HR 4872 may or may not happen today, aka health care. This should be interesting. I just hope that perhaps this can stop some of the nastiness going about. (Last I heard, Gerry Connolly was on board, deem and pass had gone out the window, and the fence-sitters were finding themselves in quite the spotlight.)

In other news, I am an Avon rep!! (Been dying to try the Anew line, didn’t know a rep and decided I would just be my own rep.) Thank you Melissa for being my awesome first customer! To that end, I have a meeting with my District Sales Manager tomorrow, a “Division Rally” next week and a sales meeting the week after that. Basically, more meetings in the next 3 weeks than I’ve been to in the last 4 years. At the risk of sounding like a sales pitch, I will say the online ordering and direct delivery they have now is pretty spiffy.

Now I am going to figure out what I am going to do with the rest of this absolutely gorgeous day. Well, after lunch.

Then I was awakened at 7:45 this morning by my NOAA radio kindly letting me know that we’re all going to die.  I am trying to find an animated loop of the regional radar over the past 6 hours to see when & where this second storm cell developed when there was nothing there 5 hours earlier.

I should have stuck with my instincts and just not gone to bed.  I’m serious – I was really toying with the idea.  (Too much snow + too much caffeine = ideas of staying up all night to beat Mother Nature.)  This is what the snow has done to me.  I had been keeping up with the snow on Friday night until I went to bed.  Last night, the driveway, sidewalk and car were cleared off.  And then I went to bed.  And it all went to hell.  IF I’D JUST STAYED UP ALL NIGHT THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED.

Part of me thinks that I should get out there and at least take a few whacks at it.  The intelligent part of my brain says not to set a toe outside until I see my neighbors out there or the wind dies down a bit.  My sweet southern neighbor brought home a brand new snowblower yesterday and while I would never in a million years expect or even ask for help unless I desperately needed it, maybe I’ll get lucky we’ll be out at the same time and he’ll want to do more snowblowing.  :)

There must be a 6 hour radar loop somewhere that I can look at if no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity.

Moxley, Mr. “I love the wind!” went out and then wouldn’t come back in.  WTF dog?!  So, I get dressed, shoes on and take 2 steps out the back door and he trundles right in.  I think it was his way of saying, “If I have to go to the bathroom in this nonsense, you have to get out of your PJ’s.”

*This was the same neighbor who was positively ecstatic when I was house/dogsitting and the tree fell in the driveway.  Before I could even figure out who to call or what to do, he was out there with the chain saw and a huge smile on his face.

I really don’t understand how folks that live in places like Buffalo and have this much snow on the ground most of the winter don’t just lose their minds.  I realize it must just be something you get used to after you’ve lived there a while, but I guess I can say I understand how someone might feel the first year they lived there.  (And of course, they do have the experience and equipment to deal with this type of snow in short order.)

I don’t think it’s cabin fever – I can hermit up with the best of them.  But something about this is making me a little nuts.  Maybe it’s the feeling that I have no idea whatsoever what I really should be worrying about, and the knowledge that whatever it is, there probably isn’t anything I can do about it anyway.  Case in point:  Didn’t occur to me until halfway through the storm that I could stop worrying about clearing the outside compressor as this house doesn’t have a heat pump.  (In my defense, I spent over 10 years in a house with a heat pump.  Old habits die hard I guess.)

I did run up to the post office today*.  Conditions I drove on/saw were: clear/dry, slushy, unplowed, plowed but not much, wet, and covered in water and near flooding.  Anything that’s not dry by now is going to be a sheet of ice tonight.

Now that we’ve got another 10-20 on the way, it’s time to go with the “be postive” approach…

– The driveway and sidewalks are clear, and even without the snowblower help I could have (and would have) gotten them cleared on my own.
– I’ve dug halfway to the mailbox.  (Considering the berm is over 4 feet high and somewhere between 5-6 feet deep, I’m OK with that measure of progress.)
– I have the physical ability to keep up with the snow when the next round comes.
– I don’t have to be anywhere.
– I have more than enough food, as do the pets.
– I have Coke, Milk, Beer, Wine, Liquor, Champagne and Orange Juice.
– I have power.
– I got through the first storm on my own and I can certainly hack this one if little bro doesn’t come back before it starts.
– I have good neighbors and friends who I can ask for help if I need it.

