Prairie View

Friday, February 22, 2013

Things Not to Like About a Snow Day

--About midday, a huge flock of blackbirds discovered our bird seed.  They completely dominated the feeders for the rest of the day and our regular customers were driven off.

--We didn't get our newspaper or mail delivery.

--James got stuck here when he came to do chores.

--Lowell, Judy, and Joseph were on their way home yesterday from Costa Rica where their whole family has spent time recently on the occasion of weddings in the family.  They got as far as Houston, and learned that their flight to Wichita was canceled.  Small wonder.  The worst thing is that they couldn't find room on any flights till two days later.  They're on standby for a flight this morning, and I'm praying that by some miracle that will open up for them.  Meanwhile Christy and Hannah are barricaded in the house, with the driveway completely impassable, so going to pick them up at the airport last night would have been impossible for them anyway.  There's a tractor on the premises, which Lowell could utilize in a hurry to open the drive, but Hannah and Christy--not so much.

--Shane had a long workday--1:30 AM to 10:30 PM--scraping parking lots clean for businesses in town, and Dorcas and Tristan had a long day at home without him.

--Dad couldn't find anyone to clear his drive.  He'll have to cancel his radiation treatment again today if he can't arrange it.

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Dad told me he woke up early, but stayed in bed till 4:00. Then he got up and went out to scrape the slab in front of the garage.  He was outside during the thunder snow.  Check out this footage of that event. After the slab was cleared he came back inside to wait till it was time to make breakfast.  After breakfast he scraped the slab again.  This time there was more snow than the first time.  He also cleared a walking path to the street.  At Linda's house, he shoveled his way in from the road to her front door. Not too bad for an 85-year-old under cancer treatment.

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We've got a second day off from school today.  I'm sure it's obvious that the night  school that was to commence at 2:30 AM today did not happen either.  Some of the township roads have not been plowed, and many of the ones that have are one-lane only.  Besides, many vehicles are still stuck inside garages or buried in snow in yards and driveways.  We measured 16 inches in the most likely spot we could find--the middle of the front yard, away from drifts or places where the snow had been carved away by the wind.

Because a lot of snow fell during the day yesterday, efforts to clear the roads were only minimally effective.  Things should go much faster today, but there's another storm developing for Sunday night and Monday.  so far I  haven't seen any chances higher than 50%, so it may not amount to much.

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I remember once measuring 11 inches since we moved here to the farm in 1998, but I can't recall quite this much snow in one storm for a number of decades.  I'm sure the weather sites and the media will be full of data to confirm or invalidate my memory.

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