Bring on the snow damnit!!!
 

You can tell that a possible snowstorm is coming (and I say "possible" b/c you just never know these days). I was at the grocery store earlier...supplies of milk and toilet paper were depleted (and the bread supplies probably were too).

The numbers keep going up...5-8 inches possible as of 10 minutes ago. And I'm prepared...food on hand, along with toilet paper, boots, gloves, and plenty of gas in Putt-putt. No need to worry about shoveling and salting...that's why I live in an apartment. I'll probably get up a tad earlier tomorrow, since SEPTA starts acting up the minute a rain drop falls. But given how I feel about my job (and the fact that I'm supposed to leave early tomorrow anyway for a doctor's appointment), I'll get there when I get there.

I know that the snow is a bitch for many...shoveling, salting, trying to commute to and from work, what to do with the kids if schools are closed...but I love the snow. We only got one damned snow last year...4 inches...and it disappeared in a day. The last good storm I saw was 3 years ago in DC...12 inches of snow in January, then 19 more in February...I was snowed in a total of 4 days. :)

I'll probably go out and make a few snow angels in the field out back. Then I'll head up to the State Liquor Store to see if they have any Pennsylvania Dutch Egg Nog in stock...that's pretty good stuff...and it has a hell of a kick too (20% alcohol, IIRC).

So anyway, you peeps in Philadelphia take it easy out there tomorrow, and if you see a man in black with a silly grin on his face roaming Center City or Torresdale tomorrow, just wave. :)

My opinon on snow is, if it's going to be cold it had better snow.

Is Philly shut down?

This storm is tracking all wrong, I promised my Canadian sister-in-law significant snow after Christmas, when they visit from the left coast. We would've kept that snow around till spring... don't waste this storm people.

Not quite...some schools and businesses are still open from what I've seen. My company is officially closed, but unless they send security personnel to drag me out of here, I'm staying until 2:15. I don't get paid for snow days...although, I could claim unemployment for today...nah.

This much snow is pretty much within what the town has historically be able to handle, although it's a bit unusual to have this much this early in the year; big snows are more typical for Jan-Feb. All the schools are closed, though.

There's gonna be somewhere between 5-9 inches on the ground depending where you are in the area...I'm guessing about six or seven here in the northwest suburbs around the Valley Forge area.

They are dismissing the rural schools early here. It used to take a significant snowfall to shut 'em down back in the day.

...uphill, both ways... :-)

...after working my shift in the mine.

No snow days for me either ...
 

I'm just kicking back, waiting for the ambulance to come get me ...

to take me TO WORK, gang!! I'ts "my" ambulance.

(I've always wanted to get that ride into work from the national guard, but so far our own crew has been able to get around in every storm)

Ya know what's even more fun? Ice storms. I used to live in Nashville TN where the snow never stayed long (the ground was generally too warm. But, we would get cold snaps that would cause the top 1/2 inch of water everywhere (roads, trees, powerlines) to freeze in place. Havoc everywhere. Of course, this is also the same state that closed schools on the threat of snow as well, so take that as you will.

20 miles each way, right? :)

They told us to go home at 12. Stopped at the bank, the liquor store, and the grocery store...got home just after 2.

Read this shit though...

The company I temp at has two buildings--5th & Market (operations...where I'm at) and 16th & Market (corporate). When I arrived at work this morning, there was an e-mail saying that both buildings were closed. About half the staff had arrived at work, so many stayed to do some odds and sods work. My whole plan was just to do some extra work, since I'm swamped right now.

Apparently, the vice president of operations was pissed about the closing...b/c he had not been informed of it. He then said that staying was voluntary but that the office would remain open. He left a short time later.

(Look buddy...HR is trying to avoid lawsuits as is corporate. If they say we're closed, you shut the fuck up and play ball...fucking piece of shit.)

So, another e-mail comes out...1601 Market is closed, but 400 Market is open.

What?

WHAT?!

Do they realize how incredibly bad that looks? Okay, so the corporate bigwigs who can't get out of their mansions in South Jersey and Chester County can stay home, but us operations peons who live in the city and the inner suburbs are being asked to stay? As one employee sarcastically put it, "I guess that snow up at 16th Street is really bad if they're not opening."

At 11:30, another e-mail...400 is voluntarily open. 20 minutes later, I get a call from my co-worker...they're shutting us down...go home. Approved by the managers who were still there. We're supposed to get paid for the whole day, so fuck it...I'm leaving.

