lavendertook | Snowed In

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Snowed In

Sunset at blizzard's end. We got around 2 1/2 feet. But with the plowed piles as high as me, this snow will be staying around a long time.

The poor holly trees are bent under with the weight of the snow. I saw the top of one of the tall gangly pine trees we have here break off and crash to the ground. We were without power from the middle of last night until 6 pm this evening. I wasn't worried about freezing because the insulation in this cinder block building is very good, and I have plenty of flash lights, candles, and batteries, but I was worried about losing everything in my freezer, and was wondering if packing snow in it would be a good idea, and, you know, no internetz, so I'm very glad it was restored today.

One win today--there's been a rhythmic sound, like someone rocking a chair, or exercising, or bouncing a ball, that's annoyed me many an evening. I thought it was coming from above, but had no luck talking to the old man above. It was going on all morning, and I couldn't put up with it all day. I realized it may be coming from the walls, and tried the neighbors downstairs, and sure enough, their tween son was the culprit, bouncing a ball against the wall. His mom was lovely and he was contrite, and he won't be doing that anymore. Yay!!!

I dug out most of my car this evening, and am sure feeling it--I will sleep solid tonight, I expect. The snow was lighter than I feared, knowing it was a wetter snow than the December storm. I love snow's muffled blanket of sound at night, and the coating was sprinkled with silver glitter under the lamplight. A neighbor who works for the city came back from his plowing work on hardly any sleep from the night before and chatted the fun chatter of the over tired and told me about his cat Lulu, who sounds well loved.

I'm doubtful the roads will be cleared enough tomorrow for it to be safe for me to drive to New Carrollton to dig out the strays, so may have to wait until Monday on that. I doubt the gov't will be open on Monday and expect to be home--we'll see.

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Holy moly! 2 1/2 feet! That's a LOT of white stuff! It's going to take the DC-Baltimore-Annapolis area days to get all the side roads cleared!

Glad you and your freezer survived!

*hugs*

My street is still a mess. Half the cars haven't been dug out yet. I'm lucky to have gotten the spot in our lot that I did--if I were parked on the street, it would probably take the better part of the week to get undug without doing myself some damage unless I found helpers. I"m glad the gov't was sane and is staying closed tomorrow.

*squooshes*

I was worried about losing everything in my freezer

They say that if you don't open the freezer door, it should be good for a couple of days. Sorry you lost power, I've been worried about that. We've lost some branches of the pine trees so far.

There's no way these alleys and side streets will be passable for Mon, maybe Tues and then with that additional snow coming on Tues pm, I may be off wk all week. Hope you can get to the strays soon.

That's good to know--I made sure not to open it, and there wasn't a point to doing that anyway since there was nothing to heat things with. Yeah, this storm has decimated the gangly pine trees we have around here.

Yeah, my street is a mess and I feel for the people who have yet to dig their cars out on the street. Gov't is closed tomorrow, but I doubt it will be closed Tuesday--I don't get paid for snow days anyway.

I'm going to try to get to the strays tomorrow--hope they're sleeping their way though it.

One of Elijah's favorite words is 'epic' and it sure describes this storm. I'm glad despite the power outage you stayed warm and snug. OMG, I feel your 'digging out the car' pain. I'm a bit sore myself this morning!! *hugs*

How much did ya'll wind up getting?

You have a whole drive way to dig out--that's no fun. I finished the car today, and I'm feeling it good today. *squooshes*

It's so...it's a little like being buried alive!!! Holy crap, I wonder when the roads there will be passable!

Heee! It sure does look intimidating outside. Some of those piles may be here until May.

I haven't been outside yet, though I'm nerving myself to go out, even if only to take out the trash, just to get a look at the world this morning.

It's pretty and harsh together. Hope you got a good look around today. The snow is so pretty in the first light of morning.

Couldn't you put frozen food outside, in the snow (at least until the sun comes up)? I've often wondered about that.

Congrats on tracking down that noise! Yay for neighbors who actually listen.

Couldn't you put frozen food outside, in the snow (at least until the sun comes up)?

Yes, you could, and if you cover it in snow, it should be all right when the sun comes up. My family has used the 'outdoor refrigerator' many a time (though technically that was the garage, but the concept is the same).

Of course, for

lavendertook, I don't know that there's a place outside that she could put stuff without risking animals or other people making off with it...

