Relative Something

*this* John W. Hays' take on things and experiences

Posts Tagged ‘blizzard

Lucky Surprise

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Well, well, well… nature didn’t have it in for me after all. That predicted snowstorm I referenced in yesterday’s post got upgraded several times, deservedly so, and smacked us hard with wicked wind gusts driving the falling snow horizontally, making it near impossible to tell whether the accumulation was actually from the clouds overhead or from flakes blowing in from South Dakota.

The deck railing doesn’t seem to collect any snow, but during last night’s final bedtime walk for Delilah, we discovered somewhere between 6 and 8 inches already on the ground, making the trek a bit of a challenge.

The silver lining surprise about it all is that we received hours and hours of significant rain prior to the snow. The rain completely cleaned the driveway!

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My big concern about the old glazed tire tracks becoming the base layer for today’s plowing didn’t come to pass. Hooray! Disaster averted.

Sort of.

Now we have the aftermath of the blizzard to contend with. There is an icy crust over everything from the mailbox to the chicken coop due to the rain that froze, and I’ve got a lot of plowing and shoveling to do.

A little over an hour after the precipitation had turned to snow, Delilah and I were traipsing along the main perimeter trail through the woods and I noticed the view ahead was much different than the view behind us.

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I took pictures of both scenes.

The frosted forest sure is beautiful to look at.

I sure am glad we had the lucky surprise of a clean start before the rain turned to snow.

I sure wish the shoveling was already done this morning.

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Written by johnwhays

December 24, 2020 at 7:00 am

October Flowers

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It’s All Hallow’s Eve and we have still got some flowers blooming. Who’da thunk it?

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Today is the 25th anniversary of a blizzard that hit the Twin Cities in 1991. One of my memories of that event is of our next-door neighbor trying to navigate his car through the mess of deep snow and ice on the road and his not being able to get into his uncleared driveway. There was still a MN Twins flag attached to his car, a remnant of the 2nd World Series championship the team had just accomplished days before.

It seemed so surreal to me. Baseball. Halloween. Blizzard. It was rather odd.

It was actually morning of the next day and I was standing in our driveway, almost finished with shoveling the 2-feet of snow we had received. We mutually agreed he should park his car in our driveway until he got his cleared.

That storm now serves as a benchmark for me to always be aware that winter could arrive all at once, in one big storm that changes from a warm fall afternoon to snow that lasts a season, all in a matter of a few days. And it could happen in October.

Which is similar to the benchmark I now use for spring snowstorms. The first year we lived here, in May of 2013, we received 18 inches of snow. Who’da thunk it?

It could happen.

But it doesn’t look like we will have any worries of snow in October this year. More likely, we’ll have November flowers.

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Written by johnwhays

October 31, 2016 at 6:00 am

Changing States

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I was reworking some old images, in search of inspiration for a Words on Images creation, and I cropped this picture of the river up at Wilkus’ cabin. I like it a lot, but apparently not as a background for words. It will remain unembellished.

The water goes from liquid, to flakey, to solid ice. Depending on which state in the US you reference, there may be just a little snow, or there may be 3 feet that arrived in a day. We got about an inch overnight last night. It was coming down at a fair rate when Delilah and I headed out for her last jaunt before bed.

Our snow cover seems like such a paltry amount after seeing the totals from the blizzard out east. Speaking of water in both liquid and frozen states, I shudder to think what it must be like to suffer a flood from the ocean when temperatures are freezing and snow is blowing. Those coastal regions got whacked by the significant storm surge combined with a full-moon high tide.

I guess they won’t need to shovel it.

I’ve never had to deal with a hurricane coming off the ocean, but I would think a hurricane-winter-storm would about the worst possible conglomeration.

I do not want to change states with New Jersey.

And speaking of changing states, Cyndie reports her visit to Florida has not been all about lounging around the pool. The weather there has been chilly. Our next warm spell in the days ahead will bring us up near where their low temps have been dropping to.

Maybe I’ll be able to take a selfie while sunbathing by the barn this coming weekend. I can send it to Cyndie with a note, “Having a wonderful time. Bet you wish you were here!”

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Written by johnwhays

January 26, 2016 at 7:00 am