Selenay's Ramblings

Apparently tonight we're getting our first significant snowfall, possibly up to 15cm. We've had odds and ends of snow already, starting in November, but nothing enough to require shovelling.

So far.

I'm hoping they're wrong. This wasn't even in the forecast yesterday evening! They only added it to the forecast overnight (and then they sent out special weather statements in scary red bars at the top of all the weather apps, probably because they're so late forecasting it) so I don't feel prepared, even though I actually am.

*sigh*

I just have to get through this winter, and then I won't have to deal with quite this level of snow and awfulness any more. Not that England doesn't ever have snow, but it's a rarity rather than an inevitability that you wait for and get nervous about when it doesn't come. Mostly because the later it starts, the worse it is as nature tries to provide you with all the usual snow in a shorter period.

Apparently it will warm up and rain a bit later in the weekend, so hopefully the snow isn't going to pile up too badly too early.

Honestly, I had no idea this much snow could exist. We had 30cm on Sunday--which translated into chest deep drifts covering most of my driveway--and now we've got another 50cm+ today. I'm not going to try to estimate how deep the drifts on my driveway are right now. Very deep is all I can say.

And drifts against both of my doors, which is going to make trying to get out to deal with this when it finally stops snowing...interesting.

Honestly tempted to say "Fuck it" and give up on even starting to shovel today. I might have to see if a cousin can get to me tomorrow and give me a hand with this. Something tells me I won't be seeing my plough guy any time soon...

There are rumours of another storm on Saturday. Starting to suspect spring is mythical.

I told my parents at the weekend that I'm moving out of the house into an apartment in three years. I figured that was enough time for them to get their shit together and either move over here or sell the house. Kind of wish I'd told them I'm moving next week...

I think my city is now shell-shocked by the weather. Sunday featured snow, which transitioned to rain and caused mass flooding on a lot of roads (two feet deep in a lot of places) due to volume of rain and snow melt.

And then, in the middle of the afternoon, the temps dropped by ten degrees in an hour and we had a flash freeze, with all that water still on the ground.

The phrase "entombed in ice" has now been used to describe a city in real life. It's like something out of The Day After Tomorrow here.

Two days later, and most of the roads are still dangerous to drive on. I've throw my back out, because I spend two hours on Sunday, moving slushy wet snow before it could freeze. Cleared my entire driveway and looked like an icicle when I got in, because the freeze was starting as I finished. Moving that much heavy wet snow killed my back.

At least it gave me an excuse to work from home today. Hopefully we'll see some improvement in the roads - it's supposed to be -6C and very sunny today, so the salt should have a chance of doing something, anyway.

And then we get another storm on Thursday.

I'm sorry, this blog has become a constant thread of "MOAR SNOW OMG". But really, venting is the only thing keeping me marginally sane right now. At least I've got a lot of food in and don't need to leave the house for a while.

We had more snow last night. Thankfully no ice on top of it, but it rained during the day and then it snowed, so there's a good layer of ice underneath all the fluffy snow.

And now the temps are down in the double minus numbers. I'm psyching myself up to go out and clear a path to my car and clear my car off before my plough guy comes. He's going to need to dig out the end of my drive before I can move my car, though. The snow has drifted badly.

Yet again, the entire city is a gridlocked mess due to the ice. And the city government is warning that they're running out of places to store the snow. Considering we had bare ground two weeks ago, this is impressive.

And another storm is coming in Monday/Tuesday. Argh.

But at least I have a few clear days before that, and I got groceries yesterday. The only issue was that I couldn't reach the vet yesterday, so I'm running low on cat food. Hopefully I can rectify that before we run out. If only they were open on weekends...

On the positive side, I did get out yesterday, and I've never been so happy to see my co-workers in my life. So I'm less cabin fever-y. And tonight there's rugby to watch, which always makes me happy. Plus, after this next storm, the long term forecast looks clear for at least a week. Maybe the city will be able to get the roads safe to drive on.

Last night's storm actually managed to be worse than the blizzard last week. I slept through a lot of it due to a really bad migraine, but from what I saw on Twitter, it was bad.

It hit a couple of hours before rush hour, so it took a lot of people hours to get home because they were trying to drive through the worst of it. The ploughs got stuck in traffic. Buses got stuck on hills. Nightmare.

And the storm ended with a lot of ice pellets and freezing rain sometime in the middle of the night, just to make sure that digging out today is impossible. A lot of the city is still shut down. The roads are largely impassable. Some of the highways are starting to get driveable (it's late morning), but most of the side streets are under three inches of ice and impossible to navigate. The city plough has been past on my street, but nobody has gone anywhere. We've got thick walls of ice churned up by the plough blocking us in our driveways, and even the people who have managed to chip those down aren't going anywhere because the street is so bad and we'd have to slide down a hill to go anywhere.

