Well, it finally hit here. Several inches of snow, 32 degrees, and closed schools. Tomorrow even colder.

Did your town fall apart oli?

Here in Upstate New York we are all laughing at what we are reading and seeing on the News.

The whole East Coast shut down. The Government Closed ! ! !

People screaming about the snow that fell or is going to come!

The real problem is that most of theses folks just aren't use to getting that much snow. When we hear 12-14 inches up here we just figure that we have to get up a bit earlier and clean things out before heading to work or school.

On a normal winter day we get 2-3 inches per 12 hour shift.
You get and clean what fell overnight and then hit it again if things came down during the day.

On a good year with lots of snow we can get 175 inches of snow in the Syracuse area and maybe twice that in the tug hill area with all the lake effect snow and all.

But we are use to it and we have what we need to deal with it.
Like here.... we have our own personal snow plow, 6 snow blowers between work and the house. And a dozen 5 gal. gas cans a couple of dozens of good snow shovels.
We put them by every door and in every car and truck we own. Then we have a few tons of ice melt and rock salt. Which helps with the ice and helps melt the snow as it first falls. Pails by each door and garage openings or ramps.

City and Town and County plows start real early here and the guys who run them love to work and collect overtime pay!

Everybody has at least one snow brush and an ice scraper in their cars and of course gals and gals of windshield washer fluid to clean your windshield from all the salt they put on the roads.

We have had a great winter so far this year. Very little if any snow in Oct, Nov and December. Some snow started to fall just a week or so before Xmas. But in three days we got hit with almost 48 inches of snow right after. Then the first two weeks of January added 25 inches more. Now it is just some here and some there. We even had a week of 40 degree weather that cleared most of the snow away, except for the snow piles that most years takes till April or May to melt some years.

Most of the nice big storms have gone South of us or North of us. You folks have gotten the last few that we normally get, so we are very happy to share it with you all!

See up here we ski mobile and snow ski....and just make the best of it. Schools close when the wind chill gets so many degrees below zero or maybe if we get those big storms that can drop 2-3 inches an hour. How do you think that feels when you plow and shovel and you turn right back around and redo it, because you can't allow it to get ahead of you.

Big storms up here have been 36 -48 inches in a 24 hour period.
You get up one morning and the snow is up to your chest before you take the first shovel full! You open the garage door and no light come thru until the door is almost 2/3 the way open!!
Thank the lord it doesn't happen every day. Some pictures in years past show people skiing or ski mobiling near the tops of telephone poles after the snow drifted in spots.

After a while you wonder where you are going to put the snow. You are so sick of it that you almost cry when the weather people tell you that there is more on the way. That is why so many people up here head South for the winter.

Anyway it has been an easy winter for us this year. Thank God, but we still have several weeks left, and who know what it will bring.

Regard to you all
Fathersson

Just about. Some people here ask "What is that stuff?"

The record was broken at the Atlantic City Airport - 48" for the winter. Old record 46". I'm sure Fatherson is laughing at that, but down in South Jersey they know how to react to a Nor'easter of rain, but not snow. Coming from downstate NY I know how to react to a weekly snow storm, but we had two within 5 days. That even had me on edge. They don't have enough plows here. The people don't know how to drive in snow and the people that do plow don't know how to do it effectively. Please bring on the sun and ....I'll take 50 degrees.

It's still snowing. We're expecting 9 inches. Of course, overnight it will freeze. Schools closed including universities.

And I'm sure those in Alaska or Siberia are laughing at him for thinking it's a competition.

I'd be happy if it would get above freezing.

They promised us another bout of snow but nothing yet. Plenty of sleety rain but no snow. Still damn cold though!

competition? Come on now, where did I say anything like that?
I was just pointing out how different it is here and how people down there are not use to things.

"Your mind is going soft with all that shoveling you've been doing"

I remember some of the people from way up North who use to tell us about how they had to plug their cars in at night so the electric heaters could keep the cars from freezing up at night.

and their heat bills cost them as much as their house payments during the winter months- Ouch!

My sister-in-law called this morning laughing so hard because she couldn't believe that they were closing the schools and everything else by the way because they MIGHT get some snow today. They are in Peach Tree City GA.

Last time we visited Texas, they had a bad ice storm and they were using sand to put on the roads and ramps. People were all off the roads.

People just aren't use to things and they just don't change their driving habits. It always takes the first couple of bad winter days to get people thinking about what they must do each year.

One thing for sure is...people can't be driving around on old worn out tires. Come fall if you don't have a good tread on them you better get new ones or stay off the roads. When the leaves start to fall and you get rain up here they can be very slick to drive on too. They clog up dains and sewers and flood the roads. So it reminds people to start to think about winter.

One problem is the cost of new tires have gone thru the roof these last couple of seasons and the people just don't have the extra money to replace them. Like the old man says. You can't risk YOUR LIFE or the cost of a new car trying to get the last little bit out of set of worn tires.

And for Pete sake, slow down. Just because the car will drive thru this crap doesn't mean they can stop you on a dime when you put on the brakes. So many people feel so safe with big 4 wheel drive SUV and trucks. They forget that it doesn't mean it will 4 wheel stop.

It's the same at my Daughter's house in Newport News, VA they use sand on the roads . They got 5/6 inches a few weeks ago while we were there and the roads were awful. They don't even plow the neighborhoods. Not enough equipment.

It's 35, the snow is melting, and it'll be 50 tomorrow. Next week it'll be in the 20s again and snow next weekend. My wife, however, will by then be on her way to Hawaii. Thuis is sooooo unfair!

How come your wife gets to go to Hawaii and you don't? You don't like Hawaii?


TIS

I don't travel and I have no interest in doing so. Besides, I have classes to teach.

Here it is Saturday (as I write this), and already the local weather forecasters are predicting 3"-6" of additional snow this coming Monday night into Tuesday.



This is all getting a bit tiresome, to say the least.

On the "plus" side (if you can call it that), I have Monday off from teaching my class (Presidents' Day holiday), so I won't have to commute.

Looks like it's back to the local grocery stores to stock up on provisions!

Signor V.

February came in like a lamb but it is going out like a lion. As they say!

I thought that saying was for March? Either way, I hope it all freaking ends SOON.

I don't know maybe it is for March but it fits huh?

Just started raining..

As much snow we've been getting the past few weeks we are going to have snow on the ground till f'n Summer.

I'm just tired of it. The worst part is, it's still only mid-February .

Nope, the good news is that there's only 12 days of February left! That means we're more than halfway!

I don't mind March so much, as you usually get one or two decent days. Then by the end of April, we'll open the pool, and summer's here!

But at least we are gaining a minute of daylight each day.

That's why you should move to Texas.

Hey crybaby who has a place in Florida....try living in South Jersey. We had more snow than youse Bronx people.

Point taken, MC. This summer the raw clams and cold beers in Margate are on me!

Freezing fog and frost this morning but it actually got out quite nice. A bit of blue sky and some very (albeit weak) sunshine!!

We got an inch or two of snow in North Central Illinois last night...look out Mig - its coming your way!

yeah I heard we are suppose to get another winter storm tomorrow. I don't know how much snow we are suppose to get though.