So, it’s not quite the end of the world.  Still can’t guarantee that I won’t pull a full on nutter before it’s all over, but I’m trying to be positive and consider this an excellent character building experience.  Or at least a story I can torture younguns with in 30 years.

*Car behaved nicely.  I’ll be sticking with short daylight drives until such time as I can get it to the shop with my favorite car problem: the intermittent kind.

The road in front of my house is clear and dry, which is awesome, but from reading various comments around about neighborhood plowing, this is not indicative of the entire county.  We are on a Metrobus route, but we’re not a snow emergency route, and in years past I do NOT remember our road being tended to this well after any other snows.  I’ll certainly take it, but with other storms our road has been great and I’ve gotten out to bigger roads that are total shit, so it’s a bit deceptive.

I need to go widen the opening at the end of the driveway a bit, as addition plowing and such has dumped more snow and it’s not quite wide enough to get the car out, or my brother’s car in whenever he gets back.  I also need to figure out how to tackle the mailbox.  The neighborhood trend seems to be to just cut a 2 foot wide path from the street to the box.  I’m still glad I went ahead and put the mail on hold for a few days so I don’t have to kill myself to get that completely done today – I don’t think my back could take it.

Tomorrow’s WSW has gone from 5 inches to 8 inches with “a good likelihood of snow in excess of 10 inches.”  OH HAPPY DAY!  However, I will try my best to be diligent and shovel as it comes down rather than waiting to try to deal with 10 inches of snow at once.  (I was actually doing pretty well keeping up on Friday – until I had the audacity to go to bed.)

According to the NWS, the average annual snowfall for Dulles is 22.3 inches, and National is 16.6.  So far this year they’ve gotten 46.0 and 45.1 inches respectively.  So, at least I know it is not my imagination and this winter just seriously SUCKS.

I think come spring I’m going to burn the hoodie & jeans that have been doing shoveling duty.

Next time we have a blizzard, I need a non-lethal projectile weapon that is at least somewhat accurate.  I have some leyland cypress trees in the backyard with a LOT of snow on them and are leaning in a way which is mildly worrisome.  I’ve not been able to come up with any good way to knock the snow off the higher branches, and not much melted off today.  I tried lobbing a tethered water bottle at them, which kind of worked, but my throwing arm ain’t all that.  I really could have used a water balloon slingshot or a heavy duty nerf gun today – something I could have aimed out of the upstairs window.  (How my brother does not own either of these items is beyond me.)

And oh joy, we have another winter storm watch from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon with “potential for 5 or more inches of snow”  YAY!

On top of the trees and the mailbox, my car decided to stall out on me a couple times on Friday.  So, at some point this week I need to get the car to the shop.  Now, I’d just do it tomorrow and grab a cab home, but the the Federal government, County government and County schools are closed, which I think is their way of saying “Stay off the damn roads!”  Perhaps I’ll just wait until little bro gets home and coerce a ride out of him.  (At least there is nowhere I desperately have to be.)

At least through all this nonsense we kept power, which is a VERY GOOD thing.

There are some small indents in the snow where I worked last night.  So at least I can tell where I’ve already shoveled, but it’s a bit disheartening.  I’d say there’s at least another 10 inches out there.  The patio table (which was clear before this all started) now has at least two feet of snow on it.  The snow is almost up to the bottom of the mailbox, but there was already about a foot of snow there before all this ridiculousness started.

My neighbors on both side have snowblowers.  One has remembered the golden rule of “if you have a snowblower and your neighbor doesn’t, going a few feet past your property line when clearing the white crap out is a really decent thing to do.”  (And going all the way to the edge of my driveway is INSANELY nice.) The other apparently has never learned this.  (I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he’s trying to conserve gas and not being a selfish prick who knows damn well I don’t have an extra set of hands here.)  Someone will be getting some thank you cookies or some goodies of some sort.

The dog has attempted to go out once – I told him that he really needed for me to wait and clear a path, but oh no, he knows best.  He reconisdered once he got about a foot outside the back door.  That is the first item on the to-do list as soon as I get some caffeine in me.

The road in front of the house looks GREAT.  Not that anyone can get to it – the snow berm at the end of the driveway is now at least 4 feet high.

