Locked In by Snow
Feb 6th, 2010 by Alex
The last big snow, we all bitched about how we couldn’t get out. In retrospect, that was nothing. We could have gotten out. This time around — with over three feet of snow in less than 24 hours — no one is going anywhere without a plow, although I just got a report about some neighbors that trekked to the store on foot and found it open.
Mind you, this is Maryland. Not New York.
I spent about two hours shoveling out the driveway this morning. There was a solid 24-28″ all around, with drifts up to my waist. Once I reached the street, I stopped. While we saw a plow trying to clear our feeder, it hasn’t been up my street since 7:30 last night. There was no point in clearing more until the road is clear. Looking back at the driveway it was definitely a case of diminishing returns, since it continues to snow. Despite all appearances, my efforts weren’t in vain; shoveling a foot or two tomorrow will be much easier than shoveling four or five, though I’m wondering if I should be clearing off my deck as the neighbors seem to have been doing.
As has become my little tradition when it snows I’ve been cranking the tunes (The Postal Service and MGMT, today), watching movies (Almost Famous), sipping hot chocolate, documenting the winter wonderland that is my landlockedness, and watching my neighbors make their attempts towards freedom.
In other important news, I saw a freaking DeLorean parked at one of the local service stations. How slick is that?
Gloves dry, it’s time to head out again. Nothing else to do, really.
Check out http://consumerist.com/2010/02/impending-snow-makes-washington-dc-residents-lose-their-damn-minds.html
And my post from there:
Very glad my wife went shopping Wednesday. We have a 15 month old, so yes, we do really need the milk.
She’s firing up the crock pot right now for some nice beef stew. Were I live (Eldersburg) it is already over the top of my snowblower…
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23Eldersburg
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23Snowpocalypse
The state is telling people to stop abandoning their cars in the road…
http://twitter.com/MDSHA
Rochester has had dry days for the most part.
RevRagnarok: Thanks for the link to MDSHA’s Twitter account. Have been following it throughout the duration.
DJ: Lucky. I’d gladly take all the snow up there if we could have the management too.
No prob, I just found it.
You may want to see if your county has one, I use http://twitter.com/CarrollCoMD
I finally got out of my driveway this afternoon. Now they are talking about another 5 no 10 no 20 inches. Every time I hear it, they up the numbers like some weird fish story. I was hoping to get a FEW billable hours in this week.
This was definitely a huge snow storm. I remember being stoked about the 2003 storm when I shoveled all my neighbor’s walkways onto my stairs and made my own snowboard slope. I even went down to REI before the weather got too bad and bought a nice 6′ rail to go down. Had a few good hours of fun.
I’ve had to shovel a lot of times in the past (for snowboarding jumps, cleaning sidewalk, or just plain old parking issues), but for some unknown reason I quite enjoy it. I’ll usually not only shovel my spot, but also a few of the neighbors’ spots to be nice. This time was a little different for me, I’ll have to post a blog about it soon