Finally, today, I think the snow is almost gone. More than a week with snow on the ground is totally crazy around here. In fact, I don't remember this happening here... like ever, in my life. To say we were suffering from a bit of cabin fever would be a gross understatement. I was just the lucky one who got to go off to work four of those days. The snow itself wasn't that bad at all. Our problems came with the ice.
The morning that the snow was deepest and best, it was sleeting by the time the girls were dressed to go play in it. They couldn't manage the walk to the University campus to sled, so Matt piled the snow on our back patio stairs and the girls took turns sledding down the stairs. Our almost 10 inches of snow became topped with a half inch of solid ice over the course of that day. Our house became encrusted with half an inch of solid ice. I had to shovel a trail into the yard for the dog because the icy crust was up to his belly. I walked to work wednesday in silent peace, in 10 inches of snow, but by the time my shift was over it was a crusty mess. On friday when I walked to work the sidewalks were littered with broken trees and shards of ice as sharp and treacherous as broken glass. I walked down the middle of the road to avoid the overhanging trees laden with ice. I listened to the trees crack the whole way to work. There is one block on my route where the trees are so big that their branches become intertwined high above the middle of the street. As I approached that block, littered with big black branches, I could hear the ice falling out of the trees. It sounded like it was raining marbles. I ran up that block, not like a giant chunk of ice wouldn't hurt me if I was running... I was just banking on the fact that 15 seconds of potentially being blitzed with ice was better than 2 min of pelting. However, the relief that I felt when I saw my building ahead of me was briefly halted when I also saw security vehicles and about 10 guys from our security, grounds crew, and engineering departments outside of the door I usually enter, and the whole area taped off. It seems, giant slabs of ice were falling off of the building. And sure enough, as I stood there talking to the security guard a slab of ice about 2 feet long fell off of the building and down to the street. Yikes. I'm feeling not so bitchy about the rain these days. All in all, we were quite lucky, we never lost power and other than a couple of trees in our front yard that look like they were pruned by a toddler, we didn't have any major landscaping failures.
The morning that the snow was deepest and best, it was sleeting by the time the girls were dressed to go play in it. They couldn't manage the walk to the University campus to sled, so Matt piled the snow on our back patio stairs and the girls took turns sledding down the stairs. Our almost 10 inches of snow became topped with a half inch of solid ice over the course of that day. Our house became encrusted with half an inch of solid ice. I had to shovel a trail into the yard for the dog because the icy crust was up to his belly. I walked to work wednesday in silent peace, in 10 inches of snow, but by the time my shift was over it was a crusty mess. On friday when I walked to work the sidewalks were littered with broken trees and shards of ice as sharp and treacherous as broken glass. I walked down the middle of the road to avoid the overhanging trees laden with ice. I listened to the trees crack the whole way to work. There is one block on my route where the trees are so big that their branches become intertwined high above the middle of the street. As I approached that block, littered with big black branches, I could hear the ice falling out of the trees. It sounded like it was raining marbles. I ran up that block, not like a giant chunk of ice wouldn't hurt me if I was running... I was just banking on the fact that 15 seconds of potentially being blitzed with ice was better than 2 min of pelting. However, the relief that I felt when I saw my building ahead of me was briefly halted when I also saw security vehicles and about 10 guys from our security, grounds crew, and engineering departments outside of the door I usually enter, and the whole area taped off. It seems, giant slabs of ice were falling off of the building. And sure enough, as I stood there talking to the security guard a slab of ice about 2 feet long fell off of the building and down to the street. Yikes. I'm feeling not so bitchy about the rain these days. All in all, we were quite lucky, we never lost power and other than a couple of trees in our front yard that look like they were pruned by a toddler, we didn't have any major landscaping failures. 
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