Arrival

Before attending Jules Masenet's Don Quichotte opera at the Lyric Opera this afternoon, I took my camera over to Belmont Harbor to commemorate the arrival of Chicago's first snow fall of the 2016-2017 winter.  It didn't take the form of flurries.  Instead it came down as wet snow that stuck to the grass, leaves, and bricks, but not the sidewalks or streets.  When I left the opera at 4:30PM, it was still coming down.  It had begun to accumulate on the city streets and sidewalks.  Mostly slush.  As it turns out, we broke the record for December 4, with 6.7 inches accumulating at O'Hare International Airport.  The previous record, set in 1964, was 4.6 inches.  Is this a hint of things to come?

Spoiler Alert:  At the end of the opera, Don Quichotte is turned down by lady Dulcinee despite risking his life to recover her neckless that had been stolen by bandits.  Quichotte's faithful companion, Sancho, accompanies his master to a mountain pathway, where Quichotte has a vision of the lovely lady merging into a star.  He then dies.  Hopefully those of us who live in Chicago will fare the winter weather better than Quichotte did unrequited love.