View Full Version : Snow Day Check-in!
Bastelmutti
2-1-11, 4:10pm
Well, it's official - around Chicagoland, anyway - we're having a snow day tomorrow! Chicago and many surrounding schools will be closed and probably businesses, too, if this blizzard shapes up the way they're thinking it will.
If you're affected by the blizzard, what will you be up to tonight/tomorrow?
We've got gas in the cars, phones charged, flashlight and candles ready, bread and peanut butter on hand. Now just waiting for family to come home & we're going to hunker down! I'll be working tomorrow & they'll be having a fun snow day, but probably doing lots of shoveling, too. :help:
My son's school let out two hours early today and they won't have school tomorrow. I took our car to the mechanic today and it needs a part that they won't have until tomorrow, so my husband got a loaner, and tomorrow I'll have to drive through the blizzard to pick up our car. Other than that, no plans. So far I haven't shoveled anything; what's the point when it's going to snow more.
I HATE this weather!! A friend and I have theater tickets to see Alan Rickman in a play in Brooklyn on Wed. and the ice will be too dangerous for me to get to the train. What's worse, the theater does not exchange the tickets for another day. They said we could 'donate them, use it as a tax deduction, or lose the money'. WTF!! So unless a big thaw comes early in the morning, I'm out $71. Living in NW NJ is great until you have to go over hilly roads in bad weather.
And why oh why am I not doing all the things I should be doing while I'm stuck at home?? I've got a dirty saddle in my bedroom that needs cleaning and a ton of photos that need to be scanned. All I've accomplished was a walk outside in the snow (BRR!) and I epilated my legs (OUCH!) Why? It's not as if I'll be wearing shorts any time soon. Can't remember what it's like to be warm, or what grass looks like. Even my poor horse is bored.
But.....the snow sure is pretty : )
Blizzard here. I'm hunkered down, hunkered in -- only times I have to go out is when the little doggy has to pee or to warm up the chicken water.
We're having day one of a two day storm here. Hubby went to work- first week at a new contract and it took him 2 hours each way. The new boss said he didn't need to come in on bad days like this, but at least he got "points" for making the effort to come in. I made a beef stew and let it simmer, and made a fire in the woodstove, and streamed some old episodes of The Office. I don't mind snow days if I don't have to go out.
We are hunkered down here as well. The wind is ferocious, visibility is poor, and the snow drifts are getting pretty amazing at this point. It has been rather comical getting our little dogs out to the bathroom. We've had to shovel paths for them as they are all so short the snow is just swallowing them up.
Keeping my fingers crossed that our power stays on. In previous ice storms/blizzards we've lost our power here for up to week. It wasn't fun. No power, no heat. Pretty miserable stuff. I think I'm going to bake some peanut butter cookies - the oven will warm up the house and the cookies will be a nice treat. Cabin fever is starting to set in....
It is still heading towards us so not sure if we are going to have sleet or snow to cope with or both. We are cozy and warm with our wood stoves.
Good point about charging my cellphone though.
Blizzard warning are out here, snow and wind, no ice. Per evening news it looks to be about 60 miles SE, to roll in about midnight and expected to last throughout the day tomorrow. Looks like it's going to be a 3 dog night (not the rock group).
The snow started in earnest in Southeastern Michigan about 30 mins ago and it is coming down fast! I might go out in a bit just to check it out!
It hit northern Indiana around 5 PM and it seems that everything will be closed tomorrow. I did my essential grocery shopping yesterday and went out this morning to buy...art supplies! Bring it on, I'm ready!
Simpler at Fifty
2-1-11, 7:34pm
40 mph winds tonight. Lots of drifting. We are north of the big blizzard areas in WI. Had 3" of snow overnight and expecting about that much tonight. Will make driving to work tomorrow interesting. I go in for 6am so the crazy drivers are not on the roads yet.
@kathywi- I was hoping you would check in. I see your area is really getting hit.
We were also north of the main part of the storm, here in the Twin Cities. We got about 5" snow and a return of the serious cold weather.
