My heart is yours, Beloved Husband; slightly lop-sided, snowy, and filled with fun! Yours forever.
Wishing all of you love and friendship.
The not-fun part of nine feet plus of snow
Geesh, what a day. It started out decent. The paperwork is almost done, and I’ve had fun answering email from friends all over the country who’ve read about our Snow Adventure in the New York Times, among other places. We even got to the gym, anticipating that we won’t be able to get there for a few days.
Why, you ask?
Because of the next storm. Cue the ominous music.
(Edited at 8pm to add: the snow has started.)
BH spent the afternoon helping out a friend in Oswego whose newly renovated rental house had its pipes freeze and burst and pretty much ruin everything. The insurance guy said an adjuster won’t be able to look at it for at least a week and half because of all the claims that are (ahem) snowballing in this region.
We know of one house in our town that suffered a catastrophic roof collapse. The gentleman who lived there is OK, but the house….
Last gasp of lake effect… Nor’easter approaching
My hat is off to whomever decided that Central New York’s boy’s swimming sectionals should be held in mid-February. Brilliant. Sitting at finals yesterday my feet finally thawed and bones warmed up. Number One Son took fifth in the section in 100-yard breaststroke and 3rd in the consolation heat of the 200-yard IM. Now he gets to chill (ha) a few weeks before track season starts.
(One quick rant… did you know that some people think that their flesh is transparent? I sometimes feel invisible, but I’ve never thought that others could actually see through me. A few truly obnoxious parents at yesterday’s swim meet (I will not name their kids’ team because other parents from there were sweet) kept standing at the railing while the rest of us stayed on the bleachers and tried to see through them to watch the swimmers in the pool. There were signs everywhere telling people not to stand at the rail. Maybe they couldn’t read. The situation started at Clueless, moved quickly to Selfish, and hopped to Rude. When BH finally asked them to sit down so that we could actually see the pool, a woman told him he should just stand up. Meet my husband, the man with the bum knee. I wanted to throw her in the water. Her husband finally got her to sit down and the meet concluded in a state of more or less peace. But, geesh…… end of rant.)
We’re expecting another six inches of snow today and that should be the end of the Lake Effect Snow that has been dumping on us for more than a week.
Late tomorrow and Wednesday we are expecting a Nor’easter storm to blow in. This could mean several more feet of snow piling up, quickly. Ye gods above. BH is working the phones right now to get someone to clear off our roof. The guy we had lined up to do it is still dealing with problems at his own house. We also need to have the driveway plowed out – a couple of feet of snow have fallen since the payloader came in last week. And we are cringing at the thought of spring…. because all of this has to melt. We’re going to need to dig trenches to ensure that the melting snow drains away from the house and not into our basement.
I am going to let him deal with that while I try to finish all the paperwork stuff I abandoned last week. Yippee. I also want to get outside and play in white stuff. That will be my reward.
100 inches and counting, plus bathing suits
The lake effect storm machine is slowing down… a little. We were able to get down to Syracuse yesterday for the swimming sectionals competition. It felt like driving from the Arctic to Virginia. Mexico, Parish: mountains of snow. Central Square: hills of snow. Cicero, Liverpool: some snow. Syracuse….. not so much.
The weather wizards are saying that my town has more than 100 inches of snow from this “snow event”. (What a dumb phrase that is.) Some said 108 inches. Some said 110. Really, people, once it’s over your head, it doesn’t matter. The Weather Channel has posted pics.
But it was wonderful to get in the pool area of Nottingham High School, strip off the winter clothes, and lounge around as if it were 75 degrees… because it was 75 degrees!
Australia teaches us how to laugh, and yes, more snow
Does anyone know how to ship a snowball to Australia so that it won’t melt before it arrives?
theapplicant has posted a hysterical Aussie version of my maple snow photos. Seriously, you must see this. We howled.
To give equal time to our friends Down Under, I present the weather in Sydney, Australia today. (For the record, I am a total weenie about heat. I hate, hate, hate it and would probably crack and break into a million pieces if I lived in a place that was hot and dusty for more than two days.)
Here in Mexico, NY, we now have eight feet of snow from this week’s storm. Day 7.
Swimming sectionals are finally going to start today, so we’re loading up the truck and preparing to head out for that. (Number One Son is competing in two events.) It will be snowing while we’re away, but not enough to prevent us from getting back up the driveway when we get home. The meet will be packed with people and very hot and humid, so I have to dress as if it were 80 degrees out. Then I have to cover all of those clothes with wool socks, boots, snow pants, sweaters, jackets, scarves, etc. We’ll drive across the tundra to the meet, go inside, and try not to melt before we strip off the winter gear. At least it will give us plenty of soft stuff to sit upon.
If you live around here and you are bored today, do me a favor. Take a shovel and find a fire hydrant. (Especially if you live in Oswego, and I am waving at all youse guys at SUNY when I say that.) Firefighters in the area are exhausted from trying to fight fires in houses that are surrounded by mountains of snow. Finding the hydrants under the snow wastes time and could mean the death of someone or the loss of a house. Grab your friends, grab a shovel, and dig out a hydrant. It will give you bragging rights. (Thanks, Biggest Q, for the tip.)