Tag: winter

Where we live, we haven’t had a “big one” for a storm this year.  If memory serves, we haven’t topped 10 inches yet in any single storm.

With the consistent cold though, none of the snow has melted between storms.  We’ve had 3 or 4 that have dumped anywhere from 4 to 8 inches and the cumulative toll has added up to about the same as a single big one.

There’s supposed to be a warm up over the next few days with temps consistently above freezing.  If that pans out it, this will likely be the high water mark for snow.

Our first real snow of the new Fall and Winter.  School was cancelled as a result, before it even started actually, and the kids are downstairs killing each other.  Better that than video games.

First snows are always the nicest for some reason:

It won’t last long, but we’ll enjoy it while it’s around.

This week will be our first probably since November where we have temps consistently above the freezing mark. We also have no major storms forecast, a first since before Christmas. This week’s weather will certainly bring a measure of hope that the worst is behind us. The youth hockey season is winding down and talk is already turning towards Little League, spring soccer and even lacrosse. Some are even talking about Summer camps.

It’s hard not to appreciate the notion that, regardless of what happens between now and the beginning of Spring, this will be a Winter to remember. In fact, it’s literally true that things won’t be the same after this one. Locally, 4 buildings have collapsed due to the snow load and there are scores of stories about people falling off roofs and damaging digits in snow-thrower mishaps. Everyone is already concerned about “the Melt” and grabbing sump pumps or making sure the ones they have are operational.

It’s fitting that even as Ol’ Man Winter begins to leave the scene, he’ll still leave challenges with his parting. Even then, none of us will forget his handiwork this year.

The past couple of days have been a bit above average temperature wise. Topping the 40 degree mark 2 days in a row in fact! For some perspective, the beginning of January was the last time we saw weather this warm. And, at this point in the Winter, I’m not being one bit ironic when referring to highs around 40 as “warm.”

Aside from the temperatures, it’s been a physically demanding Winter as well. I’ve probably used the snowblower as often as a lawn mower. Even then, I still use the shovel to clean off our deck and a path to the wood pile. The wood also requires a fair amount of effort to keep a ready supply and at-hand. Yesterday I chopped up the ice on our driveway with an adz. All the snow that had been on the roof was pulled off with a roof-rake and then moved again with a shovel because once it landed, the snow was too hard to push a snow blower through it. The sum total of all this is I’ve lost about 10 lbs from all the extra work. Who needs a gym membership?

Finally, though, it appears our recent pattern is about to be broken. We have some more cold coming later this week, but there is another warm up coming afterwards. We’re forecasted to get some light snow tonight, but there are no further storms in the immediate future. At this rate, the kids may actually have a full week of school!

Of course, it’s New England. Give it five minutes, the weather will change.

Frankly, I’d rather have another 18″ of snow than the crap we’re getting today. It was snow up until about 6AM, then it turned to sleet and then freezing rain. Now it’s just rain. No guess as to how much heavier the snow is now, but it’s definitely heavier.

I did take advantage of the situation. I was able to walk on the snow piles without sinking in, so I used them as stepstools to reach further onto the roof and drag more snow off it. Unfortunately, by the time I was done with that and plowing I was so exhausted that I couldn’t do any raking on the other side of the house.

Also on the plus side is the workout. I lost a couple more pounds today. Shoveling this stuff is easily as difficult as any workout I could create. So I’ve got that going for me.

Now, time to go give the kids some math and handwriting lessons.