A Snow Newbie Here

A few years ago I was complaining that I didn't know what to do when it snowed. Well, four winters and about 80" later we know. We know when to shovel , when NOT to shovel. We know when to salt and when it's going to wash away. And we know when the shovel that we've been using shouldn't be left out in the back of the van. Ahem. But this year, snow? No. We are almost mid-February and we've had 1.7" TOTAL of snow this year. I have these GREAT snow boots, all of my children have snow boots that fit, and Lucy even has a cute little snow suit. But does it snow? Of course not. Yes, that's Tom doing the happy dance off to my side.) He's a snow-free person - he could do without the fluffy white stuff completely. But me, well, I have a love hate with the snow. It's beautiful, quiet (who knew that a carpet of white was so silent), and it's still (I'm all about still these days). But you do have to shovel it, the car gets stuck in it occasionally, some folks don't know how to drive in it, and it's cold (and wet for the most part). But I think I'm a snow convert. And hell, if it's going to be this cold (it's hovering right around freezing as I write this) then it might as well snow.

January 19, 2008

A Snow Newbie Here

We've been here in Virginia through one winter but I still consider myself a snow newbie. You see, I was born and raised in Texas and lived in Florida for a few years, but never in areas where it snowed. Actually, it did snow in Central Texas - once every 11 years or so. But having lived here for one winter I'm still not versed in snow behavior, snow driving, and general snow stuff.

The big thing I learned last winter was that snow was fun to play in, but that's about it. It's heavy to shovel, dirty underneath (and gross when it splats on the side of your car), and when they plow the street you can't get out of your driveway. I also learned when to shovel your driveway (yes, we didn't do it in time and had to pay two guys to clear the driveway and it took them THREE HOURS to shovel). So I was prepared this winter, or so I thought.

Since I couldn't get down the driveway without sliding and crashing into the house this afternoon,

Sam and I spent about an hour shoveling out the driveway (Ian was napping in the car). I wanted to avoid destroying our garage, so I parked at the top of the driveway instead and out we hopped to shovel. It was fun (and no, I'm not insane...well...that's a different discussion) - the snow was light and fluffy, and while it was coming down it was nice and quiet. After Sam shoveled off the sidewalk from the driveway to the front door all by himself, and I finished up the driveway, we built a snowman. He's pretty cool if I say so myself (both Sam and the snowman). The snowman has a nifty Power Rangers hat, some orange mittens, and a cool red scarf - all thanks to Sam. When we were done with the snowman, I woke Ian up and we all went inside and played for a bit.

Then my reality came crashing down. I peeked out the window and couldn't believe my eyes. The entire driveway was covered with snow and it was starting to sleet. Dangit. I missed again. When am I going to get this right? It wasn't supposed to snow anymore - it certainly wasn't snowing when we came in. Then, in the course of an hour it snowed more - lots more. I called my hubby and he said it wasn't snowing at his work - and he's all of 20 minutes from here. It not only didn't stop snowing, but it started to sleet and then rain, followed by more snow. So now I have a driveway covered in ice, snow, more ice, some sleet pellets, and more snow. How many winters does it take to get this right? When the heck am I supposed to shovel? If I do it too early it is covered up again. If I wait too long it is nearly impossible to do. I can't park on the street and ignore the snow on the driveway because we live on a street that is plowed and that, I'm guessing, would mean that we'd get plowed in. What's the trick here people - am I missing something? Help a southern girl out. And yes, they are predicting more snow on Saturday...sigh...

When she's not shoveling her driveway, Suzie blogs about life over at Confessions of a Not So Well Behaved Woman

YIKES! Big storm indeed

No wonder they are tweaking about this one. I was just hoping for some sledding snow - maybe I'll get my wish tomorrow!

And it missed us by a mile

Literally (a mile):

Big green hole = the DC area and our house.

*Image from NOAA on 12/26/10

Snow in August?

From weather.com yesterday:

Cloudy

Temperature:

72°F

Feels Like: 72°

Details:

Cooler than yesterday at this time.

Past 24-hr:

Precip: 0.01 in (est.)
Snow: 0 in

SNOW???!! Really? Come on now, it's AUGUST. It's been over 100 degrees recently. And yes, the temps have dropped, but it's still AUGUST.

Sledding?

