Massive Snow Storm Headed to the East Coast

The preparations for any major snowstorm in the Mid-Atlantic are always amusing.  People panic buy like we're going to be snowbound for a month or more.  The reality in 2025 is that we might be snowed in for a week, at most.  Even here in Maryland, our road crews are great at getting business moving again in pretty quick order.  I grew up in the Mid-West.  TBH, we are always prepared for bad weather.  We've always got enough food in the freezer and non-perishables to see us through for a couple of weeks in the winter time.  Blizzards are no joke.  We don't get many blizzards here in Maryland, and I'm not certain if this storm will be a blizzard or not.

But watching people freak out is a wonderful past time for me!  We have a turkey that I picked up on sale after Thanksgiving that we are going to cook tomorrow.  Somehow, I found a relatively small bird.  This one is less than 10 pounds.  The two of us should be set for days....  If the power does go out, it will be nice to have cooked food on hand.

I couldn't resist going to Wal-Mart yesterday.  This storm has been hyped so much, I was curious just how much people were panicking.  Let me tell you, the visit did not disappoint.  

Evidently, a lot of beef chili is going to be had in the Burg.
We need to have a chili cook off at some point!

Or maybe we're all making wings?

There's just a little milk left - all of it Lactose Free.
I love the half gallons of chocolate milk!
I really should have picked one up!
If only I wasn't on a quest to lose weight...

I enjoyed my visit.  I needed to break a $20, so I got a salad from Subway and sat down and watched the chaos at the registers for a while.  I give a lot of credit to the employees - they really kept those self check outs moving fast!  But I am wondering why someone needed 10 cartons of eggs.  If you're reading this, I want to know what you're making with them! Please tell!  Give me the recipes!

I admit, I did panic buy one item.  White acid free cardstock.  I'm working on an old scrapbook that I found from the 1950's.  Everything was glued down, front and back to the same page.  And the pages are disintegrating.  The items that were glued down are of historic significance.  I'm hoping to get at least some of the pages pulled apart and remade.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to safely do this without ruining all of the documents, please let me know!  I really would appreciate your input!

Seriously folks - if you're in the way of this storm, stay safe and warm.  This promises to be the first wild winter weather event we've had in Maryland in 10 years.  I'm thrilled to have some snow!  My hiking boots are out, and I found my sled!  There's a little hill in our back yard that I've got my eye on.  It's been 10 years since I last took a sled down that hill!

Monday Musings

Zen Sculpture at Penn State.

Snow is in the forecast, and life in the Mid-Atlantic is screeching to a halt.  We haven't had much snow this year.  Snow in March in this part of the Mid-Atlantic is unusual.  Big snow storms in March are rare. 

The last big March snowstorm that we had was in 1993. I'd just had my oldest child, and had my 6 weeks of maternity leave.   I was teaching at the time, and I'd been back to school for a week, and family had covered that week of babysitting for us when the storm hit.  I hit the jackpot!  We were out of school for a week!  My husband's family leave kicked in once I went back to work, and he was off for an additional 4 weeks.  It was great!  We managed to get 12 weeks between the two of us before we had to put him in day care.

I went to the grocery store early this morning.  I worked this weekend, and I really didn't want to go stand in long lines.  I had hoped that the store would have had the opportunity to restock the shelves.  Sadly, not everything was restocked, but I did okay.   There is a rub, though.  I haven't really been shopping yet this year. I've picked up a few needed items here and there, spending anywhere from $20-$40 a week.   I've been trying to eat out of the freezers and the pantry.  We are almost at the end of the food I had on hand, and I really needed to restock.  Today was the day I had planned on shopping.  I've been working on that list for over a week now.   I am sighing heavily as I admit that I spent $269 on groceries this morning.  Granted, I'm mostly stocked again, and it'll be a while before I have to go back to the grocery store again, but I really hated shelling out that kind of money in one trip.  On the other hand, it really is nice to have oatmeal, brown sugar, and gluten free flour again!

One thing I love about our grocery store is that we have hand held scanners we can take with us as we shop.  We scan the item, put it into the bags in the cart, and when we get to the end of the store, we scan our scanners into the self-checkouts, and it rings up the order automatically. What is my least favorite part of the trip - unloading a cart full of groceries onto the belt, loading it all into bags, loading it back into the cart - is now the easiest part of my trip.  I almost enjoy grocery shopping when I've got an Easy Scanner in my hands!

If you're in the path of this impending storm, stay safe and warm! 

Spring is only days away!

