Is anyone else enjoying being snowed in?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

At first I was, but now I am getting a little itchy to go somewhere. May run down the street and pick up some Chinese carry out. Should pick up a movie as well, nothing on TV. Hope the roads are good tomorrow because I said I would go into work.

Nope. I've been stuck attending probably the only two events in town not cancelled today, both of which were 20-30 mile round trip white knuckle death rides.

LOL! (laughing at "white knuckle", not you) Seriously? Were they that important?

I think the roads are still better than a couple weeks ago when we had all that damn ice.

At least you can drive somewhat on snow (especially if you drive a Jeep) but on ice, I don't care if you're the worlds best driver, there's only so much you can do.

I had to be to work today at 11, left the house shortly after 10 knowing that it would take at least double the normal time of 15 minutes to get there. Good thing I did because it took almost 40 minutes. The drive home took 45 minutes and the ruts in the unplowed roads almost pulled me off the roads a couple of times, but I live out in the country.

I'm hoping beyond hope that they are at least a little clearer tomorrow because I have to be back to work at 6:00 AM. But I haven't left the confines of my house since I got home this afternoon. My husband, however, loves going out to see how bad the roads are. Must be a guy thing...LOL

I finished a book entitled "It Takes a Worried Man" by Brendan Halpin It is a memoir of a husband whose wife has stage 4 breast cancer. It is a very funny but poignant book.

I really enjoy seeing how much I can get through with my snow thrower. It was challenging, but got 3 driveways done on my street. Will be more later this week aparently too.
Hang in there.

I'm on call so I am getting a kick out of the snow, NOT!

We had a birthday party to attend this afternoon, so I actually did get out for a little while.

Since we were already out on the road anyhow, we dropped by the grocery store. Picked up some snacks and essentials, rented some movies, and now we're definitely in for the rest of the night.

It's a nightmare!!! Especially since I'm snowed in at WORK!

@ Holly "My husband, however, loves going out to see how bad the roads are. Must be a guy thing...LOL"
Wow...it IS a guy thing, and I thought it was just me.

I'm lovin' this. We built a snowman earlier (really had to work at it, snow wasn't packing so well!), and now we're watching the Blue Jackets game. Don't know how or why, but Buckeye didn't black it out tonight, but it's fine by me.

The more, the better.

The first event was the weekly Adoptathon by Planned Pethood, where we picked up a couple of Affenpinschers we are now fostering and introduced a rescue dog named Mistletoe to prospective adoptive owners.

Then I had to take two of my teenagers to a retreat with a theater group they belong to, ToDAY Productions. So both of these fall into the category of "had to go out," despite my preference for staying home and riding out the storm.

Well, you pulled me in Mike. I had never heard of an Affenpinscher before, and since I clicked on your link, I wish it had stayed that way. Those are the ugliest damn dogs I have ever seen. :)

Of course then I clicked on the mistletoe link, and take my hat off to you sir. I will be making a nominal donation to planned-pethood asap. We have adopted a dog from them before, and they do great work.

@justareviewer
I wouldn't mind if he still had his 4 wheel drive, but he's doing this in a HONDA! Granted, in the 6+ years we've had it, it's not once gotten stuck "yet", but I just don't understand his obsession with going out every couple of hours "just for fun" LOL

And on that note, sometime between 10 last night and now, it FINALLY stopped snowing! I'm going to say we got about 9-10 inches out here, but it could be a little more.

There is NOTHING enjoyable about Ohio Winters.

Oh, I don't know...sledding, snowball fights, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, etc. Those are some enjoyable things. We'll be doing a few of those today.

Once the roads get cleared off, I don't mind the snow at all.

Sorry-should have clarified -nothing enjoyable for Seniors. Only time the better half and I like to see snow is Christmas Eve.

Wow...it IS a guy thing

YEP, It's a GUY THING. So ladies...Stay off the roads and out of our way! We like to play in the snow, not pulling the cars out of the nearest snow banks by you poor helpless lasses. ;)

Totally sexist I know!

