Winter is Officially Here!

[stlukesguild]

December 1st and we got the first real Winter Storm of the year which is expected to continue into tomorrow. THis is what I woke up to around 6:30 this morning when the pups had to go.

Our big girl, Pepper loves snow... but the little man, Raphael gets the chills. We have sweaters for both of them. Raphael really needs it and will rush to get into it when he's cold. Pepper only wants a sweater because he has one.

By 11:00 it was still coming down at a good rate. Luckily, I'm teaching from home because the car was buried. My wife had planned on having her hair done but I talked her into canceling last night before the storm shifted from rain to snow.

 

[Nufocus]

Holy macro!!.... Fresh.....
Sweet dogs!!

 

[Iain]

That looks like a nice sized yard for the dogs. Thanks for sharing. Our long-haired dog, a shih tzu, would "clog up" with snow. It was quite incredible. The snow would form on the hair like golfballs. Not the most practical dog breed.

 

[snoball]

Wow, that's a pretty good sized snow for this early, even up there.

 

[stlukesguild]

It's still coming down Sno... Snow! They are talking somewhere around 10-15" The cold air is coming out of Canada and clashed with warm, humid air coming up from the Gulf. Now that it has got going, the Lake (Erie) which is still warm will add to it as the cold air comes straight down across it. "Lake Effect Snow" usually adds a couple of inches to any given storm... but it is not uncommon to wake up to 9 inches of Lake Effect.

 

[Claude J Greengrass]

Monday I spotted the first salt truck out on Ann Arbor Rd. Today, Tuesday, about 4:50 PM we had a spectacular sunset. After a grey, cold, dull, snow shower day, just before sun down, the sky to the west cleared and sunlight caught the upper portions of the trees. I was quite surreal.

 

[snoball]

but it is not uncommon to wake up to 9 inches of Lake Effect.

That sounds like when we sometimes have to shovel 6-8" flurries here.

 

[Maybenartist]

Love those pics St Luke's.

 

[stlukesguild]

The snow has let up a bit... but it's still coming down. I have a friend who's been without power all day due to power lines coming down... either as a result of the weight of the snow or the wind blowing branched down on the lines. Here on our back porch we have a good 10" of snow on the railing:

The light refracting off of all the white allows you to take pictures long after the sun has gone down. If the clouds clear up it will be even brighter with the moon nearly full.

Looking North toward Lake Erie... maybe 3 miles away... you can see the dark blue-gray... almost black clouds... near the center of the picture beneath the electrical wires... that continue to dump snow over the city.

The neighbor's security light... triggered by motion... continues to come on due to the wind and falling snow.

 

[brianvds]

Here in the better hemisphere it is of course summer now, and thus far, I am very relieved that we are getting good rain, with lots of cloudy, cool days instead of the murderous heat we usually have to suffer through.

 

[stlukesguild]

We haven't had many snow storms like this in a few years. When I woke up this morning the storm had gone, the sky had cleared, and the sun shone with a blinding light off the foot of snow:

Raphael could finally make his way through the snow to do his "duty"... but still hauled ass to get back into the warm house as soon as he'd finished:

Now I can see just what sort of job I'm looking at in order to dig out the car and shovel the drive.

My former studio-mate and fellow art teacher, who lives maybe 15 minutes (by car) west of me got just as much snow:

Others got even worse. The director of the school district's art education program lives just 15 minutes south-east on higher ground in the bordering town of Cleveland Heights. He got 17 inches! A friend of mine from my art school days lives even closer in the town of Parma. They lost power for nearly the entire day on top of 12".

We haven't faced a long power outage in the Winter since Hurricane Sandy and that was due mostly to stupid planning on part of the utilities companies. They sent most of their repair workers to New York and New Jersey to help with the damage wrought by the storm. Sandy continued inland and we were hit with continual winds of 70 miles per hour and even higher gusts resulting in some half million in the area losing power. After 2 and half days, the cold in the house became unbearable and we had to move in for about 4 days with my Mother-in-Law.

 

[OliveOyl]

Well, it should all arrive here in New England soon enough. Hope you stay warm over there in old O-HI-O and don't mind if I glom onto your snow thread for a minute (as she barrels ahead anyway without waiting for a reply)...

Sure, snow is a pretty thing, but looks ain’t every thing. I have some horrible snow pictures...ice-covered angels, drifts covering cars, smoke on the water, blue icy steps. In bad snowstorms, the drifts blow up against the front door and we can’t get out.

And yes, it even blows a bunch of flakes inside through the cracks. For those keeping track...back then, we had a yellow door on a green house but now it's a gray door on a purple house. (Got to change it up to keep the old girl spiffy and fresh.) Anyway, we have to go down into the basement where the short little door frame, behind the ancient wooden double doors, starts 2 feet off the floor level. Obviously, this is just an awkward and silly, old-timey kind of home entry. We remove the glass in the door frame. Then we shovel through the door “hole” until we can actually open the door wide enough to squeeze through. Then the shoveling begins from this back door in order to create a path around the side yard and ending at the front door so that we can emerge. (And for what?) While we’ve arrived here at our door destiny and are now pooped and sweating inside our fat snowsuit looking clothing...we might as well now go ahead and shovel the walkway and driveway which is thankfully, flat and short.

By now, The Olds that live behind this door are done with The Effing Snow.

Bah humbug.

 

[Artyczar]

SLG, wow, those images are spectacular! What a beautiful winter wonderland, complete with woof-woofs! Just my kind of place.

 

[stlukesguild]

Olive... we get some serious drifts as well. When I was a teen we had some spectacular blizzards and ended up with drifts all the way over my bedroom window on the second floor. When Winter arrives we tape off the front door and hand a heavy curtain tapestry over it and enter the house through the side door half-way down to the basement so we can avoid the direct drafts. I'm lucky to have a short drive as well. Unfortunately, my car sits incredibly low. I'm seriously going to look at the clearance before buying my next car... maybe something like my friend's Jeep.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about snow. As a teacher, I love snow days more than the students do... but the snow has to reach a certain depth or the temps fall to an absolutely frigid level before we get the day off. As you no doubt know far too well, digging out your car and driveway before work sucks to high heaven. I can somewhat understand all the retirees heading south... but why Flori-duh?

 

[Artyczar]

No snow here yet, but it's 38 today.