A day in the life of Rami...

[Rami]

Good morning,

Several of you in our beloved basement sent me "good luck" PMs or e-mails yesterday regarding the storm they were forecasting. Thus far, we are just fine. No power loss yet, and I have the day off from work. I may have tomorrow off as well, so I will get a chance to do some CFS2 this evening. During the day, my wife and I will be playing board games today with our kids, and if conditions are pleasant tomorrow during the cleanup, I will take them sledding.

So for our other huddled masses in the Northeast affected by all this, how are y'all doing?

Right now, I'm going to cook breakfast...

[Blood_Hawk23]

Well it was my four days to work. As some of you know I work 12hr nites at one of the Poland Spings water plants here in Maine. They shut all three down from 6am today to 6am tomarrow. So I lose out on a day. I'll go in Thrusday nite and get some of it back

The wind is crazy. Se are getting gusts over 50 mph. The lights have only flickered once. Though if it goes out it might be days before we get it back. They have reported 9" of snow so far. Thats since 4am. They expect it to jump as we get 3 to 4 inches per hour for atleast the next 6 to 8 hours. total amouts between 20"-26".

I here the Boston area is looking at the 30" region. Stay safe and warm Rami. Looks like we'll have some digging out to do.

They are saying we are looking at another storm for Thursday nite. Fun, Fun.

Till Later,
John

[Rami]

Well it was my four days to work. As some of you know I work 12hr nites at one of the Poland Spings water plants here in Maine. They shut all three down from 6am today to 6am tomarrow. So I lose out on a day. I'll go in Thrusday nite and get some of it back

The wind is crazy. Se are getting gusts over 50 mph. The lights have only flickered once. Though if it goes out it might be days before we get it back. They have reported 9" of snow so far. That's since 4am. They expect it to jump as we get 3 to 4 inches per hour for at least the next 6 to 8 hours. total amounts between 20"-26."

I here the Boston area is looking at the 30" region. Stay safe and warm Rami. Looks like we'll have some digging out to do.

They are saying we are looking at another storm for Thursday nite. Fun, Fun.

Till Later,
John

John,

I heard that the Thursday night / Friday storm was only supposed to be 1-3 inches. However, another storm could be in the works for Monday...

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I sympathize with you guys up north. Here in SE Virginia we has just a dusting of snow - maybe a quarter of an inch (6 or 7 mm). It's mostly melted now as temps have risen above the freezing point.

[_486_Col_Wolf]

I left the warm(ish) weather of Central VA Thurs morning to go to my best friends 50th Bday party on Long Island on Sat night. We got 2-3 inches of snow there Fri night but when we heard what was coming we loaded up the trunk with bagels, bialeys and those great Italian bakery cookies and got the hell outta town on Sun morning!

[Rami]

Hey guys.

We ended up thus far getting between about 19 and 22 inches of snow.

[Blood_Hawk23]

Hey guys.

We ended up thus far getting between about 19 and 22 inches of snow.

Well as you can see I still have power. It is still very crazy out there. The snow amounts are hard to judge right now. Its just too windy to tell. I have 4' drifts in places. In others only 10". Its not over yet.

[PRB]

Stay safe up there. I was born and raised in the Great State of Maine, and still have many siblings and extended family there. My brother lives very close to the coast...

[Captain Kurt]

As long as the power stays on you all should be okay. If not I hope you have a decent wood stove.

Here in the Colorado mountains we just finished a cold snap getting down to single digits ( Fahrenheit ) but suddenly this week we got warm while you are getting pounded. It's been in the upper 60's and sunny the last 3 days. Weird.

[SPman]

We hit 107 yesterday - and 111 last weekend! No rain for 2 1/2 months now, and the water tanks getting a bit low...........

I dream of snow...........I used to Snowboard back in the '90s

Rami - you'll CFS2 if you have power.........otherwise it's candles and early to bed.........

[Blood_Hawk23]

They called this the "Blizzard of 2015". Well It looks like Monday we'll get hit again. So far it looks like this one could be as big. Not to mention Thursday-Friday we might get another 6"-8".

Almost the whole month of January has be 20 deg F or lower. Monday morning on the way home it was -6 deg F. The week prior it was -13 deg F. Its been very cold.

Got to love Maine in the winter.

[kelticheart]

All of my sympathy and best wishes to all of you. I know what New England blizzards mean, not speaking of Midwest ones! Even Long Island can have brutal snow storms!

