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Susan and I both got the afternoon off and met at the Hub about 1:30. We stayed for a while but I really needed to get home by three. I had a project I had to get to before it got dark.
We have had issues with this part of the roof in the past. Snow melts and collects in that little valley and slowly creates a giant icicle. As the icicle gets bigger, water begins to pool behind and then manages to find it's way down the inside of the wall and destroy the dining room wall and ceiling.
I have strung heat cable up there but have not come up with a good way to wire it in other than attaching an extension cord to it.
So we got home and hauled out the ladder and climbed up there and got it plugged in. There was a sizable icicle already forming when I drove up to the house. But by the time we got out there, it had fallen, so no picture.
But here are some others.
I received great news today on the Answering Machine. The Snow Blower is repaired and ready for pickup. I am really impressed he got it done in a week and for $75.00. I didn't have time to pick it up today but he'll be there Saturday morning at 9, and so will I!
Another three inches of snow fell last night and continues to fall this morning. It's cold out so the snow is very light. That's a plus for me, who is already having trouble just moving the light stuff.
And of course, I am without snow blower so I am hoping my neighbor will take an interest in my sidewalks as well as his.
Today is back to work for another short week and then another nice Holiday repast. I'm hoping Susan will try to take it easy but that is not in her DNA.
She is having some of her girlfriends over tonight for a Holiday gathering of the girls. I don't have a piano lesson tonight but I may just hang out at the Hub or some place like that so they can be totally free of male influence.
I have a couple of projects involving Doctors to handle today. I should be writing about this on my Health Blog, and I probably will. But I felt like adding it here as well in order to create more content. True, it's forced content...but sometimes, content is just content.
We have survived Christmas Day and now are enjoying Boxing Day. Since I am un-Canadian, I am not participating. I'm not even sure what I would or should do.
I am presently warming a piece of left over prime rib, which we had for dinner last night. It's my second prime rib that I have cooked and my first good one...meaning the first one that came out tasty and delicious.
Yum! That was delicious AGAIN!
With the help of my neighbor Lou, I was able to get the snow blower into the car and up to the repair shop. I have my guy, Richard, who operates a small engine repair shop up in the Garland District. He said he would have to order the axle and that would be the most time consuming part of the repair.
I'm probably going to be without it for a couple of weeks. Hopefully, the snow will be sparce in that time.
We had a great Christmas Eve and Day. Susan and I took Mom to the Christmas Eve service at Plymouth and then to dinner with the Jensen clan.
We managed to get home by 9 and did our traditional Christmas Eve reading of "Christmas Day in the Morning" by Pearl S. Buck.
We had a lazy Christmas morning, opening gifts, having breakfast, opening a few more gifts and laying about.
We went over to Mom's about 1:00 and started the Prime Rib.
At some point during the afternoon, we made video contact with Susan's sister and family in Iowa. We had a nice 20 minutes video chat.
We finally sat down to dinner around 5. It was Mom, Susan and I, as well as Evy and Jeff.
In the middle of dinner we were visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Future when all the DuPree kids came ambling in for a visit. It was a great surprise and they stayed for about an hour.
During clean up, I carried a Christmas plate out to the car and slipped on the ice. There is a little water drop falling onto the walk from a corner of the roof eve, and conditions were just right for it to hit, splatter and freeze in a really wide area.
I hit it and my feet went right out from under me. I don't know how, but the plate did not break and I was essentially uninjured. I scraped a knuckle and banged my right forearm, but I am okay considering the state of the rest of my health. So I have logged my first official ice crash of the season. Hopefully, that will be the last!
So now the Holiday is behind us and we can relax a little. Susan went in to work for a few hours and then will be joining me shortly at the Hub for the Sun Bowl Football Contest featuring the Washington State Cougars.
They are playing the University of Miami Hurri-Bastards and are favored by 2 1/2 points.
I guess I'll update this post a bit later.
6:01 PM: The Cougars won 20 to 14. Susan her boss, Bill joined us after the first quarter and stayed until the end of the third quarter. The she went back to work.
The funny thing was that they where playing in El Paso, Texas in the Sun. Bowl. Prior to the start of the game, they had to clear the field of all the snow. During the game, it rained, or sleeted or snowed the whole time.
It snowed off and on all day yesterday, so when I got home from work, I had some snow blowing to do.
