The end of last week, we had some crazy wind storms. Blustery and loud and obnoxious and cold.
Friday night, our power went out. I'm guessing it wasn't for long - we woke up from a much-needed nap at about 7:30 pm and it was out, and it was back on just before 9 pm.
Not the end of the world, of course, but for a while it looked bleak. The power company put an estimated time frame for things to be back to normal for Saturday at 5 pm. Which is, one, outrageous, and, two, not quite plausible - our zip code had about 2000 people without power while all the other zip codes without power in our county had (at most) 200 people). We weren't going to be going without until Saturday.
And we weren't, thankfully.
Saturday night, it snowed.
Well, let me rephrase.
Sunday morning, it snowed. About 4 in the morning, really.
The news tried to say it was an inch. It was really more of an icy dusting - and there may have been up to an inch in some places, but certainly not at my house. The snow was adorable for a minute, and it thawed throughout the day. Some places got rain afterward, some places didn't (we didn't, that I saw).
This morning (Monday) everything is frozen.
You know, because the snow thawed and it never warmed up enough for the water to actually go anywhere, so all of it turned to ice. Ice that wasn't there yesterday.
We took the dogs out last night at about 9:30 pm, which is normal, and we barely walked anywhere. Because it was an ice rink of a parking lot in our apartment complex. My little dog was very brave about it, and trucked along as normal, until he slid a little bit and almost fell, to which he hunkered down and crouched to gather his bearings (which is something he does when he's a tad scared). Was very cute, but pretty sure that was enough to convince him that we weren't doing our normal loop - and we didn't (because, why test your luck, right?).
It's funny, how much everything shuts down when there is ice and snow. Being in the Pacific Northwest, nobody knows how to deal with ice and snow - even though, at this point, it shows up every year. But, there's some snow and ice, schools are closed, the highway I live near is going at about 1/3 the traffic as normal, tons of people can't get to work, and I'm staying home and warm (versus trekking out to get groceries, as a normal Monday calls for).
It seems, we inherently do not know how to manage with the inclement weather. Some regions get an inch of snow and that's business as usual. Some regions get multiple inches of snow, and while things slow down, they still can manage. We get any sort of crazy weather, and we just...tuck in.
We're used to rain (but, apparently, not a lot of rain in a short amount of time - in regards to our flooding earlier in December and the continuous downpours we got). And, that's Oregon. Anything beyond rain or cars needing a thorough defrost in the morning, we just do not manage well.
So, today, lots of people are staying home. I'm staying home.
And I will be continuing with what I was yesterday - knitting and watching Dragon Ball Z Kai - because what else do you do?
And that really is the question - what do you do when things get a little crazy, besides ride out the storm? But really, what do you do when things turn sour? Where you live, does an inch of snow make people abandon cars on highways or are whole school districts shut down? Or does an inch of snow just bring out some heavier jackets and life goes on as normal?
~Havok
P.S. We have a truck, yay. Our truck does not have the correct kind of drive (so far as 4-wheel, rear-wheel, or whatever wheels) to be able to deal with snow and ice, boo. We do not own chains, because we do not go up in the mountains when there's snow, obviously. We do not have snow tires, because why would we have those if we don't even have chains? We are very much so, ha, unprepared. The February 2014 snow that was ridiculous, we were also stuck at home.
We have been having it unseasonally warm here on Scotland, but lots of rain and flooding. Things tend to slow down but not shut down when snow comes, but smaller roads are not gritted or cleared, so unless you know a helpful farmer often you can't go anywhere. We have been snowed in before for 3 weeks which I enjoyed, but then I am quite happy so long as I have books, a fire, my family and the internet. The last is not essential but does make time go by faster!
ReplyDeleteI have a list in my Filofax of things to be done in Autumn, like stock up on food, buy antifreeze, check snowsuits and boots still fit, get snow chains out ready, stock up on candles matches and batteries etc. Each spring I make a note of what I wish I had had in the winter, and then add it to my winter checklist for next year.
I think I will have to make a list like that! We luckily had recently gotten some tea lights and a jar candle, so we had a little bit of light, and one of our smaller flashlights worked, so we were able to make PB&J sandwiches, as it was dinner time, ha!
DeleteThe worst snow storms that I can remember while being in an actual populated area was about three days without really being able to go anywhere. You could if you really wanted to, but it was pretty sketchy out - but at least everyone was being more cautious and watching for other people more while they were trying to not slide around, so there's that, I suppose.
We are lucky, though, that with enough notice (and by enough I mean if they know the day before something hits, which they normally do) there are trucks that go out and spray the main roads and highways, and thank goodness we live right off of a highway so that won't be a huge issue (for now) but the apartment parking lot doesn't get touched, and it was an ice rink Sunday night! xD
I will be making one of those lists though and hitting the dollar store to stock up!
Thank you so much for the suggestion and for sharing! :D
I would be totally fine with winter NOT showing up - it has been unseasonably warm in Maine, not that I'm complaining. But, I know that we need the snow for a good gardening/Pick Your Own season this year.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing you need the snow for the melted snow, correct? I don't know much about gardening or levels of water in areas that are dictated by snow level, but I do believe I've heard of such things...maybe. Sounds like something I heard before, ha!
DeleteI have always held the firm belief that rain should only be at night. It can start around 7 pm, rain as much as it wants until 8 am, and just do that every day for the "rainy season" (or, you know, winter, ha). If only the world were perfect, ha!
Thank you so very much for stopping by! Enjoy your extra heat while you've got it! :D