So we had a little bit of freezing rain over the weekend. By a little bit, I mean, over 50 hours of the stuff.
It fell gradually, started on Friday morning, ended sometime on Sunday. On Saturday evening, I proposed a new drinking game to my friends on Facebook: “Okay kids, suggesting a drinking game for tonight: drink every time someone on the weather network says accretion!” Not sure how many actually participated but a low player turnout could be directly related to a lack of cable television, or even electricity at that point. Accretion was the word of the weekend.
Over the past few days, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the ice storm that hit Kingston in 1998. At that time, I lost my power for a week. I had friends staying with me for the first few days and once they left for warmer places, I packed up and moved in with my parents. This time, I kept an eye on power outages via the Hydro One app on my iPad. Fortunately, while there were problems all around us, we were warm and bright all weekend.
Seeing the photos coming out of Toronto this morning, it looks a lot like I remember Kingston looking in January 1998. A number of people I know gave birth to “Ice Storm Babies” in the summer/fall of 1998. Can’t help but wonder how many Ice Storm Babies will be born in Toronto later on in 2014.
There is still a buttload of ice on our trees and on the lines around our neighbourhood. I wouldn’t say we are out of the woods yet. Mark’s out at work today and I worry. He’s in a small car, driving folks around on side streets which likely haven’t seen a sander in days. I’m sending good thoughts his way and hoping that will help.
I’ll send them off to you all as well. Stay safe folks, keep warm and dry!
Showing posts with label storm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storm. Show all posts
Monday, December 23, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
keep calm and shovel (maybe)
Twas the night before the first forecasted large-ish snow storm of the season
And all through the town
Some folks were freaking out
Others were playing it down
Seriously folks?? We live in Canada, in Southeastern Ontario. This particular part of the world does get snow. Every year. We had some arrive on Saturday afternoon – it didn’t stick around very long but it was here for a few minutes. Just because the folks on the weather channel are all worked up into a lather right now, that doesn’t mean that you have to be as well.
Just stay calm. We may not get that much snow. Even if we do, there is really no reason to crowd the grocery store tonight. I doubt very much that too many of us will be trapped in our homes due to heavy accumulations of the white stuff. Right now, my front lawn is green and it's raining a bit. I suspect I'll still be able to see some blades of grass in the morning and am really not stressed about the "storm."
If you’re feeling anxious about the impending “storm,” here is my advice to you:
And all through the town
Some folks were freaking out
Others were playing it down
Seriously folks?? We live in Canada, in Southeastern Ontario. This particular part of the world does get snow. Every year. We had some arrive on Saturday afternoon – it didn’t stick around very long but it was here for a few minutes. Just because the folks on the weather channel are all worked up into a lather right now, that doesn’t mean that you have to be as well.
Just stay calm. We may not get that much snow. Even if we do, there is really no reason to crowd the grocery store tonight. I doubt very much that too many of us will be trapped in our homes due to heavy accumulations of the white stuff. Right now, my front lawn is green and it's raining a bit. I suspect I'll still be able to see some blades of grass in the morning and am really not stressed about the "storm."
If you’re feeling anxious about the impending “storm,” here is my advice to you:
- Enjoy the peace and beauty of the freshly fallen snow (if we get any).
- Try not to grumble too much if you have to shovel in the morning (think about how awesome your lungs will feel as you do that cardio in fresh, clean, cold air).
- Remind yourself that whatever falls tonight will likely be gone by the weekend, if not before.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
waiting for spring
I look at this photo and think about how it was overflowing with beautiful impatiens last summer. Summer feels like a million years ago right now.
We've been in the storm zone for over 24 hours now. Last night, on the way home from work, we did a couple of errands, banking, gassing the van, a couple of things at the grocery store. While we were putting the groceries in the back of the van, it started to snow a little bit. By the time we were finished dinner, I could hardly see the neighbours across the street and the dog was going a little bonkers.
The forecast had called for some snow overnight and then a break this morning. It was to start up again this afternoon. When I got up, it had stopped snowing but there was a lot of it on the ground. Our deck railings had been clean yesterday but today they had about 4 inches of snow on them. Around mid-coffee time, it had started snowing again. This sucked in a huge way because we had to go out. Had to. See, a good friend of mine is turning 40 on Monday. He lives out of town and his girlfriend planned a surprise party for him, for tonight. I can talk about it here right now because it's past the surprise part. Anyway, I'd offered to get a cake, I'd ordered it last week and needed to pick it up and deliver it to the venue today.
We took a chance on a window of no snowing at around 11:30 and went out to get the cake (and some beer for our snow plowing neighbour). Literally, we had just enough time to do what we needed to do. As we were dropping the cake off, the freezing rain started. I could see it bouncing off of the cake box.
At the moment, we're not at the party. The bottom of driveway was filled in by the plow and it's a frozen mess. Our neighbour did our driveway this morning and will do it again tomorrow morning but there has been a lot of accumulation and it's pounding ice pellets right now so we're stuck in the driveway. Hell, the dog wouldn't go outside to pee until I put boots on and a coat and stood out on the deck. It's that bad outside!!
I feel terrible about not being at the party but the cake is there. I know that the honouree and his family made it into town safely and I'm sure that they are staying in the hotel next door to the party venue so they should be okay tonight while it's storming.
Surely to goodness this is the last big storm of the season. It seems so strange to me that it's snowing like crazy outside and the time is changing tonight. But no worries, there is no such thing as climate change, right?
We've been in the storm zone for over 24 hours now. Last night, on the way home from work, we did a couple of errands, banking, gassing the van, a couple of things at the grocery store. While we were putting the groceries in the back of the van, it started to snow a little bit. By the time we were finished dinner, I could hardly see the neighbours across the street and the dog was going a little bonkers.
The forecast had called for some snow overnight and then a break this morning. It was to start up again this afternoon. When I got up, it had stopped snowing but there was a lot of it on the ground. Our deck railings had been clean yesterday but today they had about 4 inches of snow on them. Around mid-coffee time, it had started snowing again. This sucked in a huge way because we had to go out. Had to. See, a good friend of mine is turning 40 on Monday. He lives out of town and his girlfriend planned a surprise party for him, for tonight. I can talk about it here right now because it's past the surprise part. Anyway, I'd offered to get a cake, I'd ordered it last week and needed to pick it up and deliver it to the venue today.
We took a chance on a window of no snowing at around 11:30 and went out to get the cake (and some beer for our snow plowing neighbour). Literally, we had just enough time to do what we needed to do. As we were dropping the cake off, the freezing rain started. I could see it bouncing off of the cake box.
At the moment, we're not at the party. The bottom of driveway was filled in by the plow and it's a frozen mess. Our neighbour did our driveway this morning and will do it again tomorrow morning but there has been a lot of accumulation and it's pounding ice pellets right now so we're stuck in the driveway. Hell, the dog wouldn't go outside to pee until I put boots on and a coat and stood out on the deck. It's that bad outside!!
I feel terrible about not being at the party but the cake is there. I know that the honouree and his family made it into town safely and I'm sure that they are staying in the hotel next door to the party venue so they should be okay tonight while it's storming.
Surely to goodness this is the last big storm of the season. It seems so strange to me that it's snowing like crazy outside and the time is changing tonight. But no worries, there is no such thing as climate change, right?
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