We Got a Little Snow

Oy. And it's heavy "heart attack" snow.

Lots 'o municipalities are out, or low, of salt. Some say they're not laying down salt until this is over. I heard that up by you, McHenry County is definitely out of salt. Priapus better have some good snow tires or a determined disposition.

 

Priapus could always follow the neighbour to work. Provided he takes his 'shovel', of course.

 

Definitely!

I'd rather have had TWO feet of fluff instead!

My snowblower rarely clogs, but this stuff made it hard to keep clear.

 

I use a snow blower. We have two.

Tom

 

I like the exercise and lack of petroleum that a shovel gives me. But today was a back breaker. Heavy wet snow (judging by the time the snowblower users took, I don't think it was a piece of cake for them either).

Here's a couple pictures taken early in the day, when I dropped something off at my prairie restoration HQ. It doesn't look like much in the picture, but there was already a good 4" by then, it was just so heavy the car sits on top of most of it instead of pushing it out of the way or squishing it down to a 1/4" like normal.



Leaving, I stopped near the top of a slight incline where the driveway meets the road and waited for a break in traffic. Then I was spinning, and couldn't get out. Coasting back a few feet and trying again didn't help. After bragging up the Prius' abilities in snow, I was a little disconcerted. Luckily it was no problem to back up a bit more, and on the next try keep my momentum as I went onto the road. (The roads were bad, snowplows go by but couldn't keep up with the snowfall, and generally there were two ruts in the road each direction that you had to follow). I felt a little better later in the day when I went over to a friends place and his 4WD Chevy 71 was parked in the middle of his driveway, and I could see some tire tracks going back and forth. Turns out he couldn't get his 4WD SUV any farther up the driveway (he hadn't shoveled or snowblowed it, by then it was about 8" worth, still heavy wet stuff). That was no more of an incline that what I was faced with, although significantly more snow by then.

 

A few years ago we had 240" for the season. That gets a little hard on the old body, especially if your driveway is large.

Tom

 

We got at least a foot of snow here in Milwaukee, too. The gusting winds resulted in a driveway that has snow 18-20 inches in places. I shoveled my sidewalk x2 yesterday (to keep it manageable), but Fiona is going nowhere until my plow guy comes. Fortunately I don't HAVE to go anywhere, but I imagine I will be snowed in until early this afternoon. So now it's off to wade down to the street to get the newspaper that is perched on top of a snowbank.

 

I've run a newspaper through the snow blower. It's hard to read after that. I don't get a paper, but my folks do. The newspaper person throws it into the driveway, then the snowplow comes along and buries it. Even with the bright orange bag you can miss it, and then "Whmmph", out comes confetti.

I don't care for all of the printing, distribution, and recycling that goes into reading a printed paper. I suppose if I actually cared much about what was printed I might be more willing to deal with all of that, but at this point in my life I prefer reading my news online.

Tom

 

With all the news on TV lately about the sub zero weather and snow that the Midwest areas are experiencing, we shouldn't forget that Southern California has its share of devastating weather also.

Attached is a photo illustrating the excessive damage caused to a home from a west coast storm that passed through the San Diego area. It really makes you cherish what you have, and reminds us not to take life for granted.

 

Hi Gbee,

Nope, your average home snowblower cannot move this stuff. One really needs a snow-scoop. That way there is no lifting involved, just pushing and pulling.

 

Hi All,

On the tv news this morning there was a picture of a snow plow pulling another snow plow out of where it got stuck up around where Nerfer and Tony live.

Luckily we only got 3 inches down where I live.

 

A chair tipped over? I know you meant this to be funny, Godiva, and it is, to a point, but...

 

Okay, I won't judge you too harshly on that We get about a tenth of that here typically, this year it's already in the 30's. Where I grew up we'd get 70" in a typical year, 100" in an unusually snowy year. But due to compaction, at any one time it was never more than knee-deep (except in drifts).

I'm in SW Lake County, we got maybe 10"-12" altogether, with several hours of rain/sleet preceding it (my thermometer was at exactly 32'F for about 18 hours straight, it would have been a lot different at 3 or 4 degrees cooler). Tony got more snow from this storm than I did. Although it's a fair bit of snow for this area, what made it especially difficult to deal with was it was so wet and heavy. It's in the 20's (Fahrenheit) today, and that snow is "freezing" making the roads very rough to drive on. Not the usual stuff that will squish or blow away when a tire goes over it.

 

We'll remember that the next time there are large-scale fires out there, or an earthquake, or mudslides...

 

Its all global warming! Look out for global warming. Its making it snow more in the midwest.

 

The snowblowers we use up here would move it just fine. They even go through three feet of hard packed ice from the snow plow. Wet, dry, sticks, leaves, and the occasional cat all go through the blower just fine. Just kidding about the cat, but one would go through.

Tom

 

Yes, exactly. I was trying to point out in my own subtle way that California has 'weather events' of its own to be wary of. 'Blowing snow', I'm told, is something completely different there.

 

I think it is bloody hilarious Godiva. Some people need to learn to laugh a little. Why is it a lot of Americans struggle to laugh at a tough situation? Beats crying!

Of course if you live in those places where snow fall is normal in winter you should expect it to snow and if you live where there are hot summers don't be too surprised when it's hot in summer.

I wonder what having all that snow on top of a car does to the suspension?