I'm now comfortably at the crib. I have my bottle of egg nog and some food in my belly, so I'm set.

another uphill both ways story:
the first year that I came to school here (University of Minnesota Twin Cities) was one of the worst winters in state history (winter of '95-'96). The entire state shut down. Except for the U. At 7.30 in the morning on a Tuesday (when the temp was down near -30F and the windchill put the temp down at -70F) the President of the U stated that the U would remain open for normal business and that students were required to go to class.

And then he didn't show up for work the rest of the week.

Stupid jerk.

This is what we're getting right now here in Arkansas.

It rains, and then it freezes. Then, there's this thick coating of ice over everything. The bad thing about this is that we have trees everywhere, and the branches extend out over the powerlines nearly everywhere you look. So, whenever this happens, the branches all break and fall onto the power lines, and then the whole damned town is without electricity. Last year it was exceptionally bad, and I was without power for a week! We eventually had to go and get a hotel room while the power company tried to repair all the downed power lines.

I took some pictures of the ice yesterday. I hope you guys don't mind me showing them. :) I'm sure it looks much more spectacular in Philadephia, though.

http://comp.uark.edu/~dmorton/images/misc/ice0006.jpg
http://comp.uark.edu/~dmorton/images/misc/ice0010.jpg

Heh...

Right now, in Astoria Oregon, there's a fair deal of sunny blue sky outside. Some assorted clouds floating around, but nothing threatening or particularly cold-looking. Unless, of course, you consider 50 degrees 'cold'.

MN has a dusting, but we need more!
I remember one great icy storm as a kid living in Mechanicsburg, PA- the roads were totally coated with ice. No school! We could ice skate around the block, hills and all. This is in the prerollerblade 70s so it struck us as particularly amazingly cool. yea! enjoy!

That first pic was very cool juju...I'm trying to find a good pic from Philadelphia right now.

The cool thing is that <i>all</i> the trees in the area look like ones in the first pic. They're all literally shining with ice. It's quite beautiful. The second pic is a bit blurry, but I included it anyway, since it shows how heavy the ice makes the tree branches.

Here's another pic.

welcome to...worse off over here in santa cruz where there is NO SNOW EVER!

and even last year when i went back to VA there was none there. i was thoroughly disappointed, and i will be this year if it happens again. i miss snow. and so does paul.

One thing I Truly enjoy about snow ...
 

Is the number of people who are snowbound and react to that by gettin' liquored up and posting to the cellar ... does wonders for the board!

(thinking fondly of the possibility of getting liquored up, but I can never count on confiscating anything decent from a new admission ...)

Re: One thing I Truly enjoy about snow ...
 

Damnit! I forgot about my Penn Dutch Egg Nog...I think I'll have some now! :)

Wolf, would it help if I tried to channel your spirit and have a drink for you?

I don't think I've ever posted to the Cellar while liquored up...if I did, my posts would start looking like this.

Sorry Cam. :)

Thanks for the psychic-contact drunkenness.

One good thing about being at work tonight ...

The hospital bought us pizza.

Fancy pizza too. :)

And I got plenty o' coffee too.

Hehe that's okay, one of the problems of having your computer sit directly underneath your bed. I'm staying off the cellar tonight though, one more weekend to drink, then it's studying for the next 2 weeks :(

Anyways two years ago on november first my corner of Montana got hit with a hell of a blizzard and ice storm. The snow itself snapped power poles like toothpicks. The entire county was out of power for at least 2 days and nearly all the county roads were blocked. I ended up stuck in town for 2 days. My house was out of power for a week but many places were out for 2 or 3 weeks. Though it sucked due to all the heating complications it caused(lots of elderly people), it was actually kind of a nice couple days when I was stuck in town. No TV and no lights made for an interesting experience, had a lot of interesting conversations in that time. Also if you ever have a choice go with propane heat, or at least a propane oven. God only knows how we would have survived without it.

We got a nice little snow this afternoon here in Philadelphia. I think we got a couple of inches, mainly on the grass and sidewalks. I was out driving in it most of the afternoon...Putt-putt handles pretty well in the snow...nothing like front-wheel drive.

The funniest thing I saw was at my local Wawa. It had just began to snow around 2ish, and there was absolutely no milk in the coolers. When I went to Super Fresh (one of our local grocery stores), there were a lot of people in there, but plenty of stuff on the shelves.

What is it that makes people run to the store before a snowstorm to grab bread, milk, and toilet paper? Granted, one is pretty much a necessity, but the former 2 really aren't. Why these 3 items in general?