I had done some blowing in the morning prior to leaving for work but the snow throughout the day had pretty much negated everything I did. Plus, I had a lot of clean up to do and get to some areas I hadn't been able to.
I like to keep my end of the alley clean. It makes it better for the garbage collectors and everyone who uses the alley to access their garage. Plus, I feel obligated to clear the alley because I blow all the snow from my driveway into the alley.
So I got the driveway and the alley cleaned off and then I proceeded to the sidewalks. I did up the block behind me and then down the Wall Street sidewalk to Waverly Place.
I suddenly heard this rumble behind me and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a snow plow.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAA!
They did a great job of eliminating the berm that I wrote about yesterday. They also did a great job of creating a berm in front of my driveway.
But that is of no consequence to me. I have a great snow blower. It's a two stage monster with 6 speeds forward and two speeds reverse, electric start and a 26 inch wide hopper. But then it suddenly seemed at that moment to be not moving so well. I noticed the drive wheels were a little katty wumpus. Upon closer inspection, I came to realize that the driveline axle broke. Into two pieces.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Shit! What horrible timing! Not only was I going to have to deal with the berm without a snow blower, but there is still a ton of snow forecast for the NEXT SEVERAL DAYS!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I won't be able to get it into a repair place until Saturday and then I bet I'm a week out at least!
This is going to be disastrous for me and my neighbors. I'm hoping to be able to use my neighbor Lou's blower in the interim.
CRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
A couple of inches of snow fell last night and I was up and out there with the snow blower at 6:30 this morning. I didn't do the whole job I would have liked to do but I just didn't have the time.
I did some additional clean up when I got home last night. Somebody with a blade on his truck had run down Wall street at some point. It was a nice gesture but they did a really crappy job. They plowed a swath just wide enough to create one lane. In the process, they left a berm of snow well into the road that has since frozen and become quite impenetrable. I tried to chew it up with the snow blower and at least eliminated the berm in front of the driveway.
I hope the city plows will have the ability to decimate it when and if they ever come by. I saw evidence of them in the neighborhood as I left for work this morning. However, there is a great deal of snow coming down as I write this which means it will be even longer before the plows hit the neighborhood.
I can already feel the days getting longer!
We received our first substantial snow fall in two years last night. There was a good five inches of heavy snow on the ground.
Even with my bad knee, I got out the snow blower and took care of my domain. It took about an hour to cover my domain and I still have more to clean up, but that can wait until tonight...or tomorrow.
We had the second snowfall of the season over the night. I didn't really look at how much we got other than removing it from the cars. It was heavy, wet and about two inches. Maybe three. I did not have time to break out the snow blower, let alone the shovel. I'm going to pay for that later as it will be that much more difficult to snow blow when the snow has been walked and driven on and had a chance to harden up.
It's pretty chilly out today and the sun is out, so I can't really tell yet if I'll have some clean up to do when I get home. I'm not very excited about doing any work because my left knee has locked up on me again, and this time, it does not seem to be letting go. This is the third day now.
Pictured above is Susan painting the final snow flakes of the Painting Season.
We have been decorating sky walks since the day after Thanksgiving. It's a loooooong day when you go off to work at your day job and then you come home, change, load the car up with paint bags, and head downtown to spend a lovely three to four hours in one of 14 sky walks.
The good news is that we are finished.
We now have our evening to ourselves to do as we please. That is going to feel like a huge luxury.
I do have a project looming over me that I must get done fast. It's our Christmas card for this year. I have got to get it out. Christmas is 11 days away so I'm fast running out of time.
I know the basic plan and design. I had in fact, been planning to work on it months ago. I took all the pictures I needed last Christmas. I had the design in my head. I just had to sit down and make it happen. But we all know that was never going to happen.
It seems we missed a bullet. The wind never materialized, at least not in the quantities and gusts that was forecast.
The good news is nobody lost power. The really good news is that we didn't lose power.
We have received a lot of rain in the last two days. Over an inch on Monday and about a quarter of an inch yesterday. It's raining right now.
The excitement on hand for today is wind. The forecasts call for the rain to let up and the wind to come in, with gusts up to 50 mph. Considering how wet it has been, the fear is the chance for more trees to uproot and take out the 'lectricity.
Fortunately, I'm getting this post in while we still have...
