Emjay

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I am not even going to mention the "S"  word today or it might come out sounding like the "F" word!

A cool cat-in-the hat was on my train last evening.  I took this with my mobile phone as I noted that no-one else on the train even seemed to notice the unusual winter head gear.  What a shame that on a dismal day this did not bring a smile to more faces....  

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Well....   did I get a "holiday"  today?   No!....    while Federal Government employees and every school kid in the area had a day of fun I trudged to work.   I navigated the little trenches 3 of my neighbours had dug before coming to a dead-end where residents of 3 houses maybe 4 have not stuck a spade into the snow.  Dead-end ahead: 

No path ahead:

With snow above my knees I waded out into our street - it has still not been plowed but the snow has been packed down by 4-WD vehicles so it's not too bad to navigate on foot before turning onto Georgia Avenue - a major road and also a snow emergency route.  It was slushy and slippery but I walked along it anyway because you'd have to be 7 feet tall to walk through the snow on the footpaths.   Taking to the main road - my metro station is opposite that fancy new apartment block on the left: 

It took 2 hours to ride the metro to work today because service is severely limited.  The 40 minutes I had to wait at the first station gave me time to ponder many things including wondering how long one would have to sit on the stone/cement seats before they warm up: conclusion: if they are still frigid after 40 minutes they are not going to warm up!   

Recently one of my Aussie vox neighbours asked where all the snow goes when they grade the roads......  here is the answer GOF -  giant hills along the side of the road.  This is Arlington, VA where I work: 

  Of course, most often, this cuts off access for pedestrians to the footpath:

 There's a lot of snow in the park - no dogs out frolicking today:

Oh - and just incase someone in  Washington hasn't had enough snow they needn't despair - there is more forecast for tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!     

 

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I got out early and dug my escape path better than I'd done yesterday. It looks like a trench!  The banks are 23 inches high. 

  The sky was blue today but there was not much heat in the sun.   At one stage it got as hot as freezing and some melting started. It made pretty icicles from my awning.   There have been some roof collapses due to the weight of the snow.  Experts were advising homeowners with flat roofs to check the "integrity" of their roof.  I don't know how you are meant to do that - putting a ladder up on a base of snow and ice doesn't seem very wise to me.   Anyway - we don't own a ladder but we do have a flat roof. 

By hanging out over the deck I can see that there is a lot of snow up there.   The downpipe was frozen solid this morning so any melt would not be running off.  By this afternoon the pipe had thawed enough to allow a trickle out. 

Oh joy! - the weatherman just said we might get another storm Tuesday/Wednesday,  with up to 5 more inches!  The manservant is due back on Wednesday.....   At least with him away I don't have to watch the Super Bowl tonight!

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Being at home by oneself started to get a little boring by mid-afternoon - even with the wine and chocolates.   I made a first pass effort on the shovelling - just enough to let me see the steps so I could get safely out to the street.  There was just over 23 inches of snow in our front yard.  

  I don't know how much was down in the back courtyard -  I'm not going down these steps until the snow melts.  The alleys are not plowed or treated so I won't have to take the rubbish out for pick up this week.  There is a lot of snow on top of the rubbish bin anyway:  I walked up our street: I thought how nice it was not to have a car to dig out!  I watched one guy across the street take about 3 hours to liberate his car!  It didn't look a lot of fun.   This is Georgia Ave -  a snow emergency route.   I've never seen it so empty. This is New Hampshire Ave -   also a snow emergency route. These are both major roads and generally packed with traffic. I tried to stay out of the way of emergency and working vehicles -  even though they had to share the road with me: I trudged a few blocks - everything was so pretty:  I came across these guys looking for a cell phone in the snow.  There was a guy sitting in a car ringing the number and these two guys were digging towards the sound.  They had not found it as I walked off.   Tomorrow I will have a better go at my front path and steps and also tackle the footpath. The sun is going to be out tomorrow so that should help.

 

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The weatherman just said "Do not drink alcohol while you shovel" .     LOL -  I reckon that's the only thing that would get me out there at the moment!

He also called it "heart attack snow".    Apparently 1,200 people die every year from heart attacks brought on by shovelling;  one quarter of them women. 

21,000 people had to go to emergency rooms in 2007 with back injuries after shovellling. 

I think I'll just stay inside and drink my alcohol. 

 

Still here; still have power, internet and television;  still snowing.  They forecast it will continue to snow throughout the day with another 7-9 inches on top of what we've woken to this morning. 

Taken Friday night 11pm - from my front door barely stepping outside: 

Chairs on our deck Friday 11pm:  The same chairs at 7am this morning: Taken from the bedroom window around 7am this morning:   There is a set of  4 steps in there somewhere - you can just see the handrails against the snow:  The snow is a heavy wet type which sticks to wires   this is causing power outages around the area:   Photos taken around 7.30am while standing barely outside on the bottom deck - neighbours either side of me: My favourite light post across the alley - not so pretty without its glow:
This is the snow piled against my front storm door - which opens outwards!  Photo taken 8.15am.   I just tried to open it - it moves 6 inches.  Even naked I could not squeeze through a 6 inch opening!! :

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Yesterday the forecast snow accumulations for the coming storm kept increasing and increasing.  Each new alert sounded more alarming. We are going to be breaking records, crippled, and paralysed.  People will probably die.

