God Bless All Of You These Next 48 Hours

[BlueStateSaint]

Well, I managed to dig out the Saturn this morning . . . actually, I didn't dig it out, as there was only 5" or so of the stuff, so I was able to just drive out of my spot.  There was one cleared within 40', so I backed into that one.  I helped one fo the neighbors dig out his two Benzes.  The teachers haven't come out of their apartment yet, and I'm sure that my wife would have shot me (probably using my grandfather's 94) from our bedroom window if she had seen me clearing off their cars.  Supposedly, the worst of this shit has fallen already.

[Inga]

You wanna hear about suck?  The minute I posted "so far so good" up there, my husband called.  Our furnace has shit the bed. 

Oh no! That didn't sound good. Hope you have alternatives for heat. Never a good time with something like that. Hope it's simple.

[Mike220]

Damn global warming. They've already cancelled classes for tomorrow too. So far I'm going to be missing Chemistry (twice) Chemistry recitation, Biology lecture, Biology lab, Biology recitation and Stats. Since Friday is probably another day off, add another Biology lecture, another Stats and my Chemistry lab.  A few days off is fun, but I miss being busy. 

[Airwolf]

according to weather Bug it's 7.3 degrees with a wind chill of -8 outside. I just cleaned a little of the driveway and the sidewalk to the house before I came back in. we got maybe 5-6 inches of snow here but it looks like more because of the snowdrifts. No work yesterday or today so I'm stuck here at home. Guess i'm going to have to stay in and watch movies all day.

[Karin]

Mike:  You kids these days.  I remember when I was in college, I trudged through snow up to my waist to get to class.  The winds were blowin something fierce, too.  

Went home for lunch, the furnace had been tended to, and was turned back on and generating heat.  May have been air in the pipes?  Root cause not yet found, guy's coming back, and haven't seen the bill yet.  At least it wasn't the case of complete and sudden death, and "you're going to need a new one."  That will be $10K.  

[franksolich]

according to weather Bug it's 7.3 degrees with a wind chill of -8 outside. I just cleaned a little of the driveway and the sidewalk to the house before I came back in. we got maybe 5-6 inches of snow here but it looks like more because of the snowdrifts. No work yesterday or today so I'm stuck here at home. Guess i'm going to have to stay in and watch movies all day.

Hmmm.  You got some snow down there, near Omaha.

We got maybe three inches, total, between Sunday and Tuesday..

But it looks like a lot more because the wind kept blowing and howling and gusting.  There's some big drifts, but it's snow from South Dakota, not from the skies.

Wind-chills of -20 to -40 have been normal here for about a week.

[Mike220]

Mike:  You kids these days.  I remember when I was in college, I trudged through snow up to my waist to get to class.  The winds were blowin something fierce, too.   

I don't mind the weather. I'm comfortable driving (or hell, walking) in this crap to go to class. But the university makes the call, not me. Though when I'm emperor of earth, that won't be the case... 

[Chris_]

Fox News


Jalopnik

[JohnnyReb]

I was just thinking back to my early childhood. Back then around here in wintertime folks heated basically one large room, the kitchen. No heat in the bedrooms. The bathroom if you were getting a bath and the living room on Sunday if special company was coming.

How many live and could live like that now? With the "cost of energy neccessarily skyrocketing" (Obama) we may have to return to those days.

[thundley4]

I was just thinking back to my early childhood. Back then around here in wintertime folks heated basically one large room, the kitchen. No heat in the bedrooms. The bathroom if you were getting a bath and the living room on Sunday if special company was coming.

How many live and could live like that now? With the "cost of energy neccessarily skyrocketing" (Obama) we may have to return to those days.

The house I lived in for 9 years of my childhood, has a gas heating stove situated between the kitchen and living room. The bedrooms were cold in the winter, and blankets were piled high enough to almost immobilize a kid.

[JohnnyReb]

The house I lived in for 9 years of my childhood, has a gas heating stove situated between the kitchen and living room. The bedrooms were cold in the winter, and blankets were piled high enough to almost immobilize a kid.

I know what you're talking about. To get up in the morning, you had to reach out and peel them back one at a time....grab your clothes and run to the heater....ahhh the good old days they're  gone.... but maybe not forever.

[Eupher]

This may not look like a helluva lot, but it took me FOUR FREAKIN' HOURS to clean this up.



Mrs. E did this at the front door:



Another shot of the driveway area. Yes, that's the trash can out at the gravel road.



The drifts were about 4 feet. The regular snowfall I measured on the average at 16".

Never, in my life, have I had to clean up this much snow at one time.

My back is thoroughly, completely, totally pissed off at me.

[thundley4]

This may not look like a helluva lot, but it took me FOUR FREAKIN' HOURS to clean this up.



Mrs. E did this at the front door:



Another shot of the driveway area. Yes, that's the trash can out at the gravel road.



