Snow Job
I'm sitting here, blogging and listening to Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" CD because I can't go anywhere. Once again, just like last year, the weather has me pinned down at home. I'd hoped to take the girls shopping in Williamsburg today, but the wind is strong from the northwest and the roads out here are drifting shut. AGAIN. Arg!!!! I know how bad the roads are because I had to pick Hannah up from the high school at 1:00 (jazz band contest) and I had to use four-wheel drive twice trying to get home. The plan had been for me and Mary to get Hannah from the school, go out to lunch, then drive down to the Tanger Outlet Mall, but nnnooooooo.....
Most people are comparing last year's winter to this year's - a very valid comparison. Last year at this time we'd had a little over 23" of snow. So far this year we've had 25". The difference, though, is last year it was consistently cold and we never had any thaws. The drifts piled up and you couldn't see the fence posts on the west side of the road. This year we've had at least one major thaw, and although the drifts alongside the roads are high, they're not as high as last year - you can see the fence posts above the snowline. We're supposed to have another thaw this week, which will be nice because last week it was so drat blasted cold that Cedar Rapids set a new record for low temperature. Not just for a particular day, but for all time! The previous record had been -28 degrees, and we bottomed out at -29. We had windchills at -51 degrees. Between that and the snow we had (3+ inches Monday night and 7" Tuesday into Wednesday) the girls ended up with three snow days. And, to add insult to injury, we are temporarily without the services of our little garden tractor and its snow thrower attachment. A pulley (either the drive or the clutch) fell off when I tried to start the tractor Wednesday night, and Carl can't get the bolt that holds it on to stay tight. But I called the place in Keystone that sells and services little tractors like ours, and they're coming Monday to take a look at our problem. If they can fix it on site, they will, but if they can't they'll haul it back to their shop. They have a trailer that they can haul the tractor/snow thrower combo on. Yeah, it'll probably cost me an arm and a leg, but it will be worth the money not to have to shovel out the driveway like I had to do Wednesday night in the subzero weather.
So, needless to say I'm already sick of winter. Not so much that I'd want to trade in blizzards for hurricanes, but enough to make me doubt the forecast of "light and brief flurries". I mean, I can hear the wind pounding against the side of the house even though I have ear-buds in. (By the way, I've switched from NGDB to Mannheim Steamroller.) At least the temperatures are going up. It's warmed all the way to 26 degrees above zero! Wahooooo!!!
Now, everyone sing....."We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave....."
Most people are comparing last year's winter to this year's - a very valid comparison. Last year at this time we'd had a little over 23" of snow. So far this year we've had 25". The difference, though, is last year it was consistently cold and we never had any thaws. The drifts piled up and you couldn't see the fence posts on the west side of the road. This year we've had at least one major thaw, and although the drifts alongside the roads are high, they're not as high as last year - you can see the fence posts above the snowline. We're supposed to have another thaw this week, which will be nice because last week it was so drat blasted cold that Cedar Rapids set a new record for low temperature. Not just for a particular day, but for all time! The previous record had been -28 degrees, and we bottomed out at -29. We had windchills at -51 degrees. Between that and the snow we had (3+ inches Monday night and 7" Tuesday into Wednesday) the girls ended up with three snow days. And, to add insult to injury, we are temporarily without the services of our little garden tractor and its snow thrower attachment. A pulley (either the drive or the clutch) fell off when I tried to start the tractor Wednesday night, and Carl can't get the bolt that holds it on to stay tight. But I called the place in Keystone that sells and services little tractors like ours, and they're coming Monday to take a look at our problem. If they can fix it on site, they will, but if they can't they'll haul it back to their shop. They have a trailer that they can haul the tractor/snow thrower combo on. Yeah, it'll probably cost me an arm and a leg, but it will be worth the money not to have to shovel out the driveway like I had to do Wednesday night in the subzero weather.
So, needless to say I'm already sick of winter. Not so much that I'd want to trade in blizzards for hurricanes, but enough to make me doubt the forecast of "light and brief flurries". I mean, I can hear the wind pounding against the side of the house even though I have ear-buds in. (By the way, I've switched from NGDB to Mannheim Steamroller.) At least the temperatures are going up. It's warmed all the way to 26 degrees above zero! Wahooooo!!!
Now, everyone sing....."We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave....."
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