The Big Dig Continues

Sure, I could post more pictures of white stuff, but why?  The  big dig continues.  Husband went in to work today - they brought them in on a 4 hour delay.  I'm still off work - I don't know If I'll be in tomorrow or not.  The University of Maryland system has postponed move in day and classes again.  I'm ready for middle child to report back to school.  His move in day was moved from Saturday to Weds, and now we're waiting to see if they're actually going to let him move in on Weds, or if it's going to get pushed back one more day.

I never thought I'd say I want to go back to work, but.... I'm really ready to go back to work.

Blizzard 2016

It's Monday and my internet is back up and running!

It's day 4 - and the clean up continues.  Our driveway is cleared.  We are digging the cars out today.  I don't know if we'll be in to work tomorrow, but at least our cars can dry off.  I really don't want to leave the snow on the cars for one more day - we'll have to chip through a layer of ice to get into the cars if we wait much longer.  The snowplows came through our neighborhood at 2:30 this morning, and then they spent the next several hours not only cleaning out the snow, but widening the paths.  I got up to watch for a while, and was surprised to see that the driver of the big earth mover not only widened the road, but went to the trouble of clearing out the snow walls from the bottom of the driveways that had already been cleared.  In the picture above, you can see the earth mover, and one of the county maintenance trucks.  The big machine broke down around 7, and the maintenance truck showed up and worked on the rig for about half an hour before it got up and running again.  I'm glad that the people showed up in the picture for scale.  It gives you an idea of how huge the snow piles are. 

As of today, we are still under a state of emergency.  If you hang out on social media at all, people are whining and complaining because they're snowed in, they don't have enough food, they're bored, it's not fair, the snow removal trucks are moving too slow... this list goes on and on.  Sad thing is, the warnings were out for over a week that this was going to be an ugly storm, and the dig out was going to be arduous.  It's not like they didn't know that they needed to have supplies to be in place for a week.  The governor mentioned last Thursday to make certain you had enough supplies to be on your own for a week.  Planning, people, planning. 

Sunset in my neighborhood last night.  Look at that beautiful, clear sky!  It was a beautiful sunset!  At this point in time, our street had not yet been cleared.

Tiger

We've been hanging in there.  The house is cleaner that it has been in a long while.  Not only is the basement cleaner, so is the kitchen.  I've been able to sort through stuff that I've been wanting to sort through for a while now.  Laundry has been DONE.  I mean, really done.  All of the laundry.  I'm never this caught up on my laundry!  If I'm snowbound for much longer, I'm going to be hitting up the scrapbook pile earlier than I had planned on!  I need to assess how far behind I am and work out a plan to get caught up this year. 

We've baked a lot over the past couple of days.  Pumpkin muffins - made with pumpkin from my half bushel that I bought earlier this fall.  Chocolate Chip cookies, and gluten free bread.  Yum!  I have a pot roast in the oven for dinner tonight, and last night, I made a big batch of porcupine meatballs.  It's been a long time since I've had porcupine meatballs, and they were so very, very good.

As of now, Maryland is still under a State of Emergency.  State Government is closed, as is the Federal Government, and all of the school systems.  The road crews are still struggling to get all of the highways open, and the side streets and back roads are an absolute mess.  I'm certain that you heard the Governor closed down I-70 and 270 on Saturday night due to accidents.  This is the first time I remember the highways being shut down in Maryland in the 25 years that I've lived here.

I'm more than a little concerned about flooding.  Our temps are supposed to go way up into the 50's mid-week.  If it gets that high, and all of this snow melts at once, we are going to have some very ugly flooding.  So glad I live at the top of a hill!

Blizzard of 2016

Friday night at sundown.  Doesn't look like much, does it?

The snow storm of the century has begun!  Last night, the weather was still a little wimpy.  I had expected it to roll in with a huge crash-bang!  But no, it silently tiptoed in.  Tiny little snowflakes wandered lazily down from the sky, meandering on their own independent pathways on a slow, gentle, journey towards the ground.  The State of Emergency for Maryland began early yesterday.  We had originally planned a college trip with the middle child in order to look at a graduate school in Virginia.  We cancelled our plans Weds. morning and decided we'd wait until spring break.  Since I already had the day off, I didnd't go in at all.  We met up with friends for breakfast at Panera.  I was surprised to see how many people were leaving with loaves of bread, bagels, sweet buns.  When we arrived at 8, the shelves were full of bagels and bread.  When we left a little after 9, there was no bread left and only 2 bins of bagels.  (I guess it's safe to say our town loves Panera's bread!)  I ran a few more errands with the kids before we went home and "parked it" just a little before noon.  

Sundown, around 5:00 Friday.

