Jamie Todd Rubin

10:30 am Saturday: Kelly’s car is dug out of the snow.  Tree stands tall.

1:00 pm Saturday: A serious case of tree-sag.

11:30 am Monday: Car is removed from tree.

3:00 pm Monday: Tree meets chainsaw.

4:00 pm Monday: Fence garnish.

So far this winter season, I have calculated a total of about 64 inches of snow that has fallen in our area.  Now, even more snow is on its way.  Yesterday, it sounded as if we’d get an inch or two on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Early today it was upgraded to at least five inches.  Then it was 5-10 inches.  Then 8-12 inches.  The latest report has 10-20 inches of snow in our area beginning mid-afternoon tomorrow and continuing through late Wednesday.  10-15 inches is “likely” in our area.  And to top it off, blizzard conditions could be in affect, meaning more power-outages in the area.

So far, no word on weather the Federal Government will be closed, but I imagine there will be an announcement soon.  Most school districts are closed through at least Wednesday and more than likely, they will have to close for the week.  Kelly got out earlier this afternoon and stocked up on more staples to get us through this next storm.  But I don’t know how much more I can physically take.  Since getting our car out from under the tree, my back has been killing me.  And the thought of having to shovel another 10-15 inches of snow is filling me with a nameless dread.

To top things off, my work laptop is dead.  It won’t turn on.  I can do some work from my personal laptop, but my work laptop might as well be a block snow.  And there’s nothing I can do about it until I get back into the office.  And at this rate, who knows when I’ll get back into the office?

Thanks to some good friends, good neighbors, a little ingenuity and a lot of elbow grease, Kelly’s car has been safely removed from beneath the fallen tree.

I spent an hour inching it forward until I’d gotten to the point where I had only about 3 more feet to go to get the car free.  But the front right tire was spinning on ice.  I called my buddy Todd, and he and another friend, Chris, along with a neighbor, Kent, came over to help push.  That didn’t work.  We needed traction under the tire but there was nothing to use.  None of us had plywood.  So I got the idea of breaking off tree branches (evergreen leaves) and putting them around the tires.  After a few tries, that worked and the car was freed!  A good thing too since we are now under another winter storm watch and the additional weight of snow on an already strained trunk could very likely bring down the tree.

Our homeowner’s association was doing the best they could.  The problem is that with all of the fallen trees in the metro area, there is about a 2 week backlog on getting tree removers out to cut down the tree.  And I wanted the car out from under it before tomorrow’s snow.  Fortunately, it all worked out in the end.

As for damage: thanks to a layer of snow on Kelly’s car, there were not even any scratches.  The only damage I’ve seen so far is a bent antenna and a bent right wiper blade.  It could have been a lot worse.

Yesterday, after spending the better part of 3 hours digging Kelly’s car out of the snow, a tree fell onto her car.  This happened sometime after I finished the job of digging the car out.  A neighbor said he saw it happen.  As he described it, it happened in slow motion, literally:  the weight of the snow on the tree simply eased it down in the direction of Kelly’s car.  In a way, this was a good thing because there does not appear to be any internal damage.

The trunk of the tree is not split.  In fact, the trunk isn’t touching the car at all, just branches.  I got into the car this morning.  No cracked windows or dents in the ceiling–at least none on the inside.  The tree is at such an angle, however, that it can possible go back up by itself.  So we are now in the process of finding out of the Homeowner’s Association can have it removed, or if we need to go through our insurance company.

Meanwhile, I logged another 3-1/2 hours of straight digging this morning between 8 am and 11:30.  I got my car completely dug out, I got more of Kelly’s car dug out.  And I cleared the walkway up to our stairs much better than I did yesterday.  Lots of people digging out this morning, not all of them pleasant, particularly those who hadn’t moved a single shovel of snow since the first flake fell.  It took me a total of 6.5 hours to dig us out completely (save for the tree, of course) and that was with relatively light snow since I did half the job in real time.  I imagine it will take longer for those people who never got started until this morning.

Here are the pictures to prove it.

I estimate at this point that I moved nearly 3 tons of snow by myself.  I get into some kind of zone when I’m out there.  I don’t feel the cold, don’t feel the weight of the snow on the shovel.  But when I got back into the house today, I could barely lift Zach up.  A very hot shower  and 800 mg of Advil later the pain is better but I can feel the muscles stiffening up.  At least I can still type.

More updates once we find out what is happening with the tree.

Blizzard 2010

I was up just after 7 am eager to tackle the additional snow that fell overnight.  I had to make some repairs to the shovel  I screw had come out and a small crack had appeared.  Another screw and lots of duct tape took care of the problem.  Then I layered up and headed out.  The snow on the landing was so high that I had to force open the storm door!

Most of the top and outside-edge snow was heavy because it was pushed into place by the plow.  A dug a narrow channel to the street so that we could at least walk out of our place.  Next I tackled Kelly’s car.  I dug out the entire car.  I’d estimate that I shoveled around 130 cubic feet of snow just digging out her car.  That translates to 2,600 pounds or just over a ton of snow!

Next, I dug out the front of my car–the heaviest, wettest snow.  By the time that was done 3 hours had gone by!  At one point, the plow came by, but the driver was kind and did not block Kelly’s car back in.  In fact, he worked very hard to clear the road and avoid blocking in the car.

