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Snow has slowed, and the phone has rung... I'm off... got a little bit of sleep. We'll see how I feel in about 8 hours.
Dec. 22nd, 2008
I said 8 hours... apparently I actually meant 13.... guh.
Fortunately, the Weather Channel was about 15 or 16 hours off on their prediction on when the snow was going to stop. I think it finished up around 3 AM, but boy, do we have a lot of it. 15" in Portland, more in Freeport, and made MUCH worse by the horrific winds that blew it into drifts nearly 4 feet high in places. Thank goodness it was all powder, but boy... do we have a lot of it.
It warmed up as the night went on, though the wind did not let up, it was much more bearable than a couple nights ago. Toward the wee hours of the morning, the last signs of the last quarter crescent moon rose in the east. So cool, for a couple reasons. One, I almost never get to see this particular phase, because I either forget about it, or it happens at ohmygodthirty in the morning, when no sane person (heh) would be awake. Two, seeing the moon means no more clouds. No more clouds means no more snow. ohjoy. squee. squeeeee!
The much deeper snow led to a not-good timing situation, as it was taking much longer to clear things than anticipated, and Joe was driven to hire one of the "labor ready" guys... we were a bit put off by this... weird strange person, we don't know him, don't want him riding in the car with us... but he's the one who ran the snowblower at LL Bean. Nice guy, hard worker, he can drive the snowblower for me anytime.
The sunrise was beautiful (big picture 'cause so pretty!). It was a sunrise. With Sun. And blue sky. And Sun. And was really cool to see both a sunrise and moonrise in the same sky.
Finished LL Bean, was all set to go home and get some rest, and we were diverted. First to BJ's, to clean off the salt tarp (15 inches of snow doesn't just go away...), then to the first place we went, to scrape off the blowing snow that had settled on our nicely cleaned sidewalks. Then to drop off Chane (our snowblower guy), but while there, discovered that parts of that property were not shoveled at all, so we fixed that. THEN, at last, at long last, we could go home.
A nice thing: No less than half a dozen people said "thank you" to us as they walked up a snow-free walkway into their office/store/establishment. Some people do care, and acknowledge that us poor snow-shovelers are people too... Then there are the many many others that didn't make eye contact, or pretended they didn't after they did, and I said "good morning"... ah well. Kill 'em with kindness, right?
Returned to the shop around 1:30 this afternoon. Brought Michelle home, went and picked up a fancy schmancy sandwich for dinner later. Got home, made acup mug vat of peppermint tea, and enjoyed a couple Advil and a chocolate croissant. This makes things better. I am very tired, considered forcing myself to stay up another couple of hours, but fear sleep is overtaking me... I may set an alarm for 6:30 or so, so I can have dinner and then get back on a semblance of a normal sleep schedule. Don't want to miss my lunch date with Hoobiewan tomorrow. :)
I've realized I'm writing not so much to record the season and how many storms we're getting (though that's interesting too), but as a reminder to myself 9 months from now, when the question of 'so, you gonna shovel snow again this winter?' comes up, I will remember exactly why I will say NO. months and months of nice warm days and flowers (I hope) will dull the memories of these long, cold, backbreaking nights, and I will think, "oh, it wasn't so bad...". This is my warning to myself, I think.
Fortunately, the Weather Channel was about 15 or 16 hours off on their prediction on when the snow was going to stop. I think it finished up around 3 AM, but boy, do we have a lot of it. 15" in Portland, more in Freeport, and made MUCH worse by the horrific winds that blew it into drifts nearly 4 feet high in places. Thank goodness it was all powder, but boy... do we have a lot of it.
It warmed up as the night went on, though the wind did not let up, it was much more bearable than a couple nights ago. Toward the wee hours of the morning, the last signs of the last quarter crescent moon rose in the east. So cool, for a couple reasons. One, I almost never get to see this particular phase, because I either forget about it, or it happens at ohmygodthirty in the morning, when no sane person (heh) would be awake. Two, seeing the moon means no more clouds. No more clouds means no more snow. ohjoy. squee. squeeeee!
The much deeper snow led to a not-good timing situation, as it was taking much longer to clear things than anticipated, and Joe was driven to hire one of the "labor ready" guys... we were a bit put off by this... weird strange person, we don't know him, don't want him riding in the car with us... but he's the one who ran the snowblower at LL Bean. Nice guy, hard worker, he can drive the snowblower for me anytime.
The sunrise was beautiful (big picture 'cause so pretty!). It was a sunrise. With Sun. And blue sky. And Sun. And was really cool to see both a sunrise and moonrise in the same sky.
Finished LL Bean, was all set to go home and get some rest, and we were diverted. First to BJ's, to clean off the salt tarp (15 inches of snow doesn't just go away...), then to the first place we went, to scrape off the blowing snow that had settled on our nicely cleaned sidewalks. Then to drop off Chane (our snowblower guy), but while there, discovered that parts of that property were not shoveled at all, so we fixed that. THEN, at last, at long last, we could go home.
A nice thing: No less than half a dozen people said "thank you" to us as they walked up a snow-free walkway into their office/store/establishment. Some people do care, and acknowledge that us poor snow-shovelers are people too... Then there are the many many others that didn't make eye contact, or pretended they didn't after they did, and I said "good morning"... ah well. Kill 'em with kindness, right?
Returned to the shop around 1:30 this afternoon. Brought Michelle home, went and picked up a fancy schmancy sandwich for dinner later. Got home, made a
I've realized I'm writing not so much to record the season and how many storms we're getting (though that's interesting too), but as a reminder to myself 9 months from now, when the question of 'so, you gonna shovel snow again this winter?' comes up, I will remember exactly why I will say NO. months and months of nice warm days and flowers (I hope) will dull the memories of these long, cold, backbreaking nights, and I will think, "oh, it wasn't so bad...". This is my warning to myself, I think.
