The Morning After...

Thursday.  The morning after the blizzard of 2010.  We survived.  The winds yesterday and last night were unbelievable!  The house was quite literally shaking.  The snow finally stopped, sometime late evening and today dawned with a beautiful blue sky and the sun shining.  Although it is difficult to tell how much more snow we received, the t.v. news reported somewhere between 20-24 inches.  We started the big dig out this morning.  Jim and I went out and I lasted about 45 minutes.  It was brutal.  The snow is so heavy it was difficult to lift the shovel.  Jim stayed out and Michelle joined him for another hour or so, before they came in to take a break.  After the break, Tim joined forces with Jim and they worked for another 2+ hours and were finally able to free up the driveway and the cars.  We haven't seen a plow yet, but the road crews are back on the roads and working hard.  Most of the roads in the area are closed, and there is a state of emergency in effect.  Cars are not allowed on the roads and face a $500.  fine.  Crews worked to retrieve 30 cars burried in the snow on area roads and 23 people were stranded in the blizzard.   Some waited 10 hours to be rescued, some all night long.  Now they are trying to focus on clearing the roads and opening them up to traffic again. 

Blizzard!

This was the view from my garage this morning.  I couldn't open the front door at the risk of letting all the snow in!  The news had reported that by 10 this morning, Frederick had already received 12" of snow.  Since then, it has not stopped snowing.  All day.  Snow.  My work was nice enough to let us know that if we didn't want to go in we could use unscheduled leave time.  Wow.  The driving conditions are so hazardous that cars have been ordered off the roads and the snow plows have been called back in as well.  So, no snow removal for the time being.  It is crazy! 

It is difficult to measure how much we have gotten because we can hardly see out the windows, visibility is near zero.  The drifting is wild, we have 9-10 foot drifts in spots, yet one area of our deck is practically snow free.  The winds are at 40 MPH and not expected to die down until later this evening.  Might have another snow day tomorrow. 

I have been able to spend some quality time in the Scrapatorium and with the family, so that is good. 

What's it like where you are?

Not Again!

Now, I try to have a good sense of humor about things.  I mean, generally I take things pretty well.  (For my brothers and sisters: I've grown!)  I do still have a bit of the "Drama Queen" in me, that is just my nature but by and large, I have learned to go with the flow.  So when we hear that snow is expected and everyone is caling it 'that four letter word', I let the kid in me come out and get a bit excited.  I'm not afraid of driving in the snow after all, we had more than our fair share growing  up in N.W. New Jersey, I've even been known to play in the snow a bit.  But may I just say: Enough Already!!!  Yes, we are expecting another storm to dump more snow on us today and tomorrow.  Actually, it is two different systems that are expected to come through and the they have upped (is that a word?) the expected totals from 6-10" to 12-20".  Oh- My- Goodness!! 

Jim and Timmy did a wonderful job of clearing the snow that we got over the weekend.  They did the very large majority of it, but I did help.  A little.  After the plow came through and cleared our road, if you can call it that, our driveway was then blocked in.  I went out front to attempt to work on that while Jim and Tim were in the back clearing off the deck and hot tub.  I was only out there for a few minutes before my neighbor came over with his snow blower and said that if I loosened the snow, he'd then use the blower on it.  No problem, right?  After about 20 minutes of it my arms were burning and I was experiencing some serious pain. 

Let me say that I do have some difficulty in comparing pain levels and discomfort because of my MD.  When I was going about the diagnosis process and was asked what I was experienceing, I would describe the initial discomfort as somewhat akin to what you feel after having had your blood pressure taken, and go on to describe that a bit.  Finally, one of the doctors looked at me and said that most people do not feel pain or any lasting discomfort after having their blood pressure taken.  Hmm, news to me.  So maybe you can see where I am coming from, I can't always compare things in an accurate manner because my sense of normalcy is different from most.  But let me tell you this, my arms were KILLING me!  After finishing up and going inside, my arms were shaking and twitching.  That evening, I spent some time in the hot tub hoping to alleviate the muscle spasms and cramping that I knew would come.  (Yes, I went outside to use the hot tub in 30 degree weather.)  When I woke up yesterday morning and attempted to move, it was then that I knew that the hot tub had not worked.  Every inch of my arms, chest and underarms ached!  Driving was difficult.  I mean, I hurt.   And as I said, I only did a little. 

(Bella had some fun!)

Jim was probably aching all over.  Not that he said anything, because he didn't.  That is until yesterday.  When I got home from work he was on the phone.  He got off and said hi and a short time later he again went to his den and got on the phone.  Later last night, he told me that he had called every store in our area looking for a snow blower.  He said that he just didn't think that he could move another inch of snow, let alone another 10 or 20!  Unfortunately, there was not one snow blower to be found.  I guess everyone had the same idea.  So, it looks like we will be shoveling again tomorrow or later today even.  Say a prayer for me, would you? 

Chester likes the snow.  He'll go outside and just lay down in the snow.  Timmy let Chester borrow his scarf!

Monday at Work

We made it through the weekend and Monday has arrived.  The above picture I took from my deck looking into the backyard.  As you can see, we got a lot of snow!!  That hole to the left of the picture is our little pond, we got around 34 inches total.  Guess what?  Another storm is headed our way and is expected to dump another 6-10 inches on us.  Schools are closed today and I'd guess they will be tomorrow as well and with more snow expected who knows when they'll go to school again!?

I made it to work today, but if we get more snow as expected, I don't think I'll make it in on Wednesday.  People around here don't drive too well in the snow and though I can manage, I worry about other drivers.  Many don't even take the snow off their cars.  This morning I saw a woman driving (and I was on the road with her for at least 15 minutes) she had 2 feet of snow on the top of her car and all her windows, except for the windshield were covered with frost/ice.  That's crazy!

Despite the shoveling, snow removal and an extra 5 year old, I did manage to get some scrapbooking in over the weekend. 

These pictures of Bella were taken at her pre-school last year.  They had picture people come in and they were allowed to dress any way that they wanted.  I thought they came out great!  (You can click on the pictures to see it bigger.)

This layout was scraplifted from one of Becky Higgins' books, quick and easy.  The pictures were from our trip to the pumpkin patch in 2008, so I got some catching up to do! 

What did you do this weekend?  Any snow where you live?  Let me know!

Snowed In!

It started snowing late Friday night and it snowed, and snowed and snowed!  We got about 2 feet of snow!  It was something.  My parents made it as far as Richmond on Friday night and continued up the rest of the way on Saturday.  The driving conditions were trecherous, but they took it slow and made it safe and sound.  It took them about 8 hours to travel 160 miles!  Dad may be done with his trips up North at Christmas!!  This will give you an idea of how it accumulated, the below picture was taken at 11:00 am on Saturday.

This one was taken at 1:30

This is at 3:30

4:45...

                                                                        And again at 6:00.
When my parents did arrive at around 2:00, my Dad said that the bumper of his car was acting as a snow plow, as our roads had not been touched at that point.  We heard reports on the radio and tv that is was going to take days to dig out from the storm, but the crews worked around the clock and the roads in our development were plowed during the night.  Bella had a blast playing in the snow, as did the dogs!
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The schools decided to cancel classes for the whole week, so the kids are happy about that! 

But I must say, it did put me behind on finishing up my last minute details, so as of now I am not done shopping.  Hopefully tonight I can swing by the mall, find what I am looking for quickly and make it back home before too long.  I just want to be finished at this point!  Next year, it is going to be different-I swear!