The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on January 10, 2010, 01:12:21 PM
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Probably for about three days, I speculate.
I'll be around, in and out some, but not full-time, and am fully appreciative of those who keep pumping the DUmpster with new material.
Today (Sunday) is the first day we've had reasonable temperatures in the Sandhills of Nebraska, circa 15 degrees, and after a little more than two weeks of massive snows and sub-zero temperatures, there's a big mess to deal with.
Not that one has let things pile up; one could do nothing but.
Beginning late on December 23, I was snowed in, snow blown clear up half-way, even two-thirds, of the sides of the house. The front porch fully stuffed with snow, to the ceiling (of the porch). The only way out was through the back door, after which one had to wade through groin-high snow to get to the front of the house.
It was as if spending Christmas in a cave.
By late December 26, I was able to get out; inbetweentimes, the county sheriff stopped by twice, practically on snow-shoes (actually, on some sort of small vehicle with runners), to be sure all was okay.....since I happened to be the only human being in the whole western half of the county at the time (usually there's about 30 or 40 of us).
But then on New Year's Eve, the snow started again, and as the previous snow had not yet evaporated or blown away, it was just more on top of more. This second storm however also brought with it sub-zero temperatures. As if the snow was not bad enough.....
There is currently 48" of snow on the ground here. Driving on roads is as if one is driving at the bottom of a long canyon, with sheer cliffs of snow 3-4 times the height of the automobile (admittedly, I do have a low-sitting vehicle) on both sides. Many roads are still one lane; four lane roads are just two, and in some cases, one.
We have snow in Nebraska, of course, but usually it's a case of an 8-10 hour blizzard, after which the sun and the wind erodes the snow away. A violent, but short-lived, natural phenomenon. Winters in Nebraska are known more for their mud, than for snow.
This is surely the worst snow to hit the state--and it hit the entire state--since that of January 1949, and it may exceed those old records, too. This house is usually seen from the highway, if one uses the William Rivers Pitt as a protruding landmark; but currently there is no sign of the William Rivers Pitt at all.
I dunno how high the snow is on some parts of this property, because one can't really find the ground, from which one forms an estimate. It shocks me not at all that the California Zephyr, going through southern Nebraska, encountered snow drifts more than two stories high (through which it could not go, obviously).
Anyway.
So I had to let things go. But now that there's a break in the weather, time to clean up what one can, beginning with a two-weeks' accumulation of garbage and used cat-litter stacked outside the door. I don't generate a lot of trash, and in fact the cat-litter's the majority of it, but it's not a little bit of a mess after two weeks.
There are waist-high, neck-high, "pathways" cut through here, but it's going to be a long and onerous chore, getting stuff to the faraway dumpster. There is a gasoline-operated snow-blower in the garage (the garage is snowed in, unusable), but myself being deaf, while I can operate such equipment, for reasons of safety I won't. I use a garden spade to move snow the old-fashioned way (snow-shovels and grain-scoops cause heart-attacks).
Among other things.
Of course, one has to remember one's good luck, too; the electricity never went out, the pipes never froze, the cats were all accounted for and safely inside, and the motor vehicle despite being parked out in the wide-open for days at a time without being started in sub-zero temperatures, has started at the first crank, every time.
The worst thing has been the utter isolation. And because of my peculiar situation where I cannot hear, there is no radio, no television, no music-player, for diversion. Just gloomy grey nothingness.
I however remain, as always, defiantly confident.
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Frank, just remember to keep some survival supplies with you in your vehicle and DRESS for the weather!! Stay safe while you complete your errands.
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Stay safe Frank. Hope this break in the weather is the beginning of the end of winter in Nebraska.
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Stay safe Frank. Hope this break in the weather is the beginning of the end of winter in Nebraska.
HA! That'd be more like May Day in that frozen wasteland!
:evillaugh:
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Frank Solich, keep your chin up. Mother Nature is a crafty and evil mistress. As such she must be dealt with. I recommend firepower to keep her in check. Literally.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OfwzoVJ7-U&feature=related[/youtube]
Just hold one in each hand and start spinning around like the Tasmanian devil. I'm sure your yard and most of the surrounding countryside would be snow free in no time.
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Just stay safe as your do your chores around the place and out on the roads!
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Stay safe Frank.... :heart:
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Well, I constructed a "path" from the house to the garbage dumpster, which is about two-thirds of a city block away from the house; it's about three feet wide, this path, with sides of snow ranging from knee-high to shoulder-high.
It was great to be able to get rid of two weeks of household garbage and used cat-litter, that had been "stashed" outside the door in heavy-duty cardboard boxes--given that we had below-zero temperatures until today, it was never a hazard, but I just don't like garbage hanging around.
The temperature at 8:00 p.m. (central time, 7:00 p.m. mountain time) is 35 degrees, and apparently still rising. A mere 24 hours ago, it had been circa -25 degrees.