The drifts were about 4 feet. The regular snowfall I measured on the average at 16".

Never, in my life, have I had to clean up this much snow at one time.

My back is thoroughly, completely, totally pissed off at me.

Wow. It looks like like the road has been plowed.  Ours still haven't been and we live in the city.

[Eupher]

Wow. It looks like like the road has been plowed.  Ours still haven't been and we live in the city.

Yeah, a guy driving a John Deere tractor with a blade came by and plowed the road - he also plowed out quite a bit of the end of my driveway, which I was grateful for. I still had to clean up some at the end of the driveway and build a little indentation for the trash can (the guy was supposed to have come by yesterday   ) and cleaned out around the mailbox.

The worst part was the freakin' wind. Forced me to move everything to the top left corner of the pic.

[TVDOC]

Euph......looks about the same here, I measured 17 inches in the wind-sheltered part of the back yard.  No snowplows on our street yet, but the 4 X 4 made it up to the mailboxes without problems.  At least three foot drifts across the street.  Nine degrees right now, and plummeting to below zero tonight, so it ain't going to melt anywhere soon.

doc

[debk]

Mike: Are you a Sammie?

Euph....poor back!! get out the ice and the heating pad. You know....we don't get drifts on this side of the state, unlike over there in the Jackson area that does...

Cannot imagine what it would be like to be stranded in one of those cars on the interstate. I would be flippin' out!!

The car on it's nose in the ditch...bet that driver needed clean undies!! 

Good to know all who have posted are safe....

[Mike220]

Mike: Are you a Sammie?

AEPi for life!

Sammi got kicked off campus for dealing coke out of their house.

[Eupher]

Euph....poor back!! get out the ice and the heating pad. You know....we don't get drifts on this side of the state, unlike over there in the Jackson area that does...

You've got an opportunity to convince me that life is so much better on the eastern side when we motor through in September. Red carpets won't be necessary, but I'm thinkin' beef tenderloin.......

[ExGeeEye]

Posted this to my FreeRepublic Hobbit Hole friends earlier:

The snow arrived in Grand Rapids about 5:00 yesterday afternoon, and is still falling. It is also blowing and drifting. I got home just after midnight— my usual 12 minute freeway commute took more like 35 minutes on surface streets— and just managed to get parked.

With the winds, the snow drifted high in some places and was completely absent elsewhere. When I got up this morning my front steps were basically clear. That portion of sidewalk that is my responsibility was two feet deep in places.

I am in some hope that work will call (”Essential personnel only, and you ain’t”), but plan to go out and dig the van out of its drift around 1:00.

We have groceries; our deck is a giant ice chest, should the power fail; I have a little propane heater and a small room that it will service adequately, if needed; and this is supposed to be over within 12 hours (at least the actively falling GW).

Glad to see so many hobbitses back. It has been a ride, and I’d like not to think it’s winding down.

“Oh, we need a little summer,
Right this very minute,
Case of mild sunburn,
Tea with ice cubes in it...”

And now I'm at work.  Oh well.  Need this just to keep warm   

[Thor]

This may not look like a helluva lot, but it took me FOUR FREAKIN' HOURS to clean this up.





The drifts were about 4 feet. The regular snowfall I measured on the average at 16".

Never, in my life, have I had to clean up this much snow at one time.

My back is thoroughly, completely, totally pissed off at me.

Ummm, NOW you know how I felt living up in Minnesnowta!! I already had a bad back.  Euph, don't you think it's time for a snowblower, two stage??Your back will thank you!!

[IassaFTots]

I can't shovel ice.  Not with my pointy ended shovel.  I have to walk through shrubbery (NOT the Knights of Ni kind) to get to my car, cuz I ain't walking on my icy sidewalk.

[Eupher]

Ummm, NOW you know how I felt living up in Minnesnowta!! I already had a bad back.  Euph, don't you think it's time for a snowblower, two stage??Your back will thank you!!

I have a snowblower, a cheapo Craftsman thingie that we bought in 2004 when we moved to Ohio. I ran the piss out of that thing there, but it's largely been idle for the winters of 2007-2008; 2009-2010. This year, it's a completely different story.

I used it today, but still did a helluva lot of shoveling because it was so deep.

Kinda hard justifying a purchase like a two-stage when the snow is sorta hit and miss. It hit us this year, that's for sure.

[Revolution]

I've been helping neighbors dig cars out of their own DRIVEWAY for Pete's sake!

[IassaFTots]

I've been helping neighbors dig cars out of their own DRIVEWAY for Pete's sake!

Well good for you for Pete's sake!

[NHSparky]

Snow is more or less done for now.  We might get another inch tonight, but that's about it.

I didn't get home until it was after dark, but I'll get some cell pics tomorrow when I get home from work if it's still light out.

Driveway is plowed, but they didn't have time to rake the roof today.  Hopefully they'll get to it tomorrow.