I'm in southeastern Pennsylvania so we haven't been hit with the worst of it yet, but I did reschedule a medical test for this morning because the roads were so icy. My big adventure for the day was putting animal and plant-safe ice melt pellets on the parking pad and front steps.
The area where I live, about thirty miles due north of Philadelphia, is an odd area where storms predicted for Philadelphia or Allentown seem to miss us, or at least they aren't so bad. We shall see. We're supposed to get freezing rain beginning around midnight.
I've been home from work for several weeks because of a respiratory infection and the subsequent recovery and tests (the medical folks still aren't sure what it was or what caused it), so between that and staying in because of low temperatures and the snow and ice storms, I've had a spell or two of cabin fever.
Tomorrow I'll be doing what I've been doing, which is some combination of cooking, baking, making jewelry, reading, napping, planning a garden, organizing closets, and getting some stuff together for Goodwill. I will also be thankful that I live in a nice warm house, with a nice warm cat and plenty of food.
The important supplies: popcorn, coffee, chocolate. :~)
Yesterday, the CEO was thinking of letting us go at 3 pm today. Blizzard warning was to go into effect at 3 pm. Turns out they let us out at 2 pm. Good thing, because the wind was already blowing around the 1" we got last night in Chicago's NW burbs and the roads were beginning to get slippery. I live 8 miles from work and by the time I got home at 2:45 (stopped at the ATM), the wind was howling and snow really starting. I had leftover tacos from last night when I got home and then got into bed with the heating pad under my down comforter and took a nice two hour nap.
We have an automated message at work for employees to call in to check if the office is closed. The CEO told us to call early tomorrow morning to check to see if the office is open. However, the Chicago Public Schools are closed tomorrow, the first snow day in more than a decade. So I bet we're closed. Still have to check my email from home, though. I couldn't take any work home if I wanted to! The interface (bit of software you have to download) to our system only works on Windows machines and I've got a Mac! :) I'm in international shipping and this blizzard couldn't have happened at a better time for us, since Asia is closed, beginning tomorrow their time for the Lunar New Year holiday - so I don't have to worry about dealing with emails from overseas.
I have lots of reading to do for my class, which has a meeting on Sunday. 50 pages of dogmatic theology to crank out, the last of the 150 pages. And it's slow goin', believe you me! Then I've got the take home exam from my last class.
I've got a good stock of tea, Coke (aka cold caffeine), and tasty stuff to eat.
The important stuff:
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
:)
In St Louis it's not that bad. We've had the ice storm, but not much else, just a little snow-like stuff. We shall see if it arrives overnight.
We've got gas in the cars, phones charged, flashlight and candles ready, bread and peanut butter on hand. Now just waiting for family to come home & we're going to hunker down! I'll be working tomorrow & they'll be having a fun snow day, but probably doing lots of shoveling, too. :help:
Car has a full tank. I keep a hand-crank flashlight on the floor under the edge of my bed, just pulled it out and gave it a few cranks. Pulled out the little LED tea lights that it occurred to me would be good for a wee light in the bathroom. Put batteries in my LED lantern, charging my old iPod, have batteries for small radio. Also pulled out a can or two of Sterno, the little stove that goes with it, and the big stainless steel camping mug to use with it - can heat up a can of ravioli in 10 minutes (tested it over the summer), so I'll have hot water for tea, too. Kindle charged. Smart phone charged and staying on charger, but I do have a regular landline, too. Glad I got some emergency supplies over the summer. I've got enough canned stuff, bananas, PB, jam, bread, bagels, and plenty of tea. Some water.
Lights haven't flickered yet, though, although friends in Chicago have reported on Facebook that their lights do keep flickering.
We were told to prepare for the worst but ended up more on the edge of it. We had 3 hours of ice pellets from 5-8 a.m. then it switched to snow. Probably got 6". Roads are bad from what I'm hearing and kids had today off and will tomorrow too. Now the temps are dropping fast. When the kids are off, I don't venture out. I couldn't get the chickens to come out of their house so I made several trips out with food and water for them.
Woo hoo! Just called the automated line at work - snow day!
