Kudos to the CTA or How Cold Is It?

Mark Twain had an impeccable sense of the tall tale, as evidenced by this:

The captain had been telling how, in one of his Arctic voyages, it was so cold that the mate's shadow froze fast to the deck and had to be ripped loose by main strength. And even then he got only about two-thirds of it back. ~Mark Twain

Rise and Shiver

We Chicagoans have had a relatively mild winter. Yes there was some cold and yes we've had a few inches of snow, now mostly gone. There's not much of a snow cover at all, so when Spring finally arrives, it won't have a lot of work to do in order to melt the thin layer and few spots of white stuff that remain — mostly in shaded areas.

This morning, however, January 23, 2026, was extreme even by Chicago standards. Nine degrees below zero is nothing to sniffle about even if it is sunny. Being sunny keeps the day from being a total apocalypse, but the cold and wind chill is never-the-less something to consider before venturing out the door.

It Could Be Even Colder

I fired off an email to friend Brian, who lives in Appleton, Wisconsin, a couple of hundred miles north of Chicago. I asked about the weather up North and received a graphic reply:

Nineteen below zero in Appleton. Definitely not bikini weather, or even snowsuit weather.

Note that they refer to nineteen below zero as "Very Cold." I would use a much stronger expletive in place of "very."

Should I Walk or Take the Bus?

Today is a planned visit to the gym. With weather like this, the question becomes one of "Walk or Ride the Bus?" Pretty clearly, a bus would be a better choice in this matter, but are they even running?

I logged in to the CTA's Bus Tracker website that shows real-time positions of all buses and trains in its system. What a surprise! The two most frequently used bus routes that I use are the 92 Foster and 50 Damen bus routes.

The map showed 8 Foster Avenue Buses and 14 Damen Avenue Buses already on the street and operational.

When Things Work the Way They Are Intended

The pleasant truth is that taking the bus is not only an option but it would be the preferred and reliable way to face the cold we're having today. As with many of us city-dwellers, I grumble and grouse more than is good for my attitude about the failure of governments to deliver on promised services. But today is certainly an exception. True, the streets are dry, there is no snow accumulation nor slushy and slippery pavements and the sun is shining. All of that helps. But the fact of the matter is that on the coldest day of the year, the CTA is delivering what it is intended to deliver: reliable, inexpensive, rapid transportation in a very congested city.

And sometimes, we just need to stand up and say:

Thanks, to the men and women who work so quietly and capably to enable our daily commuting needs.