We’ve had more than three feet of snow here so far, and it’s still coming down — forecasts are saying we could see another foot and a half to two feet in the next twenty-four hours. News reports say that it shatters the previous record snowfall in this city, set in the early seventies. Where’s global warming when you need it? 😉
I can’t even see the picnic table in the back yard anymore… in better weather it’s a large octagonal affair, built on the stump of an absolutely massive tree, with an octagonal bench circling the entire thing. GoddessJ’s father refers to it as “the UFO.” Now it looks more like a wedding cake, with snow piled up on the table in the center, and a visibly separate pile surrounding it on the bench. Which has now merged with the snow building up from the ground. Yes, I have pictures, which I’ll probably post in the near future.
There’s a small extension on the front of the ground floor of the house, below the windows of my office. The snow is piled up so high on the roof of it that it’s literally halfway up the office windows. And yes, I have pictorial evidence of that too, as well as other fascinating and disturbing sights from our house.
We’ve also heard more sirens going by in the last two days than we’d heard in the entire previous two months. By several multiples.
Fortunately, our industrial-strength snow thrower is in the garage too, next to the snow shovels, and it looks like there’s enough room to get it out without moving the car (which wouldn’t be possible anyway) — whatever genius came up with the concept of the car-and-a-half-width garage gets my fervent thanks, yet again! I just hope that it will start, because I don’t think GoddessJ and I are up to clearing a path through this by hand.
Wish me luck, I’m off to do battle with the elements.
It’s a good thing that my snow thrower has an easy-start Briggs & Stratton motor, and that I paid the extra to get the optional electric starter module on it too, and that I’ve got an AC outlet near the garage door. I rarely use the electric starter, but today I’d never have gotten it started otherwise, it took a lot of cranking after sitting idle for so many months. That machine represents some of the best money I ever spent.
The pair of us (the snow thrower and I, that is) spent two hours wrestling with the snow. It’s so high that the snow thrower resembled a submarine at periscope depth, with only its discharge chute barely peeking above the crust. But I’ve got a car-width passage cleared to the road, and a human-width passage from the driveway to the door. I have to wonder how long it will last though, the snow is still coming down steadily. The pile outside my office window is up to 60% of the window’s height now.
I wasn’t the only one out in it either. I saw at least four other people at it, all with snow throwers of their own.
The final result (well, final so far) is nearly four and a half feet of snow. More is predicted for today, though it was clear and sunny this morning… I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll pass us by, but I’m already seeing some snow out there. 🙁