
<p>Are all of you observing grocery shortages in Michigan? I know romani is. I was going to go out tonight but decided to combine my trip with another errand in the morning. I don’t see why people are acting like this is some kind of apocalypse. Life will go on–it just won’t be very comfortable.</p>
<p>My kid wouldn’t have gone shopping at all, but has been gone two weeks and has 20 hours of team practice over the next few days before school starts again. I checked with her before she left to make sure she had food and could survive, but needed a few staples. One cannot make mac and cheese without milk, I have heard. </p>
<p>I think she was surprised about the hysteria. Especially since it was in the mid-50’s when she left CA this morning! I made her take back another flashlight to keep in the house. The landlord came by before she got there, turned up the heat and swept the sidewalks before the kids came back. :)</p>
<p>I have seen a run on grocery stores, just once, back during the Los Angeles riots. That was genuine weirdness.</p>
<p>Sally - I’m in M too, and the local news just had a story about empty grocery store shelves all over the metro Detroit area. It’s insane.</p>
<p>There are also reports of shortages of gasoline at gas stations. H and I tried to fill up at a local Speedway tonight and they were completely out of gas. Madness!</p>
<p>I keep thinking - what f the local weathermen are wrong? Seems to me that they frequently over-hype.</p>
<p>You can for sure make mac & cheese without milk. Just use more butter.</p>
<p>I don’t think the weather is over-hyped. It will be dangerously cold from tomorrow night till Tuesday sometime (at least in WI, where I am). But people will still have to go out and stores and businesses and hospitals should still be open (I think!). The reason schools are closing in many places is that it is unsafe for kids to stand outside waiting for the bus–not that the schools can’t stay heated or go on as usual otherwise. </p>
<p>I do not know what will happen to the homeless people here and elsewhere. It’s bad enough for them during a normal winter. I hope there are extra shelters open.</p>
<p>ETA: for anyone facing the extreme cold, don’t be an idiot like me and forget to change your furnace filter. Last weekend my thermostat would not go above 64 and I couldn’t figure out why. Thankfully I thought to check the filter, which was completely clogged. It is working great now that I put a new one in.</p>
<p>It’s all over metro Detroit and Ann Arbor according to news and newsfeed! </p>
<p>Most schools are supposed to start up Monday. I see a few snowdays ahead! Yeesh. Just stay safe, everyone. </p>
<p>We’ve already made the decision to go to a hotel in case our power goes out. That’s the biggest worry with all of this for us. With my asthma, I just can’t risk the cold. Luckily, between the five roommates, the room will be very affordable!</p>
<p>We just changed our furnace filter today! Apparently it needed it, the old one had turned black. O_O</p>
<p>My fiance did okay at Walmart in MI, lines weren’t terrible, but all the produce and “staple” items were pretty picked over. He was supposed to go to Kroger and didn’t bother because the parking lot was jam packed, he said all the roads were like parking lots. If we hadn’t done our weekly shopping today we would have had to go tomorrow in order to eat on Monday, and both our cars are garbage in the snow so I wanted to be able to stay home tomorrow just in case. </p>
<p>I had thought the snow would start by 9 based on the hourly forecast I saw this morning, but I don’t see anything yet. Now it looks like it won’t start until early tomorrow. Our plan if we lose power is to go to my moms, but the roads have to be clear enough for us to get there… I don’t really have a plan B.</p>
<p>I remember those really cold spells, including the -26 temp with howling wind (Chicagoland). Zero felt pretty good after that subzero spell. We have been lucky these past few years in not having those bitter temps.</p>
<p>We just got out of a 50 hour snow (Monday-Wednesday). I stocked up again on Thursday, and ran into Aldi for a very few things tonight. No crowds, no shortages. But it had already been snowing for hours when I made that stop, after yet another road trip slowed by snow.</p>
<p>Not over-hyped here in MN. Major grocer closing early on Monday due to weather–was also announced on our local news:</p>
<p>[Rainbow</a> Foods : Rainbow Foods](<a href=“http://www.rainbowfoods.com/]Rainbow”>http://www.rainbowfoods.com/)</p>
<p>[Rainbow</a> Foods to Close Early Monday in Anticipation of Cold - Around Town - Richfield, MN Patch](<a href=“http://richfield.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/rainbow-foods-to-close-early-monday-in-anticipation-of-cold]Rainbow”>Rainbow Foods to Close Early Monday in Anticipation of Cold | Richfield, MN Patch)</p>