Tag: Weather

Happy Ice Storm Day

Snow is bad enough, but when little chunks of ice fall from the sky? That’s just mother nature being a jerk. We’re supposed to be getting a full day of this crap. Yippee. I just put ice melt all over the driveway. Our new furnace is supposed to get a check up today so I want to decrease the danger of a slip. The guy is supposed to be on his way so I am sitting here with a mask hanging off one ear. I am so* sick of having to wear a mask, but unlike 50% of America, I am willing to deal with the difficulty in order to keep other people healthy.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, ice. The first sand truck just went past. Here’s hoping this doesn’t turn into a big deal today. I hate winter. I hate ice. Blah.

I failed to do anything with the RPM Challenge yesterday. I’m optimistic today will be more productive, but who knows. We are up to date on The Book of Boba Fett, I am up to date on Peacemaker, and Jen and I watched the first episode of Pam and Tommy. I wonder how historically accurate it is. I remember hearing about a contractor and I remember hearing about a safe, but is this how it happened? Not that it matters. Also, is Sebastian Stan (sp?) a method actor? I kinda hope not, because that would require him to take a lot of cocaine. Yikes!

Sigh… It’s Friday. I really want to get through this work day with as little stress as possible. I also want to have my next batch of appointments booked. The weekend is so close I can smell it, and it smells like freedom. Or something like that.

*I am trying to set the world record for the most uses of the word “so” in a blog paragraph. Thanks for cheering me on!

Sick Time

Just thinking ahead on this whole redesigning my internal organs discussion. I asked what the recovery time would look like. They said they recommend you stay out of work for 3-4 weeks while you re-teach your newly remodeled stomach how to handle different types of food. As of right now I have enough sick time banked to be out for half day shy of five weeks. I’ll have to use some of that for the slew of appointments I need to make before the surgery, but I think I am in good shape. I have a ton of vacation time that needs to be used too. Maybe some of those appointments will use vacation time instead of sick time. Maybe.

We’re supposed to have a storm tonight. I keep trying to get a forecast that gives a snow estimate but they all just say a mix of snow and freezing rain. No accumulation estimates. I think that’s a good thing. Freezing rain blows chunks but it’s better than snow, at least as far as shoveling the driveway and plowing the streets are concerned. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Have I mentioned Weather Kitty yet? It’s a weather app for iOS (I don’t know about other platforms, mostly because I don’t use them so I don’t care). It combines weather forecasts with adorable kitties. If that’s your thing, you should check it out.

So… no more caffeine and no more carbonated drinks. I had a diet pepsi before the appointment. I’ve had one since. I’m not going to say that those are the last two sodas I’ll have in my life. I am not even going to say they are the last two sodas I’ll have before the surgery… but they could be. It’s possible. Don’t hold your breath or anything, but it is possible.

This is going to be difficult. It’s also going to be worth it, but it is going to be difficult.

Snowpocalypse: The Aftermath

The National Weather Service told my beloved wife Jennifer that Methuen, Massachusetts got about 14 inches of snow yesterday. That’s a good number. Anything over a foot is noteworthy, really. It’s nowhere near what the worst doom and gloom forecasts called for (I did see one that predicted 30 inches), but it’s still a decent haul.

We lived to tell the tale. The tale being Jen played lots of World of Warcraft, I finished an album and watched a lot of The Mandalorian, we ate a frozen pizza for dinner and then watched a disturbing amount of BravoTV. We never lost power. I don’t know if anyone in Methuen did, but I know a lot of people in MA lost theirs for a while. We stayed lit.

So now what? We booked a plow to come and dig us out. Normally on the day after a storm we spend most of the day wondering when they are going to show up. Wondering if they are going to show up. I was planning on writing a big paragraph about that but about half an hour ago he showed up! He’s still out there, but he’s packing up. It was one guy with a pickup truck with a plow and a snowblower and a shovel in the back. We booked it online through plowzandmowz which is your typical gig-economy service app. We didn’t talk to the guy directly, but I think we can all agree that the dude is a friggin hero!

I still need to do some shoveling. He cleared one drive way, but we sort of have two. He took the snowbank off of the end of both rows so the hard part is done. I need to shovel around the kids cars. I don’t know if I am going to bother brushing them off. It’s going to be six weeks before Harry needs his car, and six months before Bellana needs hers. Also, the forecast for the second half of this coming week is calling for warm and rainy. The cars are going to clean themselves off. I want to clear around them though, on the off chance we need to get inside one of them. I haven’t checked the path to the door on the side of the house. We usually ask for that but it rarely gets done. No big whoop. Finally, there’s a fire hydrant in front of our house. I need to get that.

Other than that? Barring any freak power line accidents or anything like that, I think we can put snowpocalypse 2022 to bed. Let’s close the book on this one and move on with our frosty cold New England lives.

I am going to watch another episode of The Mandalorian. This is the way, eh?

Snow Check In 4

3:00pm looks pretty much the same as 1:00pm. That’s the wind. The storm hasn’t slowed at all, but the wind is making it hard to judge accumulation. There are huge drifts in some places and almost nothing in others.

Right now the driveway doesn’t look bad at all, but the cars look buried. The wind does that. Oh well.

Snow Check In

That’s a depiction of the amount of snow we’ve had dropped on us so far. I took this at about 8:50am.

I’m thinking of taking the same pic every two hours or so. How’s that sound, good? Fascinating? Pointless and stupid but I’m still going to do it anyway? Yeah, that one.

French Toast Alert System

We’re going to get slammed tomorrow. I am trying to get a consensus on the snowfall projections. It looks like it’s either 12-18″, 18-24″, or more than 24 inches. Two feet. Crap.

In other words, it’s a Five French Toast Slices storm.

Someone at work today asked if we all had our French Toast supplies (eggs, milk, bread). Someone else sent a link to the French Toast Alert System. I am overwhelmed with glee over having this in my life now.

The site has a storm alert rating based on slices of French Toast:

Tomorrow’s storm is waffling between 4 slices and 5 slices. Either way, Harvey Leonard is happy, and old ladies are getting run over in the supermarket milk section.

It’s chaos out there, and it hasn’t even started yet.

Hold on to your butts, kids.