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01 February 2011

Someone else always has it worse. Trying to remember this as I dig out from under a massive snowpile today and tomorrow, yet again.
Oh, the Year Without a Summer! By Jill Lepore! I can't wait to read that. Though actually I will wait to read it in the print edition.

On topic ...my dad sent me a file of these pictures of snow in Russia.

I'm debating whether it's smarter to leave work now, or wait until the roads get a first plowing.
posted by Miko 01 February | 13:00
Oops, Year Without a Summer was later. My mistake. On the other hand, awesome, another horrid historical wintry event!
posted by Miko 01 February | 13:03
Miko, my father-in-law sent me those same pictures. I'm actually a little jealous, I like snow and we're just getting dreary rain.
posted by octothorpe 01 February | 13:32
I started reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter to my daughter yesterday. Seemed appropriate.

octothorpe, we are getting sleet/freezing rain/wintry mix right now where I am -- it's like the worst of both worlds! :p
posted by fancyoats 01 February | 14:01
Here in Fresno, the sun is shining. The windows are open. A fresh breeze wafts throughout.
I'd trade it all to be in Chicago right now.
Ya'll are so lucky!
posted by Ardiril 01 February | 14:06
Glad to be in temperate Seattle . . . but for what it is worth, I find almost all my less wonderful chores have gotten a lot more enjoyable as I implement my New Year's resolution to tell myself I "get" to do them instead of I "have" to do them.
posted by bearwife 01 February | 14:09
I started reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter to my daughter yesterday. Seemed appropriate.

Gad Zooks! The Laura Ingalls (Wilder) books are wonderful, but make me really happy live in modern times, and to be coastal California. Cattle freezing their faces to the ground? Locusts, prairie fires, then drought?

There was some sort of back-up at my usual on-ramp this morning, and I was grumbling about traffic. Then the radio news reminded me that there was nasty weather elsewhere in the US, so I realized I had nothing to complain about.

Stay warm, bunnies!
posted by filthy light thief 01 February | 14:14
I work from home and Mrs Agogo will be as well tomorrow, so we don't have to deal with traffic, which is the main thing that sucks about these storms. As long as the power stays on (knocking on wood) I'm looking forward to all of the snow. Tonight we'll probably sit on the couch with the blinds open and watch it snow while drinking beer and listening to music, which is a kick ass way to spend the night.

They're predicting about 20 inches of snow here in Chicago, which is so much it's not even WTF/OMG. It's more funny than anything. Of course, there is no way my cable will stay connected - it goes down with even a tiny storm.
posted by Slack-a-gogo 01 February | 14:42
Just made it home. Looks like we'll be housebound today and tomorrow. Once or twice a winter it's fun...fourth or fifth time, just irritating. Will try to embrace my enforced hibernation.
posted by Miko 01 February | 15:04
I remember my father making a reference to 'year without a summer' once when I was wee but I thought he was just making shit up. Whoa. I've gotten around 5 messages from Wayne State about them being closed (but I'm all online, so it doesn't affect me) but I think that where I am, we're not supposed to be getting much of anything. For once. I think my area wintered itself out with last year's Snowmaggedon and Snowpalcypse so this year is going to be mild. (Of course, now that I've said that, we're going to get several feet of ice.)
posted by sperose 01 February | 15:51
As long as work gets cancelled, it's a happy event.
posted by theora55 01 February | 16:53
Today was not bad. I went in to work early before there was significant accumulation and then came home, had lunch and cleared the driveway. It was 8" of powder. Not bad.

I fear tomorrow's forecast. In this area, it's expected to be another 8-16" of snow, followed by sleet and freezing rain.

I strategize this kind of storm in terms of how often I need to go out to ensure that I don't end up having to move a driveway's worth of margarita.

I walked to my workshop in the backyard to get out the roof rake and this season's accumulated snow went above my knee, which is roughly 24".

On the fun side, my son came out with me while I shoveled and played in the snow. It was fun to push him into the snow banks to make snow angels. He wanted to throw snow balls at me and I said he could throw all he liked, but I might throw back.
posted by plinth 01 February | 17:20
The Farmer's Almanac promised us a cold, harsh winter this year. It had best hurry up if that's going to happen.

/jealous of the snowbunnies
posted by deborah 01 February | 17:49
I strategize this kind of storm in terms of how often I need to go out to ensure that I don't end up having to move a driveway's worth of margarita.


What does "margarita" mean in this context? I actually hail from snowier climes -- used to get to help dig our long, long driveway in Boston when I was growing up -- but don't know this word in relation to ice/snow/sleet.
posted by bearwife 01 February | 20:12
I went out to work this afternoon and it wasn't piled up too much yet. My suspicion is that school will be closed tomorrow. I have the first season of Dollhouse checked out from the library and it's due tomorrow and the LIBRARY IS CLOSED tomorrow which means it's not overdue and there are no overdue fees here anyhow. The ice dam breaker guy has been here so my bathroom has quit leaking and I left my keys in the car in the driveway so that when the plow guy comes through at 5 am my landladies can move my car if it needs moving.

