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Stars, they’re just like us! They’re also finding it difficult to function in Chicago’s unbearable cold.

“Whoa .… Chicago is hella cold. I gotta break off all of my friendships with people who don’t live in my bedroom or kitchen. I’m a house-person now,” actress Gabourey Sidibe tweeted this week. She is back in town filming the rest of Season 4 of the Fox drama “Empire.”

The city’s subfreezing temperatures seemed to vex even celebrities who are from here.

The Chicago rock band Twin Peaks updated the lyrics of its song “Good Lovin’” at Thalia Hall over the weekend to reflect the weather: “It’s (expletive) freezing in Chicago. The snow falls on my window.”

Rapper Vic Mensa, who hails from the South Side and is often in Chicago, tweeted last week: “Chicago I’m sorry I left you for so long but I’m back to freeze to death with you.” He helped celebrate the opening of the new Near North bar/lounge LiqrBox.

* The Question: Any weather-related trouble to report?

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:16 pm

Comments

Car batteries and tires are begging for this cold to go away…

Comment by New Slang Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:21 pm
It’s weather, I’ll get over it. In 7 months we will be complaining about the hot weather.

Comment by Huh? Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:30 pm
My kitchen pipes froze yesterday. Fortunately, everything thawed with no burst.

Comment by Lt Guv Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:36 pm
Having an issue with a high efficiency furnace drain freezing up so water backed up and stained the ceiling in the kitchen. Lucky that the fix is taking a panel hatch off and using a fan on low to circulate the air. We also have a pipe stack frozen over so the laundry room reeks of sewer gas. Oh the joys of a new house.

Comment by Cable Line Beer Gardener Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:36 pm
We have a geo-thermal system. But over the weekend we couldn’t get the heat up above 62. Yesterday I shut all the vents downstairs and boom the temp went back up. Only my daughter has to bundle up to do Her laundry chores.

Comment by Honeybear Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:38 pm
http://www.kmov.com/story/37183286/illinois-american-water-customers-in-metro-east-under-boil-order-water-conservation

All Cold related

Comment by State Engineer Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:38 pm
So far so good, but ask me again when I get the gas bill. That’s going to be trouble.

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:39 pm
When it is this cold I have to keep my garage door opener in my pocket. If I leave in the car it gets too cold to work.

Comment by Al Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:45 pm
My daughter texted me that the Pipes were froze. I told her to block any holes in the footing and start a space heater.
She replayed 2 hours later that the space heater wouldn’t work, but her new wife had diverted the dryer vent to under the house. Now the whole place smells like Bounce and she is no longer getting shocked because of static electricity.

lol

Comment by WhoKnew Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:47 pm
My old house is cold, poor insulation, so we double up on layers.

I am grateful this severe cold spell is over winter break for schoolchildren, no need for them to be outside.

Comment by Wensicia Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 3:51 pm
55 degrees and sunny…

Comment by Jerry Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:05 pm
From the Get Off My Lawn Dept:

People use way too much salt on their sidewalks. Besides it being useless at these temperatures and bad for the environment, my old dog and many others have a really hard time walking on the stuff.

Read the directions!

Comment by Lefty Lefty Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:06 pm
For urban dog owners, this is tough.

Certain breeds do not recognize that it may be cold.

The dog wants to go for the usual walk and is boggled that I seem to want to head inside.

Beyond that, I’m glad I live close to work. Especially in this weather, it is nice to not have to spend that extra time outside.

Comment by Gooner Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:09 pm
The boiler that the condo association thought was going to get us through the winter isn’t. $2500 special assessment.

Comment by JoanP Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:15 pm
S’all good here. On Sunday I bought eight pounds of nice freshly ground beef on sale. When I got home I realized we didn’t have room in the fridge or freezer for all of it, so since it was almost New Year’s Eve party time and so darn cold out I decided to just leave it all in the trunk of the car to try to preserve it until we could make some freezer space available. Monday about noon I went out into the garage and checked the trunk and the beef was frozen solid. Nice. Sure enough, here it is Wednesday afternoon and thanks to the arctic air it’s still there frozen totally solid. I expect by the weekend I’ll be able to re-home some of it into the actual freezer and will thaw some directly out of the trunk to make a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs. I don’t know why but for some reason this amuses me.

Comment by Responsa Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:17 pm
The cold keeps zapping my smartphone battery, and the wiper fluid in my car froze solid.

