Displaying items by tag: Midwest

We all know the old saying, “Some heroes don’t wear capes.” Which is kind of a silly saying though, because lots of super heroes don’t wear capes. But whatever. We all know what it’s supposed to mean.

Anyway. Enter Candice Payne (not to be confused with Candace Payne, the Chewbacca mom). Candice, rightfully called a good Samaritan by every Chicago paper and news site, after hearing about the Polar Freeze that was sweeping the Midwest, rapidly organized with a few of her friends and offered to spring for motel rooms for about 70 homeless people.

The folks were staying in about a dozen or so tents that had been set up in a vacant lot near Willis Tower, several of them were actually heated with portable propane tanks but when one of the tanks exploded (no injuries) their heat source was gone. So, while the folks living there didn’t have to evacuate - there wasn’t going to be any heat during the minus thirty degree weather. And they clearly didn't have anywhere else to go. 

So Candice did something about it. Apparently, she called dozens of hotels but couldn’t find one willing to take 70 homeless folks until she hit jackpot with the Amber Inn. The rooms cost about $70 each and she ended up paying about $1400 out of pocket, that she put on a credit card.

Payne posted on her Instagram account and several of her friends helped by offering money, donating food, clothes and diapers. Then they ordered several Ubers to move the folks to the motel where Payne and her volunteers had provided enough food for three meals a day until the cold front ended.

Payne and her all volunteer group hopes to find a more long-term solution for the homeless and plan to continue working together. 

So, I don't know about you but - I kind of love Candice Payne. 

Another year, another Midwest record breaking cold front. The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories, freeze warnings and an approaching “arctic cold front” that will blanket most of the country and, apparently, affect almost 75% of the U.S. population. That's about 225 million people threatened by below zero temperature. And what's really, really bad news for my little dog, is that three day 20-40 below zero front we're expecting here in the Midwest. My poor little guy just can't figure out what those puppy pads are for and pretty much, will only go number 2 outside. But when it's this cold all he does is go in the back yard and then, ten seconds later think, "Nope! This is BS! I'm going back inside and I'll just hold it until it's warmer!" (Good luck with that, little buddy, and it's totally okay if you have an in house accident or two during this kind of freak weather).

Anyway, if you live in the Midwest, like I do, you’re already familiar with the cold. But still. Every once and while it's like, "It's going to be HOW cold?" In fact, every year, GCN’s medical columnist, Dr. Daliah Wachs writes “How to Prevent Hypothermia” anticipating this type of weather.

Just for "fun" comparison; temperatures in MN will plunge to -37C making my home state colder than Antarctica and even colder than parts of Mars. Author Andy Weir knows what we are going through -- he writes, in his novel, The Martian:

“And thanks to decades of reconnaissance by Curiosity, Opportunity, and the rest of NASA’s band of merry Rovers, we know most of what astronauts will need to survive on Mars once they get there: souped-up spacesuits to protect against massive dust storms and sub-freezing temperatures; tons of freeze-dried food; housing pods that can shield against radiation; and a big drill to unlock the frozen water beneath the Mars surface. It’s not easy living, but not too unlike, say, Minnesota.”

Thanks, Mr. Weir! We Minnesotans will keep that in mind. =)

Anyway. Stay warm. Keep your pets indoors, or keep their outdoor activities to the barest of bare minimums; and dream of warmer days.

They are not so far away.

Oh, how a few days of extremely bad press will get a CEO to do the right thing. Last week the Midwest was bombarded with another snow storm and several states slowed down. And I mean, everything pretty much ground to a halt. Especially the airports. Flights were cancelled all day long while the gods above sent two feet of snow to cover our Midwest lands.

Sun Country Airlines is based out of Eagan, MN and, just like all the other airlines affected by the snowstorm, they had to cancel flights for a variety of reasonable issues - employees couldn’t get to work, planes couldn’t take off, visibility issues, landing issues, etc, etc.

That’s not news. That’s just what happens when twenty four inches of snow blows up your state. The specific hot water Sun Country found themselves drowning in is related to about 250 passengers that the Airlines left stranded in Mexico following the blizzard. Apparently, the flights scheduled to carry the Americans home were the “last flights of the season” and they refused to extend their schedule or pay for the fuel to send another flight to bring the stranded passengers home and sent them a, “We’ll refund your ticket price but we’re not coming to get you. You’ll have to find another way home. Good luck!”

I mean. Wow. Just think about that. Sun Country Airlines actually told their customers that not only was the airlines leaving them stranded in a foreign country but it wasn’t even going to offer to assist them finding new flights home.

I don’t know about you but now that I know Sun Country will leave me stranded in a foreign country for reasons - I will not ever give them my money. Like, never. Ever.

Obviously, the customers turned to the social media to vent. Many of them had to spend thousand of extra dollars to buy a last second ticket in order to get home. Sun Country’s reimbursement for the tickets customer’s had already bought will, like all returns, take several days to process. But even once a customer received their refund for their original ticket - no way will it cover the cost of purchasing a last second brand new ticket.

And then both MN Senators send letters to Sun Country Airlines demanding an explanation and the customer relations nightmare began. Well it took a couple days but the social media blitz worked. Sun Country, after suffering horrendous amounts of negative press and loss of business - is going to do the right thing.

Funny how that works, huh? Sun Country made a business decision to not spend money on fuel to send new empty flights to go pick up stranded passengers because it wouldn’t be “cost effective” and now have lost incalculable amounts of money through negative coverage and bad will against the company.

Sun Country’s brand new CEO, Jude Bricker sent out a company wide email a few days after the idiotic decision he made to strand the passengers in the first place. The email is overly long and defensive, you can read the full text here but it’s very nauseating to read that condescending "corporate speak" sorry / not sorry apology. The gist of it though is, “But hey, we did some things right and our contract says we technically don’t have to do anything for you if you’re stranded. So, I mean - there’s that. And we can’t control the weather. You know? And some of our flights got home. So that’s good - we rock! I guess we need to work on our customer communication. Maybe that might be a super tiny (not really big deal at all) issue. I’m not saying it’s a problem though! But, maybe, like - a tiny, tiny, tiny issue.  So, we’ll reimburse SOME of the costs that customers spent getting home. Sun Country Airlines forever!”

Sorry Bricker. You lost me for life.  If they fire you. Maybe I’ll come back. But don’t hold your breath.

Another year, another Midwest record breaking cold front. The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories, freeze warnings and an approaching “arctic cold front” to a large portion of the country ranging from mid Texas to Canada and from Montana through New England.

Of course, if you live in the Midwest, like I do, you’re already familiar with the cold as we’ve all been living with it for more than a week now. Just last week GCN’s guest medical columnist Dr. Daliah Wachs wrote “How to Prevent Hypothermia” anticipating the cold front.

Last week temperatures in MN plunged to -37C making my home state colder than Antarctica (-16C) and even colder than parts of Mars. Author Andy Weir knows what we are going through -- he writes in his novel, “The Martian:”

“And thanks to decades of reconnaissance by Curiosity, Opportunity, and the rest of NASA’s band of merry Rovers, we know most of what astronauts will need to survive on Mars once they get there: souped-up spacesuits to protect against massive dust storms and sub-freezing temperatures; tons of freeze-dried food; housing pods that can shield against radiation; and a big drill to unlock the frozen water beneath the Mars surface. It’s not easy living, but not too unlike, say, Minnesota.”

Thanks, Mr. Weir! We Minnesotans will keep that in mind. =)

Anyway. Stay warm. Keep your pets indoors or keep their outdoor activities to the bare minimum, and dream of warmer days.

They are not so far away.

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If you like this you might like The Dr. Daliah Show.