Snow Day!

The first large storm of 2010 is upon us.  It started snowing some time after I went to bed last night and there was probablyh 3 to 4 inches of snow on the ground when I got up at 6 a.m.  The storm is supposed to last until 3 a.m. Wednesday, dumping anywhere from 10 to 14 inches of snow.  Not a problem necessarily for the plows to keep the roads more or less clear but - the winds are coming too.  By some time this afternoon, wind chills will drop into the single digits with winds gusting up to 30 mph.  As the snow is light and fluffy that means drifts and white-out conditions.  Already, with winds at around 15 mph the snow is swirling around and leaving bare spots on neighboring roofs.  That snow always seems to somehow end up in my driveway! (Photo: My backyard at 7:20 a.m. - the sky is heavy grey and the world looks grey because of the small rapidly falling snow all around.  Now it's blowing too - I got a couple face-fulls of snow blown off the roof when I was out shoveling the deck in the dark at 6:30.  Yech!)

I'm taking a snow day.  It's snowing about an inch an hour right now, that is serious snowing!  Being a veteran of past storms I've opted to avoid the 3/4 mile walk to the bus stop with snow blinding me and half smothering me all the while.  It would be downright dangerous coming home later today, because sidewalks will not have been cleared yet - that means walking in the roads in conditions where drivers might not actually see me until it was too late.  No thanks!

I cleared the deck before 6:30.  This photo is the deck (you can barely see the pitter-patter of little squirrel feet) about 40 minutes after shoveling it off - the deck is hardly visible.  In a little while I will pull on my high boots, bundle up and make a path from the front door to the road - which I cannot see at the moment despite the plows coming through about 5:30 a.m.  My hope is to periodically go out and shovel during the day and tonight to keep a path open.  No way will I be able to keep up shoveling the entire drive, I'm not even going to try, not until the snow stops and the winds die down.

Happily I did stop at the Pick 'n Save last night and was surprised that it was not busy at all! I thought it would be another mob scene like it was Sunday afternoon, a couple of hours before Superbowl started.  Geez!  I have supplies laid in so I'm hunkering down - ahhhh, I feel a nap in my near future...  And I have a new book to crack open -

10:05 a.m. Update:
I shoveled a pathway from the from door to the road in three separate shifts between 8:45 and 9:30.  The plow was working on the road in front of my house as I was out working.  For the time being, at least, I have a clear path about 3 feet wide down to the road - until the plow comes through again and the drifts fill it up.  Already they are forming...