Training Log Archive: SwampfoxIn the 1 days ending Mar 14, 2019: |
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Thursday Mar 14, 2019 #
Note
This was one storm that lived up to its (advance) reputation--surely the finest winter storm we have had since 2003. It was done by this morning, leaving *only* the aftermath to deal with.
Outside of town, the aftermath meant the highways were closed for a second day--presumably they will re-open tomorrow.
Inside of town, the aftermath varied widely depending on how a particular location slotted against the wind direction during the storm. If you were lucky, then maybe you ended up with 6"-12" of snow to deal with. If you were really, really lucky, maybe you even had small patches of bare ground. But most people were not lucky. In fact, it can not be overstated as to how unlucky most people were.
I spent several hours of Yowsa! cutting a teensy path from my garage to the street, and then ever so gradually widening that path so that eventually it could accommodate my truck. Some saint had come down one of the sidewalks early in the morning with a snowblower and had exposed enough sidewalk to allow a single file of soldiers (or snow sledders) to trod along en route to some distant destination. Or maybe it was an angel, sent over from Memphis? I spent a half hour or so enlarging that gap in the snow to allow the possibility of a double file of snow sledders (or soldiers) to march along down it.
Finally it was time to attack the remaining sidewalk, which was massively drifted behind an unbelievably awkwardly located (with respect to the wind) fence. This looked basically impossible to attack by ordinary means, so I fell back on high school chemistry and mixed up some homemade explosive using perfectly ordinary ingredients such as crushed white rice, vinegar, mustard powder, and sun dried jalapeno, all wetted down with a fairly liberal amount of nitroglycerine to form a malleable paste, and then used that to successfully blow up the snowdrifts in place while managing to not also blow up myself in place, which I deemed to be the critical part.
No doubt neighbors were startled, but probably not too startled as I have acclimatized them to such things over the years with my wretched and quite loud guitar playing. Well, what's the use of having amplifiers in the first place unless you're going to dime them? And then, what's the use of having windows if not to open them up so all the free sounds can get out?
I reckon the police didn't get more than a few dozen panicky phone calls, which hardly mattered because there was way too much snow in the streets for them to respond anyway.
There will be sunshine tomorrow, and temps not quite as cold, so hopefully winter will be forced to relent by degrees, and maybe it will even be possible to make up to Happy Jack, and see what amount of destruction the winds might have caused up there.
Outside of town, the aftermath meant the highways were closed for a second day--presumably they will re-open tomorrow.
Inside of town, the aftermath varied widely depending on how a particular location slotted against the wind direction during the storm. If you were lucky, then maybe you ended up with 6"-12" of snow to deal with. If you were really, really lucky, maybe you even had small patches of bare ground. But most people were not lucky. In fact, it can not be overstated as to how unlucky most people were.
I spent several hours of Yowsa! cutting a teensy path from my garage to the street, and then ever so gradually widening that path so that eventually it could accommodate my truck. Some saint had come down one of the sidewalks early in the morning with a snowblower and had exposed enough sidewalk to allow a single file of soldiers (or snow sledders) to trod along en route to some distant destination. Or maybe it was an angel, sent over from Memphis? I spent a half hour or so enlarging that gap in the snow to allow the possibility of a double file of snow sledders (or soldiers) to march along down it.
Finally it was time to attack the remaining sidewalk, which was massively drifted behind an unbelievably awkwardly located (with respect to the wind) fence. This looked basically impossible to attack by ordinary means, so I fell back on high school chemistry and mixed up some homemade explosive using perfectly ordinary ingredients such as crushed white rice, vinegar, mustard powder, and sun dried jalapeno, all wetted down with a fairly liberal amount of nitroglycerine to form a malleable paste, and then used that to successfully blow up the snowdrifts in place while managing to not also blow up myself in place, which I deemed to be the critical part.
No doubt neighbors were startled, but probably not too startled as I have acclimatized them to such things over the years with my wretched and quite loud guitar playing. Well, what's the use of having amplifiers in the first place unless you're going to dime them? And then, what's the use of having windows if not to open them up so all the free sounds can get out?
I reckon the police didn't get more than a few dozen panicky phone calls, which hardly mattered because there was way too much snow in the streets for them to respond anyway.
There will be sunshine tomorrow, and temps not quite as cold, so hopefully winter will be forced to relent by degrees, and maybe it will even be possible to make up to Happy Jack, and see what amount of destruction the winds might have caused up there.