ROFL @ KraZyKat! I honestly wouldn't have minded the snow and crappy roads if I were driving something other than a rear wheel drive van with no extra weight in the back! Still trying to find some old, flat tractor weights or something that I can put back there without having to deal with something rolling around or something that takes up too much room. I've tried and tried to convince hubby to set up camp back there, but he just won't do it for some reason LOL

Instead of 'hard' weights, get yourself a few hundred pounds of bagged sand or rock salt. They can be distributed evenly over the rear wheels and if you do ever get stuck, you've got some 'bagged traction' to throw under the wheels.

They'll also stay in place much better - opposed the the 'tractor weights' sliding each and every time you hit the brakes or accelerate hard.

Get ready for "Snow - Part II" tomorrow. The fun never stops.

Thanks GraphicsGuy, never thought about the sand or rock salt. I just remember when my brother and sister in law used to have a rear wheel drive van he'd take the weights off the front of one of the tractors that wasn't being used during the winter and put them in the back of her van and she never had a problem.

As for the salt part, would like water softener salt work also?

It'd work fine for weight, but I'm thinking water softener crystals are a bit big for a fast melting of ice or snow if needed.

I actually have an old chevy truck with 4 wheel drive, so I'll probably never really get snowed in as long as I keep it, but I just don't want to leave the house this year, which is unusual for me. It's just becoming one of those 'relentless' winters, where you just get dug out/recovered from the last bitterly cold arctic blast -or snow -or ice storm, and then-BAM! It hits you again. Those become very depressing after a few months.

I would say I was hardly snowed in. I do have a 4×4 vehicle though. But think I would have even managed to get around in my Focus. Snow doesn't bother me...its all the rain, sleet, 1/2" ice that takes down power lines that I can do without.

It's just becoming one of those 'relentless' winters, where you just get dug out/recovered from the last bitterly cold arctic blast -or snow -or ice storm, and then-BAM! It hits you again. Those become very depressing after a few months.

Well, one of the alternatives is it dumps lots of snow, melts, dumps more snow, melts, etc. etc. and thank you but no let's not do that again.

Whenever i bitch about the winter weather around here, I always remember it'll probably never be as bad as this:

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Avis=TO&Dato=20030126&Kategori=NEWS08&Lopenr=101260077&Ref=AR

again in my lifetime.

Oh what fond memories. I was 5 and had a total blast that year! LOL!

Never forgot THE WHITE BUFFALO because of that. I was working afternoon shift at the former DEVilbiss Company, got off feeling sicker than a dog. Wife and kids were in bed, I made some coffee, curled up on the couch, and turned on the old 'channel 100' box (the town's only pay station for recent movies at the time). THE WHITE BUFFALO with Charles Bronson was about to come on, and I started to feel worse. I woke up several hours later, hurting in every joint-had just come doen with full-blown Hong Kong Flu. Anyone remember that crap? I remembered it had been raining earlier, looked out the window, saw a drift over my head, groaned, left my wife a note, and went to bed, good thing I'd just went to the store a few days before-I was delerious with fever for several days. It took me years before I ever got to see that damned movie in its entirety.

Snow and fun in the same sentence?

That, I am pretty sure, constitues an oxymoron.

And if it doesn't, my sentiments on the matter certainly have been expresed.

How funny is it that in the Blade story linked by McCaskey about the Blizzard of 78 that they says this

"A combined official snowfall of just over 13 inches paralyzed emergency services, shut down highways, stranded motorists in a zero-visibility nightmare, and plunged much of the state into darkness and cold. Nearly 30,000 area households served by Toledo Edison Co. were reported without power."

The storm we got this past weekend, according the Channel 13 new tonight, put 12 inches of snow on the ground. Granted, we didn't have the winds, but it's still strange to me to think of 13 inches of snow paralyzing the area. I honestly think if we were to get a similar storm in this day and age, it wouldn't have the same type of repercussions, what do you all think?