In case you are wondering, you really can still sled a full month after the snow has fallen (at least if you are Sam, Lucy, and Ian):

Snow and Birthdays and Elections, OH MY! (Part 1)

Sorry for being MIA. Between the massive amounts of snow that we got in February, two very special birthdays, and an important election, I was swamped. But, I'm back! First, the snow. Unless you live under a rock you know that DC got dumped on three or four times this winter (I'm losing track). We received 60"+ of snow, depending on who you ask it might be over 70". Anyway, LOTS of snow. This is where I'd post a cute video montage of the boys sledding, Lucy eating the snow, Tom digging us out, everyone in their cute snowsuits, and so on, but no. All you get right now are a few pictures:

This is what we ended up with AFTER the Wednesday blizzard that I mention here. And we didn't get 5" as predicted, we got another foot of snow. So we were once again stuck in. Good thing I had a friend drive me to the store right before that big blizzard. I hiked out to the closest plowed out street, she drive me to the store, then we loaded the groceries onto a sled and I hiked back home, dragging my haul behind me:

And that was about day 5 of being trapped on our street. Then, the plows came:

This is the street in front of our house the first day that we had to go back to school (the Tuesday following the Wed blizzard). This was after the 9 days of being TRAPPED inside the house. We clearly weren't trapped - we did get outside - but we were not plowed out until the Friday after the snow storm's second go round. But when the plows did come through, they barely cleared a path wide enough for one car to get through. A school bus got stuck on our street that fist day even. I think one more day of plows coming through before we sent the kids off to school would have been helpful. It took them a full 5 days to come through again and widen the road and get the 4" layer of ice pack off of it. My poor van is in desperate need of an alignment now.

So that's the snow, and we survived. No ER trips, no big gripe fests, and children that were, in all honesty, completely behaved the entire time. I think the thought of living in close quarters with a mom they have driven insane was too much of a threat.

Part 2 coming soon!

World's Worst Valentine

Not only did I get my sweetie a Valentine, but I failed to get my kids set up properly for their Valentine's parties. But, honestly, I'm not losing sweat over it this time. So be it. After a tinge of guilt I've let it go.

You see, after the worlds worst snowfall/school closings/DC in the midst of a panic I assumed that we'd write Valentine's Day off completely. Any other year I'd sit with the boys as they addressed some form of store bought valentines (all this crafty artsy in me and the kids always want the store bought - KILLS me), and we'd have them ready for their party. Well, this year they were snowbound on the day of their party, so nothing doing on that end. But we were also snowbound the week before their party, so that too ruled out the acquisition of said store bought Valentine's. The failure on my part comes in when we look at all the free time we have had over the past 10 days, all the craft stuff that I have here, and my complete and utter lack of motivation to do anything. But more on that later.

So, the kids all head back to school, and yesterday, much to my surprise, the boys came home with a bag full of Valentine's from their classmates. After a bit of questioning as to how the ENTIRE rest of the class knew to bring their stuff in, they both told me, in the smallest voices possible, that they knew on Tuesday and just didn't bother to tell me. So I guess I'm not the only one who isn't losing sweat over it.

Now I just need to figure out how to repackage these Xmas cards and gift cards and get them to their teachers as we missed the last three days of school before winter break too!

Holding my vacuum hostage

Stuck at home for days and days, one would think that house cleaning would be a top priority. I mean, you are living in the place and there's not a whole lot else you can do to hide from any messes that are made. Not me though. Apparently when I'M stuck inside I order cleaning products online, knowing that a bigger storm is arriving, and laugh to myself as they are held hostage by the shipping company:

ALEXANDRIA, VA, US 02/12/2010 7:22 P.M. EMERGENCY CONDITIONS BEYOND UPS' CONTROL
02/12/2010 12:00 P.M. ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
02/12/2010 12:00 P.M. ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
02/12/2010 4:14 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY
ALEXANDRIA, VA, US 02/11/2010 12:00 P.M. ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
ALEXANDRIA, VA, US 02/09/2010 6:57 P.M. EMERGENCY CONDITIONS BEYOND UPS' CONTROL
02/09/2010 4:36 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY
HARRISBURG, PA, US 02/09/2010 1:11 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
ALEXANDRIA, VA, US 02/09/2010 12:01 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
HARRISBURG, PA, US 02/08/2010 8:15 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
US 02/08/2010 5:36 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

At some point, though, UPS will realize that our street has finally been plowed and will bring me my new little vacuum. And don't worry - we have two full size vacuums - I'm getting this one so that the boys can clean up after their messy selves. THAT'S the part that is driving me nuts about being stuck inside. As they get bigger their messes do as well, and I figure now is as good of a time as any to teach them to clean up after themselves - ALL the time.