And a huge, huge number of people think they are going to starve!!       Shops overcrowded so badly that some had to close and other places made people shop in batches.  There were lines 10-deep at 2am this morning in one 24-hour supermarket.   Serious question:  why do people race out to buy toilet paper?  Do people wait until the last roll or an empty cylinder before adding it to a shopping list?     Even if I was "stranded in place"  for a week with a gastro illness I would have enough toilet paper.

Area airports have people queued up out of the building and into the street - people trying to escape before a flake falls.  Afternoon flights inbound have been cancelled.  The metro has announced that they will close down outside stations when snow reaches 8" and schedules for the underground lines will be modified to a train every 30 minutes.

We've had a total of 27" so far this winter when our average is about 15" .  The storm approaching now and causing all this hysteria could bring 18-24" .

I got home from work yesterday to find that I had nil Comcast service;  no phone; no internet; no telly.  Oh no!  A blizzard's coming and I won't have any entertainment!    I do have books to read but I really hope the internet is fixed.  I guess if they don't get it fixed by late morning it won't be as no service guy is going to go up in a cherry picker in a blizzard!  

Well, my office never closes so here I am!!   I did buy some chocolates, ok a lot of chocolates,  at a corner store on my way in this morning  - that way I won't starve if I'm stuck in the metro going home (LOL).  

Here are some photos from the other day. This was a 5" storm -  I am actually looking forward to the beauty of  2 feet of snow and although I'm not looking forward to the shovelling, I imagine it will eat up all the calories I have lying in wait for me in the chocolates I bought.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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I have a love hate relationship with snow. I love how it looks and the beautiful images it makes; I hate the effect it has on commuting and I hate being out in the cold removing it.

I arrived in America (DC) the first week of January 2000 and a couple of days later 8 inches of snow fell.   I remember walking along the street and wondering where the blossoms were blowing from  -  I actually looked around trying to find something that was blooming in the middle of winter!!  LOL - silly me - they were flakes of snow (btw: this was not the first time I'd seen snow - that was in the UK in the '70s).

For the next nearly 8 years we lived in an apartment block and Charles E. Smith dealt with things such as snow and ice removal.
    
At the end of 2007, right at the beginning of winter,  we bought our house.  I absolutely knew the weatherman was right the first snow forecast because the manservant was in Chile. I shovelled with our pathetic garden shovel and politely declined the offer of a kind neighbour to do it for me.  A woman should be able to clean her own pavement.  (half way through the enterprise I was wishing I'd asked just to borrow his shovel though).

The manservant came home and I said "we must buy a proper snow shovel"....  but of course we didn't get around to it and the next storm I was shovelling again, with a garden implement,  while the manservant was in Hawaii.

Winter 2008/09  -  I had just spent over 5 months in a cast with crutches and was using a walking stick to get around.  We had a few ice storms but not really any snow - the manservant dealt with the ice.

Winter 09/10  -  We were away for the huge storm that hit DC just before Christmas 09 - we watched it on the news in Sydney while enjoying summer.  We arrived home to forecasts of snow; I nagged about getting a proper snow shovel. A few hours before he left for Chile the manservant bought a snazzy, bright red shovel. Sure enough it did snow but it held off until the night before he arrived home so I went off to work and left the cleanup for him.  (lest you feel sorry for him having to do that on-top of jetlag - it was really only conversational snow so he didn't have to work hard).

So - this past Saturday I knew for certain that it was going to snow  because the manservant is back in Australia.  Ditto the reason it snowed last night and with absolute certainty I know it is going to snow this weekend. I'm building up a some serious credit here at home!

Taken last night when the snow started falling.  I'm pretty sure the neighbours across the alley think I am a voyeur because I'm always pointing my camera that way (and zooming in!):   

A weird advantage of the snow this morning was that I was the only one in my car on my second train. I don't think I've ever had this happen on a work day before.  It made me wonder if there was a Federal Holiday no-one had told me about:  This is the metro station that I get off at in bad weather - it's the one closest to my office.  Those little box things are for commuters to lock bicycles in: The tree was weighed down with snow: Crossing the slushy street: Almost at the office:  The really good news, for me, was that it got to about 40 degrees today so I didn't have much snow to shovel tonight.

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It's bloody well snowing again!!!

WTF!!  I will have to shovel again tomorrow.

Now, isn't that better than a pretty picture!

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There are some things that I think should be done in the privacy of one's bathroom:

Brushing of dandruff- ridden hair,
Clipping of nails,
Flossing of teeth.

It's just nasty to do those on the train people!! 

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And, oh goody -  hope it's one of my stations (not):

News Alert: Metro plans anti-terrorism exercise Tuesday
06:40 PM EST Monday, February 1, 2010

Metro Transit Police will hold a "major anti-terrorism show of force" Tuesday during the morning rush hour at one of the agency's "busiest Metrorail stations." The agency won't release the location until Tuesday morning.