A hill with an ocean at the bottom.

And nobody wants to get trapped away from home if they can't get back up the hill.

It's a moot point for me, because both of my screen doors have snow and ice piled against them so I can't get out of the house. I'm still waiting for my plough guy to get up here and chop me free, although I'm starting to feel doubtful about when that will happen. Even his truck may struggle with all that ice on the road.

Good thing I've got plenty of food in the house. I may be here for a day or two.

The storm has started: http://instagram.com/p/yW0DZ_MK92/

We had clear streets an hour ago. Apparently the worst won't hit for another two or three hours. The winds are already freaking the cats out.

I'm working from home, because my office has not yet had the sense to give up and close down. A fair number of people can't work from home, which means a fair number of people are currently driving through the mess to get to work and will possibly end up stranded. Gah.

Hopefully at least some of them heeded the "if you don't feel safe driving, don't come to work, we'll still pay you" email from yesterday. I suspect some won't, because the office is open so clearly they must be there.

I'm hunkering down. My power is just starting to flicker slightly. Hopefully the office will shut before my power goes out.

(Although really, I'd prefer it if my power didn't go out at all.)

I've got food. I've got blankets. My devices are all charged. I filled a thermos with hot water so I can make coffee. I'm as ready as I can be.

Hello, winter.

ETA: My office closed five minutes after I wrote this. We've all been given permission to log off and enjoy our snow day. I'm relieved because now I can turn off my computer, just in case the power goes out. My UPS is playing up and I haven't had time to install its new battery yet.

Today I am highly unimpressed by the surprise snow storm currently still raging outside my office window. This was not in the forecast! It didn't start until I was part way to work, which is why I'm staring at it from my office window and wincing at the notices from the RCMP about staying off the road due to whiteout conditions.

*sigh*

I'm hoping it's cleared off by the time I need to leave tonight. I've got various things I need to do on the way home from work, including picking up food at the vet's, and then I need to pack up the cats and take them to my aunt's. It's already looking like I'll be very late getting back from doing all that, I don't need snow making it worse.

Worse yet, I don't need snow forcing me to do it tomorrow. I need to be ready to leave for the airport at 8pm and me just getting back at 7pm, still needing to cook supper, check in on line, and finish packing will make Sel a very unhappy person.

Dear winter: You are really pushing the limits of my patience now.

At least I'm feeling semi-organised about my packing. It's not done, but I've got a lot of it figured out and sitting by the suitcase. Unfortunately that's as far as I can get for now because there are things I need tonight and tomorrow that I can't stick in the case yet. But I'm getting closer to being done and ready.

Argh, travelling in winter. It sucks so much.

I'm looking at the week's weather forecast and making sad faces. So much snow. It looks like I'll be working from home tomorrow and possibly at the end of the week as well. I'll have to make sure I get groceries in before the storm at the end of the week.

It also looks like the weather is going to prevent me hitting the cinema at the weekend. Woecakes. I'm not writing it off completely, but I'll wait on buying any tickets for anything until the morning of, when I should know how driveable the roads are.

On the up side, my back has decided to behave entirely unlike my back and *get better*. It's so weird. A really good kind of weird. Usually when my back goes like it did last week, it settles in for at least a year of constant pain and ughness that takes over my life and wrecks any fun plans I might make.

In an unusual turn of events, I feel really good right now. I haven't taken any strong painkillers since Friday and my back is feeling the best yet today. Tonight I plan to try some light exercise on my bike to see how that goes but right now I'm declaring a miracle and enjoying this.

I'd been worrying a little about how I was going to handle the flights to England next month if my back was doing its thing, but it looks like now it won't be an issue :-D

OMG, my England trip is starting to look a little insane. Redemption will be so busy (I'm so freaking excited already despite my schedule, please drag me to the bar and ply me with Diet Coke if I look too frazzled) and my diary post-con already includes two theatre trips and a big family party. Plus I intend to find time for a day of books and fancy cakes in London.

One of my colleagues remarked that I don't seem to know how to do 'relaxing vacations'. I suspect he's right :-D

I am going to be so happy when today is over. It's been a re-run of Friday, which was such a major nightmare that I abandoned my healthy supper plans and ordered pizza, hid under a quilt and spent the evening watched Grey's Anatomy. I was half-afraid that the oven would blow up if I attempted to use it.