It's colder in Minnesota than here--we're too near going above freezing, I think, to make that a safe method to use here right now. And no, I'm not trying to dare Nature to give us a spell of sub-zero temps to go with all this snow--if Nature looks this way, just look busy . . .

If I did put it out the back door on the forest side, with this depth of snow, I don't think anyone would make off with it--only my immediate neighbors would be able to get to it. And it's too deep for the raccoons to make their way through--they should be hibernating through this.

I guess you could, but that sure would be a lot of work to add to the digging out. I was thinking more of taking up some snow and putting it in the freezer. Of course, then you have a lot of water to deal with when it melts.

Thank you--you know how this goes. I think I heard a little bouncing today--we'll see how it goes. They're a Bangladesh family, 2 adults and two little boys living in a little place the same size as mine--it's not easy for them.

Yeah, that's pinkish all right.
Very pretty.
We don't get pinkish around here in DE. :(

If you look at a snowy sky at night, I bet you'll see some pink in it, even there. You should get a chance to test that out tomorrow night--more snow to shovel--what a joy!

And I like your description of the snow.
And you have nice neighbors.

Thank you!. After tomorrow, my descriptions of snow will have more expletives in them, for sure.

They're a family of 4 living in the same size apartment as me--they fight a lot but so would anybody in that space. I feel for them.

I'm glad you've got power back! I saw that there were some outages on your side of town on the Pepco website and wondered about you... evidently my complex escaped without power outages, though it did flicker a couple of times Friday night.

I also doubt the gov't will be open Monday, but OPM hasn't posted anything yet, so I'm crossing my fingers. :p

I'm crossing my fingers neither of us will lose power Wednesday.

I imagine the feds will be closed through Wednesday, at least. I wouldn't be surprised if Metro and MARC aren't running by Thursday, though, and if they're not, a lot of us won't be going to work Thursday either even if they do open then. It'd be a great vacation if we didn't have to do so much shoveling.

Me too!

My thoughts exactly. Thursday will be interesting... and Friday I was planning to take off, but I have to confess, if we get off up until then and the gov't is open Friday, I may go in just because I have stuff I need to do! :p

A paycheck is also helpful--I'm racking up the leave without pay days now.

WOW, look at that! It's so beautiful, if inconvenient. I'll bet you're SORE.

I called my mom today and she said the patio furniture on her [2nd-story]deck looks like indistinguishable crests adrift on a sea of snow. The snow on top of the carport outside her kitchen window goes half way up the glass. She's hoping my brother will be over today to finish plowing and shoveling her out, not that she's going to be driving around anytime soon. At least an ambulance could pull in, if it were necessary, I'll bet she was thinking. :)

Heee, I am, but not badly--thank goodness. I'm being careful to bend at the knees and not to pack my shovel. And I split digging out the car over 2 days. Then today I dug out for the strays--the sewer was totally buried and I only found it by luck. And then Wednesday we et to do it all over again. My descriptions of snow are starting to put more emphasis on inconvenient, to say the least, than beautiful.

I hope your brother got out to you mom--it's a challenge to be elderly in all this.

Oh, I'm sure my mother is not out in all this. But she is sweating a long-standing doctor's appointment scheduled for Thursday. She is worried she won't be able to drive there if the roads are still snowy, and, with the new storm on its way, it looks like they will be. Maybe my brother can take part of the day off and take her. Unlike her and everyone else she knows, he's got a big four-wheel drive truck (in addition to a regular car). That's what he's been driving around in all this snow, his snowblower loaded in the back.

You sound like a careful shoveler, Lavender. Still, I know you must be NOT looking forward to the next snowfall.

That's hard. Maybe she'd feel better if she tried to reschedule it for next week? I'm going to cancel and reschedule Saki's vet appt on Wednesday evening, and maybe my doctor's appt on Thursday morning, too. In weather like this, I wish I had a truck.

No, I'm really not looking forward to this--we're going to be dealing with the massive piles for many weeks to come.

I think I'll give her a call tomorrow, touch base, see if she's thought of alternatives.

Smooches,
Mechtild

I hope she's staying in and safe.

*squooshes*

Your photographs are so pretty. I wish we'd get more snow.

Thank you! You can have some of ours--for free!!! I'm not looking forward to doing the shoveling all over again Wednesday.

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Snowed In

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