2011 Blizzard Follow Up

The amount of snow we got the night of the great blizzard of ‘11 was a little bit more than I expected. Actually, I think the total wee got was something like 18". The big problem as far as I could see was all the drifting that occurred. I planned on getting up early to clear the snow so I could go to work, and there was a 3.5 foot drift in front of the garage door and then about 5 feet from the garage, the pavement was clear. Then as you made your way down the driveway there were two large, 5 foot drifts.

I planned on just firing up the snowthrower and tearing into them (the drifts) but I couldn’t keep the motor going. I had just mixed up a fresh can of gas/oil, so I figured I had mixed in too much oil, since the exhaust was spitting out a nice bluish haze. I let it run, and then tried filling the tank with straight gasoline to dilute it further, but I couldn’t keep the engine running once I engaged the thrower. So I started shoveling.

The drifts were much more solid that I expected. It took me almost 90 minutes to work my way a little more than halfway down the driveway. By this time it was getting light out. I had kept trying the snowthrower, from time to time, but it just wouldn’t keep running. After there was enough light to see, I finally saw why. I had the choke wide open. I wanted to just kick myself for being so stupid.

I finished up with the snowthrower and by 7:30 I was done, but the roads weren’t plowed yet and seeing the size of the drifts on street I figured I had better wait. The plow came through about an hour later and I went back out and cleared the snow from my approach and then headed out to work. Turns out only 3 or 4 people made it in besides me. It was actually a pretty nice day. Things were slow, no one to bother me while I did my work. I sort of wish all days could have been like that. Well, all except the snow part.

Blizzard '10

For the past two days we have been being scared by the weather people on the various local news stations that this was "the big one". It was going to be the worst winter storm in a decade. Well day one is over and it underwhelmed in my opinion. I came home around 5:30 PM and the roads were fine, Milwaukee was salted like crazy and once I got to the Falls, it was mostly blowing and drifting snow that was the problem. Everything is canceled for this evening, Ali's dance class, Sarah's cheer practice and her volleyball team tryouts. And school is already canceled for tomorrow. It remains to be seen however how much snow we'll actually have. I have a feeling that it is going to be a lot of drifting, and not a lot of snow.

Blizzard

After Sarah's competiton, we decided to drive my mother back to the Valley. The forecast was for a rain snow mix and with her flight leaving on Sunday afternoon I didn't know if there would be enough time for her to get up there Sunday morning if the roads were still crummy. We called my brother and we decided to meet him halfway, in Fond du lac. It was raining when we left and when we got to just south of the Hwy 33 exit the rain turned to sleet and then to all snow. The road conditions quickly deteriorated and we went from driving 65 mph when we left to as slow as 20 mph because of the snow.

I apparently wasn't driving fast enough for one clown who decided to try and pass me, yet as soon as he got into the left lane he dropped his speed to 30-35 mph, which is what we were doing. I was following behind a semi, and was having a pretty good go driving in his tire tracks, but this guy who passed me was driving through fresh, slushy snow. He was fishtailing, and he would speed up, then slow down again. I was just waiting for him to ditch it.

I finally let the guy have enough room and he pulled in front of me (I was purposely not giving him any room just for being a jag-off). But then I decided to pull around him (and the truck) just south of Fond du lac.

The drive back was just as scary since there was less traffic heading south and no tracks to drive in. Going north we saw three cars in the ditch, but heading back south we only saw one car and tracks of one car that had been pulled out. As soon as we got to that spot just south of Hwy 33, everything changed again. It was like going through a door because all of a sudden there was no snow, no ice, just rain. So overall, it was a nice little adventure, but one that the girls I am sure won't want to repeat.

More Snow

After watching the Packers choke away yet another game, I woke to more snow coming down. So now we are at 34" for the month of December. The snowbank at the end of the driveway is taller than I am. I thought this was the kind of thing you only saw in Buffalo.

But as I am driving home from work, there is some butthead snowblowing his driveway, shooting the snow right into the street. This is a major per peeve of mine. The chute on the snowblower is directional.... You can point it to blow to the side of your driveway. I should also add that at least here it is ILLEGAL!!!!! Where is a cop when you really need one?