Today is definitely a potato wedges level day of badness. It would be a pizza-level day of badness, if I didn't have some yummy salmon with teriaki sauce in my fridge from the lovely boutique grocery store. So, I shall be uncouth and have potato wedges with my salmon.

If this week continues like this then I will be the size of a house by the end and nobody will get a look-in at the food for the knitters' Christmas party at the weekend. All the bacon-wrapped scallops and yummy wings will be mine and I will kill anyone who tries to take them away.

To my UK f-listys

It sounds like you're in for another bad winter :-( So sorry. I shall try not to revel too much in my current above-zero temps and the warm rain promised for the end of the week. This is not natural. Although every day that I don't shovel is a happy day.

In the meantime, may I suggest:

1) Carry a box of non-clumping cat litter in your car. It functions like grit and can get you out of that "argh too slippery" stuck in a ditch/carpark/driveway moment.

2) Also carry a shovel. Your driveway is not the only place where you might need to dig yourself out.

3) Wear a coat. I know you're just going from the house to the car to the office car park, but if you break down or get stuck you'll want that coat.

3a) Gloves, scarf and hat should be with you for the same reason.

4) If you don't think the roads are safe and you have the option to work from home, do it. I have learned not to be proud on this.

5) When digging out your car, take care to make sure you put your snow banks in a location where you can manoeuvre the car and turn it without the nose hitting the bank because moving a snow bank sucks.

6) There is no such thing as "owning too many snow shovels". I have three sitting in my front porch (different types for different things) plus one that lives in my car boot from November to May. I also have a stiff broom in the porch for the days when it's light, powdery snow that can be swept away.

7) If you can get hold of rock salt, keep your steps, path and driveway salted. It's much less painful than slipping over.

8) Whether your favourite snow activity is playing in the snow or watching it from the sofa with a hot cup of tea, make the time to do it otherwise you'll hate snow in two days.

I have to admit, while I don't enjoy snow much (so much work!), it doesn't terrify me as much as it did two years ago. The survival tips folks here gave me for getting through a winter with my sanity intact helped and I've learned that being prepared with all the right gear is one of the most important things.

The other reason it doesn't fill me with abject horror (just mild horror) is that I am able to work from home on the days when there is just no way that I'm safe to drive or there's too much for me to shovel and I need to wait for my plough guy. I know that a lot of people can't work from home, but anyone who can doesn't need to be a brave soldier. There is nothing wrong with saying, "The roads are neither gritted, ploughed or salted. Hell no, I'm not coming in."

I'm going right off snow right now.

Today was my big trip up north to visit historyterry. I've been looking forward to it ever since I decided to come to England for Christmas. I'd treated myself to a First Class return (it wasn't that much of a splurge, only an extra 15 quid, but it was going to be lovely) and we had plans for exploring and eating and generally making merry.

Then it snowed.

As I recounted yesterday, it snowed rather more than expected. I was watching the local news last night and apparently my little corner of the county was the worst hit. Yay? The town lies in a valley so the only way to get in or out is over some very big, steep hills. My village is on top of one of those hills. Our bus last night made it up the hill, just about, but it looks like it was one of the last. All the roads out of town were impassable by 5pm and they had to set up emergency shelters for all the people stranded.

Undeterred, I still planned to go up to Manchester. Dad and I made plans for me to catch a nice, early train. We decided to set out with more than enough time for even the worst roads. I got up bright and early, pressie for Terry packed and my knitting sorted.

Dad checked the trains and discovered that the train we were aiming for had been cancelled. Never fear! We were ready so blisteringly early that we could hop out and be there for the earlier train.

Er.

Six inches. No shovels (apart from a garden spade). A dustpan. A broom. Three adults.

Yes, we really have been reduced to using a dustpan to dig out.

Despite all that and our best attempts, we could not get enough of the big drift behind the car carved away to allow us out. At one point, Dad and I were in the car with the wheels spinning, half way into the road and unable to get forwards or backwards. Getting six miles down the road to the train station? Not happening.

My train to Manchester is probably running. I just can't get to it. And it's a non-refundable ticket.

I'm feeling pretty disappointed and upset right now :-(

At least I'm not stranded in London?

Mum and Dad are out there right now trying to get some of the worst of it cleared. They sent me in because there are simply not enough implements for three people to be clearing. We really need snow shovels! We're starting to run low on a lot of things food-wise and Mum is hoping to be able to get to a store later. Dad and I just laughed at that idea. She's starting to worry that Christmas lunch might be a bit lacking in the, er, lunch department.

I think the best we'll manage to today is a trek up to the petrol station to buy some milk. I can't believe that we've had over a foot of snow in less than a week!