Snowpocalypse 2010, Part Deux - The Blizzard Edition

Well, another foot of snow fell yesterday since the weekend. We did not lose power this time, and were definitely more prepared in case we did.

We did a good job. Piles are much bigger.

A foot more on the deck.

This snow storm was much different than the previous two we've had this season... not as much snow but an incredible amount of wind, making it much more dangerous all around because of the lack of visibility and white-outs. There were moments yesterday, while looking out the front window, where I could not see the end of the driveway - it was THAT bad.

Our neighbor (with the end house) allowed us to start throwing snow on his yard because our piles were getting too high!

But the sun is out. The driveway is shoveled. The street outside is plowed (what it looks like outside the neighborhood is a mystery).

Look ma! The pile is taller than me!

The front of our house is the icicle house of horrors!

I've been home as the gub-ment has been closed for the past 4 days. I think we'll be open tomorrow, just in time for a 3 day weekend.

As of 2pm yesterday, the 2009 - 2010 winter is the snowiest winter on record. The numbers were revised upward a bit this morning, since it continued to snow until 10pm last night. Apparently, the official total at BWI airport for the season thus far was very nearly 80 inches! Holy crap!

That's 27 inches currently in our back yard... it was over 30; there's been a little settling down.

You think Thor will jump into that waist-high drift to my right? I think he may get permanently lost...

Snowpacalypse 2010 - Some Thoughts and Lessons Learned

The snowfall this weekend was a doozy. We got 25 inches measured in our front driveway. I know more fell in the area (Dulles Airport apparently measured over 30 inches). But I woke up this morning feeling pensive... there are certainly things that sucked about this weekend. But there are many more things now that I am truly grateful for. And some things I learned.

I am grateful that:
- I have a wonderful husband and dog, who kept me warm when we lost power and heat.
- While we lost power and heat, we did not lose hot water, and were able to take a hot shower.
- Our homeowners association was on top of the plowing and the roads were clear enough such that when it got too cold that...
- We were able to get to a hotel, that looked the other way when we told them we were bringing the dog.
- We lost power for only 40 hours. I have too many friends who are still without electricity and whose streets are not plowed. I'm thinking of you.
- The Federal Government was wise enough to close for the day to allow the roads to be cleared more properly... so that it's safer for everyone.
- For the little things - like heat, or a warm drink after shoveling in the cold, or a hot shower, or a hot meal.


Things I learned for next time:
- Always do laundry before the snow comes. It would suck to run out of socks and underwear with no way to replenish (I came dangerously close).
- Make sure the firewood is stocked. We really rationed our wood, using it only to dry clothes, etc. But it would have been nice to use it to simply keep warm.
- The garage is a great fridge in the winter when there's no power.
- All cell phones and Blackberrys should be fully charged at all times - they are the lifeline to civilization right now. Turg and I rationed the power on those too - always having at least one off, so that we had a backup for when another died.
- Lighting a bunch of candles can actually warm up a room pretty significantly - not like a roaring fire, but noticeably enough that we were grateful for it.

Icicles of Death

And because some shit is just too perfect:

Yesterday, after being home for a couple of hours without power, we decided to call-in our outage again to the power company (as suggested on the radio). I went through all the menu options, typed in our account number and got the following message: Pepco crews are currently working in your area to restore power. The estimated time for restoration is approximately 4pm. (it was 3:15pm when I called). I had the phone on speaker, looked at Turg and said, "Hey, 4pm!" and hung up. Literally one second after I hung up the phone, everything in the house powered back on. Stunned, I look at Turg and he says, "You should have called them sooner!"

They are forecasting another 6-12 inches of snow for tomorrow night to Wednesday. We know what we need to do to hunker down. I love the snow generally. But this is exhausting.

**UPDATE** Now they're saying 10-20 inches. I'm already tired thinking about the shoveling we'll need to do...

Pig races. PIG. RACES. Seriously.

I had so much fun this weekend. It's sometimes amazing how simple it can actually be. Beautiful weather. A fun activity. Good company. HB, aka Thor's first girlfriend, came down for a visit prior to embarking on the journey called "college." And, in honor of her visit, we went to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. Having never been to a county fair before, I had no idea what to expect. Mind you, having grown up in NYC, I spent the summers going to fairs - but these were street fairs, where the only live animals I saw were the goldfish to be won or horses with police men atop.

The three of us, me, Turg and HB, wandered, ate all sorts of bad food (oh, but it was oh, so, good), visited farm animals, rode carnival rides and brought farm fresh fruits and veggies. By far, though, the highlights of the day were the bumper cars and the pig races. That's right. I. Said. Pig races. But I'll get back to that.

We were riding the ferris wheel. Really a gondola wheel, they don't actually have ferris wheels anymore, do they, what with all the people falling off of them... - sorry, got distracted there. Anyway, we were on the big round rotating thing when we looked down and saw a tent with bumper cars. I had not done bumper cars since I was really little, and all three of us pretty much lit up at the thought. And it was fun. Some observations about bumper cars: 1) It is much more fun when the group is mostly adults. The reason is because adults seem to be able to control the cars better, and there are fewer pile ups (which I got caught in with a bunch of kids). 2) Five minutes is not NEARLY long enough. At the end of the second session we did, I literally thought I could do that all day. 3) Turg's maniacal face that he makes when readying himself to ram someone scares little children.

Back to the pig races. During the pig races, they not only raced regular farm pigs, but also billy goats, ducks and Vietnamese pot bellied piglets. Our favorite races of the day were definitely the goats and the pot bellied piglets. For the goats, because the goats are like children with ADD. While racing around, about a 1/4 way around the track, one of the goats sees a teddy bear sitting on the ground, stops running and is all like: Oh, look at the teddy bear. Isn't it cute... *looks around* Where'd everyone go? Oh, I'm supposed to be running. Wait for me... Oh, look at the kid.

The pot bellied piglets were just soooo terribly cute, what with the really short legs and bellies dragging on the ground, they really kick up crap while they're running. But the best part was after the race ended, one of the piggies came back out and was all: HI! Hi there! Look at me! I'm totally cute! a la Mini Chewbaca. The handler literally had to pick him up to stop his showboating.

The day ended with a trip to the crabhouse for dinner, then Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. I could not have asked for a more perfect day.