Early Retirement Extreme Forums

We've been hunkered down all day, preparing for the big dig out tomorrow. It's been a great day for reading and reflecting. And watching the German family across the street go out and shovel every few hours only to be covered again. But we drank the last bottle of wine and DW demands we emerge forthwith to forage.

This captures the moment quite well:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/23/opini ... ebook&_r=0

"Cities need blizzards every few years to flush out incompetents, expose incipient dysfunction and generally stress-test the fabric of civilization. Like war, illness and poker, snow ruthlessly reveals true character."

My guys dug us out a couple of hours ago. It's still snowing, but they didn't want to leave it until tomorrow.


First light this morning* ...




Midday ...




Dinner time ...




*That's snow blown up against the door which I why I had to take that photo through the door.

Haha, you guys have more snow than I do, that probably doesn't happen very often:)
Shovelling is a great workout though!

Wow. I'm northeast of ffj, and we only got half an inch this time. The front almost completely skirted us. The lingering inch or so from Monday night was deeper than the new stuff.

My teenager was disappointed. "That's all anyone talked about at school all day! Then we get home and it's an hour's worth of flurries and it quits." So was the 5yo. "WHEN will it be the right snow for a snowman? I'm sick of the wrong snow."

I got 5 1/2" of rain last week, and 7 1/2 the week before. The only shoveling I'll be doing is planting cedar trees, when the tree farm can get out in the field and dig them up. It's too wet right now. I complained: how come my best planting weather interferes with you getting my trees up!

What is the deal down in DC?? Doesn't anyone own a shovel? DH was told not to come into work three days in a row. Our friends' kids are still off from school. I know it was a lot of snow, but it wasn't that much. Sheesh.

If someone wanted to take over this country, apparently all they'd have to do is wait for a snow storm and put some chains on their tires. They could roll right into DC and no one would be able to stop them.

jennypenny wrote: If someone wanted to take over this country, apparently all they'd have to do is wait for a snow storm and put some chains on their tires. They could roll right into DC and no one would be able to stop them.

Very true.

I was in CA from Wednesday until Monday afternoon, so I missed being in the storm. Airport and main roads were perfectly clear on Monday afternoon. Only a few of the side streets were unplowed, but Tuesday work was still canceled.

jennypenny wrote:What is the deal down in DC?? Doesn't anyone own a shovel? DH was told not to come into work three days in a row. Our friends' kids are still off from school. I know it was a lot of snow, but it wasn't that much. Sheesh.

If someone wanted to take over this country, apparently all they'd have to do is wait for a snow storm and put some chains on their tires. They could roll right into DC and no one would be able to stop them.

Yup -- its the same every year. On Monday I was able to get to work in downtown DC in about 2/3 the usual time, because most of the main roads were clear until you got to DC -- and there was nobody on them. Then in DC there were random piles of snow all over and it looked like drunks had been plowing.

DC'ers really ought to go get a shovel already.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local ... 11341.html

As a proud homeowner, I enjoy owning one of the most deluxe snow shovels that Home Depot has to offer (yes, I bought new). Always being a sucker for a great tool. Using a surreptitiously sneaky strategy, I've taken to shovelling my neighbours sidewalks as well whenever I shovel ours. As a result, they subsequently shovel mine. Therefore, I only need to go outside half the time.

Okay, to be honest, they started it. I'm just going along with a very good idea. This is a very good application of social capital.

@jacob--Did you get that giant yellow shovel at HD that looks like it should say "Tonka" on the side? That's what we have.

No, I think it's this one or something very close to it. Good for playing sidewalk snow plow with the occasional toss.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Suncast-18-i ... /100145739

All my neighbours use snow blowers for everything. I'm sooo hippie middle class. Of course their clearance is perfect whereas mine is more... artisinal

I wish I could use something like this instead http://i00.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/191/798/ ... 91_810.JPG ... it was the one toy I always wanted but never got as a kid. Of course it wouldn't be very practical, but ... hmm ... I got all the time in the world now, yes?

(Un)fortunately, because of the strong El Nino we've seen very little snow here this year.

We have this ...




If you ever want to go play at one of these places, I'm in.

Here's what I got. No that's not me.



The FIL bought it for us without even asking....I only use it if we get anything over 4-6". Otherwise I'm out just scraping with a shovel. We got about 2 inches a few weeks ago and my neighbor was out on his large, full size tractor with blade attachment (as in the tractor is 8 feet tall) and I got my driveway done before he did.

Thankfully it's been a quiet year for snow. 2 years ago when we got record snow I forgot to put that attachment on my tractor and so was shoveling 6+ inches of snow every week for all of Dec-Feb.

Today was my first day back at bike commuting in the DC area... amazingly the bike paths were very clean. Side walks and side streets, only so so. The ride back tonight was actually worse, because giant tractors were clearing curb-side lanes on mid-level roads (during the evening commute? smooth...) and they had thrown huge amounts of snow baaaaack into the previously cleared sidewalks/bike lanes... The amount of redundant work necessary to constantly clean up after the people who are 'cleaning up' is astounding. It's like a drawn out snowball fight where you throw snow at the other person's feet.