Snow removal follies

Yep, I’m back (semi-back). I’ll be on and off the blog for a while due to a lot of stuff going on, some of it work related.

During and after the Nor’easter (nope, nothing to do with Easter) I saw a lot of snow, blustery wind, and people doing idiotic things.

For instance:

• The newspaper delivery guy who did a K-turn in the middle of an unplowed street to go up the street the wrong way so he was in position to hurl papers at peoples’ heads as they dug out.
• The people who decided to leave streets unplowed in major metropolitan areas, including small streets like Connecticut Avenue near Washington DC.
• Abandoned furniture was placed out in forlorn hope that spots would be saved while people go out to get their bread, milk, etc. (I wonder if the baby will miss its crib?)
• A girl at an ivy league college who dressed in baby doll, short sleeved t-shirt (pink), flannel pj pants (yellow with pink and blue perfume bottle designs all over it) and sheepskin clog slippers was clambering on a snow hill that had swallowed her car. Last I saw, she was chipping away at the snow-encased window with a child’s orange, plastic sand shovel. (Book smarts, maybe. Common cold, probably. Possibly had a date with not-prince-Charming, who didn’t bother to chip her out so she could go home.)
• An unnamed city told me to hold my trash, because they hadn’t bothered to plow anyone’s streets and the trash trucks couldn’t get through. Ayup.

Meanwhile, things around here are slowly getting back to normal, now that the snow has melted into everyone’s basements. There have even been bird and wildlife sightings. Snow geese flew overhead, north and a bit west while I drove to work. Their wings glinted in the sun. I saw a lot of blackbirds in formation swarming around the Mormon tabernacle (Ok, in my fantasy it was a swarm of bats, but in the middle of daytime I don’t think that’s likely). And tonight, on an elite golf course, I saw what might have been a young stag denuding the greenway. And, most exotic of all, I got to see the sun and use my sunglasses today. Of course, it’s March, so we’re probably due another gasp of cold, wintry weather over the next 4 weeks.

Reminds me of home

I’m always startled when nature decides to bless me with weather that makes my current home look like “home”. Snow does it for me. So does a foggy morning with a distant mountain on the horizon glowing with blues and purples in the morning light. Or June mornings that are so cold your teeth chatter as you run across the street to work or school or car. So now I’m dealing with snowfall that reminds me a lot of “home”. Hearing kids play in the snow, parents cautioning them to get off a neighbors’ lawn, the scrape of shovels against pavement, it actually sounds like the past.

As for my Olympic knitting project — real life has meant that I have spent more time in front of a steering wheel instead of the tv watching cross country skiing. Pity. (Of course, I find it hard to knit during cross country skiing. I’m spending all my time trying to urge people on by swaying on the sofa. Yes, I get excited watching people ski, as well as people who ski and then shoot guns.)

icedams

Ice dams (or ice damns) have been holding things up around here. Going for a walk, I saw small creeks forming in alleys that still had ice and snow. Picturesque houses on the ritzy side of town had gutters torn down from the force of the storms, with ice floes stuck in the fancy storybook style rooflines.

The ice slowly thaws, creaking as it breaks off the outside of the downspout. Life slowly thaws. And today I saw the first snowdrops and finally found the witch hazel that has been scenting the air so sweetly. The universe stops holding its breath, and I find that I have the goal of finally figuring out how to have a work-life-home balance again (I’m sure you’re all relieved). I will be posting sporadically over the next few months, but then again, I think I’ve been posting sporadically all along.

Proof that this is a sort of knitting blog: I’ve cast on for my “olympic knit” (Bird in Hand mittens) in delft purple with white accents. Size: ridiculously small.

Sympathy and coping ideas for those suddenly dealing with snow

A funny story about wearing layers. When I went to school in winters when children still walked more than a mile in crummy weather, I would be bundled up. Long johns, jeans, a wool skirt, two pairs of socks, boots pulled over the bottoms of my jeans, a turtleneck, sweater, knit hat, mittens (sometime gloves inside the mittens), one scarf around my neck, one scarf around my hat, knit legwarmers, and an anorak. I’d wobble my way to school, backpack barely on my shoulders and a flute case flopping in one hand. My shadow looked like an emperor penguin. I’d get to school and remove boots and one pair of socks and put on the sneakers in my locker. Then I’d step into my locker (I was short) and remove the outer skirt. Once I had the anorak off and the other extra layers, I looked like a teenager again — mostly braces and frazzled hair. I was lucky, though. My school had heat, and so did my parents’ house. I didn’t have to always dress like an emperor penguin with a strange Cosby Show sense of style.

My mother was hell bent and determined that I would get an education, but I wouldn’t freeze for it.