You can see what the result looked like (now more than an hour ago) by taking a look at the pictures above (click the image to see the full album).  The snow has intensified here in the last hour and is falling heavily right now.  But at least I got a pick head-start shoveling away old snow.  I did it in such a way that even if the plow covers my spot, it should be only with new snow, and since there is less new snow to come than has already fallen, I think we’re in good shape.

Now I’m going to take half a dozen Advil, crawl onto the couch next to the fireplace, and sleep.

I cleaned off my desk today.  I posted a picture of what it looked like earlier in the day on Facebook.  (I’m too lazy to post another one here.)  It might not sound like much but it is something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time.  When my mind gets cluttered, I often feel like cleaning my desk helps clear my mind.  I guess some people feel the same about meditation.

I worked from home today and got quite a bit done.  Once the snow started, I was out every two hours shoveling.  At first, it was to keep pace with the snow and then it was to keep pace with the plows that kept piling the old snow back up against our walkway and cars.  I’ve done a pretty good job.  The last time I went out was 10 pm and I would have been out longer had it not been for a technical glitch with the shovel.  A small repair is necessary and I’ll be out there again tomorrow morning.  Goodness knows how bad things will be, but I can’t imagine it will be nearly as bad as for those who haven’t even been out once to shovel yet.

No writing again today.  I’m going to wrap up the night tearing through more of Galileo’s Dream.

Now that Zachary is sleeping through the night, I am finally getting more than 3 hours of sleep at a time.  This means that for the first time in nearly 8 months, I’ve started dreaming again.  Boy, have I ever!  It’s as if eight months of nightly dreams were packed in my brain under extremely high pressure and now that there’s an opening, they are blowing through it.  I’m having dozens of dreams a night, most of which I don’t remember.  To be honest, it’s rather exhausting.  I don’t know how Scott Edelman does it.

There is one recent dream which I do recall at least parts of:  I was talking with Stephen King.  We were at his house and talking about writing.   On a small desk off to the side of his office (which in my dream was very art deco) was an old, old typewriter.  I went to look at it and he warned me not to touch it because it was very old.  I told him that I, too, have an old typewriter (mine is a Royal Quiet De Luxe much like this one.)  King then asked me if I’d built my typewriter.  No, I told him, I hadn’t.  It turns out he built his (though how it could be very old is only supported by dream logic).  And when I took a closer look, I saw that it was made entirely out of old Tyco model-train railroad track pieces.

I am enjoying these nights of uninterrupted sleep, but I must admit that I am looking forward to the pressure in my brain becoming equal with the world outside and the volume and pace of dreaming returning to normal.

A major snowstorm is expected to move into the Metro DC area tomorrow.  Beginning late morning and running through Saturday night, we are forecast to get anywhere from 16-28 inches of snow.  Winds will make blizzard-like conditions at times.  Friday is Kelly’s day off so she will be home.  We’re keeping Zach home from daycare.  I’m working from home tomorrow.  In the Winter 2009-10 this is our second “major” storm and our 4th significant snow since late December.  Snow totals in our area have already reached 36 inches this season, and tomorrow could put us in line to break a 100-year record.

I have an 8:30 am meeting to call into.  The snow is expected to start around 10 or 11 am.

We have plenty of logs for the fire and other essentials.  (The local news, in cahoots with local businesses, are assuring the public that we will be trapped in our homes for 5 days and that there will be a run on everything, including Viagra and Cialis.)  Plus we live right next to Target.  I just keep thinking that all these storms will make the arrival of spring that much more dramatic. That’s what I tell myself.

Storm updates via Twitter beginning tomorrow and throughout the weekend.

I haven’t written at all this week.  It’s not because I lack the ideas.  I think there are 3 reasons for it:

1. I am mentally reworking the story that I was writing.  This comes from some of the workshopping I did two summers ago.  I could see problems with the story as it was going, and I’m trying to redirect it in situ.  Actually, I think this is a good thing: a sign that I am recognizing these problems sooner.  But there is one plot point I can’t seem to make work and so I keep putting off writing, hoping it will come to me.  That, of course, is bad.
2. I’m pretty tired in the evenings when I get home from work.  I also feel guilty that some of my writing time eats away at time with Zach and Kelly.  Clearly the solution to this is to go back to early morning writing, which worked so well in November.
3. I’ve been doing a lot more reading.  I finished the massive and fascinating Kornbluth bio, and I’m more than halfway though and equally fascinating (for different reasons) Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson.  In addition I’ve been trying to stay on top of NEW SCIENTIST and SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

Bottom line is that I keep putting it off in favor of other things.  I just have to sit down and do it.  I’ve been averaging something like 3000-4000 words a week when I could easily double that by writing every day.  Weekends end up being the worst.

Well, it’s late now.  I’m going to read for 20 minutes before heading off to bed.

With my update on this blog earlier, I wanted to also post a reminder that Kelly and I do have a separate protected blog with updates on Zachary.  Until a few days ago, that blog hadn’t been updated in a while, but we’ve both made updates in the last few days.  Aa any parent knows, you can spend all day talking about your kids, and I didn’t want to impose that here, but for those who are interested, you can find out the latest on the Adventures of the Little Zipper and family here.

(Note: you must be pre-authorized to view that blog.  If you do not have access and you’d like to follow along, let me know.)