I think drifts were the big culprit back then and I believe they got it all at once.

But no, it would not shut us down like that - after 30 years we have come a long way. Well, when we have the man power working that is.

Regarding the blizzard of 78.....

I don't know if that number, 12 inches, of snow is accurate.
Regardless of whether it is or it isn't, I assure you, if the same thing were to happen today in NW Ohio, we would be no better off. We had drifts as high as our 3 story home. Things happened so fast everything came to a fast and furious shut down. I was 18 at the time and loved it. I was also young enough not to appreciate the tragedies that were taking place. A bread delivery man I knew became stranded in his truck and died. My Father got 3 miles in 3 hours and finally became stranded. I could go on and on and on but I won't bore you all. Memories fade with time but I remember the blizzard of 78 as if it were yesterday.

Trust me, the repercussions would be the same, if not worse. If you are really interested in it, just Google "Blizzard of 1978 in Ohio". Here's just one short glimpse....

http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/swio/pages/content/1978_blizzard.htm

The reason I think it might be even worse is because there are many more people and cars on the road than there was in 1978......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1978

http://dept.kent.edu/ksutop_story/archive_98/980121_blizzard_of_78_shmid.html

"However, according to Thomas Schmidlin, "With our comforts of cars, electricity, and heating, we may actually be more vulnerable to these blizzards than Ohioans of the nineteenth century, who were more independent and could tolerate disruptions of a few days."

I laughingly reiterate......yes, we WOULD be shut down just as bad today. Anyone who says otherwise either did not live through it or has no clear memories of it.

I can't say what is was like inside the city during the blizzrd, it may have been less severe, I just don't know.

I was out in Fulton County is a small town. Believe me, you had to be there to truly comprehend it.

I was 13 and I do remember it, but being a kid I mostly remember the "fun" stuff about it. Things like digging tunnels through the drifts and stuff like that. We lived out in the country with basically no protection from the wind because all around us were empty fields. I remember not having electricity and dad putting heavy quilts up to block off areas of the house so that we could keep warm with kerosene heaters. I remember that dad realized what was going on and filled the bathtub with water so that we could at least flush the toilet because in the country, without electric, you can't flush...LOL! Thankfully the bathroom was off the kitchen, which was one of the rooms that had a kerosene heater, so that water never froze.

I also remember going out in the tractor with dad to dig out some of the elderly neighbors who didn't have a tractor with a front loader. He made sure he'd stop in and check on them and make sure they were OK. I was lucky considering that no one I knew, or knew of, lost their lives from the storm. But I do agree with what has been said. We've all grown dependent on things that wouldn't work for a very long time if a storm like this came along and knocked out power the way it did back then. Makes me even more thankful for my wood burner!

Oh yeah...and since I was 18, I could go to the 2 bars in town.....back and forth. Back then, they had 3.2 beer for those 18-20.....lol

JSH-
What your Dad did really exemplifies one of the greatest things about that storm and that is people pulling together and helping others, many of them complete strangers. It was awesome in that respect.

The 12 inch number does sound off. We had a storm last Feb or perhaps the Feb before where we must have had 1-2 feet and it was an inconvenience but nothing of the magnitude of what I've heard about the 1978 storm.

My in-laws were telling me how they could look out their second story windows and not see the close line (6' or 7'?)

Then again they might be exaggerating, but I had the impression from all of the stories the snow must have been at least 4-5' and not 12 inches.

I was, ahem, 33 at the time of the Blizzard of '78. I remember driving to BG about five/six days later down Route 25. They had the biggest drifts imaginable from winds across the open fields. One split level house had a snowmobile parked up on the roof on the high side. You could see the tracks where he drove it right up the drift onto the roof.

