Across and Inside my Universe

Who Ordered All This Snow?

This is me, 9pm Friday, after shoveling 4-5 inches more of snow. Before this storm, there was 5 inches of old snowfall on the ground.

Weds night they said that from Thurs afternoon to Fri afternoon the valleys would get 3-6".

HA!  We had 4 inches in the first 3 hours yesterday.

This morning, my husband attempted to leave for work but got stuck backing out of our space; the snow was higher than the undercarriage of the car, higher than the bottom of the bumper, so after plowing through a bit it just was too much.

I was worried, with his Nov. 26 arthroscopic shoulder surgery, that he'd be shoveling and stuff; I got out there and helped get him back under our covered parking spot, but there was alot of pushing on my part.  Didn't know I had it in me!

So then I shovel a path back to our door (our landlord is the King of Cheap, no shoveling and he won't let us use salt either it ruins the concrete), taking many breaks because 16+ inches of snow on the shovel was alot!  That's just an estimate, it could have been more but I doubt it was less, given how high it was for trying to drive through it.  

Oh yeah, and more snow is coming throughout Saturday too.

I'd shoveled some with the next door neighbor the evening before.  (He had a stroke partway through his medical residency, and well if he's living next door to us he's in hugely reduced circumstances. I also didn't want him to think I didn't think he could shovel the walk, I just wanted to help as well as get to know our new neighbors.  All true!)

I'd say it's' snowed about 20-24 inches (or more, it's still snowing.)  I haven't seen so much snow in a long time; there used to be a big, big storm almost every year but the weather's been messed up for awhile.

So, we came back inside, my husband had already called in to work (it'll be an unpaid day off, he used everything paid for the week off for surgery, and even that didn't cover the whole week.)  It's a treat to have him home from work, and not from being sick, either.

We planned a day of coziness, cocoa, board games, and movies or shows like Doctor Who, just whatever we felt like.  I love dipping buttered strips of toast in my cocoa, like I did when I was a kid, but found out we were out of bread.  Oops.

It was nice to know I was capable of shoveling that depth of snow, narrow though the path may be.   I feel more capable, which is cool. 

Edit:  I just read the below posts on Tips for Shoveling snow, and I did great at all of them but one; bend knees, back straight, don't bend at waist.  It looks like I'll get to improve my technique tomorrow. 

Related articles

Tips for Shoveling Snow Without Injury to You!

Shovel safely tips to avoid post-snowstorm injuries

Pummeled by Wind

Well, I was going to blog about what last thursday's wind storm, clocked at 102+ right at the worst of it where we were (and that was the worst of it anywhere) was like, but I feel weary because the winds are coming again. They just started, and will supposedly last for about 13 hours.

Sleep? What's that!

Last Thursday's winds started at 2 am and tapered off around noon; they were equivalent to category 2 hurricane-force winds. Apparently they were NOT canyon winds like was thought for the first half of the storm; I forget the technical term for it, but when the winds come at JUST the right angle, instead of pouring down the canyons they'll just ride up the slope on the other side of the mountains and waterfall crash down on top of us right from the peaks. It certainly felt like something massively violent was crashing down upon us.

The worst of it psychologically was hearing the destruction going on around us; tearing metal, siding peeling away from our building like a banana peel, strip by strip, with extra worry every time one came off, hoping it didn't hit the windows. Hearing a bunch of metal clattering and clanging as things over in the store parking lot to the west of us were torn up, from small things like shopping cart returns (boy those metal poles make a racket when they're flying through the air!), pieces of signage, and other things, added to the discord and sense of destruction.

The tendency to anthropomorphize the wind into some sort of ferocious beast, lashing at us sometimes with whip-like cracks of wind on the windows, or voracious-sounding swirls that seemed hungry for targets, or the sense of being under Thor's Hammer, well these things weren't that helpful to dwell on, although hard not to think about as the violence around us went on. Sleep was out the window; thank goodness nothing broke the windows because also, anytime any debris slapped up against one, there was worry.

But, we surived, power out and all, the place cooling uncomfortably, with us nestled in wool socks and beneath blankets. Storm over, we eventually pulled up roots and stayed elsewhere for the night, leaving faucets dripping to avoid frozen pipes.

The damage and debris afterwards around town were quite startling. Heck, 1000 trees on golf courses alone were down. The ones down in neighborhoods were much more jarring. A 20-30 foot tree limb with branches crashed down yards from our back window. It's still there.

One of the eerie things was how swept beyond clean the front lawns were; I eventually nailed down the "unreal" feeling as the fact that it looked like the artificial lawns/environment in the Truman Show movie. Most of the debris here got swept into our lower stairwells.

Anyway, here's hoping the power doesn't go out tonight cause it's a cold one. I also hope the stupid school district makes better decisions, faster, than last Thursday. I had to decide myself she wasn't going in then 96mph winds about half an hour before school closures were announced. The school was closed Friday as well, so I'm worried they'll push for staying open even if it's dangerous tomorrow morning . . . my daughter walks to school, and I haven't been able to wrangle a ride for her yet if school is open in the morning.

Anyway, we're in for a loud and unnerving night, but the winds should be supposedly only gusting up to 60-65 (last time they said 70 or so, so I'm taking this prediction with a grain of salt.)

Thankful for brick construction despite the peel-off siding (well, in hurricane winds it's peel-off siding lol.) Thankful for our safety, and power, and warmth.