Great question. (slang keeps a straight face while explaining the conspiracy)

Its actually a Pavlovian response created by an agreement with the American Dairy Council, the Strohmann bread cartel, Mr Whipple and the meteorology dept of every news broadcast in the country. I found myself caught up in the hypnotic effect of this years ago. While walking out the back door to make the 3 item purchase, I slipped on the snow building up on the stairs. It was only then that the spell was broken and I could think clearly enough to realize that I stockpile this stuff anyway, and have absolutely no need to go out and buy the remaining stock from Wawa, Acorn, Dandy market, etc.

It was at that exact moment, looking up from the ground after klunking my head, that I understood the relationship between this phenomenon and the fact that Americans actually vote for Democrats. There was a secret technology at work. I just had to expose it. So, I did a study.

I first had to establish the medium that the hypnotic messages were transmitted. I isolated the weather guy's forecast from the nightly news, the front page of the evening paper, and recorded a clip from the local radio station. Though the message wasnt readily understood while going through these as normal, I found some rather disturbing hidden images and sounds when running the tapes backwards and looking at the front page in the mirror.

The image was Mr Whipple eating bread and drinking milk. Completely hidden from the normal perception, until you view it in the mirror.

The TV forecast when run at normal speed appeared to have an intermittent clicking. When slowed down there were very brief but progressive picures of Mr Whipple eating and drinking the same as in the paper but moving.

And the radio recording when played backwards very slowly had the message that drinking milk, eating bread and wiping would make your penis/breasts bigger, whichever was more appealing to the listener I'm guessing.

So, after close examination it seems that there is a conspiracy at work to compell the people to "buy 3 items when it snows" by the use of cleverly hidden subliminal messages.. Although I have not conducted the same experiment with a Democratic political ad, I'm assuming the same method is being used.

How else could people be hypnotized into voting for Rendell?

Slang, put down the bong...step away from your guns...take your Thorazine...it's for your own good.

(peeks cautiously out the window) Hey.....can you see me?

Wouldn't you like to know? :)

(looks over right shoulder, then looks over left shoulder) You can tell me, you can tell me.....your real name is Sycamore Poindexter.....isnt it!!?....isnt it!!? :eek:

Yes...and we have noticed that you haven't been using your credit cards like most Americans. Therefore, you are a person of interest™.

We are the borg...resistance is futile.

You dont look like this do you?

Afraid not, though she has ditched space to become a high school teacher in Boston.

Jerri Ryan has very nicely shaped eyes. I thought she was off the air after leaving Star Trek. It might be time for me to buy another TV.

It's a good show actually...the only show that I watch on Fox (other than occasional viewings of The Simpsons).

If she was my teacher, I would go to class every single day.

We apparently have a mean storm coming that has only started here in Philadelphia. They were showing pictures from Baltimore on MSNBC, and it looks like they're getting an ass-whippin right now. We got a bit of snow from another storm yesterday (about 1-3"), and the original forecast for this coming storm was 6-9 inches in the city. As of last night, that was changed to 10-20". Now it's been bumped up to 14-22". And it's 10 degrees at the moment with a brisk 13mph wind.

Rho and I did our grocery shopping on Friday...got enough essentials to coast through the later part of this week.

MSNBC was talking to Amber Rupinta from NBC 10 a little while ago...they were doing a live shot in New Castle, DE...I miss you in the morning, Amber.

Rho is not happy with me on the issue of going to work tomorrow. And it's a simple issue: See what it looks like outside, see if SEPTA is running decently, then go from there. (Manny, Moe & Jack don't take many days off.) I'm not going to risk my life or anything, but if I can make it in, then I'm going. I'd like a snow day and all, but I like $$$ too.

A pic from the Poquessing Middle School in nearby Feasterville:

http://msdelta.net/~sycamore/cellar/snowpic.gif

In looking out my window along the street, it's almost covered...hopefully, people aren't acting too stupid out there.

Hoooo-wheee are we getting snow in the Delaware Valley!

Now, I SHOULD be in my toasty warm house, playing with my toasty warm Playstation2.

What am I doing instead?

Working. The ambulance crew came and got me in the jeep. (I rode in the front seat, before you ask.) So I'm in my nice toasty warm office, online on my nice toasty warm computer, making a nice toasty warm time-and-a-half, waiting for the nutsickles to come in the front door.

