Let it snow
Well, we don’t have much choice, do we?
It’s snowing, the wind is blowing (but not, I think, at blizzard level), and I have no reason to go out today.
As for great blizzards of the past, I well remember this one. Fortunately, I was not among those stranded motorists on Route 128, some of whom died because their exhausts got covered and the carbon monoxide backed into their cars. I was safe at home hunkered down with my husband and a fireplace.
Unfortunately, however, I was stranded on a Greyhound bus with a seat near front row and center for this 1967 Midwest biggee. My bus and I were somewhere in Indiana; I’d been on my way to a family wedding where I was scheduled to be a bridesmaid. In those days, forecasting the weather was a great deal more primitive than now, and nobody foresaw the scope of this storm at the time I joined a ragtag group of people who stepped onto that bus and filled every single seat, because the airport was already closed.
I did have the foresight, however, to wear multiple layers of clothing, and so I was very warm. I must have been hungry, too, but I don’t remember that. I chiefly recall an interminable night of sitting with my Intro to Botany text open on my lap, reading the same paragraphs about xylem and phloem over and over and trying vainly to absorb the information, while somebody’s pesky two-year-old roamed the aisles unsupervised, his copiously running nose unattended and dripping with the cold.
How long did the bus sit there without moving? I don’t know, but memory tells me it was at least 24 hours. Did I make the wedding? Yes, barely.
[NOTE: Half of this post has been recycled from a previous one.]
…one of my fav’ crooners, and fav’ renditions of the tune. Ah, that vibrato.
66 degrees here in CA. Unfortunately, this warm weather allows the Ebola-carrying mosquitos to breed so I would not suggest moving here. 🙂
Seriously, we are back in the drought and the Democrats who run this place have not built an additional gallon of water storage since the last Republican administration in the 1990’s. Instead, they are requiring huge amounts of discharge from the existing reservoirs to either lower or increase (I forget) the stream temperature so some bogus ‘endangered’ fish is more comfortable.
Rush says that the power companies in your area are having to turn on their coal-fired plants to keep up with demand. Somehow the solar power doesn’t work and the wind speed is so high it would destroy the wind turbines if they allow them to spin.
I hope your power stays on and you stay warm.
“Intro to Botany”!? Oh, dear. And I always thought my “Yeasts and Molds” class was awful.
Yes, the blizzard of 78 was bad. I had two friends trapped at work for days eating out of vending machines. Good times.
Here in Paradise California my daffodils are in bloom.
Beware the (almost) Ides of March:
“The Great Blizzard of 1888 or Great Blizzard of ’88 (March 11 — March 14, 1888) was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in the history of the United States of America. The storm, referred to as the Great White Hurricane, paralyzed the East Coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine,[1][2] as well as the Atlantic provinces of Canada.[3] Snowfalls of 20—60 inches (51—152 cm) fell in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and sustained winds of more than 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) produced snowdrifts in excess of 50 feet (15 m). Railroads were shut down, and people were confined to their houses for up to a week.[3] Railway and telegraph lines were disabled, and this provided the impetus to move these pieces of infrastructure underground. Emergency services were also affected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1888
36 C in South Eastern Australia today. I’ll be mowing the grass & cleaning the pool.
You guys can have all the snow…I’m quite happy to not ever see it again on my sidewalk. Been there. Done that. No mas.
This *thing* has rained on my parade (grumpy face), could not leave for Fla as planned had to delay a day, but braving it with hubby and calico kitty tomorrow.
It’s been somewhat impressive in eastern New York so far today. My desk resides in an upstairs trailer, so in order to reach the rest of the department, I have to exit said trailer, go down a flight of aluminum stairs (pretty sturdy, more than one might perhaps expect), and then into the building. It seems that the configuration and orientation of the trailer are such that, with these particular winds and speeds, the oncoming snow just happens to build up against the base of the trailer door with some rapidity. Consequently, I sometimes got concerned that I’d be snowed in – had to kick the snow away at intervals.
Then upon leaving for the night, I found that my car had acted as a big windbreak, snow having piled up along the lee side. (I think that’s the term.) To drive anything above 40 on the way home was to court death. (Not really that bad, but it’s fun to exaggerate a bit now and then. 🙂 )
IIRC…
The 1967 storm in the Chicago area happened in January. The weather the previous day was in the high 40’s so a storm dropping more than 2 feet of snow was totally unexpected.
Most of the Dad’s had normal 9-5 jobs and left work early in the morning. My Dad was an industrial salesmen whose customers didn’t care to see until 10am at the latest. That day I remember him saying his first call was a noon lunch with a near by customer. Who called my Dad around 10:30 and cancelled. So Dad turned on the TV news and decided to stay put.
One other Dad in the neighborhood was an engineer who was scheduled to fly out of Midway for a conference when the airline called and told him his flight had been cancelled.
They were the only two Male adults on the block. Needless to say they got all us kids ‘working’ to shovel out sidewalks and driveways. When the other – exhausted – men got home one by one they were surprised and happy to see the situation.
The Moms got together to make sure everyone had enough Milk and food. A couple of the other kids 14 or 15 took a big wagon to the local grocery store to buy a lot of bread and sandwich makings.
I remember one Dad walking up the street about 4 days later. The last to arrive home.
It was a blast for us kids and, no doubt, a major PITA for all the Moms and Dads. I think every Dad had been a veteran of WWII or Korea – some were still in the reserves – so any one or two of them would have gotten things organized.
1967 was a lifetime and totally different world away from NOW.
Good luck and God bless all our fellow Americans out east.