Alive... For Now

 

Back deck after 26" of snow, 50 mph winds and -20F temperatures

By Iowan standards the first part of the storm wasn't too bad. Sure it was a lot of snow, about 15" worth, and more snow than we had seen in the past two years combined, but everything was still drivable once you made it out of the driveway. There were branches down and side streets that were more one way than the normal two way, but one could get around.

Then the hammer dropped with a good old fashioned blizzard that lasted for two days. It left another 11" of snow but came with high winds that blew it around and piled it in deep drifts anywhere it could. Clearing out the driveway became an exercise of patience as the snow you got ride of flew downwind to the next neighbor's driveway and my driveway would fill in with the upwind neighbor's snow. I blew through a tank of gas in four days of snow blowing. I probably haven't used a tank of gas per SEASON for three or four years. 

In retrospect, there was no hurry to clear the driveway as nothing was open anyway. In fact, our street wasn't open even though it is a declared emergency route. Due to the safety of working in a blizzard, the snow plows had been pulled off duty until conditions improved. We used that time to do a lot of baking and cooking, reading and napping in front of a fire and occasionally I would get some cardio in by clearing out the driveway of 2 feet tall drifts of snow before they became five feet tall.

The the hammer dropped with a bomb cyclone or whatever the name de'Jour is these days. Temperatures plunged to -20 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit no less. Random booms of noise would happen throughout the night as the temperatures changed our knowledge of physics. Fortunately, it helped sort of freeze the snow in place so it didn't blow quite so bad and this morning, all there was is a life skiff of snow over our driveway. 

We did make it to church, one of a few dozen but went right back home. If just doesn't feel like a good thing to be walking outside of a vehicle when your brain and exposed teeth instantly start hurting. The car is parked and I started another fire in our fireplace, still a bit frosty from our previous fire. I have to leave the damper open part way when we go to bed but by morning, the fire is out, the damper is still partway open and as you can see, colder, heavier air is making it's presence known. Less than a few minutes after I snapped this phone, the rime of ice on the outside had melted off and maybe 30 minutes later, I finally felt some heat start entering into my body instead of rushing to leave it.

We still have one more day of cold with another night of -20F actual temperature. If you count windchill, it is south of -50 the last time I heard. After that, we start getting into single digit highs without a negative sign and only single digit negative lows for a week or so. Doable as long as you aren't outside for long periods of time. 

My refuge for the week