Watch out for heavy shovelling, which may lead to serious health problems. Stay cosy and warm , well tucked indoor, hoping you all have what Captain Kurt wisely suggests: "a decent wood burning stove". I have two in my house, one on each floor, together with a methane gas burning enclosed stove in each room, yet the heat quality coming from firewood is an entirely other world, compared to gas. As soon as the gas stove goes off, one starts feeling the temperature dropping within half an hour, while the heat produced by the wood stove lingers on for a few hours after the stove went off.
Much cheaper also, I cut my heating bills down to two thirds less, including the cost of buying 2.5 to 3 metric tons of firewood each September. When I light the bigger stove in the kitchen, all gas burners remain off and they usually kick in around 5-5:30 a.m, only to go off again when I light up first thing an hour later, when I get up.
In Northern Italy we have to start heating our houses around the half of October up to the end of April, at times even beginning of May. Up in the mountains, the Alps and even the lower Appennini, cold weather starts much earlier and doesn't warm up until the end of May.

Up here, we usually got five to eight snowstorms each winter in the last 10-15 years, averaging 12" to a foot fall when not more, but this winter is being reasonably cold so far with only one small fall right after Christmas day, which melted away in the next few days. Last year we couldn't even call it winter, temperatures never dropped below +50 F or +10 C and it rained forever. Very strange.

Two years ago I had purchased an electric snowthrower, tired of practising the snow shovel sport for two or three months in a row each winter. No more heavy snowfalls ever since! I strongly suggest you this sort of magic spell, buy one yourself, it may work!

Good luck to everybody involved!

Cheers!
KH

[Rami]

Good morning,

Here are some pics for you. I know the area around Brant Rock very well...I do some volunteer work at Historical Societies over the summer in that area. So sad to see this...

[Blood_Hawk23]

I'll get some pics once the battery on the camera is charged. It looks like we have about 20". Give or take 2". I have both doorways dug out. Also started a path to the propane tank. The sun is warm. Its rather nice.

Later today I'll get plowed out. Till then its time for a cup of tea.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Don't try doing too much all at once... pace yourself man.

[Rami]

Hey guys,

Spent four hours shoveling myself and three neighbors out...five minutes after I finish, the plow driver comes, and in the process of plowing out the street, buries two-thirds of our driveways once again.

[Wayland]

See, that's what you get by being too hasty. If you had just waited till after he had gone by, you wouldn't be faced with this grevious situation.

Been there, done that, and it really is aggravating. Better luck next snowstorm.

Steve

[Blood_Hawk23]

I feel your pain. Really. They like to come back and wing the bank back. in the process they leave you with 2' banks at the end of the driveway. Not kool man.

[kelticheart]

Hey guys,

Spent four hours shoveling myself and three neighbors out...five minutes after I finish, the plow driver comes, and in the process of plowing out the street, buries two-thirds of our driveways once again.

Well, I see that the plow driver dumb idiot disease strikes all over the world! You were at my house Rami, plow drivers always build a wall of snow against the entrance of my front yard.

They could lift the plow for just a few inches to limit the side dump, plow and then come back to push the rest forward without accumulating on the side, but they'll be damned if they did it! Just to prove a point, I once tried it driving a neighbour's farm tractor equipped with a plow. It only takes a few minutes more and it's not a difficult manoeuvre, but they could care less. Rush the job and get the dough for it quick, it's the name of the game.

If words could kill, I would have massacred already a bunch of them!

The bad news is that once they have plowed it, it's not powdery soft snow anymore, but packed, iced and as heavy as concrete!

More solidarity to all of you, is it over yet?

Cheers!
KH

[Rami]

Hey guys,

I am posting some pics of Boston and my area right now, trying to make the best of a bad day. I ended up having to take my brother back to his halfway house in East Boston tonight. He made a very stupid decision to leave Boston in the middle of a snowstorm, and try to get back into the city using public transportation. As you no doubt have heard, the MBTA (commuter rail, subway, buses) have been in a state of sheer havoc along with everything else around here, and they shut down late in the afternoon.

I tried calling his house manager to arrange for him to stay with me for the night, even though I was furious with him. However, the house manager said he had to be back before 11pm, or he was kicked out. With the homeless situation being the way it is, I was left without options.

It took me almost three hours to make the journey, more than double the usual. I left at 5:05pm and got back at 8:00pm. As the Beatles would say, "A day in the Life."

I uploaded a couple of quick vids to Youtube about the journey, as well as some pics.

[Rami]

Here are some more pics...

[Rami]

Hey guys,

And the last video...

[dmaloof]

That's what i see here and I live in West Roxbury MA, 5 miles from the city. I had to walk to grocery store to get stuff than drive as slippery.

[Rami]

Good morning,

Here is a perfect caption of how most Bostonians and New Englanders feel right now. In the last two weeks or so, we've gotten between 70 and 80 inches of snow.

[Rami]

Hey,

Just got tapped by a two-car crash which happened in front of me. My mother needed to get to her doctor's appointment...luckily, my car was not heavily damaged, just cosmetic. The saga continues...