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[biomancer]

Thinking of those of you who are currently getting socked by the storm, as I prepare to be socked by it tomorrow and Monday.

It's supposed to rain first before it snows, and so the weather reports around here are predicting anything from a couple inches of rain to a couple inches of ice to a couple feet of snow.  I'm bracing myself for ice.  Snow we can handle, but ice shuts everything down.

[anthroid]

I'm at 18" and counting.  I have cleared the driveway twice, and I've cleared the plow detritus 3 times, figuring, in the last iteration, that all I have to do is store that snow on the road to the right of my property rather than trying to find a place to put it actually on the property, since the snow stacks are now pretty much above my head.  The plow driver is going to have to figure out where to put the snow he scraped in front of my driveway, not me--that's why I cleared it to the right; he'll clear that part away from my property.  My back aches a little, and I am happy that I am in excellent shape and that my workouts have produced not only good muscle tone but some actual strength, because I had several very good workouts today.  I figure I get to eat what I want tonight (pot roast!); I think I probably burned 1000 calories today!  I did manage to dig out the bird feeders (twice) and filled them this afternoon; I also broadcast some seed on top of the snow.  I dug out my outside Christmas decorations twice as well.  One isn't going to make it through the season (lights burned out) and I'll have to collapse it tomorrow...

While the dogs loved the backyard this morning, they now are finding nearly 2 feet of snow just a bit daunting.  I think they will go out eagerly tonight and come back in just as eagerly.  Our temperature has not yet dropped but it should do so in the next few hours.

I did not have to leave the property today and I don't have to leave tomorrow, and I'm just grateful to have a machine that does what it is supposed to do (blow snow vigorously in a direction I choose).  I think tomorrow will be more challenging, in some ways, than today--at least it was near freezing today.  Tonight and tomorrow it's going to be obnoxiously cold.

[lizzy]

Thinking of those of you who are currently getting socked by the storm, as I prepare to be socked by it tomorrow and Monday.

It's supposed to rain first before it snows, and so the weather reports around here are predicting anything from a couple inches of rain to a couple inches of ice to a couple feet of snow.  I'm bracing myself for ice.  Snow we can handle, but ice shuts everything down.

Here, too. The news says my area got 48+ last week. Now they're saying we could get it again.

And it's finals week.

Sob.

[bioteacher]

Chime! That's one reason I got my massage today rather than tomorrow. If we get freezing rain, I will not drive for anything less than a true emergency. My final exam is on Monday, so this could get interesting. Snow is fine. But ice? Unless you're driving a Zamboni, you're out of luck.

I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that the thermometer moves away from the freezing point. Bioson has a chorus concert followed by his band concert Monday night. I really don't want that to be cancelled or worse, rescheduled for the following (insanely crazy) week.

Forty-eight inches, Lizzy? I'm jealous. We don't even have 4 inches here.

[ursula]

Thinking of those of you who are currently getting socked by the storm, as I prepare to be socked by it tomorrow and Monday.

It's supposed to rain first before it snows, and so the weather reports around here are predicting anything from a couple inches of rain to a couple inches of ice to a couple feet of snow.  I'm bracing myself for ice.  Snow we can handle, but ice shuts everything down.

This is what we're supposed to be looking at, too.  In the past hour the temperature has shot up and the barometric pressure has been falling, so something is on the way.

[barred_owl]

Here's hoping all of you--biomancer, bioteacher, lizzy, ursula--stay safe and snug and warm tomorrow!  Do your schools have a contingency plan in the event that the weather brings everything to a standstill for finals week?

The snow has stopped here (I think), but it's sooooooo windy!  Hubby's grilling tools (yes, he grills out during the winter, too) have taken flight and landed in the yard below the deck.  There's a foot of snow drifted in front of the front door, and there are pretty little puffs of snow caught in the front door wreath, which I'm surprised has not been blown into the next county.  Seven deer came to feed on the hill behind the house earlier this evening, too.  They seemed unfazed by the wind and snow, but they have to scrape through the snow to find stuff to eat.  At least their coats are nice and thick now.

Time to settle back and watch "White Christmas."  Maybe some Bailey's to keep things warm inside...

[anakin]

Here in Frozen Tundra, it really is frozen tundra now. This is after freezing rain all night.

Every road in my general area is shut down - they pulled the plows about 2 or 3 this afternoon.

My crazy neighbor took the truck out and...I don't know, did something, during a blinding blizzard...and can't get back into his driveway with his F-350. There are two- or three-foot drifts in what used to be my street.

When I open the back door and ask enthusiastically "Who wants to go out!!" the Jedipups stand in the middle of the greatroom and look at me like, "Seriously? Are you f***ing kidding?" Joey turned around and walked away. I've had to shovel about 2 feet of blown drifted snow off the deck 3x today just to let them out.

And the thermometer is expected to give up the ghost tonight. You should hear the wind roar outside.

Total snowfall so far in Frostbite Falls: 17.5." But that's okay. The ground blizzard will blow most of it away (SNARK).

[barred_owl]

The phrase "ground blizzard" just reminded me of something, anakin.  We've been watching "snow devils" all day--like dust devils, only snowy.  Freaky!

[biomancer]

Thinking of those of you who are currently getting socked by the storm, as I prepare to be socked by it tomorrow and Monday.

It's supposed to rain first before it snows, and so the weather reports around here are predicting anything from a couple inches of rain to a couple inches of ice to a couple feet of snow.  I'm bracing myself for ice.  Snow we can handle, but ice shuts everything down.