12” of snow so far, 48 mph wind gusts, drifts up to 4-5’, -3 wind chill, snow and wind expected to last until 7 pm EST. Snuggled in for the day.
flowerseverywhere
2-2-11, 7:39am
I got extra gas for the generator, cars are full, have lots of food and batteries for radio and flashlight and we got ...1.8"
that brings our snowfall total this year over 140" and we have only had a couple of snow days here east of Lake Ontario = the snow generating machine.
Lots of ice here, but temps are supposed to go well above freezing later. I may actually get out to run some errands later on. Whee!
Lots of snow in our forcast for this afternoon and tonight. I'm working from home today. Tomorrow morning may be a problem, getting out of the driveway. Not sure what to do about that. The driveway is way too long to shovel and I have no idea how to run the snowblower. DH won't be home in time to snowblow (he works nights) so I may be stuck home tomorrow morning too. Aww shucks! ;)
Lots of snow and drifts so besides walking the dog as he leaps in and out of drifts, we are staying cozy.
Well the storm is over now. We got about 20 inches, with drifts much higher. Power was fine, but we had a fire in the fireplace anyway. During the middle of the blizzard yesterday I looked out and saw our resident coyote struggling across the lower lawn. He must have been pretty hungry to come out in the middle of it. Either that or his shelter/den/hidy-hole was compromised somehow. I have to admit he is a handsome devil in the winter time.
My husband insists the essentials are booze and bacon, both of which we have.
Snow appears to be over here, but very cold weather continues. It's freezing out but sunny today. We got about 2 feet of snow. We still have power, thank God. Have all the essentials: chocolate, popcorn, coffee, tea, beans and grains to last awhile. Movies on Internet. Jigsaw puzzles. My little heaters are struggling to keep up. I may camp in the living room tonight. Stay warm, everybody! Check on your neighbors if you can.
Here in Iowa, we got around a foot of snow with 40-50 mph winds. The drifts in the backyard are maybe two to three feet deep. It is supposed to get crazy cold with the windchill the next couple of days, so I'm going to leave the faucet dripping to avoid frozen pipes. At least there was no ice.
16" or so where I am in the NW Chicago burbs. Drifts MUCH higher! Many of the cars in my complex's parking that I can see are at least half buried by drifts. The snow removal people have been out constantly, including several times overnight, just to keep up. It appears to have stopped snowing, although the wind is still kicking up quite a bit. I'll go out later and dig my car out, at least I have a real shovel! ;-) Checked my work email - nada because of Asia holiday. Got me some breakfast, now I'm going to take my tea and crawl back into bed with a book!
Bastelmutti
2-2-11, 2:39pm
Pretty much the same situation here, Tradd. I'm lakeside. Apparently Lake Shore Drive and parts of Sheridan are still closed. No buses running in front of my house (a busy bus route). It's VERY quiet with so little traffic. The last time I remember it being like this was 9/11. Fortunately, no problems with electricity or heating here. DH is trying to dig the cars out, but I was planning on walking tomorrow - might not be able to with the wind chills. Worst case is I'll keep the DDs home one more day. Stay warm, everybody!
Took me an hour to dig my car out, with a break in the middle of it. While I was working at it, several guys were watching me, leaning on their shovels. No offers of help. Gee, thanks guys, just watch.
Bastelmutti
2-2-11, 5:48pm
Boo! Sorry you have bums for neighbors! My DH helped a couple of people shovel today. It took over an hour for two of us to dig the cars out, and then we found out that tomorrow is another snow day!
Our snow is over it seems. Tomorrow we start the snow moving effort. It was still drifting this afternoon when I walked the dog.
Boo! Sorry you have bums for neighbors! My DH helped a couple of people shovel today. It took over an hour for two of us to dig the cars out, and then we found out that tomorrow is another snow day!
Not for me! I have to work tomorrow. Because most of my customers are in the Chicago area, I had virtually no email when I checked work email at home. Everyone was closed.
Now, we go into the deep freeze!
We're digging out here and the temp is -12 tonight. :(:help:
My husband insists the essentials are booze and bacon, both of which we have.
