Not the White x-mess I was looking for...
Dec. 28th, 2004 01:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jim_pI thought it would be nice to nip on down to Cape Cod to spend Christmas with Tam at her familial home. Christmas dinner (roast lamb) and snuggling were nice... then the storm blew in.
I had planned to come out during the day on Christmas and head back home the following evening. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. About the time I was starting to think of heading home, we stuck our noses out the door and thought better of it... the snow was coming down pretty hard and I decided that I'd rather brave the elements during daylight. So I decided to stay another night. We built a fire in the fireplace, then discovered the limits of that 1959-era hearth. Whenever the wind picked up, the chimney would backdraft and send a big puff of smoke into the house. We tried to keep the fire hot to keep the draw going, but when the fire would die back the smoke would come in again. I keep telling Tam she needs to get a real chimney guy to look at that thing already... After a while we bank the coals, shut the glass doors, and wait for it to die down. We settle down to watch various stuff on TV...
I had hoped to get an early start on Monday, but those hopes were dashed when we saw just how much snow had fallen. The Cape bore the brunt of the storm; official totals were 14-18 inches. Since "nobody" is out on the Cape in the wintertime, though, our situation warranted scant mention on the various newscasts. Depending on drifting, we had 8-16 inches of snow to clear away to get my car out so I could go back home. Since snow like this virtually never falls on the Cape, we were totally unprepared - the only equipment we had were two garden spades. Tam dug a narrow path down the driveway to the road to see what the snow-clearance situation was there, while I dug my car out. After an hour and a half of this fun, Tam has a foot-path cleared down the driveway and I have a car-sized section cleared from the car to the path. Clearly a better approach was needed. Then I remembered that Tam's sister (a) lived in the same town, and (b) was married to a local handyman with (c) a large family. I asked Tam if perhaps Ernie might know of someone with a plow. We repaired to the house and she made some phone calls. Eventually we managed to snag Ernie's brother-in-law, who would come over with his plow.
Good thing, too: not only was the driveway impassible, but the road we were on was too. See, the road that the house is on is a private road and not maintained by the town. Since it's mainly summer houses, "nobody" was out there who would need to have the road cleared, so nobody had tended to it. The plow guy we got first had to plow out the section from the town road to our house, then had to plow out the driveway. When all was said and done he didn't expect to be paid for the job (family, y'know) but I persuaded him to take $40 "Buy yourself dinner!". It was worth several times that for us not to have to dig out the driveway and road with the equivalent of soup ladles...
Oh, and then there were the rabbits. I'd fed the rabbits just before I left on Christmas Day, figuring I'd be back maybe 36 hours later. It was getting on 48 hours with no sign of my being able to get out anytime soon, so I called my trusty pet-sitter (who happened to still have a key to my place). I was willing to pay her a good bonus to swing by and take care of the bunns, which she did (bless her!)
It wasn't until nearly sunset that I was finally able to start making my way home. The main highway on the Cape had not been consistently plowed, so it was about 35mph for the first couple of hours. Since the storm's impact had lessened the closer I got to home, I made progressively better time. After making a grocery stop on the way, I finally managed to pull into home at about 9PM. I spoiled the bunns with one of their favorite treats (Wasa crispbread).
One good thing about all this is that I was able to get lots of great photos of snow-covered trees and scenery out on the Cape. Prior to this trip I was despairing because I didn't have any good artwork to print on my (belated) holiday cards, but one of the pictures I took filled the bill nicely. I just printed out a bunch, and various friends will be getting theirs in the next week or so.
I had planned to come out during the day on Christmas and head back home the following evening. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. About the time I was starting to think of heading home, we stuck our noses out the door and thought better of it... the snow was coming down pretty hard and I decided that I'd rather brave the elements during daylight. So I decided to stay another night. We built a fire in the fireplace, then discovered the limits of that 1959-era hearth. Whenever the wind picked up, the chimney would backdraft and send a big puff of smoke into the house. We tried to keep the fire hot to keep the draw going, but when the fire would die back the smoke would come in again. I keep telling Tam she needs to get a real chimney guy to look at that thing already... After a while we bank the coals, shut the glass doors, and wait for it to die down. We settle down to watch various stuff on TV...
I had hoped to get an early start on Monday, but those hopes were dashed when we saw just how much snow had fallen. The Cape bore the brunt of the storm; official totals were 14-18 inches. Since "nobody" is out on the Cape in the wintertime, though, our situation warranted scant mention on the various newscasts. Depending on drifting, we had 8-16 inches of snow to clear away to get my car out so I could go back home. Since snow like this virtually never falls on the Cape, we were totally unprepared - the only equipment we had were two garden spades. Tam dug a narrow path down the driveway to the road to see what the snow-clearance situation was there, while I dug my car out. After an hour and a half of this fun, Tam has a foot-path cleared down the driveway and I have a car-sized section cleared from the car to the path. Clearly a better approach was needed. Then I remembered that Tam's sister (a) lived in the same town, and (b) was married to a local handyman with (c) a large family. I asked Tam if perhaps Ernie might know of someone with a plow. We repaired to the house and she made some phone calls. Eventually we managed to snag Ernie's brother-in-law, who would come over with his plow.
Good thing, too: not only was the driveway impassible, but the road we were on was too. See, the road that the house is on is a private road and not maintained by the town. Since it's mainly summer houses, "nobody" was out there who would need to have the road cleared, so nobody had tended to it. The plow guy we got first had to plow out the section from the town road to our house, then had to plow out the driveway. When all was said and done he didn't expect to be paid for the job (family, y'know) but I persuaded him to take $40 "Buy yourself dinner!". It was worth several times that for us not to have to dig out the driveway and road with the equivalent of soup ladles...
Oh, and then there were the rabbits. I'd fed the rabbits just before I left on Christmas Day, figuring I'd be back maybe 36 hours later. It was getting on 48 hours with no sign of my being able to get out anytime soon, so I called my trusty pet-sitter (who happened to still have a key to my place). I was willing to pay her a good bonus to swing by and take care of the bunns, which she did (bless her!)
It wasn't until nearly sunset that I was finally able to start making my way home. The main highway on the Cape had not been consistently plowed, so it was about 35mph for the first couple of hours. Since the storm's impact had lessened the closer I got to home, I made progressively better time. After making a grocery stop on the way, I finally managed to pull into home at about 9PM. I spoiled the bunns with one of their favorite treats (Wasa crispbread).
One good thing about all this is that I was able to get lots of great photos of snow-covered trees and scenery out on the Cape. Prior to this trip I was despairing because I didn't have any good artwork to print on my (belated) holiday cards, but one of the pictures I took filled the bill nicely. I just printed out a bunch, and various friends will be getting theirs in the next week or so.
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-28 10:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-28 04:22 pm (UTC)Still and all, I must pity the poor folks down south who got dumped on the most. They REALLY never get snow and they got dumped on (when there isn't a plow for 200 miles, 6 inches is dumped on).