Puzzled Ponderings

Yesterday, snow was forcasted to begin in the evening hours, and we were expected to get roughly one to three inches of snow.

However, the snow started earlier than expected. By lunchtime, snow was falling, and the prediction had risen to three to six inches. By 4pm, the forcast had been changed. They now expected six to nine inches. Most of my co-workers left early. Only my department and a couple managers remained until 5.

We watched the snow dwindle, and I began to suspect the forcast had been a little exaggerated. We got a few inches, and yes, it was bad driving, but I figured that schools would be open in the morning. I was wrong.

I woke up around 2:30am and peeked outside. Not much had changed. I figured the storm had either gone south of us, or had fizzled out. I went back to bed, and planned to go to work in the morning.

Around 4:30 or so, dh informed me the schools were closed. I was surprised. It still didn't look like much snow, but the forcast had worsened, not improved. They were now estimating between 8 and 16 inches of snow! Holy toledo! I worried about dh driving to work. The snow wasn't too deep, but it was very icy and hazardous driving. He promised to call from work when he got there. He arrived late, and I was on pins and needles waiting for his call. He said the cars were just compacting that snow into a hard clump of ice. Most of the way to work, he couldn't drive over 25 miles an hour. I asked him to come home early, as the news forcasted that the worst of the storm was yet to come. He promised to come home at lunch time.

Shortly after that, the weather channel announced that the worst of the storm was going to hit at noon. Oh great. I text messaged dh and warned him of that. A couple hours later, I saw that the storm was really getting worse, and the snow was falling heavier. I could barely see across the street, and the wind was getting very blustery. I asked if he could leave soon.

A little while later, dh called me from the expressway. He decided to come home that way, hoping the roads would be kept clearer. He was right. But he had to drive through nearly whiteout conditions.

I can't tell how much snow we've gotten so far. In some areas of our property, there's a lot of blowing and drifting, so it's hard to tell. It is several feet deep where the drifts are. I think we got about 14-15 inches, and it's still falling. It's so heavy and deep, that the snowblower can't handle it. I was going out and shoveling off about 6 inches, so dh could follow behind and blow away the rest. And it still kept getting stopped up. Dh has asthma, so he went in for a break, and I was going to shovel a little walking path across the front of the house for the mailman. Dh tried to get me to come in, promising to finish it tomorrow, but I just wanted to give the mailman a break. (I have a choice to walk through it or not - he doesn't.) Then a neighbor, with a heavy duty snowblower, came out and cleared the path I started! Wow, that was really nice. And it saved my back. As he was helping me, dh returned, and helped me do the path up to the door. Hopefully it will still be clear tomorrow for the mailman.

Now they are saying it will snow for the next two or three days. Bummer. I hope they just mean flurries. I've had enough shovelling to last me a while.