Snowpocalypse Now: Time For A Donner Party

So, we had a bunch of snow this past weekend. A great opportunity to stay home and work on the boats, right?

Well, seems that I didn't have as much time to do so as I had hoped. After racking up 26" of snow (on top of 6" from the previous two cycles of storms on Tuesday and the Saturday before), we were in a horrid race to clear the plow berm before it froze into a solid block of ice which would entomb us for weeks.

Yes, our car is somewhere under that snow drift. The truck is a little easier to see, but not by much. The plow berm was a good 3.5' of very heavy compressed ice and snow. It took until Sunday evening to actually clear the driveway enough to move the truck out and become mobile again (even if the roads are not yet up to snuff even by Monday afternoon). That was with starting while it was still snowing on Saturday. Sore and exhausted, I collapsed in front of the Super Bowl instead of working on the Oiler as I had intended to. At least I wasn't running rescue duty in Leesburg last Friday, or I might still be stuck there.

So, it was a major storm, but we're digging out as a region, and I've gotten my truck on the road so I can get to work (since the Metro is not running above ground service until they can get and keep the tracks clear), things should be returning to normal and I can get on with things, right? Well.... there is this little matter of another storm due to hit tomorrow, mid-day. It's not going to be as big as the last storm, only a measly 4-6" er, ah, 5-10" no, wait, there was a new update on that this morning 8-12". What? The latest model is saying 10-20"??? What the-?! The grocery stores are already picked clean, and are unable to get their stock trucks in because of existing snow pack. We've just barely started digging out as a region. The Federal Government is closed, the local schools won't re-open until next week, roofs are collapsing, and the metro has ground to a near halt... and they're calling for a storm which in any other season would be called "The storm of the Decade" - but in this season is actually poised to be in 3rd or 4th place this season.

If the power holds out, and we don't run out of food, I might get some work done on the oiler, assuming I even make it home after work tomorrow.