snow Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Ramblin' with Roger

Winter 2015-2016

The one thing I hate about the metric system is that one gets to below zero WAY too easily.

I know winter 2015-2016 is not over yet, but I’m intrigued by it so far. It was 71F/22C on Albany on Christmas eve, a record. We didn’t even have any measurable snow until a few days later.

Remember that monster storm that slammed the East Coast in the latter part of January? It crippled Washington, DC, Virginia, and eastern Pennsylvania. Even New York City got a couple of feet.

Do you know how much we got from that storm in Albany, 150 miles north of Manhattan? Zero. Nada. In fact, my sister in Charlotte, NC got worse weather than we had, as did my buds in Kentucky and Tennessee.

I note this because most folks in the United States have no sense of geography. Several times, even my downstate colleagues in New York City and Long Island asked, “Are you finished digging out?” Digging out from what?

As of February 20, we had less than a foot of snow (less than a third of a meter) for the whole season, a quarter of what we receive normally, and nowhere near the nearly 70 inches (1.75m) we had LAST year at this time. I haven’t shoveled the walk yet, although I’ve taken a broom to the sidewalk a few times.

And the temperature has been moderate. Not that it didn’t get cold. On Valentine’s Day morning, it was -13F (-25C), another record, though it cracked 50F (10C) two days later.

The pipes to the kitchen froze, which meant I got to wash all the dishes by hand, hauling hot water from the nearby bathroom, where the pipes, further from the external wall, did NOT freeze. I LOVED washing the dishes that way, though I must have tried a dozen times to rinse them with water from the unwilling tap.

I think this stuff is fascinating to me because, as we age, it’s much harder to distinguish one year from another. Last year WAS a brutal winter, with the average temperature for February 12F (-11C), when it should have been 19F (-7C), with several days below zero Fahrenheit. (The one thing I hate about the metric system is that one gets to below zero WAY too easily.)

I’m noting this now when it’s scheduled to be above 50F (10F), but that “just enough cold air may seep in at a key time to allow snow to fall during all or part of one or two storms from the Ohio Valley to portions of the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts during the Tuesday to Thursday time frame.” In other words, it ain’t over yet, even though the groundhog failed to see his shadow and we expect an early spring.

Weather or not, I write about it

There are a couple of reasons I don’t write much about the weather:
1) it’s so ephemeral
2) if I complain now, there’s the fear the next time could be worse

Still, the weather last week, for whatever reason, beat me down. It wasn’t 70 inches of snow. In fact, in the city of Albany proper, it wasn’t much snow at all, though some of the outlying areas got more than a foot.

That was the problem, really. The meteorologists, even 36 hours out, were candidly unsure of the forecast. The Winter Weather Advisory suggested 1-3 inches of snow, plus sleet and freezing rain.

Tuesday morning: looks dry. I walk out to go to work and realize that walking is treacherous. As bad as it is on the sidewalks, though, it was far worse on the roads. Crossing the streets was hazardous, not just from the fear of falling, but from the very real fear that some car would run me over since they don’t slow down in recognition of the road conditions.

I take two buses to work each morning. Bus number 1 was 5 minutes late, arriving at the transfer point just after when bus #2 should have been arriving.

I’d never seen anything quite like this: all of the traffic at Washington and Lark heading east on Central Avenue and Washington Avenue and north on Lark were backed up a couple of blocks. I heard dozens of car horns beeping, as though that was going to do any good.

The bottom line is that the second bus I took was over a half-hour late, and I ended up 45 minutes late for work.

By Tuesday evening, it had changed to white rain, or the wettest snow I can remember. I got home to try to shovel it, but the water content made it almost impossible. What I needed was not a shovel a Wet Vac, something to suck up the water. A local friend wrote on Facebook: “The Russian word for SNOW is СНЕГ (SNYEK). But many years ago, my dear friend… coined a new word: SNYUCK. That’s half snow and half yuck (ice, rain, sludge, etc.) – and that’s what’s happening outside in Albany, NY. It’s snyucking out!”

Wednesday morning, there were a number of school closings. Not Albany, and not the rural school district the Wife had to work in. By mid-morning, a blast of snow came into the area. I check the notices and while the outlining districts had closed early or canceled after-school activities, Albany merely noted a suggestion to run to pick up pone’s children early.

Still, I called The Wife to pick up the Daughter early, and a good thing too, because her 40-minute trip took an hour. While she was en route, I received a call from the after-care at 3:30, saying they were NOW closing at 4:30.

