Oh No

Winter still plagues us here in NE Ohio. 

At least for the next 10 days we still won't get above freezing, which will make it like three weeks in a row. Bother. 

And it won't stop snowing. 

Mind you, it's not inches upon inches like last week, but there is always a new covering - which for aesthetic purposes is nice - it covers all the grey and brown slush. But one-quarter to one-half inch daily starts to add up. 

Not enough to pull out the snowblower and well, shoveling is now off the table for moi. 

Last week did me in. We couldn't get the snowblower to work, so Blobby did it all by hand - all 15-17".  And then, out of the kindness of my heart (no honest!), I did it for my sister in law. 

My core was sore for sure. Painfully sore. Until it wasn't. 

.....then all the pain centered in my lower back, which manifested when I bent over to pick something up. 

As Dr. Zachary Smith might have yelled - "oh, the pain!". 

The weekend consisted of naproxen, flexeril and heating pads. And no running. 

Things were better when I moved. Sitting and getting up from sitting were the pains - literally. I was doing so well - until yesterday morning. Another crouch to get something and wham-o. 

Granted it's not AS bad as Friday, but it ain't great. More of the meds. More of the pad. None of the running. 

Technically half / marathon training started last week (though cancelled due to horrible weather). Actually it now starts this evening - which I'm not planning on attending. A 3 mile run in single digit temps isn't going to put me that far behind. The drive each way would take longer than the run. 

710 was so worried about me having a heart attack by shoveling, no one saw the back thing coming. 

Insult to injury?  After I finished with that 15-17" clearning, 710 got the snowblower working. 

Bother!

Song by: Don Dixon

Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow

Everyone's talkin' about the weather..............but no one is doing anything about it. 

Well, that's not exactly true. 

I had gone out to meet my training group on Wednesday evening. One beer only, because it was my first drink in a month and the weather was turning crappy. It was a slow slog home, taking double the time it normally might. 

While it looked like I was Han Solo jumping into hyperspace on my drive, there was only about one-quarter of an inch actually on the ground. So I didn't worry about it too too much. 

Yesterday morning however was a different story. About another 7 and 3/4 inches of snow had fallen and was still steadily coming down. No one was going anywhere. All schools had closed before 06:00. 710 had tried to let Shep out who went off the porch into a drift that completely covered him. This was not going to be fun. 

I finally got motivated to start clearing the drive and walks. But to get to the snowblower, I'd have to shovel enough to be able to pull out my car to get to said blower. That would take me 40 minutes of heart attack inducing work. 

Even WITH the snowblower, it would take me another two hours to clear our driveway. Places were so deep that this behemoth of a machine wasn't able to keep up or make it's way through on a first go-round. And we were running out of physical places to put the discarded snow. 

Oh, it was also 17° but felt like 6° .  F. Not C. 

Oh, and from the time 710 let Shep out, there was now 2-3 additional inches of snow.  Bother!

My first duty (hehehehe.....I said "duty") was to clear a path for Shep. But being the good Dad #2 that I am, I built him a motorway.   And that was by hand, because you can't really do a snowblower on a lawn. 

The rationale was even if we could get him out to walk, there were no clear streets or sidewalks that didn't have snow higher than himself.  And he LOVED it.  He has gotten zoomies a few times there. 

Since the blower was fully gassed up, I took it down our side of the street and did everyone's walk. I'd like to say it was altruistic but in reality, I needed to be able to get Shep to walk. Someone else did the entire length of the other side of the street. 

I did end up clearing another 2" shortly before sunset. But it had seemingly stopped snowing, so......yay. 

....and just an FYI - no one has plowed the street(s).  The next 10 days are going to be cold to super cold. So......yay. 

Song by: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Cold as Ice

Technically it is not yet Winter, but don't tell anyone in NE Ohio that. 

710 said Wednesday he'd be coming home early if it started snowing. Yes, there were 'warnings', but nothing I saw made it seem like any storm would hit us.  .....and it didn't. 

