Snow Clean Up at Icicle Fantasy Land

Icicles everywhere.

I woke up this morning to a light snow fall coming down but not sticking. After a nice breakfast of CheeseEggs and Ham, I got dressed and headed outside to do some snow blowing tidying up. I cut a path from the back door through the side yard to the front. I cut another path in the backyard to the hot tub.

While engaging in this activity, I noticed the giant icicle that usually forms near the upstairs bathroom was well on the way to being huge. I knocked off what I could from the bathroom window. However, I have some heat cord in that area and I had not plugged it in yet. I requires breaking out the ladder and climbing up there with an extension cord to hook it up. 

A six inch strip of my heat cord had been enveloped by the icicle and so a huge chunk of the icicle remained suspended from the dangling cord.

So now I had to break out the ladder and climb up there with an extension cord to hook it up. I broke it up as much as possible but a large piece remains while the heat cord does it's job.

I just went out and checked on it and it has fallen off. That of course, verifies for me that the heat cord is working.

Snow Blow Man

It's been a busy week for the snow blower. I was out on Tuesday morning and did the driveway and the sidewalk on three sides of my block. I ended up driving that day because when it snows, the bus schedule is not reliable. 

It snowed again on Wednesday night which had me out blowing on Thursday morning. I had to take a break because I ran out of gas. I quickly drove over to the local gas station and procured a gallon of Premium. I got back and had enough time to finish my rounds.

It started snowing last night just after I got home from work. It snowed well into the evening, requiring another round of snow blowing at 6AM. I know it's early but I do my neighbors sidewalks to mitigate any bad feelings. Of course, the neighbors I ignore on the other side of the street hate my snow blowing guts.

Sunday in SnowTown

Round Two of Winter Storm 2020 is happening as I type. It has been snowing for about an hour and if it keeps up like this, I think the 2 to 4 inches predicted in the forecast will come true.

Here are a couple of pictures from around the neighborhood.

If you look very carefully, you can see snow falling.

12:30PM: The snow has stopped. 

12:51PM: The snow has started again.

According to my weather station, it's 38 degrees out. However, I am having less and less confidence in my weather station as more systems on it fail. The anemometer which measures wind speed and direction doesn't work any more as well as the in door temperature sensor.

So I put a thermometer out side and it says 55. I'm going to give some more time to acclimate.

2:47PM: It's 39 degrees. The snow turned to rain and now it has stopped.

5:10PM: We are watching the Seahawks in their playoff game against the Green Bay Packards. It's not going well for the Seahawks. It's halftime and they are down 21-3.

It appears that the snow is over. Perhaps it will happen later tonight and if it does, I might post something about it.

Winter Storm 2020 Aftermath

It has warmed up substantially which has made the 5 inches of snow here at the house even heavier than it was last night. I got up a little after 8 and was firing up my snow blower by 8:30. The chute kept jamming with sloppy slushy snow. It made it very difficult to clear all the snow. Fortunately, my neighbors had gotten out before me and cleared their areas so I had less square footage to cover.

Nonetheless, it took about an hour and a half to clear everything.

There is more snow forecast for tomorrow. I am ready for it and I am also anticipating the arrival of plows in the neighborhood. They will clear the street but they will also create giant berms along the curbs and driveway entrances. Without vigilance of care, it can become a mess quickly.

We have inherited a cat that we don't want. We named him TwoToes because he has two white toes on one foot that stuck out to me.

He's very friendly but he's also very needy. He bit Susan on the arm when she was getting food for him. It wasn't malicious but that didn't keep her arm from swelling and turning red around the area of the bite.

She went to the doctor who prescribed antibiotics.

We are taking TwoToes to SCRAPS today. It's unfortunate but he is not our cat. Especially since Susan (a total cat person) is very weary of him.

Let it Snow

Anticipation builds as we await the coming of a Winter Storm.

Winter Storm 2020!

It's very exciting.

This has been the main focus of the news the last couple of days. This and an avalanche at Silver Mountain that killed three skiers on Tuesday.

The forecast is calling for between four to se7en inches to fall starting around mid day and making the P.M. commute a slide show of fun and dented fenders.

I'm on the bus of course so I'm not too worried about my commute, other than the buses running late.

The snow blower is gassed up and ready to blow. Now I just have to wait for the white stuff.

10:33AM: I just looked out the window and the snow has started. It's not even sticking yet. I guess I should take some pictures of the frosty progress.

Not much happening here. You can't even tell it's snowing.

Here we are at 3:15. The snow has been falling steadily since it began and is still coming down. I don't know if it is going to turn into 7 inches, let alone 4 but we shall see.

In the hour after I took this picture, the snow started to accumulate.
Getting home on the bus during a snow storm is no walk in the park. I waited for half an hour outside work and the 20 minute ride took 40 minutes to get downtown. Once there, my transfer bus was 16 minutes away. Then it was delayed. After 20 minutes, the schedule said 50 minutes. I could walk home in 50 minutes. And so I did.

Now I am home and very happy to be here. 

There is a good seven inches on snow on the ground and it's still coming. I would like to get in a round of snow blowing tonight but I will settle for a little shoveling from the garage to the house.

I must say that I am impressed with the Weather Service. The snow fell just as predicted.

10:35PM: Here is a picture for the statistics of the night.

And here's another for the front yard.

The snow is wet and heavy. Great for making a Snow Individual. Unfortunately, it is raining now. So that individual would wash away. Hopefully by morning.