Having a snow day is fun as a kid.  It can be fun as an adult, too.  It is even enjoyable with an eight-month-old baby.  As a kid, of course, the more snow-days, the better; kids never think too far ahead and don’t worry that the missed days will get tacked on at the end of the year.  As an adult, both Kelly and I are lucky in that we can work from home.  We live right next to Target and if our supplies run low, we can walk to get more.  But  we are now about to enter our seventh day of  this.  Believe me when I tell you: cabin fever has set in.  We are looking for any excuse to get outside.

After the storm subsided, and I had finished a significant amount of code-writing, I donned my snow gear and headed out into the glorious, cold gray sky.  I was surrounded by mountains of freshly fallen, fluffy-white snow.  Despite my face being stung by wind and snow, it felt really good to be out there.  I dug out our walkway, and dug out my car, before calling it a day.

A short time later, Kelly headed out to dig out her car.  She really needed to get out.  Cabin fever has been tougher on her than it has on me.  And while we have been working, she has done the bulk of caring for Zach.  You can imagine that gets tough.

But we have survived the 100-year storm, and no doubt, there will be winters in the future where we regale our children (and grandchildren) with stories of the storm, exaggerated for suitable effect.

Make no mistake: I am looking forward to spring!

Originally published at Jamie’s Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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.

Originally published at Jamie’s Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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?

Originally published at Jamie’s Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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.

Originally published at Jamie’s Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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.

Originally published at Jamie’s Blog. Please leave any comments there.

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.

Originally published at Jamie’s Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Mid-afternoon we headed out to do shopping.  Kelly headed off to Target and I went to the grocery store.  I’d planned out the menus for the week and got what we needed.

For dinner this evening, I made up a pasta dish.  Essentially, it was fettuccine with a "Marsala" sauce.  I prepared mushrooms the same way I prepare them when making chicken Marsala but when the pasta was done cooking, I through it in the pan with the mushrooms and sauce and tossed it.  It came out good.  I also made caesar salads, and instead of garlic bread, I got some pita chips and hummus, spread the hummus on the chips and put a slice of cucumber on top.

I did manage to get a little reading done today.

It started snowing late this afternoon.  I said to Kelly, "Let me see how much snow we’re supposed to get," since I hadn’t heard of any snow (or been paying attention to the weather for the last week).  I went online to look, figuring it would be the usual "less than an inch".  A minute later I said, "You’ve got to be [expletive removed]-ing kidding me!"

"What?" Kelly said.

"Am I reading this right?  It says we’re supposed to get 5-8 inches of snow!"

For some reason, I had trouble sleeping.  I tossed and turned for a while and then got up again and went downstairs to read.  I finally went to bed around midnight.

It was 80 on Monday and I’m hoping that the roads are warm enough to melt most of the accumulation. I guess I’ll find out in the morning.