Winter Strikes Back

It was a balmy 70 degrees this morning. Twelve hours later the temperature is moving toward the freezing mark. It has been rainy and windy all day. Sometimes the rain was just pouring down. Now it is actually, and I hate to say this, there is snow coming down.

Will this winter ever end! This had better be the last of this.

This might look like rain but it's snow showers. Ugh!

Oh NO SNOW!!!!!!!

I'm walking down my stair this afternoon out of the corner of my eye I see something moving past the window. I get down to the bottom of the stairs and take a look out the window and it's fricking snowing. That's right snowing. It's March fricking 30 and there's snow coming down.

All I can say this sure as hell had better be the last time we see the white stuff for another five months or more.

Where the hell is spring.

This Never Ending Winter

Yes I know you can’t do anything about the weather. Well you can bitch about it and well this winter there’s been a great deal of bitching about it.

Yes, it has been much worse in other parts of the country. But then again I don’t live in other parts of the country I live here in DC. And the weather has just sucked lately.

Yesterday is a perfect example of how bad it’s been. The high for the day was 33 degrees. That’s 25 degrees below what the average high should be for this time of year. Over this coming weekend average highs should be right around 60. I think DC will get pretty close to that but I think it’s going to rain most of the weekend.

I’d just like to have a week of average temperature days that are mostly sunny. Yes, I know considering the year we’ve had so far that is asking a lot. After all we had snow most of the day on Tuesday. Thankfully it didn’t stick. But then there were flurries yesterday. I looked out the window at work and said that’s snow. The people I share the office with were just as surprised as I was.

I’m trying to figure out exactly why this winter has seemed worse than others in the past. After all with Snowmageddon back in 2010 (wow has it been four years already, time flies). (Click on this link to see my posts about it.) DC got pounded with 20 inches of snow. I think I’ve figured out why this year seems worse. The storms just kept coming and coming.

The last storm we had was March 17. The storm before that was March 3. The storm before that was sometime around February 13. Then about 10 days before that there was ice. After a couple of these fun storms along came the polar vortex. There was also ice in the beginning of January. Essential just about every 10 days to two weeks some weather event has happened. And to top it off most days in DC aren't even close to the average temperature which makes things even worse.

Maybe just maybe this week was the last of it. Looks like maybe DC is finally done with it. But who know April 1 is next who knows what type of joke may be played on us.

Happy Snow Patrick's Day, Part III

The snow finally did end. One hopes this is the last of our fun for this winter.

Something I have noticed, since my office is now out in the burbs, is out there they don't seem to think people walk much. I say this because they are terrible at clearing and treating the sidewalks when it snows. They were a little bit better this time but not much.

Here's a break down of the walk to my office. The first two blocks when you get out of the Metro the sidewalks are made up of this small red bricks. They are very pretty but they are very dangerous. Because they are so small they tend to freeze quicker than the normal sidewalk. And it only takes one icy break to end up on your butt.

In the next block is a construction site. The don't do much for treating the sidewalk. Although I did notice they put some sand out today.

The last block to my office is actually more like two combined. It is very long. There is a travel agency (who knew they were still around). The part of the sidewalk is clear. Next is a apartment/office building. These people do a terrible job in keeping the walks clear. They rarely if ever clear the entire width of the walk. They leave a path for people to walk in. They also don't put out enough salt when things ice over.

Finally is the office complex I'm in. The sidewalks are so so here. They will eventually clear them. The lesson to learn from them is if you come in early not much is going to be done to the walks.

So I'm hoping this is the last snow of the winter.

After all spring is just a few days away. At least that's what it says on the calendar. What it is actually doing outside in another matter entirely.

One of the bike share bikes at the Rhode Island Ave. Metro stop

Yes that would be a tree with buds on it.

The warm weather on Saturday started them in the direction of opening

Happy Snow Patrick's Day, Part II

Well the snow has stopped for now. It sounds like there might be brief second round sometime this afternoon but that that won't last long.

I went out and did some shoveling. The Charlie and Linus watched from the windows.

Happy Snow Patrick's Day

Yes snow on St. Patrick's Day.

I have to say I'm so very over this especially because it's March 17.

Hopefully this is the last of this stuff. After all the cherry blossoms are supposed to out in three weeks.

More Snow and It's March!

Once again snow is hitting the DC area. Some places to the south might get up to a foot of snow. DC itself should get at least 5 inches maybe as many as 9.

Here's what it looks like out my door.

This reminds me of an episode of Underdog where Simon Bar Sinister makes a snow gun. The line used throughout the episode is Simon says go snow.



I'd like to modify that every so slightly by saying Jason says snow go away.

Think it will work.

The Snowmen Cometh

I went out for a walk this afternoon.

There was some light rain falling which has now changed back into snow.

As I was walking I took note of the snowmen that had been built today.

Here are a couple of them.

Some were nicely dressed and smile on their face.

This guy had a wonderful hat on.

More of a traditional snowman

This guy even had gloves and was most welcoming to any passerby

Sort of an impressionist idea of a snowman

This guy didn't make it.

This little guy had a carrot nose!

And great arms.

The Snow Finally Came and with Freezing Rain Too!

Pictures from last night as the snow starts.

The Post put it the best:

The biggest storm of the season dumped a thick snow blanket on the Washington area overnight, shutting down the federal government; local schools, courts and government offices; airports and Metro’s bus service.

From the Capital Weather Guys:

Most of us awaken to a winter wonderland or nightmare depending on your perspective. Parts of the area then goes into the classic “mix” mode fairly early in the morning through much of the day, while colder areas remain snow. Precipitation should be lighter by mid-to-late morning but snow could re-intensify into the afternoon and evening. Friday is back to quiet weather, but Friday night Valentine diners may encounter some snow showers coming home. The long weekend is drier but chilly temperatures make the melt down a slow process.