I went out to catch my bus, only to discover people waiting over an hour for the PREVIOUS bus. I took the westbound bus to Everett Road, deciding to walk home when I saw no connecting bus; this was a TERRIBLE idea. There were no shoveled sidewalks on Everett Road, which is an exit for Interstate 90. I’m walking part of the time in the street, in the dark, wearing a black coat; not recommended.

Thursday morning, Albany was the LAST of the schools to call for a two-hour delay. Surrounding school districts either had declared one 45 minutes or earlier, or had closed. Fortunately, the Wife’s school was also delayed.

I was grateful when The Wife offered me a ride home Thursday night.

So it was oddly enervating.

Picture, taken Wednesday, December 10, used by permission.

A post for ABC Wednesday.

The days of whine and hosers

This will be a breakfast blog* post, just for my friend Dan:

30 December 2013: Took the bus to work early so that I could get my monthly allergy shot and not miss much work. There was a woman on the bus who was complaining about everything, sitting near the front of the bus. She was fairly loud, and about every fifth word was a vulgarity, no exaggeration. Worse, there were two or three women in that section who were listening to every perceived slight or projected hassle with rapt attention. After I got off the bus, I was SO relieved. My working theory is that some people LIKE to listen to others complain – I suspect they also watch those argument-driven reality shows such as The Real Housewives of Peoria, or wherever – but I found her exhausting.

31 December 2013: We went an hour southwest to Oneonta, NY. Two years ago, for First Night, it was about 50F (10C) at 5 pm. Last year, it was 34F (1C). This time, it was 14F (-10C).

First, we went to the new home of my parents-in-law. I mean, it’s new to them, and it’s nice, though they are still in the midst of unpacking. Sometime after I got there, I tried to post my blog post on ABC Wednesday, but I couldn’t GET to my blog. But I didn’t have time to investigate.

The trip to the motel was an adventure, with this sudden snow squall popping up. Do you know how there’s a covering at motel entrances? We were getting pelted by snow and wind WHILE WE WERE UNDER THE COVERING. It probably looked cool to watch, if one weren’t IN it.

Finally, after the wife and I got to the motel, I called the blog service provider. The blog problem wasn’t on his end; it was the dumb blogger who failed to update the Akismet, and my blog was under attack from Chinese spam. 20 minutes later, it was all fixed. Thanks, Shawn, and sorry!

That evening, went to venues with The Daughter, while The Wife went with her mother, and her father was off on his own. Among the acts were these Indonesian dancers, a woman and two children, whose music was not loud enough in the large room, AND who competing with the fire eaters just outside.

There were also belly dancers, and I was impressed, not only by their skills, but by the fact they didn’t have perfect bodies but put themselves out there; only one you would call slim. One of the young woman in particular, who my wife had seen months earlier, had particular confidence and charm. If there were snarky remarks, I didn’t hear them.

1 January 2014 (very early): The Wife and I stayed at a hotel, went to sleep c. 11 pm. Around 4:30 a.m., some folks were pounding on a door down the hall, complaining in a too loud voice about the fact that they had been locked out of the room. This went on for at least ten minutes.

Then it came to me: the absolute perfect putdown for these clowns. “You know that resolution you made not to be an a**hole this year? Well youve already broken it!” These things NEVER come to me in the moment.

But then I thought, in my foggy, exhausted haze, “Do I want the very first thing I say in the new year to be cursing out some strangers?” Instead, I opened the door, and said, in the most polite voice I could muster, “Hey, there are people trying to sleep here!” The crew mumbled some apologies, and eventually, we went back to sleep.

2 January 2014: Back in Albany a day early in anticipation of a snowstorm, which came. Shoveled a couple of times. The landlord next door hasn’t provided his tenants with a shovel, so they are always borrowing ours.

Went to the grocery store, listening to someone talking joyfully about being fired from her job, and from her retelling, I could see why. Everything was THEIR fault. She didn’t even bother sitting through the exit interview: “Am I fired? Then I’m outta here!”

