East Coast Blizzard (Friday, Feb. 5)

[Nick]

Snow is apparently not as gone as the weather people thought it would be. There is a very gentle snowfall right now, with a good grey layer overhead, though it's a very thin layer. Probably blow over in a little while. I'm glad it's coming down though. Much as I love snow itself, I much prefer it when it's snowing. When the snow's falling it seems like it'll last forever, but once it's done and the clouds are gone, all you've got left is the snow on the ground and the knowledge that, eventually, it's all going to melt away. BUT! They are calling for snow Tuesday night, possibly, with a strong chance of a nice snow coming down on Wednesday. So by the time all this has melted away or melted down to just little tufts, it'll be coming down again. Definite bonus there. Thank you, nature, for all your snow this year, even if it is a bit delayed. Would've been nice to have start back in late November, y'know?

[Holly]

I hope everybody has electricity today. Marilyn, it's hilarious to think about watching that movie right now. Seamus, have you thought about a snow blower? I've heard the electric ones are the best. Nick, glad to see you weren't buried in the snow.

The snow removal people dug me out at sunset. When I took my collie for an icy walk, the sidewalks and driveways looked like strange white cutouts in a giant white maze. Snowdrifts reach the top of four foot fences. One nice thing, I talked to some neighbors I've never met before. They had to close their business because of the snow and were trying to dig out.

I hear more snow is coming on Tuesday.

[TheShadow]

I'm at the beach here in Virginia and I've been watching how much the snow has been piling up on the news in those areas not so far away from me. How unfair, though honestly I am glad we dont have to deal with it. As lovely as the snow can be, feet of it seems more like a pain.

We got a lot of rain and flurries in the evening as the temp dropped, and then the roads promptly froze. It's the worst kind of winter storm.

Hope you guys are okay up there.

[Nick]

Snow wasn't too bad here. At its shallowest it's 22 inches, and in the deeper patches where the yard dips it's around 36 inches, but that's just a small patch at the bottom of the front yard. Everything else is around the 20s. Snowdrifts are a different story. My car is totally buried and there's a very nice one up to my chest down the street a bit. Not too terribly much ice, fortunately. At least not on my street. Furthest I've gone out is down the street to the local body shop to see how badly it got hit, because the owner is a very, very old man who lives in a tiny apartment above the shop, and I figured the conditions probably meant a lot of his staff either took off or would be a bit later than usual.

Hope anyone in Maryland is doing all right. A friend of mine is originally from Elkton and went down to visit her old friends this weekend, and she's been effectively trapped by the snow. And according to wiki, Colesville got 40 inches. Does not sound like a fun time.

[marilyn peake]

Nick and Holly,

I heard the same thing on the news tonight – another storm (actually, a convergence of two separate systems) predicted for Tuesday into Wednesday, with the possibility of up to 5 more inches of snow! Our electricity’s back on, our street’s been plowed, and we got our driveway dug out. Everything else is covered in snow and our evergreen trees are bent over in loops from the weight of it. I took photographs outside for a couple of hours today – everything's so beautiful out there!

[Nick]

5 inches? Ha, I want to live with you for the next couple of days. Calling for another 8-12 here by the time Wednesday is said and done, and I just got home about an hour ago after walking through this stuff. Unless that extra foot gives me the day off, for once I'm going to have to say no thank you.

[marilyn peake]

Nick,

They just increased our predicted snow amount - at least 7 more inches predicted now, and schools and some businesses are already cancelled for the next couple of days. I'm lovin' this! I say, Bring it on! We are worried about one thing, though. We can’t open our back door onto the deck because the snow is frozen there, so we can't shovel the snow off the deck. We might be able to open the gate to the backyard and go around to the deck that way, but we're pretty sure the snow in back of the gate will be frozen as well. We’re crossing our fingers the deck won’t collapse from the weight of more snow. Our deck withstood the snowstorm dubbed “The Storm of the Century”, though, so hopefully it will be fine this time as well.

[Holly]

Hi, Nick and Marilyn. I'm hunkering down, getting ready for the next one. I just bought two bales of straw, one for my icy walks, and one for an elderly neighbor so she can feed the feral cats that seek shelter in her shed. Straw is only $5.99 a bale here, and you can sweep it up when the snow melts.

The snow looks like a tsunami that rushed through the streets and froze.

[Nick]

Just increased our predicted amount. Was 8-12, now saying 14-20. Screw what I said earlier. Bring on another 20 inches, please.

[marilyn peake]

Holly – That’s so nice that you bought enough straw to share with a woman who feeds and shelters feral cats in her shed.

Nick – We’re suddenly supposed to get even more snow than predicted earlier, too. With two storms converging into one, the weather reports are now saying we’ll probably be getting ANOTHER major blizzard, with anywhere between 10 and 20 more inches of snow between tomorrow and Wednesday.

We finally figured out how we might be able to get to our deck to shovel it off, to prevent it from possibly collapsing from the weight of the snow. We hope it works. Strong winds and more electricity outages are predicted. All the fireplace wood was sold out at our grocery store today. We have some wood, but hope to get some more tomorrow. We’re looking forward to hunkering down and enjoying more of the gorgeous, pure white, sparkling snow outside! Our neighbors made snow ice cream and said it was delicious. Another family cleared off their barbecue grill – the kind that you can only use safely outdoors – in order to barbecue outdoors if the electricity goes out. They also realized that you can keep food cold without electricity by placing it in coolers filled with clean snow. So much ingenuity – it’s a lot of fun.

[Seamus]

Do you remember when a new snowfall meant going out after dinner and experiencing a silence so profound that it was nearly startling to hear your own voices? Do you remember the plump flakes resting on your eyelashes and landing on your delighted tongues? Do you remember losing a boot in the snow on the way to school? None of these things are part of this week's experience. I guess it's because it's so much of an emergency to keep shoveling. Maybe we'll see some of that if the next storm peters out. Stay warm, everyone.

[Holly]

Do you remember when a new snowfall meant going out after dinner and experiencing a silence so profound that it was nearly startling to hear your own voices? Do you remember the plump flakes resting on you eyelashes and landing on your delighted tongue? Do you remember losing a boot in the snow on the way to school? None of these things are part of this week's experience...

Back to the ice age!

Folks, remember to fill your cars with gas so the gas tanks don't freeze.

[JustineDell]

Crap! Crap! Crap! More snow....grrrrrrr. Not near as much are you east coasters (I feel for you, I really do). I think I may officially move to warmer climate.

[Holly]

Tuesday, Feb. 9... and it's starting to snow again.

I'll be hatting up soon and mustering out (that's what we call it in Gettysburg) and haulin' arse to the grocery store to stand in line with 9 million other people. Cat litter, toilet paper, the good coffee, potato chips, maybe a Riesling, all the stuff you need when you know you're going to be absolutely totally and completely TRAPPED.

[marilyn peake]

Holly,

I like your list ... especially the good coffee. We did the same thing - made sure we had multiple bags of some really great Starbucks coffee. I can't imagine being snowed in without good coffee. :)