Wednesday 2 a.m.
Wednesday 10 a.m. - use gas grill and 4 ft tall rose (mostly buried) for depth reference.
2 a.m. - Silvie checks out the snow outside the front door.
By 6 a.m. it's gotten a bit deeper.
Except for the street signs, it would be tough to figure out where the street is under all that snow.
When Scott tried to get out the back door with the snowblower this morning, it wouldn't open. He figured there was a big drift there, so he had to push through the smaller drift at the front door to get out. After he dug his way around the house from front door to back door, this is what he found. The drift varied from 3 to 4 feet deep - good reason why that door wouldn't open.
After we got our sidewalk and driveway cleared this morning, I went out on cross country skis. Even on wider back country skis, it was slow going. The density of the snow varies so much depending on how it drifted and whether any nearby shoveling or snowblowing had packed it down more.
As I was going down our street, I was passed by a guy on a snowmobile going in the opposite direction. Note the buried car on the left side of the picture below.
Lots of birds on and in the hedge
Back home from my ski jaunt- time for lunch!
(c) 2011 bikepsychobabble All rights reserved.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Bob Simpson
Deborah Méndez Wilson
Jimmy Zuma
greenheron
Graham Sale
Ron Robinson
Salon.com
Comments
A friend who lives in the Lake Shore Drive high rise just got this e-mail from the property manage of his building:
-All three elevators have been taken out of service. The only way to move from floor to floor is via the stairwells. Please go slowly if you must take the stairs. This action was required because water is infiltrating the elevator mechanical room and the electrical equipment for the elevators had to be turned off. We believe that roofing material may have blown off of the elevator mechanical rooftop of the 28th Floor during the heavy winds last night.
-Four large windows in the building lobby were blown out with the heavy winds last night. Three board-up companies were called beginning at 6:30pm yesterday before any damage had been sustained. The first board-up company to arrive at the building with board-up materials arrived at approximately 10:00am this morning 2/2/11, they are currently boarding-up the building lobby.
-We are recommending that all residents stay in their units and in the building at this time. Please do not leave your unit unless you are facing an immediate threat.
-Outer Lake Shore Drive is closed. Side roads are not being plowed. We recommend that no one leave the building unless necessary and take only public transportation (buses or train) if necessary.
-For medical emergencies, fire, or other emergencies please call 9-1-1.
-For any building related reports or non-emergencies, please call 3-1-1 or the doorman station at 773-xxx.
That friend actually got to work this morning and was one of 3 people in his office today. When he gets home, he faces a climb to the 20th floor.
And glad to not see it outside my window.
sheeesseezz that looks cold and the email says it all.
Hope you are warm and have power.
JoLynne - B/w is pretty effective for snow scenes.
Carol - I'm glad you're not totally buried there. Between the newspaper photographers' work and reader submissions, there are plenty of photos to see.
Very good thing that Scott's scheduled nights off this week were last night and tonight. Hopefully tomorrow will be reasonable.
Lawless - We're in Beverly. How about you?
Xe - There were reports of thundersnow before midnight all around the area.
Mrs. Raptor - Good thing that you got a break from this one. Many of our neighbors waited until afternoon, when the storm was completely done, then were racing the clock to get done before the dark and really cold weather hit. The damp base to all this snow will freeze in the subzero temps overnight, so we'll have some ice tomorrow.
Coyote - Yeah, it reminds of me some of your recent pictures. Even thought we've got about 200 ft of sidewalk and driveway to clear, I'll take that over my friend's 20 floor stairway climb. Stay warm when the arctic temps get to you.
My friend on Lake Shore Drive reports that the elevators in his building are working again, but most east-west streets in his neighborhood haven't been visited by the plow yet. He sent a picture of a snowman standing in the middle of one of those streets.
Many neighborhoods have not gotten any plowing yet on interior streets. I expect that may take a while. It took a huge amount of work to move all the drifted in cars that were stuck on Lake Shore Drive and plow that so it could be reopened.
Stim - You may be right about a couple of guys with snowblowers doing a bit extra.
The plow came down the street across the front of the house in late afternoon. We were wondering if they'd come back for the street on the side of the house before this afternoon. If they didn't, it might be challenging for Scott to get from the garage to the cleared street. The plow came back after 9 p.m.
I've heard that N-S streets are clear in Lakeview, but not E-W streets. Friends in a few other neighborhoods are saying their side streets haven't been touched yet. A friend sent a photo from this morning showing a snowman in the middle of one street.
They really dumped snow in your gangway? That stinks. At least someone recognized the problem.
Even though we don't take our car through the alley, because our driveway connects directly with the street, Scott cleared the section behind our place to make it easier for everyone who does need to drive through the alley.
My cousin on the northwest side said that he and many neighbors were out there clearing their street yesterday afternoon, concerned about when the plow might get to them. He said it came this morning, after they'd already cleared the street themselves.
♥
Some of our major streets are not yet as clear as they could be. From 95th up to Madison, much of Ashland still had only one lane cleared in each direction as of Saturday night. This morning we were on Western from 97th up to 26th. Most of that had 2 clear lanes in each direction, but there were occasional sections where the right lane was not cleared, causing sudden traffic backups and a few near accidents. It's a lot better than last Wednesday, but far from normal.
Fusun - This has been a very rough winter for so many of us. Take care and stay safe.