Husband went in to work and was sent home at noon because of the impending weather.  Our school system went in, and the kids had a 3 hour early dismissal.  Middle child's college was supposed to start Monday, and move in day was supposed to be today.  That's been pushed back.  As of today, move in day for everyone is Monday, and classes begin on Tuesday.  I'm curious to see what that's going to look like come Monday morning!  I don't foresee the roads and parking lots being cleared enough for us to move everybody in Monday morning.

Last night, we had a great dinner, ran laundry, cleaned the messy room in the basement (which isn't quite so messy anymore), played Farkel, and Apples to Apples.  There was about 4 inches of snow on the ground when we went to bed.  

This morning, we woke up to the sounds of thunder snow.  You know, a snow storm that has so much energy it thunders.  I never heard of Thunder Snow until I moved to the Mid-Atlantic. The wind has picked up, and the snow is blowing sideways.  We live on top of a hill, and I can usually see the 3 miles from the top of this ridge to the top of the next one, where the center of town lies.  This morning I can see the houses across the street, but not any farther. 

As measured in our driveway this morning, we are at 19" of snow.  Think about that for a minute.  15 inches of snow fell between the time we went to bed at 11:00 and the time we went out to get wood for the stove at 7.  That's 8 hours.  That's a LOT of snow.

I do have a couple of safety concerns.   Tragedies that happen every time we get a major snowstorm.  We don't get major snowstorms every year, so people get lazy, forget, or have moved in from another area south of here and just don't realize the consequences...

One- If your power does go out, do NOT cook on a kerosene or propane stove INSIDE the house.  The carbon monoxide will kill you. Cook outside in a sheltered place.  We have our grill set up under the carport.  The neighbor has an outdoor covered kitchen.  Yes, it's cold. 

Two- If you have a gas furnace, fireplace, or water heater, make certain that the outdoor vents are kept clear.  This is a significant snowfall, and those vents could easily become clogged or covered with snow.  If your vents are on the roof - keep an eye on them.  Carbon Monoxide will build up and be released into your house if the vents are not cleared.

Three - If you have a fire hydrant near your house, get out and clean around it as you can.  A 3 foot radius is what the fire crews need in order to access the hydrant. Nobody likes to think of it, but houses do burn to the ground during snowstorms. Be careful with open flames, and remember to dump your fireplace ashes in a fireproof container.  We heard of a house that burned to the ground last year because somebody dumped their ashes into a cardboard box and put the box outside, on the wood deck, next to the house.

Stay safe!

It's so pretty!  I love the silence a snowstorm brings!

The big old tree in the back yard.  It's such an elegant tree.

Preparing for a Major Snow Dump

Have you heard?  There's a snow storm headed to the Mid-Atlantic!  HOORAY!

Weds. night, and the stores are empty.

In general, we don't get a lot of snow in this part of Maryland.  We get several little snow storms, and a really big one every couple of years.  The problem with this kind of snow is that clearing it out so that people can get around again gets to be a huge task that takes days.  What would take the good folks in New England a day to clean out can easily take a week to clean out around here.  When Snowmaggedon hit six years ago, it took 5 days for the plows to get to our street to clean us out, and then we were hit by another massive storm a couple of days later.  It took a full week after that storm before we were able to get out of the neighborhood again.

I grew up in the Mid-West, where the snow was always more serious, and we were always prepared for the big one.  We knew that storms would hit, we just didn't know when. 

Fast forward 30 some years, and weather forecasting has improved to the point where we can predict and prepare for storms days in advance.  Being caught by surprise by the weather is no longer quite the reality it used to be back when I was a kid.

Needless to say, I spent a day earlier this week inventorying our supplies and picking up what we needed to round out what we think we'll need for a week at home.

source: Baltimore County Public Library

One of our snow shovels broke last season.  It was one of the cheap ones.  I replaced it with one of the sturdier, all metal heavy duty shovels.  I also bought another broom to supplement the one we sweep the cars off.  One extra bag of rock salt - purchased, and stored in it's water proof container outside.

For the cats, I picked up an extra bag of food.  I just bought one last week, but I bought an extra one, because I really don't want to have hungry, whiny cats roaming around the house in case if this turns out to be more than one storm that keeps us housebound for more than the week we're expecting.

The quick run to the grocery store Tuesday evening included toilet paper, almond milk, a couple of pounds of ground beef and chicken, a bag of potatoes, a bag of onions, a bag of carrots, and a bag of rice.  I'm actually out of rice.  How did that happen?  Can you believe that I had less than 12 items?  I was able to check out through the Express Lane!

Back at home, we made certain that the shovels were within easy reach of the door.

Our firewood is stacked under the carport, so for the most part, our wood stays dry when it snows.  We have some drifting, but the wood itself never gets soaked.