Well, it did, but after we went to bed. It was spitting rain while I grilled out, but no flakes. 

Wind would keep me up most of the night. Starting around 02:00, we were getting sustained winds of 40 mph and gusts of 60+.  I just kept thinking 'downed trees' and 'power lines'. 

We woke up to snow, but not a lot. I'd say 2" worth. I could still see parts of the drive. Yet almost all the schools on the east and south sides of town were already closed. It seems everyone was staying in and working from home. Daycare was notified Shep would be staying home as well. 

The a.m. dog walk was fine. It wasn't horribly cold or anything. The ground was a little slick, but that stood to reason if rain turned to snow, ice was in there somewhere, right? 

After I toweled him off, I just thought I'd do a quick clean of the drive and walks. 2". pfffft. I can do that with a shovel, I don't need no stinking snow blower. 

Let me just say due to that rain-to-snow thing, yes it was only two inches, but heavy AF. And not quick. 

I totally get why old guys get heart attacks shoveling snow. 

I cleared as best I could. My antidepressants might be working better. I had wind and falling snow, but I did not curse at the elements as I did with the leaves a week or so ago.  

Progress!

All I really did was expose a LOT of ice. But now we could see where we were going to fall. Well - could. New snow has taken care of that. Still it's lighter, fluffier snow. 

I was drenched. Gloves and hat just filled with sweat. I had to change clothes. 

After lunch we took Shep for a short jaunt. Somewhere the temps dropped. Whatever the actual temp said (16?), the weather apps said it felt like 3. I think they were being generous. 

We are in 'winter storm watch' mode for another day, but make no mistake, winter has arrived. 

Song by: Foreigner 

Snowfall

If it's possible, sometimes you want to be altruistic and somehow still get the credit.

Yes, I totally get it's a contradiction, but I still want it. 

Two houses ago, some nice gentleman we didn't know used his snow blower and cleaned  the sidewalks on both sides of the street. We never knew who it was. 

We would take our blower and do our next door neighbors who were older. 

When at the last house, we had no sidewalks and the neighbors were far away. So we only did our 100' driveway. 

But this year, we've had a bunch of snow. And as it turns out, when you have a dog to walk, clear walkways are mucho important. Those who don't have dogs, or don't walk them, are seemingly unaware how not clearing their own walk is mucho annoying. 

Still, we like our neighbors. So these last weeks, 710 (mostly) has been out and clears like 7-8 houses of their sidewalks.  There is no win in this, save for us and walking Shep. No one is getting credit. This is ok, since I'm 93% sure they don't know we / he did the job anyways.  I'm not even sure they've been out to know it's been done at all. 

There is a guy (?) in Lakewood - which is arguably the gayest of all Cleveland suburbs - who was photographed cleaning the sidewalks on "their" street. Everyone claims not to know who it was, but.......c'mon.  Someone in a shocking pink unicorn costume just doesn't disappear. 

I mean, it's great not having their identify revealed, and it would be fun to see that unicorn just going up and down the street, so there is magic to the story. 

Now I just need to get 710 a good outfit. 

...and we're gonna need it. Allegedly we have 8 inches or  2-3 FEET (depending to which forecast one listens) of snow headed our way starting this evening - going until late Friday or early Saturday. Let's hope they're wrong. 

I can't possibly get a T Rex outfit delivered here before the snow fall. 

Song by: Dan Fogelberg

Snowed In at Wheeler Street

Walloped. 

That's what we were, I tellz ya. 

The weather service(s) were calling for the big storm to come from the South. Depending to which on you listened, we were getting 2-5", or 5-12".  It's a big difference, of course, and while we live in 'the snow belt', we straddle the line of the hard hit area, and the disaster area. 

You see, if Lake Erie doesn't freeze over, the wind coming off it adds moisture, which produces a lot more snow. So while the west side of Cleveburgh can get a dusting, by the time that same wind / storm comes over the lake, well........we aren't that lucky. 