One is beginning to see, vaguely, the outline of the William Rivers Pitt; as the soil scientist explained to me a couple of years ago, validating my speculation, the William Rivers Pitt tends to be "warmer" than the surrounding ground, which is why foliage bursts forth from it in mid-February, and never dies off until darkest December.
Tomorrow (Monday), I'll tackle the garage, or at least the front of it. I am 6'3" tall, and so I'm guessing most of that snow is about seven and a half feet tall.
The neighbor from six miles up the road dropped by about suppertime, and suggested I "leave it go" until Wednesday or Thursday, when he could get some heavy-duty equipment in here, but I told him no. Snow-removal equipment, and services, are at rather a premium in this area, and better for him to make money removing snow elsewhere, as he wouldn't charge me for removing my snow.
And besides, I'm not now blocked in.
During the first blizzard, near Christmas, everybody was blocked in. Then there was a little respite, and another blizzard near New Year's Day. In the first instance, I had been blocked in (just like everybody else); in the second case, due to the location of this place and the caprices of the Nebraska wind, I alone seem to have survived without being blocked in a second time.
When looking at the vast expanses of snow, there recrudesces a feeling from long ago, when I first landed in the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants with free medical care for all.....oh God, I'm in this all alone, no one else around, and I've got use all my wits and energy to deal with it.
It's being dealt with.
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Sounds like a helluva lot of work, Frank.
Gotta be Miller time! :cheersmate:
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Just a thought Frank about letting someone assist you.
As you try to spend some time each year with those in need keep in mind that while not the same in any sense helping you in a bit of need may be good for the spirit of that person who wants to.
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Heard there's about 4-5 feet on the ground out in the Grand Island area.
You will have to be watchful, Frank, when all that stuff melts....I would say the river may rise quickly if it warms as quickly as predicted....
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dress warmly, pack some granola bars and take your cell phone for emergency texting. I did remember that you have a cell phone now correctly didn't I?
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I got up this morning so as to leave for the big city circa 4:00 a.m. to pick up accounting work for the week, and found the guy who mows the grass here sleeping on the couch in the living room.
No big deal; people are free to crash here provided they don't discombobulate the cats, and the cats know this guy. He's 41 years old, a skilled mechanic and craftsman, and he gets sauced a lot.
Some might recall him; the guy who mows the grass here in the darkness of night.
The guy from town who gets brewed in daytime, and works at night.
I wondered what he was doing here, but I wanted to get back from the big city before day-break, and since it was him, it wasn't as if he was up to something malicious, so I left.
When I went outside, headed for the motor vehicle, I noticed the "path" I had so laboriously cut through the snow had been improved upon, now about five feet wide and with cleaner "cliffs" on both sides.
On the other side of the automobile, I noticed the "path," the one about 2/3rds of a city block in length, had similarly been improved upon, after I had spent many hours yesterday (Sunday) digging my way through with a garden spade.
There was a miniature bulldozer-type vehicle--his--parked next to the automobile.
Damn. And I had been so proud of my own work, which was nothing compared with this.
Anyway, so I drove to the big city; it was about 32 degrees outside, clear skies, but thickly-fogged, the fog and the massive white cliffs on both sides of the driving lane looking very much like an old black-and-white horror film.
When I came back here, the other vehicle was gone, meaning the guest had left.
What he had done was clear several paths. If one were in an airplane looking down, it would look as if a giant asterisk, the dead center being where the motor vehicle is parked, and all these paths radiating from there.
Well, this leaves me with just the snow blocking the garage, which I had planned to tackle this day. The garage is the newest part of this house (added on probably circa 1970), but I don't use it, excepting for storing cat food and cat litter, and miscellaneous tools and equipment used by the neighbor, or this guy when he comes to mow the grass.
(I don't use it because it gets blocked easily.)
Yesterday, I had determined that the volume of snow was circa seven and a half feet high, twenty feet wide, and sloping ever downward after about four feet from the door of the garage. A lot of snow to be removed by garden-spade.
As I mentioned, I don't use the garage; I have a "thing" about being sure all entrances and exits from some place are free and clear, and in fact I can get rather, uh, anal about it if some method of entry or exit, no matter how little-used, is obstructed. I like the freedom of coming and going with as many options as possible.
Someone could probably spot something Freudian in that, and is probably correct, but whatever.
I looked around the corner of the house, towards the entrance to the garage.
All that snow he had removed so as to create "paths"--well, he stacked it right there, right in front of the garage.....
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right in front of the garage. :lmao:
Doing what you did with a garden spade is more impressive than doing it with a machine. Probably more work than I do in a month.
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Well, at least we know what you will be doing today. Stay warm!
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I looked around the corner of the house, towards the entrance to the garage.
All that snow he had removed so as to create "paths"--well, he stacked it right there, right in front of the garage.....
I'm so sorry Frank....but I have to admit...I cracked up when I read this.
Please be careful trying to remove it....
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Climate change sure is a bitch.