We are as ready as we are ever going to be for the upcoming storm!  Who knows if it will be as big as they are predicting?  The weather maps and models do look impressive!

Image: Foot's Forecast

In preparation for the storm, all of our cell phones are being charged - just in case the power goes out.  We supplement our heat with wood, so if we do lose power, we'll be warm, and we'll be able to cook.  We have solar lanterns outside, and they're storing up a charge now.  We also have a couple of old oil lamps that are on standby, just in case if we need them, as well as a hand cranked weather radio and a hand cranked LED lantern.

If you live in the Mid-Atlantic area, are you ready to be snowed in for a while?  Do you have enough to see you through a week without getting out of the house?

A Lesson Learned the Hard Way

I was strolling through one of my old blogs yesterday. At one time, they were public, but I've since made them private - they were never my best writing, but I still enjoy going back and looking at what was going on in our lives at that point in time.  I found this story - which was originally published 5 years ago today.  I had completely forgotten about this until I read it - and then the memories came flooding back.  What a day that was....


We had a quick moving clipper move through our area and dump 4 inches of snow on us.  Normally, that's not a big deal.  Unfortunately, the storm was not predicted.  Our road crews were sent out on other assignments, and once the snow hit, they were stuck in the snow just like the rest of us and were unable to make it back to their home base and pick up the salt trucks.

This was the day that prompted my being more prepared for the snow in my car.  It's the reason why I keep a snow supply box - with food, blankets, water, and kitty litter in the trunk of my car.

I was stuck out in the snow.  I made it most of the way home with no incident, but then came the last mile.  No matter which road you travel to get into our neighborhood, you have to go down a steep hill, around a tight corner and up another steep hill.  The "back" way into our neighborhood goes through a ravine - the turns are even tighter and steeper on that road.

I came in the front way, and a school bus had spun out on the road and was blocking both lanes.  I backed up the hill and turned around to go the back way into our neighborhood.  That was where I made my mistake.  I crowned the hill at the top of the ravine, and my van began spinning out of control down the snowy roadway.  I did everything I was suppposed to do - and still, I kept spinning.  It felt as if the van was in danger of tipping and rolling over.  Finally, after three complete spins, I came to rest against a curb.  After I gathered my wits, I backed the van the rest of the way down the hill and made it up the next hill.  I finally got onto the road behind my house, only to find cars at a complete standstill.  There was a five car pile up, and two school buses full of children had spun out on the road, and were stopped, perpendicular to the roadway. 

I gave up all hope of getting home in my car.  There was an empty field off to my right.  I pulled my van into the field, and walked the rest of the way home.  I only had three blocks to go.  Because the road surface was so slippery, I walked through front yards.  I watched, horrified, as a motorist left his car and attempted to walk down the road.  Another car, attempting to get around the pile up had pulled to the side of the accident and lost control of his car.  He was headed toward the pedestrian, and there was no way the collision could be avoided.  Somehow, the pedestrian managed to get out of the way of the car, but it was enough to convince me to stay far away from the roadway. 

The kids usually get out of school at 2:30.  My daughter gave up on the bus and walked the mile and a half home.  The boys school is farther away from the house.  The buses did not deliver them home until 7:00 that night.

Now that I've had time to reflect on the incident, what lessons have I learned?

First, I have prepared a box of items in my trunk just in case if I am stranded again.  If I had been stuck in my car for any length of time, I would have been in some serious trouble.  My box has blankets, non-perishable food, water, kitty litter, hiking boots, a flashlight, kitty litter (for traction), and a small snow shovel.

Second, I put snow chains in the back of the car.  I have all weather radials on the van, but they were not enough to handle the slick snow that we had.  Even more important, I learned how to put the chains ON the tires.

Third, I make certain that I have my winter coat in the back of the car when I leave the house.  I don't wear my coat when I drive- I don't feel like I can handle the car well when I am all bulky in my coat.  However, walking home three blocks in my Keds and a sweatshirt through a snow storm was enough to convince me that NO MATTER WHAT, my coat is always in whatever car I am traveling in.

Stay warm this winter!

Getting the Cars Ready for Winter

The days are getting shorter and colder.  Parts of the United States saw snow over the weekend.  That was our reminder that we needed to get our cars ready for the winter.

We always get the oil in our cars changed every 3,000 miles.  It's how our Civic has lasted 14 years and well over 200,000 miles.  We had the oil changed in both cars just last week.

This is what we do to get our cars ready for the winter:

1) Make sure the windshield washer fluid is topped off.  We buy an extra gallon and keep it in the garage so we can add more on warmer days through the winter.

