Blizzard 05 - whiteout
 

Views out my window this morning a lot of wierd, wild drifting and still coming down strong. . . . Gotta love New England weather...
but what do we do when the dog's gotta go out? :bewildere ;)

A winter wonderland! Send some snow out our way. The Northwest ski resorts have all closed down. It's been so warm here that whatever snow they had all melted. Nice for us in town (it feels like spring) but the skiers are all heading out your way!

White-Out!
 

The view down my urban driveway towards the street at 2:12 p.m. yesterday (otherwise normally not a picturesque view). :o Only about a foot of snow here in Philly with no place to park a car or pile snow. How are things for you, Terri?

Garth

Terri and Garth, not to rub it in, but it is 70F and radiant sunshine at 10:45am in San Diego.... urrr, glad I am not where you are

Radiant sunshine (brightness enhanced by the snow) here as well at 1:45 pm in Philadelphia, on this frigid January day, October!
:D

(great name you have)

Garth

Thanks Garth :)

Frigid weather no more! Unless we go up the mountains though by choice. New England with all its beauty and history was not enough for us to tolerate the shivers in the winter. Strangely, I also lived in deep snow banks up in Alaska, but somehow it was exhilarating and wonderful.

Hum, I hope I am not offending any die-hard New Englanders here on the forum :exclamati

Hi all!

My husband and I have just spent the last two hours shoveling. I have five cats so I had to make a path for them too!

Now for some hot chai!

Hi Michele-- You're welcome to some snow, if you can figure a way to get it there... we've got umm more than enough! I couldn't tell from your post if you're missing the snow... or preferring the warmth, or maybe a little of both?? For me, only like the Spring once there's been enough snow to really feel like it's been winter. Not going to be a problem this year!

Garth, great picture! Snow looks like it's finally stopped here... but we did have a few spells where it looked impenetrable, like that. Wow. We're in the suburbs so there's plenty of places to put the stuff if the plows can just get around to clearing all the streets. The complications of a big storm like this are really magnified being in the city, huh? They were saying on the 11:00 news last night that Boston already had 4' drifts and that was BEFORE the real blizzard part of the storm hit.

Hi October!... Y'know I wouldn't trade places with you. I'm one of those crazy people who love wild weather like this... (though it does help to have the driveway plowed!! --we pay for every 3 inches of snow so don't even want to think what this storm is going to cost!) The past 24 hours has been a blast... and the kids'll remember it the rest of their lives.

Hi Sharon, you must be socked in down there in RI! Surprised your cats even want to go out in this... mine are content to watch it from the window and purr! We just got back in from a couple of hours of shoveling too... the plow does the main driveway, but we've still got to dig out the garage doors, front walk and mailbox (ugh!) ourselves. I'd guess we had about 2 feet --but the wind and drifts make it pretty impossible to tell for sure. Lucky for our dog, the wind hollowed at a little area 15'x3' behind the garage where there's actual grass poking through, everywhere else she's swimming in the snow and does NOT like it! Is it still snowing by you?

Terry,

Actually we saw the sun at about 2:00 PM, and except for a brief flurry it stopped. The sun is still out though it is setting.

My cats do not show any desire to go out, but they all hate each other and get cranky if forced to remain together too long. I may fling one or two of them out if they start fighting!

Terracotta and White
 

So that October can become better aquainted with January ;) , I've added a few pics to show that it's radiant and sunny here too! :o

Here's the view down to my corner of the alley. The mountainous lump in the center is my old Peugeot, after the drifts and neighborhood kids had their fun with it. :santa:

Currently at 5:00 pm it's a toasty 16 degrees F afternoon high, fast dropping to 5 (and 59 inside). I'm sure things are more severe for Terri and Sharon.

Keep warm,

Garth

Terri, I remember being in NYC a few years back when there was THE bad winter storm of the decade and sewer was left accumulating for days on sidewalks because garbage trucks couldn't get to them... hope that's not going to be the case where you are!

Garth, urrrrrr, 16F?! I guess I'm spoiled by being out west. To me, 16F comes with grandiose mountain views, big sky or endless expense of open space....

Sharon, sadly, my cats (Persian) will never know the fun of tippy toeing on fresh powdery snow....

With the exception of Cyntia & Michele, I'm sending some green your way (Chuck included, sorry CA will miss you)

Well, this joke a friend sent me seems appopriate:

As a trucker stops for a red light, a blonde catches up. She jumps out of her car, runs up to his truck, and knocks on the door. The trucker lowers the window, and she says, "Hi, my name is Heather and you are losing some of your load."

The trucker ignores her and proceeds down the street. When the truck stops for another red light, the girl catches up again. She jumps out of her car, runs up and knocks on the door. Again, the trucker lowers the window. As if they've never spoken, the blonde says brightly, "Hi my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load!"

Shaking his head, the trucker ignores her again and continues down the street. At the third red light, the same thing happens again. All out of breath, the blonde gets out of her car, runs up, and knocks on the truck door. The trucker lowers the window. Again she says, "Hi, my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load!

When the light turns green the trucker revs up and races to the next light. When he stops this time, he hurriedly gets out of the truck, and runs back to the blonde. He knocks on her window, and as she lowers it, he says...

"Hi, my name is Kevin, it's winter in Iowa and I'm driving the SALT TRUCK.

But when it's all over...
 

