Snowcentric

I’m trying to figure out where the last couple of weeks have gone. I know things happened in the world. Things in politics. Evan Bayh. Movies opened. Plays opened. Sporting events took place (the Superbowl was played right).

But since February 6 until this past weekend everything has been focused on snow.

How much snow. When will it come. What’s the accumulation. How often to shovel. When and if the plows will show up. How much food do I have. What about toilet paper. Is there enough oil in my tank to heat my house (turns out I ordered more oil for Monday but ran dry on Sunday more on that later). How many trips to the grocery store will I take? How easy will it be to walk there because you sure weren’t driving your car there. What if any food will be left? How long will you have to stand in line?

Will the weight of all that snow have any impact on my enclosed back porches? Will the ice damns on my gutters ever break so water won’t be flowing into my house? Will the mounds of snow in my back yard ever melt. The piles were augmented by my neighbors shoveling their snow into my yard. They both park in the back and needed to put it somewhere.

Last Monday I got so sick of shoveling and knocking off icicles (the big one down the street finally came down all they lost was their downspout). I fled out into civilization with other people pursing something other than snow. I went up to Silver Spring and saw a movie. I saw Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. For a brief moment I thought about seeing The Hurt locker at AFI but decided to go escapist instead. And for a couple of hours I felt like a normal human being. Doing a normal thing on a day off going to see a movie. I felt normal until I emerged from the theater to see the piles of snow again and snow flurries coming down.

I’m was almost back to normal and then the Olympics started. Now I’m Olympic centric but that ends on Sunday. And then February is over. I have to wonder where it went.

Everywhere You Look Icicles

Everywhere you look you see icicles. Dripping water. Drip. Drip. Drip. Things are slowly getting back to normal. Streets around where I am are for the most part fairly passable. But there are still huge piles of snow which are likely to be around for a very long time.

I happened upon these Peanuts cartoons and thought them very appropriate.

More on Icicles

One Last Picture Of Snow

Someone made this down the street from me. An appropriate last snow picture.

Last Snow Pictures

I have to say I'm so over the snow. This afternoon and evening we may get a little more.

So the last pictures!!!

This shows some of the damage caused by the snow.



















I took this picture on Sunday. That's what the street looks like. I have no idea how you'd drive down that.























This is how high the snow is piled in my back yard. My neighbors used my yard to dump their extra snow.


















This is how the parking lot at the Giant looks. These mounds of snow won't be done until April.



































This last one is the giant icicle at the house at the end of my street.

2Political Episode 25

Snow no! We start out talking about the big story in Washington, SNOW! Jason lived through it all and shares some of what he saw (and there’s more on his blog). We last recorded only hours before the State of the Union Address, so we talk about the call for bipartisanship. Arthur doesn’t have any patience with Republicans today, based on their dishonest behaviour. We talk about one important reform: Ending the filibuster or, at least, going back to requiring someone to be on their feet 24/7.

From their, it’s on to the teabaggers’ gathering. Those people don’t even understand how the government works, so their criticism are nonsensical. That leads us into a discussion of two recent polls, and their implications for US politics—especially how Democrats have to take back the political initiative, as well as the reality of teabaggers’ support in the general population.

Comments let us talk a bit about the Republican response to the State of the Union Address as well as add some more on the recent reprehensible Supreme Court ruling that says corporations are entitled to spend as much as they want on election campaigns.

Please leave a comment (anyone’s welcome—agree or disagree!), or you can ring the 2Political Comment line on 206-350-3982

2PP025 - 12 February 2010

2Political Podcast Episode 25 is now available. You can listen to it on the widget on the right side of my blog, or you can go the podcast site, 2political.com. You can leave comments there as well as download or listen to any episode.

Get 2Poltical Podcast for free on iTunes

Trying to Dig Out

The clean up is continuing. What we really need are a few very bright and sunny days with the temperature above freezing. Saturday it was cold and cloudy most of the day. Tomorrow we are supposed to get more snow. UGH and Good Grief.

Sunday at least it is bright, breezy and sunny. A great combination for the snow to melt. The problem is there is just sooo much of it. Here's a look at what's been dripping down from the gutters. The last two pictures don't do the giant icicle justice. It is huge. It runs from the roof of the house all the way to the ground. It's rather scary.

Snow Off the Roof

Here's a quick video on the snow that slid off my neighbor's front porch this morning. I watched this as I was shoveling snow.

Video From Yesterday

Here's some video of the storm yesterday.



Officially this is the the snowiest winter we've had. The previous record was 1898-99 with 54.4 inches. Our new total is 55.6 inches. And it will probably go up because we're supposed to get more snow on Monday.

White Out

That's what it was like for large parts of today. A complete white out. It was so bad that a couple of time I looked out my front door and I could barely see across the street.