Here, too. The news says my area got 48+ last week. Now they're saying we could get it again.

And it's finals week.

Sob.

I'd heard your area got walloped, and apparently SLACville got around three feet.  We had about 18" that fell (and Mom got all of about 4" back home near Pittsburgh), but it compacted down to a foot by Wednesday, and with the melt yesterday and today we only have a couple inches left.   If the storm starts as rain, we may be down to mud before it all starts to freeze up.  

I'm really hoping the temperature will drop enough tonight and stay low tomorrow so that instead of rain we have snow tomorrow. If it all comes as snow, we won't have to deal with ice.  Yes, we'll have to shovel/plow/snowblow, but snow is not as dangerous or hard to dig out as ice.

On preview - yes, it's finals here too, and our dean-equivalent sent out a contingency plan by email late yesterday.  I don't plan to leave the neighborhood tomorrow, and my final, which I give Tuesday, is already photocopied, so if school closes Monday I won't be scrambling to copy Tuesday morning.

My big worry, though, is that Mr.B is flying back home from Asian Country on Monday, and I'm supposed to go fetch him at the airport.  His flight is supposed to go through Chicago before he flies back into Local Major Airport, and depending on how bad it is at both airports, he may be delayed, and/or I may have a white-knuckle drive to and from the airport.

On second preview, you have smart dogs, Anakin (but we knew that).  And Barred_Owl, I've seen "snow devils" before - they can be freaky indeed!

[anon99]

My big worry, though, is that Mr.B is flying back home from Asian Country on Monday, and I'm supposed to go fetch him at the airport.  His flight is supposed to go through Chicago before he flies back into Local Major Airport, and depending on how bad it is at both airports, he may be delayed, and/or I may have a white-knuckle drive to and from the airport.

If the roads are bad, is taking a taxi an option for him? 

[biomancer]

My big worry, though, is that Mr.B is flying back home from Asian Country on Monday, and I'm supposed to go fetch him at the airport.  His flight is supposed to go through Chicago before he flies back into Local Major Airport, and depending on how bad it is at both airports, he may be delayed, and/or I may have a white-knuckle drive to and from the airport.

If the roads are bad, is taking a taxi an option for him? 

It's not a great option - it would end up costing at least $100.  We're not close enough to the airport to be in range for the usual shuttle and airport-limo services.  I'm picking him up because we didn't want to pay to leave the second car at the airport for his trip, as that would have cost close to $100.  The gas for two round-trips to the airport is only $20 (yay for a fuel-efficient car!).  His company covers the flight, transportation to and from the hotel, and the hotel, but not getting to the airport.  Since our budget is tight we save money where we can.  We just didn't know before he left that this storm was coming.

Oh well... this is why I have snow tires, and we fortunately only live 2 miles from the interstate.  The trip from here to the airport is all interstate (except for those two miles), so it should get plowed and salted.

[mountainguy]

Good luck, Biomancer!! Stay safe on the roads. Pepsiopolis is supposed to be wicked cold starting tomorrow night, but it looks like the snow is going to spare us.

I am deliberately *not* complaining about the cold weather, because it is statistically likely that my next job will be in the part of the country getting walloped right now. For reasons that aren't entirely explainable, close to 80% of the vacancies vacancies in my subfield this year are located in the roughly triangular area between Fargo, Kansas City, and Cleveland. I'm not excited about dealing with that kind of weather, but I'll deal with it.

[lizzy]

My big worry, though, is that Mr.B is flying back home from Asian Country on Monday, and I'm supposed to go fetch him at the airport.  His flight is supposed to go through Chicago before he flies back into Local Major Airport, and depending on how bad it is at both airports, he may be delayed, and/or I may have a white-knuckle drive to and from the airport.

If the roads are bad, is taking a taxi an option for him? 

It's not a great option - it would end up costing at least $100.  We're not close enough to the airport to be in range for the usual shuttle and airport-limo services.  I'm picking him up because we didn't want to pay to leave the second car at the airport for his trip, as that would have cost close to $100.  The gas for two round-trips to the airport is only $20 (yay for a fuel-efficient car!).  His company covers the flight, transportation to and from the hotel, and the hotel, but not getting to the airport.  Since our budget is tight we save money where we can.  We just didn't know before he left that this storm was coming.

Oh well... this is why I have snow tires, and we fortunately only live 2 miles from the interstate.  The trip from here to the airport is all interstate (except for those two miles), so it should get plowed and salted.

Wow--slow and careful, Biomancer!

I'm still hoping we won't get buried again, but it looks pretty serious. My uni has taken the unprecedented step of putting together contingency plans for Mon and Tues of finals week. That alone scared me more than the weather report managed to do.

I've hired a guy to plow out my driveway. That in itself is a load off my mind.

Hope everyone is keeping warm and dry.

[anthroid]

So I just spent a lovely 45 minutes talking with a very good friend.  But the dogs had to go do their thing, so I went to take a gander at the back patio and

OMG.  Another freakin' six inches fell in about four hours (and it hasn't stopped yet!).  I just spent 30 minutes clearing the small back patio while the dogs stood around in the snow (which seemed mainly to be close to the top of their heads) and looked forlorn.  I'm going to have to cut new paths in the backyard with the snowblower--tomorrow!

[mountainguy]

I just spent 30 minutes clearing the small back patio while the dogs stood around in the snow (which seemed mainly to be close to the top of their heads) and looked forlorn.

Stay dry, Anthroid!! "Forlorn" is how the Pepsi Poodle looked last winter when we had our unusually high snowfall (and he usually doesn't mind the snow at all!).