Comment by charles in charge Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:20 pm
car. battery or ?. head hurts. cold or Arsenal match? can’t tell which.

Comment by Amalia Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:22 pm
Heading to OldTowne next week. What’s the water outside NavyPier look like?

Comment by blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:23 pm
It’s cold in Oswego.

The cold related trouble, thank goodness, has been seeming the Masters commercials during Bowl Week on ESPN.

It was -12 outside and they’re showing Augusta National in full bloom.

I did have a single beverage in the garage get so cold it “exploded” out of the can as a large popsicle…

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:24 pm
A local resident called our social services office about an hour ago looking for help. He has no heat and no water. He’d already called the office that handles LIHEAP and the city. They both effectively told him ‘Meh, lots of people are without heat and water. Get in line.” Such compassion. We suggested Salvation Army, Township Office, and local churches. Feel so badly for the guy…

Comment by Cubs in '16 Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:34 pm
The health care facility where I work has had frozen pipes and water leaking all over patient care areas. And bound to get worse with the warmer weather coming.

Comment by Groundhog Day Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:43 pm
Car batteries and tires and an old drafty house….that I love when it’s not too hot. NO AC either.

Comment by Because I said so.... Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:50 pm
It’s been so cold that I heard Mike Madigan decided to put his hands in his own pockets instead of everyone else’s.

Comment by Cold Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 4:52 pm
Tire pressure dropped so low it set off the warning.

Underground water line to garage is frozen … which takes some doing because it runs in conduit with a heat tape wrapped around it where it has to come up from 42 inch depth to enter the house. Just an inconvenience since it is PEX tubing that won’t split and will thaw once it gets back to teens or higher.

Comment by RNUG Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 5:25 pm
Meh …Cold is a state of mind …EXCEPT when its -13 now that ##$%^&^*()cold

Comment by theCardinal Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 5:43 pm
@ Responsa
Now I want to watch the Goodfellas … poor Billy Batts.

Comment by We'll See Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 5:44 pm
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes.
Slippery streets that cause bicycle crashes.
Silver-white winters that melt into spring.
Turn up the heat so my cold heart can sing.

Comment by TinyDancer(FKASue) Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 5:48 pm
Was at local library yesterday when sprinkler pipe in the ceiling burst. That’s a lot of water in a short amount of time. Ended up helping the staff shut the water off, directions on the wall we’re a little confusing. Local volunteer Fire dept was there in about 5 minutes. Not a bad response time.

Comment by Metroeaster Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 6:03 pm
===Now I want to watch the Goodfellas … poor Billy Batts.===

… that was Frankie Carbone… who was frozen solid.

Billy Batts, they dug him up. First an arm, then a leg, then a wing…

… no… “hoof”… it was a hoof.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 6:30 pm
Louis the Wonder Dog can’t deal with these temperatures. He won’t stay outside long enough to take care of all his business, then it’s in, out, in, out, yada, yada, yada. Poor little guy.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 6:42 pm
All my children are home, forcing me to deal with them.

It’s hell on earth here at the Vanilla residence.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 6:43 pm
Squirrels. I hate em. I hate em a lot. During the spring they eat my strawberries. Summer. My tomatoes. Now my bird seed. Draws em like flies to sugar. Dozens of em. Maybe hundreds. I’ve eaten so much squirrel soup its coming out my ears. They are driving me crazy…..

Comment by blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 7:27 pm
Up and down our great state, the firefighters of Illinois are out there doing it. Both career and volunteer, the cold weather makes the job of firefighting exponentially more difficult.

Comment by Retired IAFF member Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 7:39 pm
I went for a walk today and my Gatorade froze in my coat pocket, but other than that…

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 8:03 pm
Thankfully nothing bad, and no bad reports from those I know.

I remember the winter of 2013-2014, when we were pounded with snow and cold in Chicago. Thankfully this cold doesn’t have the massive snowfall amounts.

Comment by Grandson of Man Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 8:12 pm
Willy I was going for Billy being “red meat” in the trunk but frozen Frankie works too.

Comment by We'll See Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 8:55 pm
- We’ll See -

Lots of examples in “Goodfellas”

Another is the Pink Caddie Coupe… “I love that car”… it’s in my “mudder-in-law’s” name…

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jan 3, 18 @ 10:18 pm