2) Replace the windshield wipers.

3) Check to make certain the jumper cables are accessible.

4) Add the collapsible snow shovel.  I tend to take this out of the trunk in the spring, because it gets in my way.  Husband leaves it in year round.

5) Change the batteries in the flashlight.

6) Add a bag of kitty gravel.  (Non-clumping).  We use this for traction in case if we get stuck in the snow.  It's happened more than once before, and that bag of litter has made a big difference in getting out.  I've seen other people use carpet remnants or gravel.  We use kitty litter.  I'm not certain, but I like to think it's easier on the environment.

7) Find wherever the ice scrapers have migrated to and move them into the pockets on the driver's side door.  Oh yeah, and clear out all of the affiliated junk in that pocket.

8) Clean out all of the loose stuff in the car, and vacuum it.  (Just because)

9) Check the tire pressure.

10) Check to make sure all of the bulbs are working - headlights, tail lights, and turn signals.  Replace as needed.  Really don't want a ticket for something we could have easily fixed for less than $5.

11) Add a blanket, and a seasonal change of clothes to the trunk.  I actually keep a suitcase in the trunk of the car year round, in case if something happens and I have to stay overnight somewhere unexpectedly.  For winter, this change includes underwear, socks, shoes, a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt.  (Remember, I used to teach.  You never knew what was going to happen in the course of a day, so having a change of clothing with you was always a good idea just in case.)  BTW, I also carry a large plastic bag to put a dirty change of clothing in.

12) Check the food and water supplies.  I have a big plastic box in the trunk that holds water bottles and snacks.  I can't tell you how many times I've hit up those supplies over the years.  Hungry kids, hungry me, running late, whatever the reason, I've always got fairly healthy snacks that won't melt in the trunk of my car.  If I do get stranded on a road in a snowstorm, or I am running late and starved, knowing I've got something to nosh on until I can get home and get real food is a nice feeling.

Have you gotten your car ready for winter?

Snow

It is so beautiful, yet so treacherous.

Yesterday morning, it began snowing just as rush hour started.  Unfortunately for us, the weather was such that the snow hit the pretreated roads, melted, and then flash froze.

Talk about a fun commute!

Most schools around here delayed 2 hours, and then closed.

I attempted to get to work.  It took me half an hour to go two miles.  The main road South was closed.
My alternate route South was closed.  The back, back, back way was closed due to accidents.

I finally gave up and headed home.  I found out once I got back that my place of employment had closed for the day.  *sigh* wish I'd known that before I headed out!

The good news is, I made it safely home, without an accident.  I was able to spend the day with two of my kids.

What about the third one?  He's in Phoenix.  He sent me weather updates and pictures.  Remind me why I told him to text me and let me know how he was doing?

Snow on my Autumn Joy Sedum.

 

 

We really didn't get that much snow, considering how much havoc it caused.

A view down my street.  I took this at 3 pm - still no snow plow!

Berries in the snow.  I tried to capture a picture of the birds flitting around on this bush, but they didn't cooperate with me!

You Know...

I grew up in the Mid-West.  Ohio, Illinois, and Oklahoma.  We had Snow - with a capital "S" when I was growing up.  I remember snow that came up above the roof of our one story house in Ohio.  I remember when we lost power - but it really didn't matter that much because the snow came well up past the halfway point on our house - and insulated the house from the worst of the cold.  I remember being able to open my window and grab a handful of snow to throw a quick snowball at my sister - inside of the house.

Snow and winter in the mid-west is different than snow in the Mid-Atlantic.

In the Mid-Atlantic, we typically get snow once or twice a year.  We'll have flurries on other days, but everything comes to a screeching halt when snow is in the forecast.  I usually laugh and carry on, and I enjoy the weather.

I revel in snow days.  It's a chance to enjoy the snow, and a great opportunity to spend time together as a family.  We bake, we play games, we go sledding.  In general, we have a ball.

A couple of years ago, we had Snowmaggedon - a series of winter storms that dumped a bunch of snow on us.  We missed well over a week of school, and had a ball hanging out together, watching old movies, and reading.  It was great!

And now, the weather forecast for the next few days is coming out...

 

image: http://www.footsforecast.org/



Wow.

I'm quoting directly from Foot's Forecast here:
 LEFT: Latest precipitation projections show 1.0-2.5 inches of liquid stretch from Louisiana to Maine for the period Tue 2/11 to Sun 2/16, suggesting a possible subtropical moisture feed (known as an "atmospheric river") may be a factor this storm's outcome.

Preliminary reports are coming in with the words "significant impact".

This is going to be awesome!

Bring it on!