It started out very slowly. Flakes started to fall around 8 or so. It took it some time to stick. My first couple of pictures are from last night.

I awoke to the freezing rain. For awhile it sounded like glass was breaking. Then I finally figured out what was going on. It was sleet and freezing rain. Oh fun.

One amazing thing my paper got delivered this morning.

I just got in from shoveling. The snow was heavy and wet because of course it's now raining. I guess later in the day it is supposed to go back to snow.

And now I'm having pancakes.

The paper made it. Amazing

The front step snow test. Just about 7 inches

Linus watching me shoveling.

Tuesday Treat before the Next Storm Arrives

Seems that there is yet again another chance of some sort of winter storm heading DC's way.

Here's what the Post's Capital Weather Gang have to say about it:

A strong Nor’easter is expected to develop along the coast Wednesday night into Thursday bringing the possibility of significant snowfall to the area.  However, especially close to the I-95 corridor and points east, temperatures may warm enough for snow to change to mixed precipitation and rain.

At this point I'd like to get a foot and a half of snow and then have winter be over. This is the winter of a thousand cuts. Some snow, some rain, some freezing rain, some sleet back to snow and freezing rain and  . . .

So here's something to bring a smile to your face. Charlie Brown and his thoughts on eating his lunch alone and who doesn't hate eating their lunch by themselves.

Odds and Ends of a Winter Kind

Losing Hard Disk Space

Saturday I was doing work around the house: taking out the garbage, doing laundry, paying some bills. I was also getting ready to make a post to the blog when I got this odd message from my computer. It said my start up disk was running out of space and I needed to delete some files.

At first I thought this had to be a mistake. But I looked and sure enough I had less than a gig of hard disk space left. So I began deleting files. I have this bad habit of putting files in the trash but never emptying the trash. So I did that. Got the hard disk space up to like 8 gigs or so.

I went one and did a few things more around the house. I came back to the computer and again had less than a gig of disk space. In fact I watched the disk space disappear before my eyes. I had some movie clips that I’d download that took up a lot of space so I got rid of those. Still the amount of disk space went down.

I closes all of my programs and still was loosing hard disk space.

I restarted the computer to see what would happen. Once I restarted I had over 29 gigs of disk space. It’s stayed at that. I still have no idea what happened.

Hawk around the Circle

I was walking up 19th Street just north of DuPont Circle on Sunday. There a bunch of birds in the trees. They got startled by something. There all took flight and made a great deal of noise when they did. There were a bunch of crows cawing away at something.

Then off to my right was a blur and suddenly a pigeon hit the street. There were feathers everywhere. Then I noticed that there was a hawk. It had obviously gone after the pigeon. It was why the crows were raising such a fuss.

The hawk (it might have even been a falcon) did not get the pigeon. It flew high and then landed at the top of one of the trees. It looked magnificent. It stayed in the tree a short time and then shot up into the air and was lost from sight.

The Bar Code and the Post Office

A couple weeks back I got a bill in the mail. It was not for me. It had the right house number on it but the wrong street number. This happens from time to time. It doesn’t make sense to me why this would happen.

It took me a couple of days but I finally put the bill back in the mail. A couple of days later it showed up again in my mail.

This time around I looked more closely at the envelope. There was a bar code on it. Then after the bar code what looked like to me a street number. It so happened to be my street number. And that explained why the bill had been delivered again to my house. I took out a marker and blotted out the bar code.

The next day I put it back in the mail. I haven’t seen it since.

Not Watching the Olympics

Usually I watch the Olympics from start to finish. For some reason this time around I’m not all that interested. In part because the coverage runs until 11pm and the real good stuff will be on between 10-11pm. It’s just really hard for me to stay up that late and get up the next morning and make it into the gym. The other reason is all the controversy of it being in Russia.

I think as the games progress I will be watching it a little more.

When I got home tonight, I did watch the games. But I did so from my Xfinity account. I watched some speed skating and luge. I liked it.

More Winter Fun

Another winter event in DC. How fun!

As much as I like winter, I'm getting a little tired of this one. I think this is the third encounter DC has had with ice. Not too bad this morning. Got lucky because the worst part of it was to the north and west.

There's another storm on the way. Should hit DC sometime over the weekend. At first it was supposed to be a big one. Now it looks like it will be just enough snow to be a pain. I think I'd like one big storm and then for winter to be over.

But it doesn't look like that's the way it's going to go. There's a change of some more snow towards the middle of next week.

Here are a few pictures from this morning as I was heading out to the gym.

Salt, Salt, Everywhere Salt

After all the lousy weather we've had in DC in the past month — the freezing rain, the several snow falls — it has finally passed. No more snow. No more ice. But what is left is salt, salt, salt.

This is from the Post and tells what's been dumped on the roads lately:

Since the first flakes of the season, back in November, Maryland road crews have spread more than 280,000 tons of salt on state highways, Virginia has put down 112,000 tons and the District 24,000 tons. That doesn’t include dozens of local jurisdictions and hundreds of thousands of homeowners salting side roads and sidewalks and driveways — along with our shoes and suits and shrubs. When it snows, it pours.

 My car which sits most of the time has one side covered in the stuff too. But it is every where on the roads. In parking lots. Even on the Metro. The salt itself is now become a problem. I've slipped on int a couple times. Actually I supposed I slid on it.

Here are a few pictures of the salt, salt, salt.

New Metro cars no longer have carpet on the floor. The result is you can really see the salt that's built up

A parking lot. The surface is blacktop by the way.

The base of a light pole.