I don't expect there to be a lot of visitors tonight ;)

I went up the street to the store about 2...didn't have to, just wanted to get a few goodies.

There was little ground clearance around Putt-putt when I went out on the parking lot, so at the time, there was about 3-5 inches on the ground. My street is covered in snow...and it's an uphill trek to the store. Putt-putt didn't do too bad though...front-wheel drive helps.

The store wasn't too bad...plenty of the standard supplies on hand. The main thing I saw that they were out of--most Coke products.

We have some idiot kids in the neighborhood that have 4-wheelers and motorized scooters...there are 2 fairly big parks in our neighborhood...use those, you little bastards.

I haven't been out since, but the snow is really piling up on my balcony...I'd say we have about 10-12 inches now. 12 degrees at NE Airport, with a 16 MPH wind.

If it's this bad when I wake up tomorrow (and apparently, it's supposed to get worse), then fuck it...I ain't going. However, I will take Putt-putt out for some snow donuts.

Good thing that school's out tomorrow anyway (for Presidents Day), or else I imagine tomorrow would be an even bigger mess than it's already gonna be.

A ton of people are stranded at Philadelphia International Airport. The airlines can't/won't do anything for the people, and those hotels out there are really expensive. So, the airport is handing out blankets and pillows to people stranded there...very cool.

You ain't goin' anywhere.

You're probably right Shepps...the city is probably not going to start serious plowing until tomorrow afternoon. And I'm not going to break my neck trying to walk 6 blocks to the bus stop tomorrow morning...you should see my street right now.

Fuck it...I'm staying home.

They just changed the possible snow amounts again: 22-32 inches. If we get over 30.6, it will top the Blizzard of 1996--the biggest snowstorm on record in Philadelphia. And this isn't even technically a blizzard...yet.

The winds are coming ... blizzard status likely to be reached overnight.

30.7 inches is the record, according to NBC 10...my bad.

The winds are supposed to be strong in this area...almost 30mph. However, from what they were saying, winds must be at 35mph, sustained for 3 hours...that's considered a blizzard.

I just looked out my window...I haven't seen the 84 bus come down Red Lion Road since this afternoon. I can't distinguish between the curb and the street very well, nor have I heard a car all night.

Hopefully, Torresdale Hospital has enough volunteers to get their staff in...it's the only level 1 trauma center in the area.

I've had NBC 10 on pretty much all day...and they've been doing these remotes all over the area: Manayunk, Cherry Hill, New Castle, Fairless Hills. And while I'm all about having fun in the snow, I've seen some stupid shit on TV today.

For example, during one of the remote reports in Cherry Hill, some moron is laying out in the middle of Rt. 70, making a snow angel. Apparently, a Cherry Hill cop saw the guy on TV, found him, and gave him a warning.

Then, they were doing a remote from Fairless Hills (at Lincoln Hwy. and Oxford Valley Rd.). Joe Vasquez is interviewing these guys on 4-wheelers, and they're talking about going slow and being safe. Then, after he talks to them, they speed off, doing fishtails as they make their way onto Lincoln Hwy.

Fucking idiots...go to a park or something!

I saw a surprising number of people (other than snowplows) out on the roads today, both this afternoon when I went into work, and coming home. Many of them were folks with older rear-wheel drive cars that just should have stayed home. But I suppose the lure of stale pretzels, cigarettes, and bread & milk at the WaWa was too much for them.

We were keeping the ambulance runs to a minimum tonight ... true emergencies only. Anyone in a relatively safe setting (police stations and hospitals) will just have to sit tight until the roads are cleared. However, as I explained to an ER staff member at another hospital who was concerned about her patient's place in our batting order ... "mental patients are NOT like pregnant women. They don't all blow in the snow ... I don't anticiptate there being too many people ahead of you once the rig's back on the road."

Our big surprise for the night was that people actually showed up for visiting hours.

I do wish I had a snowmobile. I could have gotten to and from work tonight and had fun doing it. Of course, I don't have any reasonable place to keep it (the living room in my apartment is not big enough for my furniture, much less a snowmobile). Someday, though ...

me ... yet again ...

(one of the advantages/problems with my work schedule is that I usually stay up VERY late (3am is my usual bedtime) and as a consequence I catch up on my posting all at once sometimes.)

I'm just listening to the winds (gusting 17-25mph according to the weather channel) outside ... it sounds very much like my apartment is being sandblasted. I'm very glad I'm not out in this right now. I, for one, do not ENJOY being sandblasted.

