The weekend wasn't fun, there's no denying that. Winter Storm Linus, as it became known, made life miserable in Eastern Iowa. What was left behind, almost made it all worthwhile.

Saturday was c-r-a-z-y at area stores. Julie, my parents, and I met at Costco in Coralville for some shopping. Apparently every other person in eastern Iowa had the same idea. We overheard a conversation that they were averaging 500 people per hour through the checkouts. I saw the crowd first-hand and don't doubt it for a second.

Saturday night, the snow started. Power went out at our house, something it very rarely does, for nearly three hours. Three o'clock Sunday morning, the snowfall appeared pretty unimpressive. When we got up for good at 7, things had changed. Every tree and bush appeared to be at its breaking point from the weight of the snow. We got as much snow off as we could to ease the stress and then moved the stress to ourselves, with snow removal. According to reports, as much as 12.5 inches of snow fell around parts of Cedar Rapids and that seems about right, don't you think? Hey, at least we didn't get the 19-inches that Chicago did.

Yesterday, the sun came out and made the weekend struggles worthwhile... if that's possible. Sunshine, blue skies, and everything snow-covered has to be one of the greatest joys of living in Iowa. It's the pain of getting there that we could all live without...

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