On Hill avenue going east just past Reynolds we saw a guy trying to start his car. It was parked on top of another car! Hill had only one lane plowed. It looked from all the cars abandoned along the sides of the road that people had gotten out and abandoned their vehicles some time during the blizzard. The cars got covered in snow. Then one guy, unable to see the parked car somehow drove up on top of it. He got it started but we don't know if he got it off by driving it off. The front wheels were on the roof of the car below it.

Our above ground pool completely disappeared under the drifts. The windows on the west side of the house were covered to the top with drifts. We shoveled out our windows.

The Village of Holland plowed for 24+hrs straight. You could drive anywhere within the Village limits. But it didnt matter much because you could not get six inches onto a county or township road for three days. Nothing moved in or out of the Village of Holland for three straight days unless it was by snowmobile. An emergency snowmobile rely was organized. The old Westhaven drug store got opened by one pharmacist mid day on day two. I think he was brought in by snowplow. Village and County police fielded calls for critical medicine prescriptions and they were deliverd by volunteers on snowmobiles.

This was a storm for which no one was or could have been quite fully prepared.

I really think the blizzard of 78 is just one of those things you actually had to live through to really appreciate just how it was.
Kind of like Katrina or the Xenia, OH (and other ares) tornados of 74. One can read everything there is to read and see any pictures but it's just one of those forces of Mother Nature that can only be "lived through" to fully comprehend.

I do not mean that discounts anyone elses opinion or thoughts on the matter. They are as relevant as mine. Actually, since reading the initial thread about the blizzard my mind can't stop racing and remembering so many details. Mostly, fun and positive elements of it but of course some of the tragedies as well.

OK, I'm going to get my mind on a tropical paradise now.......lol.
Maybe I'll apply for the "Best job in the world" that's in the news this morning.......

I remember the TV news was asking for 4×4 owners to report to Toledo Hospital to transport nurses from home to work.
I arrived to find NW Ohio's largest truck rally!

I, too, was surprised at the number '12' in the Blade story for snowfall total. I don't feel like searching for other Blade stories from then right now, but the figure that always stayed in my mind for snowfall inches from that storm was 24-25. I guarantee you it was not '12'. Perhaps that was an 'early' Blade story that did have have complete totals?

In any event, for the younger set on here, this area has NEVER seen anything like it since and anyone who thinks we wouldn't be paralyzed for days now because of 'improved snow-removal techniques' or some such reasoning doesn't get it.

As has been said by others, you really had to be there to appreciate the totality of it.

Holland, in Jan. '78 I was 24 years old and living in Holland at the 'Stairs' apartment complex on McCord Rd., beside the fire station.

The night before I was coming home from work, driving west on Dorr Street around where Inverness is, and plowed through a mountain of water from all the rain that had fallen. The plugs, etc. under my dist. cap on my '77 Camero got soaked and couldn't get started until a policeman came along who had a towel and helped me dry them off. I'll never forget him saying I had about an hour to get home and then all that rain was turning into a blizzard.

I got started, stopped somewhere for a quick beer, and by the time I got to my apartment it was snowing like all hell. Next morning woke up and could not see out the windows for all the drifting.

I just know that the day the storm was predicted I couldn't comprehend what a "blizzard" truly meant. I don't think any one did. There wasn't anything in anyones memory to give meaning or reference. I'll never forget the predictive TV weather maps. The weather maps displayed on TV by the different weathermen had so many "L"'s (maybe 25 or more) to denote low pressure systems that it was incomprehensible to the average person. A record ( unbroken as of yet) low pressure was set by that storm. If I ever see a weather map with that many "L"'s again I'll know that snow armageddon is about to happen and I'll immediately hunker down for a long, long wait.

Jumping in on the reminiscing.... I was just finishing up my graduate degree at UT (then TU) when that blizzard buried my VW Bug so deep I couldn't find it for days. For the past 30 years I have cited The Blizzard of '78 as my reason for moving from Ohio to California the day after graduation. It seems to me that Toledo was closed down for a couple days, not just because of impassable roads but massive power outages? Let's not do that again.... I can't afford California anymore!