We could achieve detente with a common sense approach like that! :+1:
goldensmom
2-3-11, 10:39am
Took me an hour to dig my car out, with a break in the middle of it. While I was working at it, several guys were watching me, leaning on their shovels. No offers of help. Gee, thanks guys, just watch.
How rude of them, Tradd. Lets hope they had medical conditions and that is why they had to lean on their shovels instead of helping you. After plowing our half mile drive and 3 elderly neighbors who we routinely plow for, my husband and I drove to town (7 miles), stopped and offered to plow driveways for people who were shoveling. We feel if we have the means to help then that is what we should do (free of charge of course) !!!
My husband is in South FL and missing out on all this fun stuff. I'm got to go work on my driveway this morning - seriously need to try and get in to work for a bit this afternoon. We may have more white stuff coming tomorrow (Friday).
Set out on my cross country oddessy on Tuesday. From the looks of things I should have chased 24 hours behind the storm, which indeed I did, but I didn't plan on the inability of road crews to get the ice off the interstate in this frigid weather. I've never seen roads this bad for this long, there is a 1-2" skating rink on I-20. Ahem. I am currently snug as a bug in a motel 6 near Abilene, my car equally snug on the frontage road. Sigh. I moved over to let a snowplow go by and an invisible little divot opened up under my right front tire right at edge of the pavement. Just enough by perhaps 1" to keep me stuck. The guy who graciously offered to pull me out drove to the side of the road and promptly down into the same ditch. He is now equally stuck.
Anyway, it could be so much worse. I have roadside assistance so my Ins. Co. is working to find me someone to get me out, but no one's moving this morning. I have food for a week and hotel budgeting for two, internet and even a big screen tv. Frankly, the shower's better here than at home and I would have spent this much heating in the preternaturally cold weather of southern Az this week. Life is pretty good.
How rude of them, Tradd. Lets hope they had medical conditions and that is why they had to lean on their shovels instead of helping you. After plowing our half mile drive and 3 elderly neighbors who we routinely plow for, my husband and I drove to town (7 miles), stopped and offered to plow driveways for people who were shoveling. We feel if we have the means to help then that is what we should do (free of charge of course) !!!
These were youngish, strapping fellows. Rude &^$&$^#E&^!!
We got 14 plus inches and unbelievable drifting. I had to feed my sister's cats because she's in Florida. Fortunately she lives just across the alley. Unfortunately this was the first time since I was little that I experienced walking in thigh deep snow. It seemed so much easier when I was little.
For the first time in at least 20 years City Hall where I work was closed because of weather. The schools were closed yesterday and today and all the banks were even closed. Yesterday our Public works crew actually picked up the manager of the gas station they use to refule up at her home so she could open up.
I spent the day digging out. I spent more than 2 1/2 hours shoveling taking breaks every so often. I helped dig out my neighbor's sidewalk and my other neighbors car as well. I guess I have more class than those rude, youngish, strapping fellows but I hurt in places I forgot I had.
This morning I made it to work but it was a death defying ride. We have very steep hills and you learn flatter ways to get to where you want to go. But when I made it to the end of my alley I was forced to go the steep way due to snow blocking the alternative. The ride was part snowboarding and part flume ride. By the time I got down to Main Street I was in a death grip on the steering wheel and I had to dodge bulldozers and dump trucks the rest of the way to work. Needless to say I didn't go home for lunch today. Say your prayers that I make it up hill to go home.
Well, it took DH all day to dig us out so that we can drive our vehicles out and access the tractor which move the snows in the shed nearby. He did take frequent breaks to warm up as the wind chill was something else. I spend the afternoon in town volunteering and picking up dog food and other essentials.
Just saw our 10 day forecast...highs in the low 60's nest week!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D Tuesday's high here was 1*. One. That does NOT qualify as a high in my book. It's 9:30 am and the snow is already melting off wherever the sun is hitting it. Spring can't come soon enough for this intrepid gardener.
goldensmom
2-10-11, 10:50am
It was -14 F (again) this morning at 6 AM in the lower peninsula. The wind is forming big drifts on side roads from the up to 15' snow banks from last weeks storm. The sun is shining but some roads are impassable !! Looking forward to balmy 27 F in the next few days.
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