As usual, the meteorologists were wrong............because we got somewhere between 15-18" of snow. The area to get 12" got 27". 

Honest to Yahweh, I honestly could not tell how much snow we got when looking out the window Monday morning. 710 had already decided to work from home. I shower, shaved, shinola'd and dressed. I took one step off the back porch and went mid-shin deep in the white stuff. 

I knew then and there, I was going nowhere. Still I trekked to the garage to secure a snow shovel, knowing we'd need to make a path back to said garage for the snowblower, and another path for one Mr. Shep - or as I call him, Mr. Poopers. 

Those strong, but short ,legs can certainly bound through drifts et al, but when you gotta squat to do your bidness...well, one needs solid ground of some sorts. 

710 took an hour or so to clear the driveway and walk with the blower. This house isn't like the last. We had a massive yard on to which we could direct the snow. Now, we can only go straight down the driveway until we get to the front, and even then can only toss left, as it would be rude to direct it to our neighbor's front lawn. 

Almost no one made it into work. I was worried, of course, but as it turns out, few patients showed as well. But due to Covid, we are adapt to flipping our appointments to virtual as needed - and if the patient has that capacity. I am pretty shocked how many do not have smart phones - which I just assume anymore is like the standard. 

MLK Day helped and hindered everything. Less traffic on the roads, schools weren't disrupted because they were closed anyways, etc.  But a lot of city workers are off on MLK too........including.....and wait for it...........snow plow drivers. 

Oh, and there is a massive shortage of things like school bus drivers and......wait for it.......snow plow drivers.  I guess they're not 'things', but people. 

This is our first real big snow of the season. Everyone said it would happen, but the services weren't there, for whatever reason. 

I still had to work, I just did it from home.  But I made it to the office the next day. Life goes back to semi-normal.  The snow had to go somewhere, and unfortunately for anyone elderly or disabled, if you needed those slight ramps from the street to the sidewalk you were fucked. I was climbing over 3' mounds to get to the street or sidewalk. 

So, while we are technically a month in, Winter has actually begun. 

Song by: Kate Bush

Blew

Blew. As in past tense of blow.

At the end of last Winter, our 12 year old snow blower died an ugly ugly death.

No one is quite sure what happened. It's just that both all the gas and oil lines leaked out everywhere into and onto the garage floor.

While repair was possible, it was also expensive and it's been serviced before, but never did come back as strong as when it was a young buck. It clogged easier. It didn't throw snow as far. But it always started.

It always started mainly because we were smart enough to get a key start ignition. Who the fuck wants to fool around with trying to pull start a device when it's subzero temps? Not me.

We got this at our last house a day before a 15" snow fall. 710 endeared himself to our neighbors when he just went over unannounced and cleared their drive as well. Tom, the male half of that household, never was too kind to us prior to that, but he came around after that. His wife, Annie, was always friendly.

With our current house, a snow blower is a necessity. The drive, as you might have read in any number of earlier posts, is at least 80' long. There is no way I could - or would - shovel that thing. And the drive is set up just oddly enough that there is no good way for a snow plow to maneuver in and out - let alone a place to pile up the snow - at least with out killing lots of landscaping.

So 710 ordered a new snow blower.

He's the one for the job on researching the best model, reliability, etc. But normally, I'm the one to use it. I got to see it up close and in person before we made the purchase.

Lord knows there are models with cup holders (not kidding) and flood lights. And while I have cleared the driveway after sunset (or before sun up) I've never had trouble seeing or the need for headlights.

The new one will have a better way to turn the snow chute. The intake it bigger. It cuts a bigger swath.

But today, the old when gets taken to the curb. Maybe some scavenger will pick it up before the trash guys get there. They can sell it for scrap somewhere, I suppose. It's not like any thing will leak into their vehicle.....as it already spilled out months ago.

Goodbye old friend, you served us well.


Song by: Nirvana