And When I'm Not Shoveling...

The key shop is busy! The two sets pictured got finished today. There's another set in that cardboard box. That set is now in the works. Then there is the set that arrived today after this photo was taken. More arriving this weekend? And...another set on Monday! Love it!

Other-Planetary-Ish

The Bite of Snow

All that's left to be seen of the porch railing.

Well, that was a very strange storm.  After all the hype, it was sort of a fizzle.  We did get about 15 inches, and the winds picked up today.  It's gusting so violently tonight that the snow is swirling hard enough to sound like animals scratching to get in the house.  We've also experienced a strange phenomenon.  We have so much condensation forming at the end of the duct work for the bathroom vent that it is leaking in to my kitchen ceiling.  That's a first!  I think all shall be fine once the temperature moderates a bit and/or the wind calms.

Snow carried by the wind.

Today's pictures were taken at sunset from my mom's den window.  Mother Nature being weird.

Back When

Our new normal?  Under all that is a wishing fountain and part of a store.

It was a bit easier...no make that a lot easier...on the nerves to not know when a major event was about to happen.  Sure, nowadays it is safer to be prepared.  But this next storm thing is spooky.  We've got CNN and at least three other networks in town because "we are supposed to be one of the worst hit areas".  I don't want the notoriety, thank you.  I don't want to go to bed wondering what things will look like tomorrow morning.  I know all will eventually be fine and get back to normal, but in the meanwhile we have a No Drive/No Park order from 5 a.m. tomorrow morning until 5 p.m. Monday night.  This is mostly so that they can plow and do the massive clean up without having to work around nosy people.  A $250 fine, I hear, if you decide that you are too special to have to abide by the rules.

Maybe I could just go to bed tonight and sleep until, oh, Monday noontime?

A major thank you to our DPW, the National Guard, and everyone else who will HAVE to be out in it.

Friday the 13th Is a Great Day

Why?  Because it wasn't snowing.

At all.

Do you think that one of these days I'll not have any new snow photos to post here?  Some of you have seen these on that other site.  If you have seen them, you are excused from looking at them again.  If you haven't, and can stand yet more snow pics, carry on below.

Italian Ice?  No thanks, cold enough.

I don't think that he had the following images in mind.

Darn cold.

They keep piling the snow just above the beach.

The loader on top of the pile keeps moving the snow to the beach. Over and over, day after day.

Me on the back garden (haha) walk, after the third major dig out in 2 weeks.

Why Me?

Has it been about two weeks since THE Blizzard of 2015?  I think so.  As if getting 31 inches of snow within 36 hours isn't punishment enough, we had a surprise just to get us in the correct ihatelife mindset.  You see, the morning before the BIG blizzard, at approximately 6:15, the smoke alarms went off at our house.  Up I jumped, made sure R was awake, headed toward A's room but met her in the hallway.  Down the stairs with those two following, checking for actual smoke or fire as I went.  Opened Mom's door and she was out of bed.  A quick check of her end of the house, then headed down cellar.  All was fine.  I shut off the breaker that powers the electric aspect of the alarms.  Of course they keep on screeching.  We determined that it was the detector in Mom's den causing the problem.  The most difficult detector to get to. It's about 14 feet up on a cathedral ceiling.  Why not.  Hauled myself down to the cellar, once again, to retrieve the BIG ladder.  Up through the bulkhead into the dark and cold and on to the deck.  Mom stood in her den, inside where it was nice and warm (albeit very noisy) and stared at me as I motioned for her to unlock and open the door.  She stared some more...and more.  Just before I was going to slam the very heavy ladder to the deck, she decided that I might be wanting her to open the door.  Finally!

Set the ladder up after moving the sofa so that it would fit.  R suffers the least (maybe) from vertigo than the rest of us...or at least he inherited the 'climb the big ladder' since he's the only man in the house.  After unhooking the detector and removing the battery........silence.

After 7 a.m. I left a phone message for our electrician.  He came later in the morning, replaced the battery with a new one, tested the unit and went up the ladder to hook it all up again.  He chatted for a few minutes while I went to the cellar to flip the breaker back on.  Silence....YAY!  He packed up and headed out.  I don't think he could of made it far past the end of our street when...

The alarm went off again.  R went back up the ladder (he has no idea how much I appreciate that he will do it) and took the detector down, removed battery, then silence.  I called the electrician on his cell phone and told him what happened.  We agreed that we could leave the rest of the system activated and after THE blizzard he would come back to troubleshoot.

THE blizzard was followed by the SECOND snow storm.  I decided to wait for better weather to tackle the smoke detector problem. 

Now we are expecting a MAJOR snow event.  At 6 a.m. this morning we were rudely awakened by the smoke detectors going off - again.  So the now usual routine was followed with me checking on everyone and checking all areas of the house and cellar before flipping the breaker.  R discovered that the alarm in our bedroom was the culprit and he took it down and took the battery out...silence.

At about 8 a.m. we headed for the local hardware store to by enough new batteries for all the detectors.  $30 worth.  We got home and after breakfast and a few other things, installed new batteries in all detectors...silence.  Great!  That was at 11 a.m.

1 p.m. all the alarms went off.  I was out shoveling, widening the drive in anticipation of needing more room for more snow to come.  I could hear the screeching outside.  By the time I got to the door (and was greeted by Mom), R had pulled down the bedroom alarm and deactivated...silence.

I left a message for our electrician that after the weekend and after this next MAJOR snow event, we needed him at the house.  Sounds like the 10 year life detectors that he had installed 1.5 years ago may have spent more than 8 years on a shelf at the suppliers - or something.

Meanwhile, just in case another decides to screech, I have bought 3 battery only detectors, one for each level of the house.  If another combo electric and battery one fails, we'll disconnect them all and go the battery only route until the electrician can get here.

Really.  Isn't over 45 inches of snow with up to another 20 inches anticipated enough to deal with?  Why do the smoke detectors have to compete for attention?

More for the Anti Facebook Crowd

Photos of storm number two.

Yesterday they brought the big snow blower to widen the road.

This morning looked like Tuesday morning, just less room for snow.

By mid day they had brought in the big equipment to get a bit ahead of things...helped for about 15 minutes then you couldn't tell it had been around.

Guess I'll be digging out the oil fill, bulkhead, and deck again.

Tonight we got our own snow pile.  That's supposed to be Dodd's Lane on the other side of it.

Even the articulated loader has a difficult time trying to pile it higher and higher.

Cold is Relative

In an effort to keep writing something on this blog, I make changes to the look, edit my blog list, add some photos, and now I've changed my Recent Reads. 

The book is a fascinating read.  My kind of thing.  Subtitled The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk, it is history without being, you know, so many names and dates with no story.  Anyway...the story is of a 1913-14 scientific exploration well into the Arctic.  The sailing vessel is trapped in the ice and 'goes with the floe' eventually to be crushed and sink.  The men, woman, and two small children escape the crushed and sinking ship to have to survive the winter on the ice and later on a small island before any hope of rescue can arrive.  Chilling (haha) account that makes our horrible weather seem mild in comparison.