Ordered a snow blower, a good one from Sears, due to arrive between 27th & 29th. a) Wait, today I get an Email that it is delayed, now the 30th.
We were do to get 12"-19" of snow, crap crap crap why couldn’t it hold off until I got the damn snow blower. a) Well actually 24"-28" with some nasty drifts.
b) My mail box got hit by plow, this was my home made one on a long arm to protect it from the damn plows and of course oil trucks. Fixed it real fast, watching out for traffic.
While shoveling and shoveling and shoveling a 40’ pine came down, of course it fell on the house. No one injured so that is very good, not near the power lines, also good but it snapped the Fiber Optic cable in two thus no phone, Internet or TV.a) The old cable line is about 2’ further out, it is not in use of course but that was missed by the tree.
None of the tree guys I called yesterday called back. a) Well at least the guy I called today called back, I am now waiting on him.
Verizon FIOS call took 20 minutes to place yesterday, suppose to be out between 8-12 today. So I planned to get out this morning to cut the branched out of the way.
Last night I was dead tired, went to bed before 10am and crashed quick. But all good as I wanted to get up early to clear those tree limbs and carve a path to where the Fiber line goes. My wife wakes me up just after midnight as the Carbon Monoxide alarm is beeping. I get up, find the alarm beeping (did not know it was the CO alarm immediately), went to the would stove that was left open and smoldering so I turned it over a bit and closed it up, let the dog out, let the dog in and then went back to bed where I could not fall back to sleep until around 3am. :smacka) Mail box hit again and worse and end of driveway partially filled in.
Little later than I hoped, I got going on the pathway to the driveway from the FIOS area, beat a trail to the shed and dug it open to get the pole saw to clear the branches from the 40’ pine tree that snapped my FIOS line and nearly passed out by the time I got back from the shed. Did I mention the snow was 28" deep on average? OK, took a break, got the pole saw in action and found the saw needed some quick repairs. Came back in, shucked winter gear and carried pole to basement shop and tried to add a new wing nut but cheap wing nuts kept snapping in half. Dug up an older, well made one and used that and a good washer to fix the saw blade and then made a quick fix to the locking mechanism. Back up, back into winter gear and saw-saw-saw and realize it is noon. Trudge back in strip out of winter gear …
Called back Verizon to find out when to expect truck, was no surprised at delay, just wanted a ballpark. Stuck on hold for 20 minutes today, let pass an incoming call as this was happening that of course was the FIOS guy. Kept cutting branches. But once he got here we were up an running by 2pm. Of course still waiting on Tree Guy.
I also widened the end of the driveway as mounds are 6’ tall and driveway was narrow. Then lowered the left side mound for improved vision of oncoming traffic.
So here I am at last relaxing a little and hoping the tree guy shows up or calls.
This really sucked, my back and most of my muscles hurt.
Do you have a Blizzard story?
(If not strong enough for pit, sorry and please move it)
I guess my only gripe with the blizzard is that they originally promised us 18"+ and we’re lucky if we got 10. Mind you, ten inches of snow is plenty, especially when it’s drifting, but I would have enjoyed a good old-fashioned drifts-to-the-roofline blizzard. Right up until the point where a tree fell on my house…
I discovered that lightweight dry snow blown by gale force winds can get places no other weather can reach. Such as… my attic. Blown right up and through the roof vents, we had lovely little piles of snow up there.
Also, 4 of my makeshift storm windows, wooden frames with plastic film instead of plastic panels, got ruined. Have to take the frames back in, get them fitted with plastic panels at $50 per window and re-install them. Yippee.
My kidney-less FiL could not get to his scheduled dialysis treatment as (a)our street was not plowed and (b)the ambulette service could not get it’s vehicles out. But the dialysis center is backed up as most of Monday’s appointments got pushed to Tuesday, which was good for them as they were running on a skeleton staff.
The news stations are full of “human interest” stories of people stuck on roadways. I wonder how many are human stupidity stories that should be directed at the drivers (not all, I know, but I suspect at least 2/3rds should). I was driving my son back to Philly on Sunday. Our original plan was to leave early afternoon, after having a family breakfast. Started looking at the hourly forecasts, knowing that a storm was coming, and moved the trip up 4 hours (much to my son’s chagrin as he wanted to sleep in). I still got clipped by the storm, but roads were still passable. How many people driving, and then blocking up the roads preventing plows from getting through, didn’t do the adult thing and take into account a Blizzard Warning for the northeast corridor?
Charlotte got snow on Sunday, but it’s all gone except a few remnants on the grass. I actually love snow TO LOOK AT. Shoveling it is the problem. We get one snowfall per year on average but it requires no work on my part. I like to see all four seasons.
