Sunday, December 20th, 2009
I would like to start off this post by telling you that I was just kidding when I wrote my last post regarding the massive impending blizzard-like snow storm we were about to get. My sister, brother and I had been going back and forth through email all day. They were sending pictures and snowfall amounts and my sister kept telling me that we were really in for it. Apparently, they each got over a foot.
My little joke yesterday was telling people about all the snow that had already fallen in states that are south of us. I said things like, “See? I told you. That’s why we don’t move down there. Too much snow.” Of course, we get more snow than them in general. I was being foolish and I apologize for the deception.
Throughout the day, important televised programs were interrupted by an over-eager weatherman forecasting the apocalypse, or armageddon if you will. Sorry, I just wanted to use those words. There were scrollers going across the screen, important updates, flashing lights and at times, the TV vibrated.
Are you ready for the official snowfall measurement? And to think, I ran out and bought an emergency case of baked beans.
Snowfall measurement
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Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Many of you don’t know this, but part of why I keep writing in the blog is to document many of the things that I am interested in. Just in the past month alone, I have probably looked back to see what I was thinking last March and April about ten times. I wanted to see what the weather was like, what the trees looked like and my general attitude on things. Strangely enough, it seems as though I have a fairly cyclical attitude, meaning, if I get bummed out during a cold March, I probably felt that way last year too. That’s why I try to put a little of myself into what I write here.
Today’s weather report said it was supposed to be cold and rainy. Besides a freak (light) snowfall this morning, it has shaped up to be a rather nice day. It’s not too cold and the sun has been popping in and out all day long.
This morning, I started doing a bit of walking around with the camera. Many things have buds and I would guess that if we had a few nice warm days, a fair amount of plants would spring to life. You just wait, because I have a lot going on.
One thing I did grab a photo of this morning was a Weihenstephaner Gold (Bailey’s Gold) plant. I really like these little flowers. They slowly spread, are easily splittable and are hard to kill. That’s my type of plant.
Now, I know that I already posted a photo of Bailey’s Gold last year, but that was in June. If I am going to document what it looks like in early April, I am going to need to post another photo. Enjoy.
Bailey's Gold - Sedum floriferum - Weihenstephaner Gold
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Friday, January 9th, 2009
When we moved here, I asked a few people who have been here for a while, what type of winters we were in store for. I wasn’t expecting huge changes from what we were used to, since we are only about two hours away from where we used to live. The responses I got ranged from, “same thing as your hometown,” “about 6-8 good snows per year,” and “a lot of ice.”
We have already experienced the snow storms. They feel about the same as where we just came from. Now, we are experiencing the ice.
See, describing winter in New York to someone is a tricky endeavor. There are many micro-climates. I think the temperatures vary to some degree, but what varies even more is the snowfall amounts. Rochester is a far cry from Long Island. Even the Catskills are much different from Westchester.
When Laura and I were out walking one day back at the old house, we stopped to chat with one of the neighbors. We started talking about snow, when she laughed and said, “Oh, you have never experienced a winter around here?” I was like, “C’mon lady, gimme a break. We are an hour away from where we used to live.” She was sort of right, there was a little more snow than we were used to.
Way, way, way back in the day, like 12 years ago, when I was attending Westchester Community College, we had an ice storm. This storm left the roads completely covered for an entire week. It didn’t help that it was about 12 degrees outside for all that time, keeping the roads frozen. I remember that I couldn’t get to the first week’s worth of classes because of all the ice. I would drive about 3 miles in the car down through town and turn around. It was maddening.
When I finally made it to class, I expected everyone else to talk about all their terrifying experiences trying to get to school. The funny thing is that no one even knew what I was talking about. They all lived in Westchester and got no ice. Either that, or it just melted faster.
Pieces of ice on driveway
Connecticut is a bit different from New York. The way it was explained to me from the sales guy at the John Deere dealership was like this: There are basically three zones in Connecticut. The first one is from Interstate 84 and north. They get snow. From Interstate 84 down to Interstate 95, we get icy, slushy mix. From 95 south, they get rain. Of course, that’s not always true, but most likely would occur in the early season and the late season. That’s fine with me.
We got some freezing rain a few days ago. It coated the ground and pavement and has been hanging around ever since. Yesterday, the sun melted most of the driveway, but not all of it. I was walking around on it today and nearly killed myself. For some reason, it’s like a magnet to me. It calls out my name…”Jay, come over and do the moonwalk on me. Act like you are walking on a treadmill. Do the robot and the running man, like Rob.” It just happens, I can’t help it.
Icy sidewalk
Icy driveway
Today, while we were at Home Depot getting some paint for the next bedroom, I went over and grabbed some calcium chloride snow melt stuff. It’s like little white beads. I think it was calcium chloride or the other stuff. The one I got said it wasn’t as bad for the environment than the calcium chloride. It could have been magnesium chloride or potassium chloride. It probably would have been a good idea to read the bag before I started writing. Either way, I got the snow melt stuff.
As you could have guessed, I was excited to throw some of it around on the ice to see how it worked.
When we got back to the house, I unloaded the bag, dropped it on the floor, raced over to get a small bucket and went to work. When I got everything situated, I started tossing the little white pellets all over the place. It was pretty fun. After I unloaded my first batch, I stood back and listened. I always like to hear the soft, “crack, crack, crack” of the ice being melted by the whatever chloride.
I did this a few times and some of the ice was melted. I think I need to add more because I now have a sheet of ice with about a million little holes in it. I always try to be conservative with this type of material, so I don’t think I get the best results. Plus, I don’t want to throw the whole ten bucks away at one sitting.
I’ll let you know how it looks in the morning.
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Friday, December 19th, 2008
They said it was coming. At noon, I didn’t quite believe them, but sitting here right now with wet pants on, I’ll take their word for it.
I just got in from using the new snowblower. What a trip. We have about three inches of snow right now and I swear it took me about 23 minutes to clear off the whole driveway. What was I thinking at the last house? Oh wait, I know what I was thinking; we had a gravel driveway. Oh yeah.
Of course I really didn’t need to go outside today to start clearing the driveway, especially since the snow is coming down very heavily. I could have waited until the morning. I just wanted to get dirty and see how the snowblower held up. I never used a real snowblower before and I admit, I am very pleased (those old electric ones don’t count). This one is a monster.
I thought it would be a nice idea to take a few pictures of the snow coming down, every two hours. I got three and then realized that anything further would be like taking the same shot over and over again. Tomorrow, I am going to get some pictures of me in action, clearing off the driveway. Oooo, yeah.
12PM - no snow
2PM - snow coming down
4PM - about 3 inches
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