Stay warm Frank. :-)
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we're having a heat wave....it's up to 36 with a chill of 27....and snow's moving in until tomorrow morning.
first time it's been above freezing in days....
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Be sure to pop an update this evening if you can manage it, so we don't have to worry that perhaps the well-meaning couch crasher came back for more path clearing and buried franksolich.
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Frank Solich is 6'3". I'm sure he wrassels bears before breakfast and eats a keg of nails for dinner. If he would just go with the flamethrowers like I suggested, I'm sure he'd be able to get his monster truck out of the garage.
Look! You can even make one out of a super soaker and some windshield wiper fluid!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_tiL3VP9ic&feature=related[/youtube]
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Be sure to pop an update this evening if you can manage it, so we don't have to worry that perhaps the well-meaning couch crasher came back for more path clearing and buried franksolich.
Actually, I gave it up even before I got started, and worked on accounting all day long instead. Maybe the warm temperatures the next few days will erode most of it, maybe the guy who mows the grass will come back; I dunno.
The deal here is that, because I'm deaf, people have problems "communicating" their plans to me. It's a very good thing I was also born with a mellow nature, taking things as they come, when they come, how they come.
After all, there's not much I can do about it, other than be mellow about it.
I have no problem with weight, usually in the 178-184-pound range, but I'm always fully aware of what happened to the parents and siblings when life got easy and comfortable and secure for them, and remain eternally vigilant for any signs of the too-easy life and decadence.
I'm no gigantic primitive, but I can easily see where I can become one if I dare let myself go.
Actually, there's something else going on here, something possibly more important.
Moving mountains of snow--and with a garden spade, no less--involves a great deal of time and energy, but it has advantages.
The best job I ever had was the one I took after leaving Immigration & Naturalization, a decision which confounded most people in real life, as they thought it not only a step downward, but a BIG step downward. I went from a professional-level, well-paying, position to that of taking 20' long 380-pound lengths of pipe and bending them so as to make posts for basketball backboards.
It was a heavy arduous job.
But on the other hand, that was one of the most stress-free, care-free times of my life. It was great.
Why? Because much inner anger, resentment, and bitterness is inarticulable; one can't really explain what is really bothering one. But by heavy lifting, one is drained of all this, having "worked" all those negative feelings off.
And so that's why I do thing such as remove mountains of snow with a garden spade, or use one of those circa-1906 revolving lawn-mowers to trim the parts around here the guy who cuts the grass can't get with his tractor.
It's all good.
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For the love of god coach, keep that herd of beast well fed. I know they've been sizing you up since the first blizzard, and can you prove the man left with his machinery or did that pride of sandhills toms devour him and remove the evidence??
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Uh, just in case anyone's interested, which they might, or might not, be, it's snowing again this morning.
I dunno where that came from; as late as late last night, the forecast had promised sunny skies.
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Uh, just in case anyone's interested, which they might, or might not, be, it's snowing again this morning.
I dunno where that came from; as late as late last night, the forecast had promised sunny skies.
I send my condolences. We almost NEVER see snow here on the east coast of Virginia. Winds stiff enough to drive the "feels like" temperatures into the frigid range, yes, snow, no.
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Uh, just in case anyone's interested, which they might, or might not, be, it's snowing again this morning.
I dunno where that came from; as late as late last night, the forecast had promised sunny skies.
Oh nooooo! Thought it was supposed to be warming up out there! That's what the weather guy said her this morning! Wicked stuff in the NW....but not supposed to be hitting the midwest for several days.
Apparently you can't believe the weather guys....
Stay warm! And SAFE! :heart:
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It quit snowing about noon today, and then the sun suddenly came out.
The William Rivers Pitt is starting to show through the mountains of snow, looking very much like the head of a tonsured monk.
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Stay warm and safe!
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Hope all is well Frank. Its starting to melt a litle over this way which means it will be ice in the morning just in time for the daily commute to work.
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It is okay to have a life, Frank. Everyone got stuff that got to get done in the real world. :cheersmate:
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Frank, keep warm and safe. Next time someone offers help, take it.
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As of this morning, Wednesday morning, the sun is visible through the top third of the windows; this is the first time since the morning of December 23 one could see that.
It's been like living in a cave; so much so that I got a week's worth of work done in two days.....at the end of which I found myself with a bad cold, probably caused by stress.
Excresence happens.
I'm going back to bed with half a gallon of pure orange juice, and by the time I arise again, perhaps I'll be in fit form to scourge the primitives.
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As of this morning, Wednesday morning, the sun is visible through the top third of the windows; this is the first time since the morning of December 23 one could see that.
It's been like living in a cave; so much so that I got a week's worth of work done in two days.....at the end of which I found myself with a bad cold, probably caused by stress.
Excresence happens.
I'm going back to bed with half a gallon of pure orange juice, and by the time I arise again, perhaps I'll be in fit form to scourge the primitives.
I always knew work was bad for us. /jk.
Get well soonest Frank!
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Hope the orange juice works quickly!!
Feel better, Frank...