The waist-high snowbanks and the quiet, white-blanketed streets in my neighborhood this weekend reminded me of my childhood. The whole world felt like it was just taking a deep breath.  

A flurry of emails and phone calls Saturday night pulled me back to reality. Our plan was to hold the press for the late wrestling results from the high school tourneys. We had anticipated snow but not that much snow! At about 9 p.m., company leaders used their phone tree to speed up the process so employees could get home safely and paper carriers could deliver in a timely and safe manner. We decided to start the press at about 10 p.m. and add the wrestling results about 11:15 p.m. "on the fly" as we call it so the press doesn't have to shut down and lose time printing the paper.

We usually hit a newsroom deadline of 10:30 p.m. for the early edition Saturday, 12:30 a.m. for the second edition and 1:30 a.m. for the late edition.

In the end, one editor stayed all night catching cat naps in the newsroom in between editing and preparing for the next day of snow coverage. Another editor stayed at a nearby hotel rather than drive the 20 miles of slick roads to Evansville.

At about 1:30 a.m., our circulation division decided it was too dangerous to ask trucks and paper carriers in most areas outside Dane County to attempt delivery of the Sunday paper. Those deliveries continue today with many readers getting the Sunday paper with their Monday edition. 

We live in near-West Madison and I didn't expect our paper at the door Sunday morning. In fact, we couldn't get the door open because the snow has drifted across the stoop. But to our surprise, there was our paper at its usual time with a note on the bag from our carrier, Sid Nichols. Sunday was Sid's last day on the job. He is heading to Colorado to care for some ill relatives and we will miss his trusty service.

Sunday the hustle for our online journalism kept the email flying. I was monitoring the web site from home. Editors, reporters and photographers were in the office and on the streets collecting news for madison.com/wsj and the Monday paper. Managing Editor Tim Kelley was posting to madison.com from home. He put up two photo galleries and it felt like magic to me. I know this sounds corny.

This was really my first experience with many people in lots of locations filing stories and photos for two very different news editions, online and print. There were no deadlines because we were always on deadline, challenging each other with tips coming in on email from readers and news we were hearing from the television, the neighbors and other websites.

My one regret is that we cannot easily post photos and videos contributed by readers/users of the website. I got a handful of these by email and I hope I continue to get them. Our friends in IT tell us that we will be able to accept this content soon.