This is the tree in Bill’s back yard.
This is the ice storm that knocked down the tree in Bill’s back yard.
This is the deck and the gutter that were damaged by the tree in Bill’s back yard that was knocked down by the ice storm.
This is the basement that was flooded because of the gutter that was knocked down by the tree Bill’s back yard that was knocked down by the ice storm.
I am so ready for 2019 to be over.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Sorry to hear about all the damage, Bill. :(
I keep waiting for Rat or Pig to say something that at least tones down the pain.
In the meantime, “Ouch” and “Sorry”.
Ouch. Winter storms ravage North America, and in southern Germany they’ve had snowfalls this month that were measured in meters. Meanwhile here in Berlin, we have not had more than an inch of snow in nearly two years, but my kids complain that this is “unfair”. Sure it’s unfair, but in whose favor? People who like snow are the ones who don’t have to shovel it.
An ice storm? So much for global warming, eh? *rimshot*
*crickets*
I’ll let myself out.
Kilby, that’s why I never developed a love for snow: when I was growing up our house was on a corner, meaning a large amount of sidewalk to shovel.
And from a young age, I was Shoveler.
A minor amendment: there were a few years when shoveling the neighbor’s snow was a productive method for a kid to earn some extra money. However, that was so long ago that payment was usually in coins rather than paper.
I’m not on a corner lot, but I am between two houses that have been vacant for the past year or more, so (out of consideration for random pedestrians) I generally wind up shoveling out three house-worths of sidewalk (plus my own path-to-garage and access-behind-garage-t0-alley) every snow storm. So, yes, count me in on Team Not-a-Snow-Lover. (Yes, I know it’s vital for etc. etc. etc., but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.)
To me, the arguments that “I’d miss snow if we didn’t get it in the winter, because it’s so traditional” sounds a lot like people living in Tornado Alley saying “I’d miss tornadoes if we didn’t get them in the summer, because it’s so traditional.”
There’s a serious proposal currently on the table here in Minneapolis for the city to take over responsibility for shoveling out all of the sidewalks, rather than leaving it to residents (with the usual threats of legal action when the residents don’t do it, though my impression is that the threats are pretty much empty ones). This seems a step too far for me, but it would be nice if they did at least take over shoveling sidewalks in front of vacant houses. . . .
There’s this wonderful invention out there called a ‘snowblower’; you may have seen or heard one in your neighborhood. ‘-)
When Hubby got one years ago, he was so thrilled with it he cleaned sidewalks up and down our street; I had to stop him from doing the Sears parking lot. That enthusiasm soon wore off; when we retired, we hired a snow-clearing/lawn maintenance service ’cause Hubby was out of town/country so often on dive trips and NO WAY was *I* thrilled about snow blowing or lawn mowing. Clearing paths for the dogs was enough shoveling for me, senkuveddymuch.
Yes, I lost some fence to neighbors’ tree falls. Ice just pulled them over and down. Nature – whaddya gonna do?
And we found out this morning that the tree took off a piece of the roof on its way down.
I gave the whole sad tale to the insurance adjuster this afternoon. He said “Holy crap.”
When an insurance adjuster says “Holy crap,” you know you had a bad day.
“When an insurance adjuster says ‘Holy crap,’ you know you had a bad day.”
I would say when an insurance adjuster says “Holy crap”, you know you’re covered.
When I lived in Boise, I considered shoveling snow now and then to be a fair tradeoff for being a 45-minute drive from a nice ski area.
Andréa, I have wondered about these snow blowers. How effective are they when someone has trod on the snow? I know that makes it tough for shovelling.
Last night I saw a documentary on last year’s volcanic eruptions in Hawaii.
So, I think I’d rather have snow and ice in my yard than lava.
Back in the 80’s, we had the occasional volcano emission all over the lawn. Our volcanoes are different from theirs… we didn’t get lava, we got ash… but it sticks around a lot more than snow does.