I know people are having a hard time in the snow and I sympathize, but it seems like everyone else's snow this year is like what our snow is like in a normal year, and yet we've had less this year [until lately]. I have electric sheets [mattress pad warmer] and friends with a fireplace in case the heat goes off.

One foot in front of the other. I just wish this was better snowman making snow.
posted by jessamyn 01 February | 22:20
Bearwife, I'm guessing "margarita" means slush? like a frozen margarita would be?
posted by fancyoats 01 February | 22:40
everyone else's snow this year is like what our snow is like in a normal year

IT could be, but snow experience is so localized. The impact of it depends on things like your local expectations, how much people, on average, commute, what kinds of commuting options they have, whether their kids are in school or their schedules are complicated, how well sidewalks are cleared for city walking, whether trains are on time, etc.

What's been draining for me this year are two factors - first, the AMOUNT of snow - in coastal areas, sure, the 6-12" snowstorm is doable a few times a year, but we've now had a string of more like 18-30", and it's just harder than usual to get around, walk to the train, park your car, run errands and stuff like that. And second, the FREQUENCY of snow. This snowstorm of today/tomorrow is the 6th major storm just since Christmas. We've lost a bunch of workdays and I've spent more time than I'd like coming up with Plan B transportation because either driving or walking or train was out for whichever reason was the current one. Over the month, it's just tired us out. So much of the psychological dimension just has to do with expectations, built over decades of 'normal' winters, and how much you have to vary from the expectations day to day, and how hard the variances are to make given your personal life constraints.
posted by Miko 01 February | 23:02
The impact of snow also depends a lot on how much snow an area normally gets, what the local authorities are prepared for, and even just stuff like how old the neighborhood is.

There was a series of big storms (relative to our usual ones) that hit Toronto in 1999 and the city ended up calling in the army to help, much to the amusement of the rest of the country.

Where I live, way out in the surrounding suburban towns, we got the same snowfall, but it wasn't such a big deal as it was in the city. Everyone has a driveway, so there's no need for on-street parking overnight. That means they can just come through with snow clearing equipment of sufficiently enormous size and the road is done in about the same time as usual. By which I mean the type of big yellow machine that doesn't get blocked by cars parked illegally, you just find your car upside-down on your lawn the next morning.

Whereas downtown there's a lot of on-street parking and narrow roads, so they had to arrange fleets of tow trucks to move cars to other streets so they could clear them properly, and even then, in a lot of areas only smaller equipment could be used.

Ambulances and fire trucks couldn't get to emergencies, hence the need for the army and their all-terrain stuff (some of which also got stuck, so the conditions were legitimately pretty bad). The ones where I live have to go into rural areas in the winter anyway, so the fire trucks at least have stuff like automatic tire chains.

posted by FishBike 02 February | 10:32
Everyone has a driveway, so there's no need for on-street parking overnight.

This has been one of the big hassles for me this year. WE had a driveway at my last house, and the homeowner who I rented from had his own plow - we were always plowed out. Now, we're in an old downtown neighborhood with houses snugged up against each other and no driveways. We all park on the street. So during storms, there's a parking ban, and we have to move the car to a municipal parking lot a few blocks away, so they can plow. The bans usually go on for a couple-three days -- before the storm, during the storm, and for a time after, so you have to readjust your travel times to allow for getting yourself - and your packages and bags, if you have 'em - to and from the municipal lot as well as to wherever you're going. Or, for me, sometimes I come home on the train, get the reverse-911 call about the parking ban, get home, and get in the car to relocate the car. And then, if the parking ban goes out of effect while I'm at work, I have to figure out who's going to move the car so I don't get ticketed for letting it sit in the municipal lot after the ban is over.

Just one of the complicating factors of so many storms so quickly this winter.
posted by Miko 02 February | 11:15
This [on-street parking] has been one of the big hassles for me this year.

Ditto. If it weren't for the now-weekly parking bans, I wouldn't mind the snow much. But we don't have off-street parking, and that's true for many many people in our neighborhood, which means we can either hope to get one of the few spaces in the tiny municipal lot (which invariably means getting parked in by someone who didn't make it in time to get a legit space, and kept waiting when they show up late in the morning) or stowing the car in a parking garage a mile away.

It's a pain in the ass for my partner (I don't drive, but am thinking I should get a license JUST so I can share the parking-ban burden) and, since he usually opts for the parking garage, it's an added expense to our already strained budget.
posted by Elsa 02 February | 11:33
It just took me 45 minutes to get home. My office is 2.5 miles from my house.
posted by JanetLand 02 February | 12:47
I did it. || The Dems chose Charlotte

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