I really wanted to enjoy this thread, just on schadenfreude, but I can’t see where any of your complaints manage to even make it up to “typical winter” standards. YAWN, you people are wusses. Your winters are wussy. 2 feet of snow? Jersey? Philly? Really? 40’ fallen tree? YAWN… Try 6 feet of snow, and we laugh at Buffalo NY, because we know we are going to get it, 3-4 hours after the TV News is saying how Buffalo is socked in, but we are going to get twice as much, but, meh, it’ll be cleared in a couple of hours after the shit stops, typical winter. And 40’ tree? BFHD. I haven’t had a year I didn’t need to deal with a fallen tree in… uhh… I don’t know, it’s been a few years. YAWN, pull out the chainsaw and start cutting. Gotta shovel my way to the tree? Yeah, I do that every winter. I really can’t summon up any pity for you wimps. I’ll start sympathizing with you people, when you start complaining about shit that actually constitutes “hardship”. Until then, suck it up, deal with it, wimps.
My husband and I are shoveling out the driveway. We started and the house and were working toward the street. He took a break to go inside and pee and get a drink of water, I continued shoveling having just recently returned from the same break myself. I have about 6 feet of driveway left, mostly what the plows have piled up. Snow there is about hip deep. I’m chipping away at it a little at a time.
A guy in a black pick up truck with a gas powered snow blower riding in back pulls up and stops just in front of the house just past where I’m standing and sits there, almost like he’s taunting me with his snow blower. I would have gladly paid him to finish and do the sidewalks but he just sat there, and I just stood there staring at his truck because there was six feet of hip deep snow between him and me and since he had pulled up just a bit past where I was standing I couldn’t even wave to him to indicate my interest.
After a minute he drove off. Would it have killed him to roll down his window and ask if we’d like to secure his services? Why did he stop there if he wasn’t trolling for work (a common winter phenomenon around here).
Oh and the blizzard delayed my daughter’s arrival by two days which completely screwed up my vacation. Bah.
Well this will keep it in the pit at least. Do you really have trees every winter that fall on your house? Maybe you missed that point. A 40’ fallen tree is no problem, I have handled said in snow and in the heat. A 40’ tree laying down on my roof, nope, I don’t need a hospital stay.
Is your FiL OK?
I agree on the people going out that should not have. Far too many of these people really should not have been on the roads.
More than two-thirds is my guess, and I also guess that plenty of the ones that shouldn’t be blamed on the drivers can be blamed on the other assorted idiots- like my multiple neighbors who didn’t try to move their cars, but still cleared all of the snow off them (and the sidewalk) right into the middle of the street. It was probably easier to drive down my block Sunday night than it was yesterday after the car and sidewalk cleaning.
My winter maladies consist of: Short boots, or tall boots today? I have a pair of cross country skis in the closet, just in case (work is just a couple miles away - could be skied easily).
Knock apartment living all you want. I look out from my 4th floor windows, see that the management has cleared the sidewalks and stairs, and go about my day. I really don’t mind the sound of snowblowers when I know they’re for my benefit. If they wake me up, I turn over and go back to sleep snuggled under the comforter.
I spent 2 winters in a house with a 3-car driveway and tons of sidewalks. I’ll never go back.
This morning I was surprised that so much of the country was still bitching about the snow. I didn’t think it was such a big problem until seeing complaints on the news this morning. in Wisconsin we had a large storm before Christmas, but in the next few days it will be over the freezing point. On Friday it’s supposed to rain. I dread what rain can do when the ground is froze solid. Saturday it will be well below freezing again. Please no 2 inch thick ice on everything as it switches over.
I’ve no patience for the complaining, and had to turn off the tv yesterday.
We had 4 snowdays, in 8 days, here, got that much snow on the first day! Once it stopped snowing here, white out snow squalls hit, just nearby, stranding a couple of hundred cars, army sent out to retrieve them!
And we’re running out of wood for the stove. Arranging delivery, not hard, stacking it in cribs buried under 6 feet of snow, could be an issue.
Yesterday, on CNN, there was a reporter, all excited by the amount of snow, showing a car ‘buried’ on the street - up to the windshield! By our third snow day it was difficult to tell where there were cars at all!
It’s not like this was happening in Florida, after all!
Actually ON the house, no. I’ve only had to deal with that once in the last decade. But fallen trees? Every damn year. This winter I will probably get lucky, because I cut down the tree this fall that was threatening to fall on the house. Next year, after the wood dries out, it’s fuel for the wood stove. MMMM, warm!
a) Wait, today I get an Email that it is delayed, now the 30th.