3 January 2014: Shoveled the walk for the third time in the morning, when it was a balmy-2F (-19C). Got to work, and my computer would not connect to the network, so I couldn’t use it at all. Apparently, I’m at least the third person in my office to experience this. But the guy who could fix the problem was on vacation. His assistance came over in the afternoon, and after a few hours got me into my own computer at about 3 pm. My wife had TOLD me to stay home…

*Dan claims Ramblin’ with Roger is a breakfast blog, one a person reads at breakfast. I initially thought he was suggesting that I write about what I had for breakfast – I seldom do – but now, when I have a bunch of little bits that don’t warrant individual posts, I refer to those as breakfast posts. Like this one.

It Snows in March in Albany

Some senior librarians took it upon themselves to close the facilities early, which turned out to be the obviously correct choice.

I’ve lived in Albany, NY over thirty years now, and one of those trivia questions I like to ask relative newcomers – people who’ve only been here twenty years, e.g. – is “What are the two greatest snowstorms in recorded Albany history?”

The worst event, by far, was the Great Blizzard of 1888, during the second week in March, which dumped 45 inches (120 cm) on Albany, 22 inches (56 cm) in New York City, and huge amounts across New York State, New Jersey and much of New England. The storm and the frigid aftermath killed over 400 people in the region and crippled the region for days afterward.

The second worst Albany snowstorm was the 1993 Storm of the Century during the second week in March. The storm that started in the Gulf of Mexico created tornadoes that affected Cuba and the southern United States and even dumped a foot of snow as far south as Alabama. It churned up the coast and ended up affecting 26 US states plus eastern Canada. Albany received 26.6 inches (67.6 cm) of snow.

To the surprise of some, I do not remember the 1888 blizzard. I DO well recall the 1993 superstorm, though, for two reasons.

That Sunday, the church I belonged to at the time was closed for service, a state of emergency having been called for the area. However, I lived close enough that I could trudge over anyway. The custodian was busy using the snowblower, but it was inadequate for the task. So I grabbed a shovel and assisted; I believed there were one or two others trying to clean up as well.

The day before, the Albany Public Library was contemplating closing in anticipation of not only a stark forecast but the reports that the storm had already caused to the south. At the time, the library was run by an autocratic fellow I’ll call Bill. He wanted to be notified about all decisions, so the staff attempted unsuccessfully to reach him.

Finally, some senior librarians took it upon themselves to close the facilities early, which turned out to be the obviously correct choice. However, they got jammed up by Bill, who was furious with their initiative. Ultimately, the bad publicity from Bill’s unjustified public pique forced him to back down. This also directly led to the creation of a librarians’ union in Albany.

As spring approaches, Albany, know that the two worst snowstorms on record happened THIS week in history.

Well, there’s Plan C

On Saturday, we did almost nothing.

I know that some of you folks from out of town, and out of the country, were concerned about how we fared after the Blizzard of 2013. We were fine in Albany, with 6.5″, c 16.5 cm, of snow. More in the hilltowns around here. The worst weather was to the east – Long Island, and much of New England. I noticed on Facebook that Steve Bissette, who lives in Vermont, was able to get to the post office, but the post office was closed.

Our Saturday was like that. Usually, that morning involves my wife going to Weight Watchers, which is about four miles (6 km) away, at 7 a.m. Since the bulk of the snow had fallen Friday night – and she and the Daughter had gone, on foot, to Steamer No. 10 to see Annie the night before, she slept in until nearly 6:30! She really knows how to goof off; yeah, right. She didn’t go to her Zoomba class either, which probably didn’t take place anyway.

There was a party planned for our twin nieces, who were turning 12, about an hour away, at 1 p.m. That event ended up getting postponed until the next day. The superintendent of the Albany schools had invited people over to visit her at 3 pm, but that got canceled, fairly late.

OK, the local branch of the Albany Public library was going to do some really cool stuff for Chinese New Year, involving reading, and music, and – oh, ALL of the branches were closed for the day!

After I had shoveled the sidewalk early on – a wonderful experience, I must say, the family ate breakfast, together. Then the Daughter and I shoveled a path from the front to the back of the house and dug out the car. It was considerably colder at 8 a.m. than it was at 6 a.m., and it was a good thing we liberated the vehicle because it would have been too difficult on Sunday morning to get to church on time.

As it turned out, on Saturday, we did almost nothing. Laundry was washed, dishes were cleaned, but mostly it was reading, watching TV, and listening to music. My wife noted how relaxing it is not to have to get up before dawn on a weekend morning; as someone who dreads the alarm going off on weekday mornings, but especially on Saturday, I quite concur.

This is an example of where LESS (stuff to do) is MORE (fun). I approve of this concept.