Virgin Snow!

Jean

Blizzard Driving, Maine to Philly, in 1996!
 

Cynthia, thanks for that SALT TRUCK joke!

During the famous blizzard of January, '96, my wife and I foolishly made a trip home from Maine, down I-95, throughout the entire blizzard! We drove that same old Peugeot in the picture below (it certainly was no Jeep though), It took us nineteen hours of non-stop driving. Leaving NYC and entering the top of the NJ Turnpike, at first we attempted to straddle the deep tracks of some 18-wheeler, which was not easy. Eventually through the whiteout haze, as through a tunnel, we saw some faint light ahead. Catching up to that light, it turned out to be a diagonal bank of six plow trucks clearing two lanes of the highway at once at about 10 mph. Soon a dozen or more 18-wheeler trucks ganged up behind us and bullied us to disappear so they could bust on through the plow truck bank. Within minutes this actually happened, and we were once again alone crawling behind those plow trucks.

After another half an hour we got the nerve to bust through them too, which made for some VERY dangerous driving. It soon became apparent we were in fact the ONLY passenger car still running this turnpike highway, for the entire length of New Jersey! There were NO oncoming headlights at all, ...how strange! Well we hobbled on down to the junction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I pulled out the $4.00 to pay the toll-taker. The toll-taker opened his hatch, looking a little perplexed. He told us there would be NO TOLL as the NJ Turnpike is CLOSED! Furthermore PENNSYLVANIA IS CLOSED! We were told we could park and leave our car in the toll booth! How strange!!

I asked the toll-taker about another entrance to Pennsylvania, the Ben Franklin suspension bridge into Philadelphia from Camden. He said he did not know if it was open or not, but drive down and find out if we wanted! So we did.

Exiting the Turnpike (for free) to Rt. 38 toward Camden, we passed numerous motels and hotels, each with their entrances plowed over 4 feet high! The road itself was a mere 8 1/2 feet wide plowed canyon, barely wide enough to navigate. Eventually we found a path to the Ben Franklin Bridge. The toll-taker there was astonished! He said where in the heck did we come from? In over three hours he had seen no one! He restated that the State of Pennsylvania was closed, but if we stayed to the main city streets, he would wish us well on our illegal adventure into our home state. So we did....

Entering Philadelphia as the ONLY vehicle on the streets was indeed strange! Only the main artery, Market Street was plowed, but however with two foot tall packed plow-line barriers across each intersection. The traffic signal lights were all red, but we did not care, and I proceeded to rev the Peugeot up and ram it's way through each successive plow barrier, block by city block.

To make a very long story abbreviated, it took us another four hours to reach the next ten miles home, whereupon it took us an hour to dig a hole to park our car. At this point the snow was a mere 30 inches deep, and every other parked car was completely concealed under a smooth mantle of snow. The day was January 8th, 1996, my birthday. My wife and I slept through the next day and a half, only to be awakened by angry frustrated neighbors, who were upset we did not help out in the group effort to dig open a grand canyon opening down the street. Even that next day, we STILL had the only car that was essentially dug out! I tried to explain the circumstances; that we had just driven down from Maine through the entire duration of the blizzard. Did anyone believe us, and our seemingly absurd story? Well, NO!

It was an unforgettable blizzard driving experience!

Keep warm,

Garth

My two cent of Danish snow.

Allan

Good one Cynthia!

Garth, what an experience! Makes me want to amend my earlier comment about loving wild weather... to add when watching it from safe at home!

Sharon, glad to hear it... where you're closer to the coast, was concerned you might be getting some of the ocean effect snow that the Cape was seeing.

It does look nice there October! .

Terri, October, Jean, and Allan: Thanks for those beautiful pictures.

Allan I think your's is especially artfully composed.

Garth

Thanks Garth,

I thought this would do for a value practice.

Allan

You've all made me miss the snow. I really can't even remember what cold feels like. I had to stick my head in my freezer to refresh my memory.
Beautiful photos.

I can't remember if I posted it, but this was us the last storm. We were hit a few day ago with 6 more inches, but the one that just moved through missed us!

Garth the first one of your car looks like you made it a snow man. The side mirror looks like a coal nose! Car freak!

Great blond joke Cynthia, I'll have to e mail you a non-snow related one that I thought was great.

Sorry I got carried away so I took down some of these :cool:

Aurora Snowy-alis
 

Just some fun in Photoshop with a 3 am picture (Could this become next year's Christmas Card? Bah.... !). I hope all snowbound folks are okay.

(Sorry I had to compete with that excellent Aurora Borealis discussion :D It's true what Geary said in that thread, to the effect that the digital world does not compete with Nature.)

:o Garth

Not a chance Garth, this won't even be allowed in the competition. It did give me a giggle though.

Jean

Garth, you can always count a fan in me. I can just see a car commercial now with all those hip neon colors! Very coooooooooool!

Jean, your "sky show" is amazing and I had seen one in person! And your "Rose" painting is coming along wonderfully. Congratulations!

I've got to get into my cave now, so chat with your'l down the path.

Happy forumming :)

Garth, actually that looks more like "The Attack of the Neon Blobs" than it does a snowy-alis. I'd hate to find it engulfing my car!

October, thank you much. I know the aurora doesn't have much to do with portrait painting, but it does have a lot to do with beauty. Read you later on the path.

Jean