Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Original WorkPoetry

I Do Not Like Chicago Snow

I do not like Chicago Snow

I do not like it on the go

I do not like its flight delays

I do not like it any days

I do not like it near my house

I do not like it with my spouse

I do not like it on my street

I do not like it on my feet

I do not like it in the car
I would not like it from afar

I will not like it ground or sky

I will not like it

Ask me why

I will not like its heavy flakes

And all the chaotic mess it makes

It may be pretty as it falls

Black it turns in no time at all

Tho soft at first it will be ice

And to slip and fall is never nice

The bitter cold its adjoining twin

In which we shovel yet again

I will never like you, Chicago snow

This one thing I surely know

So if you think that this will end

As the Egg book you’re wrong friend

For I have tried it 14 years

And it has brought me countless tears

So this I say now as I go

I will never like Chicago snow

Gowdy Cannon

Gowdy Cannon

I am currently the pastor of Bear Point FWB Church in Sesser, IL. I previously served for 17 years as the associate bilingual pastor at Northwest Community Church in Chicago. My wife, Kayla, and I have been married over 9 years and have a 5-year-old son, Liam Erasmus, and a two-year-old, Bo Tyndale. I have been a student at Welch College in Nashville and at Moody Theological Seminary in Chicago. I love The USC (the real one in SC, not the other one in CA), Seinfeld, John 3:30, Chick-fil-A, Dumb and Dumber, the book of Job, preaching and teaching, and arguing about sports.

9 thoughts on “I Do Not Like Chicago Snow

  • Chris

    A battle has been raging at Northwest Church referred to as the Snow Wars. There is a steadfast group that LOVES snow. There is a snow prayer team (praying for more snow of course). And sadly there is an anti-snow prayer team. Alas, there may even be an anti anti- snow er prayer team.

    Importantly, if you don’t like the cold, pray for more snow!

    Reply
  • Phill Lytle

    Gowdy has publicly chosen his side in the war. The gauntlet has been thrown.

    Reply
  • Chris

    It is 3 degrees in Chicago right at this moment. The skies are bright and sunny. Cloudless. Snowless.

    On Wednesday it will be 26 degrees and snowing.

    If you don’t like the cold, pray for snow.

    Reply
  • Gowdy Cannon

    This is where Chris is always wrong. Last two times it snowed here it was 7 degrees or under. There will be several 25 plus days this week with no snow. Chris thinks somehow this works out to a correlation. There is none. Snow always brings cold though, in the sense of 35 or below. No snow can be anything from -20 to 120.

    Reply
  • Chris

    Always wrong?

    3 degrees in Chicago—Check
    Bright and Sunny—Check
    Snowless Skies—Check

    Most of us may have weather apps. Simply review the upcoming forecast. Snow on Wednesday–30/25. Snow on Monday–36/27.

    But the correlation between cold and snow was well documented–with charts, etc. during a Sunday service several years ago. This is by far not the first public gauntlet. The choice of words is important–notice how Gowdy used “in the sense of”…

    In the sense of extreme cold, which we are talking about, 20-35 doesn’t even qualify. In the sense of 0 or less to 20, if you don’t like the cold pray for snow!

    Reply
  • Phill Lytle

    The Great Snow War of 2016.

    Reply
  • Gowdy Cannon

    Always wrong in “If you’r dont like cold pray for snow.”

    7 degrees last week with snow? Check.
    48 degrees last week where snow wasn’t possible? Check.

    Whatever charts you have are undone by reality. Every time. We have snow on bitter cold. We have snow on moderate cold. We have no snow in bitter cold. Wet have no snow in moderate cold. We have no snow – and cannot have – in mild.

    It really is that simple.

    I imagine the charts really show that snow will make it a few degrees warmer. I don’t deny that. But there’s really no meaningful difference between 10 and 17 degrees. I wear the same clothes, still think its too cold and my day is the same. But tree difference between snow and no snow is huge. It causes shoveling in bitter cold. It affects flights. It slows traffic. It slows walking. It makes stairs dangerous. It costs the city millions of dollars in cleanup. And a million other things. 7-8 degrees difference does none of these things.

    So no I’ll never pray for snow.

    Reply
  • Gowdy Cannon

    Sunday here is forecast at 37. No snow. Monday 35. Snow. If you don’t like cold pray for snow!

    Reply
  • Snow while it is bitterly cold? It simply isn’t true. That is the reality. No difference between 10 and 17? What about the 3 you have now and 17? There is indeed a difference. I run all the time here in Alaska in the winter. The difference between 3 and 17 is monumental when outside wearing shorts and running.

    I could give you hundreds of reasons of why snow is preferred in Alaska but you probably would say Alaska is different. But snow here simply makes life safer. In Chicago, snow makes life BETTER! It is like manna from heaven. Snow creates exercise opportunity by shoveling, sledding, x-country skiing, snow shoeing—All in Chicago. Grey, lifeless days of miserable cold without fresh snow always made winter drag along in Chicago. When snow came the city became alive. Do people die because of snow? Of course. But never as many as those who died because of oppressive heat in the summer of 1995. They had to bring in freezer trucks because the morgues were full so many people died because of the heat.

    Sure a snowless place like Florida won’t have as extreme weather. But then you would be stuck in Florida instead of an awesome city like Chicago.

    Reply

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