Now, the UK, the deep south of the USA… both are dealing with crippling cold temperatures and snow. I’m not sure when the last time was that I heard the weatherman announce that portions of the Mississippi have frozen. The Midwest of the USA is dealing with crazy crippling cold and crazy snow. My sympathies to all of you, and a few coping ideas for people suddenly faced with strange driving conditions (those of you in the Midwest probably already know this, so move along). The folks on NPR said people on the BBC were looking for ideas, and I’m gullible so hear y’are:

1. Keep a blanket in your car, bring a flashlight with fresh batteries, travel with water in a thermos, fuel up your car to half a tank no matter what, etc.
2. Read up on how to drive on ice and snow. The American Association of Automobiles always has links up on this. (Note: there are instructional videos online from the 60s and 70s that were probably still used by the Driver’s Ed teacher to explain what to do in the snow, but I learned on cars without antilock brakes. It’s all a bit different now.)
3. And for goodness sakes, stay home if you don’t feel safe going out in heavy driving snow or braving black ice on the roads. If you have a heart problem or a bad back, now is not the time to shovel your walk or dig out your car.

If you’re in one of the hard hit areas of the UK or the USA, and you have the luxury, stay home by the fire or the radiator. It’s a great opportunity to knit or plan next season’s garden. If you do have to go out, only go out for short bits of time and bundle up. There’s better technology out there to keep kids and grownups warm. No need to be a penguin in a loud sweater.

End of my amateur PSA. I’ll go back to knitting tomorrow, hopefully. Right now I’m planning on getting some salt in from the car, in anticipation of the inevitable. It’s winter.

The first of the year

Snowgeese, 2010

At the ocean, on the beach, while seeking shells,

We heard their call. Later at sunset,

On white wings with black tips

They swept across the sky.

White plumage glowed red with sun

As they made disorderly vees

In the sky, then streamed off

Into the distance above the houses,

The beach, the sands, the scrubpine,

Graceful necks outstretched.

Their bodies flickered as

Black wing tips blurred their outlines,

Dancing like a sideways snowsquall. — rn, January 2010

P.s.: Yes, it was bitterly cold at the ocean. But so lovely.

About that snow on the rooftop

No, I’m not saying anyone has dandruff. However, all drivers of trucks and gi-normous campers — you might want to check if you still have some snow on the roof still.

I was behind one camper that had so much snow and plates of ice on top of it, that it was streaming fog like streams of glory while dropping big chunks of frozen snow in front of my tiny car. When you’re creating your own meterologic event, you might want to consider the other people who need to swerve around your detritis.

Once people get their presents, I will end up showing off some of the knits. One baking idea — if you’re making sugar cookies from Fannie Farmer cookbook, you might want to try adding 1/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. It balances out the vanilla content.

A Sarcasm of Snow

Feh. This morning I blew a light  inch of snow off my car — that’s how little we got. But, somehow, schools were still 2 hours late… and the parents of school-aged children were cranky because they had to reschedule their days for nuisance snow. Many people would just like one good snow, where work gets canceled or we all get to telecommute.

I admit to having fantasies about sleeping in, then slowly sipping cocoa while I watch the neighbors’ mini-terrier flounder through the snow as he barks at the falling flakes (it’s the sort of dog that gets so excited it falls over while it barks at the neighbor leaving for work at the same time every day).

I do admit that people around here just don’t know how to handle a light dusting of snowflakes, the threat of black ice (OK, just stay home for that one folks… yesterday’s vision of small kids skeetering across the highway/city street where it was slick as glass really horrified me), fog (a frequent occurrence) and rain. At least I don’t live in Alaska, where I wouldn’t have any idea how to handle a car battery that freezes solid, and I would be unnerved if I had to drive on streets with snow walls on either side of the car (which I’ve seen in Michigan).

A Certainty of Flurries

Believe it or not, it started to flurry outdoors while I tanked up at the gas station. This could be the last snow I see of the season, of course, since I live over the Mason-Dixon, but it made me feel kind of festive. So did tanking up the car for less than $22.

I now feel better about buying 3 hanks of Louet Gems (colors are caribou, aqua, and pewter) to make mittens — possibly the Squirrely Swedish Mittens (Ravelry link here and normal web link here). [For those without Ravelry, it's like Facebook for crocheters and knitters. We mostly talk about crushes we have on indie dyers, speculation about which designer is the witchiest, and politics. There are currently 217,000+ people on this worldwide community, with pictures of yarn, projects, etc. BTW: yes, the French and Germans do make some more interesting patterns than we can get in the USA.]

Today’s joys: little promises of snow without inconvenience, presents (for me), and I’m spending part of the day trying to memorize words for a concert. Since it isn’t all wine and roses, I’m also dealing with work stuff while listening to more work being done in the attic. Tomorrow, another crew of workmen come back to the attic again. Today I’ve alternated between being trapped in my office by a ladder and being trapped from the bathroom pretty much all day. I’m cold, there are no bathroom facilities, and I may or may not be able to get a drink of water. I think I’m trapped in a gameshow. With yarn.