Sunday, February 10, 2013

Everybody Talks About It, Part Two

I've spent the first part of my morning... read as "first cup"... looking at Nemo pictures and burning incense in thanks to The Deity At Hand that I'm not in that part of the country.  Horror stories abound... about 650,000 people are without power in the Northeast and seven people are dead.

 The WX here on The High Plains o' NM has calmed down a bit since yesterday... literally, in that our winds are a manageable/livable 25 mph and there's no visible dust in the clear blue sky.  I'm thankful for that.

 Gettin' back to snow... here's a blast from our past:

It Could be Worse, Part Deux

Up too late again. Back in a few, but until then, there’s…

Today’s Pic: Keeping with the “It could be worse” theme… Yesterday’s pic was taken at the old homestead in Perinton, NY. Today’s pic was taken in my new, post-marriage-termination quarters, a rather nice, very new apartment (I was the first tenant) in Webster, NY.
Me (on the phone, waiting for the other end to pick up): …dum-da-dum-da…
Him: EDS, this is (my boss)!
Me: Hey, it’s Buck. I won’t be in today, I’m snowed in.
Him: Snowed in? You can’t get out? Really?
Me: Really. There’s a four foot drift right outside my garage door.
Him: Really?
Me: Yeah, really. Check your mail in a minute or four. I’ll send you a picture.

And this was the pic I sent. It was very late in the day when the apartment complex finally got a front-end loader and a dump truck in to remove the snow… March 3, 1999.

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3 comments:

  1. I remember that storm well. It snowed 2-3" per hour, and cranked up a notch right around morning drive time. Many people got stuck on the expressways, or arrived at work late to find out it was closed and turn around and go home... or they arrived at work but then could not get home and ended up sleeping overnight at work. A 20-30 minute drive took 3 hours that day, if you didn't get stuck. Several people I work with ended up stuck at work overnight. A bit of a hardship because there are no food facilities here, just a couple of vending machines which got cleaned out fast. And no restaurants in walking distance in that kind of weather. Most of the restaurants were not even open because none of the staff could get to work that day. We dug out from that one, 24 inches in total, then a couple days later we got clobbered with 18 more inches. Interesting to note that we had quite a mild winter that year up until March. And we're having a mild winter again this year, so who knows what March will bring. Historically the biggest storms we have had were in March.
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  2. Another vignette from that storm: Two days later (a Friday night), some friends and I did Happy Hour at the Dinosaur BBQ downtown. We had a few beers, ate dinner and then went on our respective ways. The city streets were pretty clear by that time, but not all...

    I left a traffic light from a dead stop and proceeded to hit one of the on-ramps to 490...only to realize (a) the on-ramp was closed, but not blocked and (b) there was about six feet worth of snow drifted on the ramp. I was going about 35 mph when I plowed (literally) into the mess. It was about an hour and a half until the tow truck arrived to pull me out. I was pretty damned red-faced (and cold), lemmee tell ya... :-)
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    My point is we KNOW snow and I'm glad I don't have to deal with it very much any longer.  Just sayin'.
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4 comments:

  1. tim11 February, 2013 12:06

    Yeah, that was an epic storm, and as Laurie pointed out we got slammed again on Sat. Which was actually a good thing it happened on a weekend sine most people didn’t have to go to work. Me and my Brother -in Law went snow boarding that Sat., it was freaking fantastic.

    Anyways, in the morning on the Thursday like an idiot I went to work even after hearing the ‘State of Emergency’ because…we get snow here, it’s no big deal. As soon as I got on the highway I knew I made mistake. But the thing was I couldn’t get off since every off ramp was block by stuck cars. Luckily I had a four wheel drive truck, ‘96 Ford Ranger, with great knobby tires. By the time I got out to Victor, from Brighton, there was nobody on the highway but me and it was a total whiteout. I just keep looking to my right for the guardrail and kept myself ten feet to the left it till I found the exit ramp, which was also clogged with cars. Made it to work though.

    Had to the long way home, which was actually sunny by then, since the highways were closed down. Cars, trucks were stuck everywhere. Even for upstate NY, it was a S.T.O.R.M. to write home about. We still talk about it.

    My sister and bother in law, who lived in the city, opened up their house to people who got stuck, even some city workers whose plow truck got stuck!

    Quick story, a man who my sister let park his car in their driveway told them he’d be back, he was going to walk to work and be back later. He did. Now fast forward about five years…me, my sister and Bro in Law are skiing/snow boarding in Keystone, Colorado and stopped to eat lunch after a few runs down the mountain. We’re sitting there relaxing, eating and hear a young man and his son talking about Rochester…yada, yada…it’s the same dude from the blizzard! Too funny.

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  2. Buck11 February, 2013 13:57

    That was an epic storm, indeed. I don't remember any other storm in Ra-cha-cha the way I remember THAT one.

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  3. tim11 February, 2013 14:31

    The one in '93 was intense...temps drooped to single digits, wind was wicked, we got about two ft. overnight. That one had lightening too, carzy stuff.

    One in '75, I think, when I was a kid. When you see earth moving, heavy machinery coming down the street you know it's bad.

    We haven't had a bad one in a while...we're due, which makes me nervous. But it's also what makes us Rochestarians. We are not whimps as far as the snow, cold and ice.

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  4. Buck11 February, 2013 15:14

    I missed both the '75 and '93 storms, seein' as how I didn't move to the Fair City until '94. But as far as snow goes: enough is ENOUGH.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.

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