The other thing that's causing me concern is that I'm hearing the cedar tree outside my window creaking and swaying entirely too much. I hope it's still there in the morning. I LIKE that tree a lot. (there's a stand of trees just behind my apt. and we've been losing cedars over the last couple of winters. They're just falling over. Before I know it i'm going to have a clear view into the yuppie mansion-ettes (starting at $500K) that are behind my complex.

Good morning peeps!

Yeah, I'm staying put today. In looking out on the patio, my rough estimation is about 24 inches or so of snow. In looking out my bedroom window, onto the parking lot, cars are buried about 2/3 of the way up their doors. (Mine doesn't look too bad, but then again, I took my car out yesterday afternoon.)

19 degrees at NE Airport...winds from the NE at 33mph.

We were marching my very over-due sister-in-law around in the snow at yesterday's sledding party. This should be a great opportunity to put those Bradley classes to work, by having one at home.

Tell me if this makes sense...

Big Ed declared a state of emergency in Pennsylvania. No one on the roads except for "essential personnel" (hospital workers and such). But yet, SEPTA is trying to run all its bus routes. I know SEPTA is important and all for trying to get people around, but essential? At this point, the only place you should have to go is a hospital...so no, SEPTA is not essential today. So, on behalf of residents in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, I want to thank SEPTA for completely fucking wasting our tax money by trying to operate today.

I might venture out later to clear the car off (for the fourth time) and start her up...maybe make some snow angels.

Another interesting note...all during the coverage, they keep mentioning the "Governor of Delaware"..."the Governor of Delaware issued a stern warning to those considering driving." Not once was her name mentioned, at least that I heard on NBC 10.

Her name is Ruth Ann Minner...she's been governor since 2000...just in case they all forgot.

The noon news on channel 3 posted a nice little chart, telling various towns and cities when the would be out of the snowline. They happily proclaimed that the snow would STOP ... around 1230.

Well, dammit, it's 1530 hrs now, and I do seem to see white flakes continuing to fall out of the sky. It's cold and wet, so I'm assuming it's NOT god's dandruff. (if we are made in god's image, and WE have dandruff, so does god QED. Of course, the supreme being probably has access to much better hair care products)

I spent the better part of the last hour attempting to unearth my car. As I slogged my way across the parking lot I could see most of the vehicle exposed. I made the mistake of thinking "hey, that's not so bad" before I was close enough to actually inspect the situation.

The rear of the car was mostly exposed, and the plow guys did a VERY nice job of not plowing me in. In fact, they cleared the snow to within THREE INCHES of my rear bumper.

Then I saw the front. :eek:

Up to the end of the front doors, my car was encased in a MASSIVE drift ... three to four feet high ... continued up to the roof!

I had to dig my way to the driver's side door, made all the more difficult by the lame-ass parkjob of some idiot neighbor with a volvo who parked illegallly next to me. (I use the end space in storms since it's usually the easiest to bust out of). I had about an inch of clearance on either side of the shovel blade. Trust me ... I shovelled a lot closer to his car than mine.

I dont' have a lot of patience for this kind of nonsense. I shovelled out enough to get the driver's door open ... fired her up, blasted out of the space. (Automatic Traction Control RULES peeps).

Then I cleared the snow off the front and back windows.

I'm ready to rock ...

Of course, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I cleared a little bit more of the snow away from the parking space, put the Red Baron back into it and out of it a couple of times to make sure that I can get it out when I need to. I'm not driving until I have to. (which will be tomorrow, most likely)

The company jeep is on it's way to pick me up.

You had that problem too, eh Wolf?

I went outside about 1:30 to try and clean off the car. Granted, I said my car didn't look bad...but that was only the back end.

The entire front of Putt-putt was completely buried in snow (a good deal of that most likely from the snowblowers cleaning off the sidewalk)...it was covered in snow up the windshield, and both doors were snowed over. The snow behind the car was about 2 feet deep.

So, I grabbed a broom and started sweeping it away. My neighbor was also out there shoveling out his van, and he and his family were nice enough to shovel out the back end.

My other neighbors are morons. Because a few of the spots are being used to pile up snow, two of them in my building decided to park in areas that are not normally parking spots, blocking several of us in.

I finally got Putt-putt free of the parking space, and decided (like a dummy) to go for a short drive. So, I headed up to the grocery store. The folks that live along Red Lion Road (on my block) were very cool; they actually shoveled off most of the snow on the street...I'm sure the ambulance drivers en route to Torresdale Hospital will appreciate it.

