Aftermath

So, the storm is over. The snow stopped falling sometime last night, but the winds picked up, and the snow was being blown all around, so that any shoveling was done in vain. I shoveled a path to the car yesterday at lunch time, and it was completely filled in with a good three feet of snow by dinner time. So I gave up and just waited for this morning. I called a plow guy last night and arranged to have him come plow out my driveway this morning, but when I got up and saw what was in my driveway, I knew he wasn't going to be able to plow it out with just a truck, and I was right. I went inside after shoveling a path to my car, and found a message saying that they needed to bring down a tractor with a snowblower attachment. I couldn't picture what they meant, until I saw it.

That's quite the machine, isn't it? I'm getting ahead of myself, though. First, you should see the pictures I took before they got there with their tractor.

That red lump to the right of that stump is my mailbox. The snowplow hit it on its way through yesterday and knocked it off. I have no idea if the mail came before that yesterday, but if it did, my mail blew away, because the box was empty. I was expecting a Netflix movie yesterday - there is a very good possibility that their DVD is buried in 3 1/2 feet of snow. Oops. Also, notice that there is a patch of ground almost completely clear to the left in the picture. Snow being blown around by the wind is so funny - some areas are down to the grass, and other areas have 4 feet of snow in them. I am never able to judge how much actual snow fell where I live, and that's why. The wind never stops - there is a reason they put windmills all around where I live.

This is my poor car, buried in snow up to its windshield. Sigh. Poor Little Red (that's my car's name).

In front of the garage. You can see all of the peaks in the snow. It's really kind of amazing what the wind does to it. It's like snow sculptures or something.

I love the scalloped edges that the wind made where the snow stopped piling up. So neat.

Here's the snowblowing tractor, working on clearing the side of my driveway that J usually parks on. He stayed at his house last night, so only my car was buried in the driveway today.

After they finally got the driveway cleared around my car, we used shovels to clear away the snow from around it, and I pulled it out so that they could finish with their plow. My driveway is nice and clear now, but I shudder to think how much that bill is going to cost. A normal plow is $20 - this one is going to be so much more. Ugh. I hate winter.

Once they were done, I was able to get ready for work and drive in, and only get here 2 hours and 20 minutes late. Not too bad. And I took some pictures on the way.

This is when I'm about to drive into a white out area. For those who don't live in snowy areas, that's when the wind blows the snow across the road and creates areas of low visibility - white outs, because all you can see is the white of the snow. They can be horribly dangerous to drive in. This one was short, luckily, and the road was in good shape, so it was okay.

This is when I was driving into the small town where I work. Such a snowy scene!

And this is the road on campus. I had to take pictures of the high banks and snowy roads.

Now maybe you can see why I'm so eager to ship all of this stuff to those of you who want it, if only I could figure out a way. I just keep telling myself that spring is coming. It's mid-February, so hopefully in a month all of this white stuff will be melting away, and the crocuses will be breaking through the ground and giving us all hope for warmer days. I can't wait.