SNuhOW!

What is this - storm #3? I'm beginning to lose track. More of the lovely white stuff - this time coming at us from every direction. It's "Blizzard like conditions" and we are once again getting pounded. Fun times!

At some point we will have to dig out again. The snow crept all the way up to our front door this time - no place to step out and snap photos. Then again I didn't really want to open my front door and let all of that stuff in. (And look at that poor little bush out front. I fear it's not the only one we lost.)

We were finally plowed out last night - right before this round started. Can't imagine when it will happen again. We were stuck for 5 days, and here we are looking at probably at least 3-4 more.

You're kidding, right?

From weather.com:

Farther east, light snow has already reached the Baltimore-Washington area. Snow will be on the increase through the evening and overnight and will spread northeastward as a new storm forms along the North Carolina coast.

That storm lifts northward and will grow rapidly stronger overnight and Wednesday bringing heavy snow and strong winds from northern Virginia through southern New England.

The combination of the heavy snow and wind gusts over 50 mph will produce blizzard conditions at times in the Washington, D.C., to Boston corridor. Some gusts over southeast New England may reach 60 mph.

Snow accumulations of 12 to 18 inches may prevail from northern Virginia through southern New England.

At some point this joke has to be funny. Not so much right now. Northern Virginia really is the south, at least on my block. But looking out my front window you'd believe otherwise:

Sam and Lucy

Today's post is brought to you by the letter "S." S is for snow, and S is for shoveling and S is for school being cancelled. And S is for sigh...

Sam

Lucy

Guess it IS Snowmaggeddon after all

A few weeks back, during what was one of the bigger storms that the Washington DC area has ever seen, I said in a blog post over at DC Metro Moms that I guess it wasn't Snowmageddon after all. Well, today President Obama called this storm Snowmageddon.

Guess it really IS Snowmageddon:

We are at about 18" and counting, and it's still snowing. Our little baseball bat is almost completely buried due to drifts.

The Baseball Bat

At some point in the last few months Virginia was lifted up and placed in Minnesota. Yes, we live in the land of snow now. This past week the boys went to school for a total of TWO days. Monday was a holiday, then we were snowed out both Wednesday and Friday - from two separate storms. You see, this winter we have had in the DC area 24" of snow. Our average for this area is about 15". Already we are over that average, we have snow sitting on the ground, and they are forecasting between 20-30" of snow today and tomorrow. Yes, we might get 2.5 FEET of snow. This is still DC, right? Crazy. Anyway, instead of a yardstick, which we broke measuring the last snow, we are using a handy dandy plastic baseball bat. The kids certainly can't use it indoors over the next few days, and hopefully it's tall enough. So far this is what we have:

First at about 11am this morning:

Then at about 7pm:

And now at midnight:

And apparently it will be snowing between 1-3" per hour over the next few hours. I'm wondering what we'll wake up to in the morning. Will we be able to even tell where the driveway is? Will we be able to get out to play tomorrow? Will it stop snowing at all tomorrow, or continue all day as they are predicting? Well, I can tell you that we will be able to find the driveway, thanks to Facebook and a fantastic hubby. My friends on Facebook (and one via e-mail) mentioned that they were shoveling or had shoveled several times today. You see, we snow deprived folks have to take our cues form our surroundings as far as functioning in conditions like this. So when I see that loads of other DC folks are shoveling, well, I send my hubby out. So he's out there right now trying to remove the 6-9" of snow that's fallen thus far:

And they are predicting another storm that will arrive next week, on top of the bazillion inches of snow that we have now. Wild, loads of fun, and makes for great sled runs. More from the bat tomorrow!

SNOW Again!

Is it a good idea for the sled driver to close his eyes? And does the passenger even care?

After sledding for a bit, Sam mastered the art of SNOWBOARDING down the hill!

Lucy was doing her part to "help" the boys build their snow castles.

And Max finally got up on the snowboard (and hit the ground a few seconds later!).