We are required to keep our sidewalks clean, but hardly anyone does. I’m a runner so I make sure ours are in good shape though it doesn’t do much good when either side of me is messy. Honestly the worst offender is the hospital. They never clear theirs.
Ran this morning. Temps are dropping and the wind is whipping. Think the windchill was close to zero but I was fine. I’m just not a fan of running into a headwind for long periods of time. Feels like I’m running into a brick wall. Historically I run in snow, not ice. Patchy black ice is alright as long as I can see well enough in the dark to see and avoid them.
Bumped up my heat to 68. May even bump it to 70 tonight once it changes to ice
Ice is the one condition I won’t walk in. If there’s some snow covering the ice, it’s doable with Yaktrax. Just plain ice is a no-go … in that case, I walk at a local cemetery that keeps its roads clear of ice (and welcomes walkers).
Slept in a little this morning and no sign of snow when I got up, but we are just now starting to get flurries in Nashville (last 10 minutes). It will be pretty right up to our ice changeover.
New random thing to add when looking at colleges - S25s school (Clemson) is on its own power grid and all their lines are buried. Now, upstate SC doesnt get a whole lot of winter storms, but they are expecting really bad ice. The walking outside may be bad, and who knows if staff will be able to get there to manage the cafeterias, but apparently even during hurricane Helene they only lost power for about an hour, and we’re back online quickly and the only power in that part of the state for a while. So at least S25 will be able to be snug in his room, with (hopefully) power. He’s got snacks, granola bars and ramen and grabbed a bunch of apples and oranges from the cafeteria this morning so hopefully he’ll be fine for a few days if he can’t get out.
We only got an inch or two of snow, but I shoveled anyway. It was 8 degrees, but sunny and calm… felt fine out there. Somebody had kindly already shoveled the public sidewalk. So I just had to do our driveway and house sidewalk. Timing was great because I got to meet the new neighbors moving in. Once done I moved on to an elderly neighbor’s driveway. It may be overkill if we don’t get more snow, but I really liked the nice light fluffy white stuff. Parents in NY will not be as fortunate - glad they hire somebody to plow.
Besides keeping both EVs fully charged after driving them anywhere, we’re backing in whichever car parks on the outside portion of the carport so the driver’s door is protected from getting frozen shut during a sleet storm.
Our German Shepherd pup adores the cold weather and loves being walked in single digit and below zero temperatures. The cats, however, are happiest when sleeping on a heating pad I leave out on my bed for them.
We have a weird garage in that it IS a two car garage but it’s two cars deep, not wide. So we never use it that way. I park my car in the garage, H parks his on the circular drive. One of my cold weather ideas is to back my car into the garage so that my hood is near the garage door. If for some reason H’s car needs a jump, but there is loads of snow, we can push his forward a bit and jump it no problem. Shouldn’t happen but in these times you find yourself thinking of all scenarios!
We recently realized that one of our cars had a battery that was 9 years old. How it still started is beyond my understanding. This got fixed just in time for the cold spell that we are witnessing right now.
Otherwise the bird feeders are full, salt and shovels are ready, cars are tucked away, and we are just waiting for the inevitable. Where we live it is supposed to be light and fluffy, which is probably easier to deal with and a bit less likely to take out the power even if there is a lot of it.
I overbought food so that should guarantee that we will have much of nothing weatherwise! Our power lines are underground so we should hopefully be ok, but The metro area is expecting freezing rain/ice on trees and power lines that could make a mess. Hoping maybe the worst will be cleared Monday so appointments can , maybe, be kept Tuesday.
I’m in NC and we are supposed to get freezing rain (the worst). We are anticipating power outages of some duration, but can hook our EV up to power our fridge and other appliances and can also go sit in it in the garage to get warm if we want (no carbon monoxide danger). We also have a fire in the fireplace going. Bought a bunch of food so we should be good for several days, but I hate the cold and do not like a cold dark house so I am not looking forward to that part, but with the amount of freezing rain they are calling for, a power outage seems inevitable.
If it’s possible and it’s going to wet, put the a plastic garbage around the box so the cardboard doesn’t get soggy. A smaller box works better than huge box. (Less empty space to heat.)
OK, the weather service is now calling for 18 inches of snow, starting around 11pm tonight and going until after 6 pm tomorrow.
D left for work 20 minutes early. She took a change of clothes, her eye mask, ear plugs, a down sleeping bag and 2 bags of food—bagels and breakfast burritos– to share (The hospital has no food service after 9 pm.)
Some of the medical staff have reservations at the Comfort Inn 3 blocks from the hospital, but except for the vending machines, there’s no food service there. D will try to come home in the morning, but may crash in the on-call room or in a hotel room with a colleague if the roads are too dangerous. It also depends if her replacement is able to get to the hospital to take over the patients. She’ll text us at 6 am when she is supposed to get off to let us know what’s happening.
The rest of us are hunkered down and just waiting to see what’s going to happen. We have above ground electrical lines and So. Many. Trees. We haven’t had power outage more than about 20-30 minutes, but we’ll see. It’s a 3-cat night for me.
We’re flying tomorrow from Seattle to Atlanta to Buenos Aires. They haven’t cancelled either flight yet, and when I look at the weather forecast on Intellicast, I honestly don’t think it looks like it’s going to be that bad in Atlanta. Four hours of freezing precip early morning (of zero inches) and then it warms up to the mid forties during the day. At least for Sunday, it really doesn’t look bad. Maybe on Monday, it could get icy, but what am I missing? Over 13K flights cancelled? Wow!
(someone who looks out for a neighbor in the winter and takes care of their snow)