You can set the ‘scoop’ part higher or lower as needed. If, as many people seem to do, you go outside before the snow’s even finished (so much for anyone enjoying the silence of snowfall), you won’t have that issue. I’ve found that men (yes, I’m generalizing here) LOOOOVE these noisy machines and can’t WAIT to get outside to use ’em.
I think the BEST part is clearing the snow after the snowplow has been by, blocking up the driveway. When it’s wet snow, this stuff was impossible to move. In our neighborhood in WI, whoever had his blower out first would start doing everyone else’s driveway. Got to be a competition. And a real benefit for those who still used shovels.
We gave our snowblower to a friend who has a corner house, and he does practically the entire neighborhood. In fact, he finally wore it out and, rather than go back to the primitive tool that a shovel is, bought himself a bigger snowblower. ‘-)
Of course, we still had to shovel the deck and the dogs’ area, and sometimes, rake the roof. But those were minor issues.
When I lived in Colorado I didn’t mind shoveling snow. My technique was to shovel while it was stil! snowing; let an inch accumulate, go out and run the shovel along the sidewalk like a snow plow. Usually only took about 5 minutes of, essentially, walking. Granted, as long as it snowed you had to keep repeating that little dance. The real b*tch was when it snowed overnight and you woke up to 3 or 4 feet of white crude. Haven’t lived where it shows for going on 13 years now, but still spend a couple of weeks in Colorado skiing every year. That’s enough to remind me why I don’t live there, but still get my snow fix. Headin’ out next week, as a matter of fact.
I spent a winter in Colorado, once. I lived on base, so I had no commute, except for marching from the barracks to the hangar, which was across the street from the barracks. I was impressed (yes, let’s call it “impressed”) with the way Colorado drivers didn’t let accumulation of snow alter their behavior.
I learned to drive a vehicle called a “jammer” in Colorado. In principle, it’s basically a forklift except it doesn’t have a set of forks in the front, but rather a table. We had a patch of asphalt and took turns going around cones, in 8 to 12 inches of snow, with rear-wheel steering, and a 500 pound bomb on the table. Fun times.
I don’t plan to return to Denver in the wintertime again. (Or San Antonio in summertime, either.)
“… men (yes, I’m generalizing here) LOOOOVE these noisy machines and can’t WAIT to get outside to use ’em.”
I’m sure you are right in the general case, Andréa, and I suspect it applies to leaf blowers (which I hate hearing) as well.
In all my years in WI, I only saw ONE woman using a snowblower. Leaf blowers – well, I admit to using an electric one; it’s the gas-powered ones that drive me crazy. And if one has misophonia, as I do, you can imagine the pain inflicted by all this (as Dr. Seuss noted) noise, NoIsE, NOISE . . .
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-misophonia
Here’s what we’ve escaped from . . .
http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/cold-then-snow-then-bitter-cold-expected/article_fa21b4ae-33cc-5fa6-961c-ce82ef02e970.html
In the past week Australia has experienced 120 F weather, with no signs of letting up. They have to aim a fan at their AC units to keep them from burning up.
This morning, it was zero degrees when I got up, and sunny. Beautifully sunny. The heat was nicely on, and I cancelled my appointments so I don’t have to go out.
All in all, I’m glad I’m not in Australia.
Where in Australia was that? Thursday, Hay was looking at 48C (118F). Last week, in “a sizzling heat wave,” their ABC News said “Temperatures have clicked past 45 degrees (113F) in some regional towns.”
One report said Marble Bar, another said Port something, but I don’t remember what. The Port something one said 49.8 C. (Yeah, I remember numbers, not words.)
Okay, apparently I don’t remember numbers either. It was Port Augusta, and it was 48.9 C
An Ozian friend of mine replied to my query:
It’s pretty horrific . . . Friday was our worst day (for Victoria) ..
I took the As [Airedales] out for a pee wee at around 2pm, and took the thermometer for fun … it was 52C on the ground. That’s 125.6F.