Above ground Metro stations were closed today and will be so tomorrow. So I'll be staying put at home yet another day. The closest below ground station from where I am is Union Station and that is a good couple of miles if not more.

Metro says this:

For much of the day Wednesday, Feb. 10, Metro’s snow-removal crews were forced to wait out the blizzard as heavy snow and strong winds created unsafe working conditions. More than a thousand Metro employees have been working in 12-hour shifts since last Friday’s snowstorm to dig out from the snow and provide as much service as possible.

Metro will continue efforts to clear above-ground Metrorail tracks into Thursday, and service is expected to remain limited to underground stations only.

I'm having some leaking from my windows in the room off my bedroom. I got out garbage bags and tapped them to the windows and then funneled the water into buckets. The only problem was I didn't have enough garbage bags so I had to go to the store and get more. They were cheap so I bought 40 of them just to make sure. The snow is melting and running down the siding. The water freezes. Then when more water comes down it can't continue running down so it backs up into the slats of the siding and eventually into the windows. Hopefully, with some warm weather and some help on my part, I can solve this problem.

The government is closed again tomorrow. My feeling is they won't reopen until Metro is running above ground and the roads are in a little better shape. Again hopefully that will be on Friday.

Maybe by next week things will start to get back to normal. Hopefully I can remember what that is.

The Second Wave

The never ending snow. It started last night as snow. It changed over to freezing rain and sleet. It then seemed to stop for awhile. Now it is back with a vengeance along with winds which is producing white out conditions.

Trying to Dig Out

Here's the progress I've made on digging out my car. Of course I'm going to have to start over once the next wave of snow hits.


















More after the storm photos. The first one shows the street where I live. It is in pretty good shape. Just about as far as the eye can see there is pavement. There is only one lane which makes things a little interesting when cars are coming in opposite directions.

The picture after that is of another street near where I live. Half of it is in fairly good shape the rest isn't.

There's a shot of the mounds of snow that we are dealing with. At some point where do you put all the snow.

Not Back to Normal Anytime soon

The Federal Government will be closed.

Most if not all of the schools will be closed. In fact some have said they will be closed Monday and Tuesday.

DC schools were going to open 2 hours late and they got deluged with complaints so they decided to close on Monday. What were these people thinking?

American, Catholic, Georgetown, George Washington, Howard, and Trinity Universities all closed.

There will be no above ground Metro service on Monday which means I won't be going to work.

And the kicker is this:

The next storm: Precipitation, primarily snow as it looks now but maybe mixed with sleet at the start, is on track to arrive Tuesday afternoon or evening. Snow, or briefly a snow/sleet mix, may be on the light side at first before probably becoming moderate to heavy overnight into Wednesday.

At least 4 inches is looking like a decent bet, with 8 inches or more a possibility. Here are our accumulation probabilities, which are likely to change as the storm gets closer:

15%: Less than 2"
25%: 2-5"
35%: 5-8"
25%: 8"+

DC is on track to having the second snowiest winter on record. Less than an inch is needed to reach that goal. And if we get 9 inches it will be the snowiest winter on record. I have a feeling we'll meet that goal as well.

Videos from the Day After

There's Got to Be a Morning After

There's got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let's keep on lookin' for the light

Oh, can't you see the morning after
It's waiting right outside the storm
Why don't we cross the bridge together
And find a place that's safe and warm

Couldn't resist that one.

My final totals: 21 inches from the bottom of the steps and just about 24 inches on the official measuring spot my back steps was 24 inches. Either way a whole lot of snow.

The Morning After, Part II

Some of the beauty left behind by the big snow

A View Around the Neighborhood

The first picture shows the concern that people have. Tree limbs hanging down by power lines. Many people are without power and probably will be for some time. Thankfully that has happened around my neck of the woods.

This is my car and I get to dig it out: What Fun!

Yes, that would be my car in front of my house. And I get to dig it out.

Video from My Walk in the Snow

More video from my walk in the snow.

More Snow Video

This is from a walk I took around 2 today.

It Just Keeps Coming

Snow totals as of 2pm Saturday. On the stairs 21 1/2 inches. The other measuring place was 18 inches.

It is slowly starting to wind down. The wind had come up and that's creating almost white out conditions.

Snow Total Update

How things look out my front door at 10 Saturday morning.



































The official total from my steps is just about 20 inches. I tried a couple of other places around my yard and got 17 to 19 but there not as accurate as the steps (not entirely sure where the ground actually is with the others).

This ties the total for the storm in December.

And it is still snowing.

I'm going out to shovel in a little while. But first more important things the chocolate chip cookies!

Below are my shoe prints from three hours ago. They filled in fairly well with snow.