Well, time to start round one of the day.  Of course, I have to do the backyard first for the dog, which no one will see except him, and my neighbors will think I am ignoring the front…  They don’t know how lucky they are that I didn’t sleep until noon as it is.  Sometimes I wish I lived in a neighborhood with more slackers like me. :)

The plows that have been coming through have already dumped 2+ feet of snow at the end of the driveway.  I don’t even know how I am supposed to get through that without a flamethrower.  (Another reason I should really have a flamethrower.)  There have been two plows that have been looping through the neighborhood all night, and the street is plowed down to the pavement (as evidenced by the sparks flying off the plow blades as they go by) which is great except for the fact that everyone’s driveways are well and duly blocked.

Tomorrow is SO going to suck.

ABANDON YOUR CARS NOW!!!

Seriously, if I wanted 2 feet of snow at a time I would have moved somewhere north of here.  However, I did go to the store last night and I am well and duly stocked up on ingredients for any number of snow day comfort foods, from grits to chili to baked potato soup.  I have no problem with just staying in and eating my way through the weekend and gaining five pounds in the process.

What I am NOT looking forward to is getting outside every 90 minutes or to try to wrangle my drive and sidewalks to some measure of passable, and keep the compressor cleared off and create some sort of path for the dog to get off the deck.  Sure, it’s great exercise, but I can think of many other much more enjoyable things to do in order to get some exercise in over the weekend.

But, having prepared as much as I can, I at least shouldn’t have to go anywhere.

Let it snow?

Except for the years when we have more than one snowstorm resulting in more than 10 inches of snow.  I’m good for a handful of snowstorms as long as they result in less than 10 inches of snow.

Personally, I hate winter, but I love snow.  Snow makes the 40-degrees-and-steel-grey-skies-and-rain almost worth it.  But I’m talking about easy/reasonable/decorator snow.  Shoving aside the pre-Christmas two feet of snow (where I was wondering if we could get to the airport, much less PHX), the 6 inches of snowblower powder we had last weekend, or the 5 inches of heavy decorator snow last night were perfectly lovely.  Nothing was terribly screwed up, and I didn’t feel bad for undercharging the kiddo that came by today to shovel my walk & driveway.  (I paid him $5 more than he asked – but would have happily paid him double.)

But it would seem that in the next 36 hours we’ll be embarking on a 12 to 20 inch snowstorm.  10 inches of snow is about the most that I can handle with any measure of grace.  20 inches?  That just reinforces my desire to move to Cuba.

Can we all just think “veer off to the Atlantic” thoughts?  Cause I am in no mood to shovel that much snow.  And it only increases my desire to move to Cuba.  Or Costa Rica.  Or anywhere in Mexico where the locals are willing to assist me in getting my Spanish back up to speed.

And my snowshoveling roommate won’t be around this weekend, (damn you Super Bowl!!) and I can’t be sure that I didn’t scare the crap out of the wonderful snowshoveling kiddo by overpaying him  – he might not come back!

Let’s all think moderate snow accumulations!!!!!!!!!!

Our road is looking really good, seems a VDOT truck or two has come through – the landscaping truck helped a LOT though.  Sounds like Arlington is still a mess, saw a report a bit ago of a 5 car pileup on 233 going into National Airport.  It seems to be another good day to simply stay put if at all possible and let the road crews do their thing.

The cats still seem mildly confused when they look outside and can’t figure out where the color all went, but they’re doing their normal sleep/annoy the dog activities.  The dog is quite unimpressed at this point – when the snow is as high as he is (or higher) it takes a fair amount of the fun out of it for him.  However, he has decided that it’s GREAT fun to go sit under the patio table and refuse to come back inside, for he is Moxley, wild dog of Tibet.

The sidewalks are done – well, done enough as far I am concered at the moment.  No, they are not 4 feet wide, but they are passable.  We said “screw it” as far as the full driveway was concerned – there is a clear path down to the sidewalks.  (Yay for 4WD vehicles so we can get in & out.)  I swear, I need to remember this next August and go out and get a little snowblower of some sort.  I am in a bit of pain today – funny how there is no activity that really mimics snowshoveling when it comes to muscle usage.

The only big question remaining is – how overbooked will Tuesday’s flight be?