I don’t much like our chances of survival in ten years’ time. Or less.
Sue in Hot Oz
“I would say when an insurance adjuster says ‘Holy crap,’ you know you’re covered.”
James, there’s a difference between an expression of sympathy and an indication that you’re going to authorize money to fix things.
The former is cheap, while the latter is contrary to the company’s business model.
We’re still fighting them over an end-of-April disaster.
“there’s a difference between an expression of sympathy and an indication that you’re going to authorize money to fix things.”
I was suggesting only an indication that they would HAVE to authorize money to fix things. Have you tried watching daytime TV? They have LOTS of ads that suggest that, just by hiring the right attorney, the insurance company will be terrorized into rolling over right away.
“Holy crap” from an insurance adjuster could mean “If I authorize even half of this I’ll lose my job for sure.”
My blood pressure and I wish you were correct, James, but alas you are not.
And the other reality is, if we did hire an attorney, the insurance company would be happy to drag it out indefinitely because there’s really no downside on their end.
We’ve been living with a hole in our kitchen floor since the end of April, and we’re just now on the verge of getting that disaster repaired.
Sorry to hear Bill.
For a number of years we had (varying) someones – at first our gardener (which we no longer have and we went to rehire them – no residential snow removal any longer) and then we found a company to do so -same thing – no residential any longer come and clear our snow for us. Since the last years and the huge amounts of snow, no one will residential snow removal any longer.
And I am still waiting for the 2018 curse of having do everything twice to be over as it has carried over into 2019.
Bill, care to name and shame them? I’m insured with State Farm, and they replaced my roof this past summer without a whimper.
Chak, I’ll be happy to add their name to those of GoDaddy and the Squirrel ONCE these nightmares are over.
The thing is, this company has a fairly good reputation: I have a feeling we just drew a difficult adjuster.
I hope everything comes out all right in the end.
Here in Lille, 4 inches of snow and the city comes to a standstill. It snowed last Wednesday, so no garbage collection in my neighborhood. It snowed again this morning, no garbage collection again. All these overflowing cans on the sidewalks for the last 8 days… Nice.
“It snowed again this morning, no garbage collection again. All these overflowing cans on the sidewalks for the last 8 days”
Could be worse. Could be 30 degrees instead of 0.
It’s both: Fahrenheit and Celsius ;) .
@ Olivier – It’s both when it’s -40 (because -40˚C = -40˚F). I’ve seen reports here that some areas in the US have been hit with temperatures that low.
Kilby, 30F and 0C are pretty close, too.
I was referring to Celsius, originally.
We were kind of on the leading edge of the cold air, so we didn’t get some of the really bad numbers from points north. The coldest was overnight Tuesday-Wednesday (low of -6F or something) and single digits on Wednesday. I went out an did some errands yesterday, it wasn’t that bad. The TV news always makes it seem like instant death to be outside. Usually with reporters standing out in the cold for no particular reason.
” with reporters standing out in the cold for no particular reason.”
Television is about ZSZHOWZINZG you what’s happening, even if usually they don’t get to the scene until it’s all over. So they’ll cover a fire by showing you the place where the house used to be, and they’ll cover a crime story by showing you the yellow tape around the sidewalk, and they’ll show you a story about a car accident by showing you were the bent-up, broken cars were until they were towed away.
But weather is ALWAYS happening! So a “weather event” significant enough to draw eyeballs in the first place is GREAT for TV news. They can keep going to the remote reporter, standing in snow on the side of a road. “Yep, still snow on the ground! More reports later, when we’ll show you the the same snow on the same road.” or “Yeah, it’s still raining. Here’s water flowing down the curb, into a storm drain.” (or, better yet, a storm drain that ISN’T draining, and forms a huge puddle in the road, with cars still driving into the puddle.)
Why do they do this? Because people will watch it, all day long.
I got a kick out of one hurricane report this season, when the reporter is leaning in against the fierce winds and a couple of people walk casually by in the background.