On the other side of East Keswick Rd. was another story. Morons were AGAIN shoveling snow into the street...fucking idiots.

The grocery store didn't have any soda, so I drove down to Wawa on Knights Rd. Knights Rd. was almost empty...packed with snow. The Wawa is at the bottom of a large hill, but it was easy down and easy up in first and second gear. There is a neighborhood behind Wawa that is built at the top of a 45-degree incline, on narrow streets...they won't be getting out for another day or two.

When I got back, my parking spot was waiting for me, so I put the car back there and called it a day.

It was kind of cool driving...almost no one on the road, except for a bunch of 4-wheel drive vehicles who thought they owned the neighborhood. Apparently, we're supposed to get a bit more snow overnight, so I'm concerned for Rho trying to take the Turnpike to work in the morning. Better that than the local roads, I guess.

At this point, I have every intention of getting up early tomorrow, then hiking up to Academy Rd. to catch the bus. I haven't seen the buses running through my neighborhood today, but the Route 1 bus runs over nothing but snow emergency routes, so things should be okay tomorrow...I hope.

Congratulations on being lucky enough to still have your space waiting for you when you got back from the store. The complex I lived in before this one, it would have been filled within seconds of clearing it and leaving it ... sometimes before you were able to pull your car back in, which had been left running in the middle of the lot. (there are numerous reasons i'm glad I'm no longer in that place. that would be one of them)

Truth be told, I kinda planned it.

I was very concerned about losing the spot; however, I noticed that other people were either getting ready to leave or had just left. I figured at best, people were going to the grocery store or something like that. So, I tried to waste as little time as possible in heading out. I figured that the spot I dug out (which would really only fit Putt-putt, given that the spot had snow fill-in from the last couple of snowstorms) would be gone. But sure enough...there it was. Whoohoo!

Hey folk, how about some pictures of all this? :)

I was too tired after all the shoveling to take pictures. :p I also didn't want to risk dropping the $300 digital camera in the snow.

Besides, it's not particularly photogenic snow. There's just a damn lot of it. I don't have the advantage of having an undersized cute pooch to photograph. I also lack "Don't Spill the Beans" pants.

Dang it, I need pictures of snow, I'm going crazy, we got about 2 inches here today but it's not enough, where is my 2 feet of snow. :)

Look you lazy bastard, you want some pictures? Here...fetch:

CBS-3 (Philadelphia)

NBC 10 (Philadelphia)

NBC 4 (Washington, DC)

The Weather Channel

MSNBC

lol, thanks syc, didn't want to strain myself, my fingers are getting tired. ;)

Now that the joy and childlike wonder of the snow has passed (you've seen one snow angel, you've seen 'em all) it's starting to irk me.

The snow's interference in the NUMEROUS things I have to get done is pushing me to the breaking point.

Not to mention the excreble job that the plow-guy at work has done ... there is still at least a foot and a half of snow in the parking lot and on the driveway. Apparently he showed up once during the storm and hasn't been seen since. I suspect that nothing more has been done about it because our fearless leaders were too chicken to make it in today. (The CEO is in Spain, the Administrator and the CFO were nowhere to be seen).

You can't get through the stuff in a four wheel drive jeep! (Our crew got stuck tonight, just trying to turn around to head back out the driveway ... a vehicle with less clearance than the jeep ain't making it.

They better do something about it tomorrow. :angry:

I hear you. Fuck this snow. I'm one of five people stupid enough to come in today. I still can't get the car into the garage, which means I have more shoveling to do. Snow sucks.

Small storm
 

This snow was a pain, but nothing compared to '96. Only 2 feet on my driveway.

I had the Miata out each day.

Yesterday I had to go into the city and was reminded yet again of Philadelphia's total incompetence. Suburban streets, while snow covered, at least showed evidence of having a snowplow go by once in a while. City streets outside Center City proper -- despite the snow having been stopped for 8 hours -- were largely unplowed. Spring Garden was plowed (unlike in the last storm) but Fairmount was a mess. The numbered streets were barely passable (plowed only by the passage of buses and other vehicles), the non-arterial cross streets impassable. There WAS a streets department vehicle out. A SURVEY vehicle. I guess the city had to look and see what a lousy job they were doing.

By some miracle, I was able to find a parking spot and forced myself in there. By another miracle, whoever had vacated it didn't come back and break every window in my car. But still, city snow removal sucks.

1) Stop crying Mary.
2) Pull up your skirt.