Snowpocalypse

This is the most impressive snowstorm I can remember since back when I lived on 26th Street and shared a duplex with Kara Dalkey. That was the year that we had back-to-back snowstorms totalling 25+ inches and had to cancel the planned Red Cross CPR class. I don't know how much accumulation we've had so far (KARE online just says 7-14 inches, but we're well over 7 inches at this point), but I do know that when I went out to see if the DirecTV receiver was clear and in place, the plow ridge was up to my thighs. Really, no hyperbole.

It turns out that my DirecTV service went out sometime on Monday or Tuesday, though I didn't notice until today because I've been behind in watching stuff. (I record Jeopardy! daily, and Monday was the last day it was there.) It also turns out that DirecTV won't schedule service calls when it's snowing, even if the problem predates the snow. Maybe when it stops snowing they'll be more willing to believe that it isn't a snow-related problem. Thank goodness for Hulu and other methods -- and for the Internet in general.

In the meantime, I have leftovers for tonight's dinner, but I don't think I'll be going anywhere for at least a day or so.

Those cats owe me big time

I had said I would feed the minnehahas' cats yesterday and today while they were away. Yesterday was no problem. Today was. arkuat managed to get a shovel-wide path from the garage to the street, but he bogged down after that. I have a 50-foot driveway, so clearing it is a production under normal conditions, which these definitely weren't. At some point in the early evening, my occasional yard guy stopped by with a friend and offered to shovel the driveway for $75. I blanched and he dropped it to $60, which I accepted. They finished around 8:30, and I headed out to feed cats shortly thereafter.

I got stuck briefly getting out of the driveway because the street hadn't been plowed recently, then got to the house with only a modicum of slipping and sliding. Once I got there, I realized there was no place to park -- only the street had been plowed, and the parking area was covered with 18 inches of snow. I thought about trying the alley, but it hadn't been plowed so I decided to go around the block (or equivalent thereof).

I got stuck just around the corner on the street back to Diamond Lake Road, but managed to get myself out after a few minutes by rocking forward and back. Then I got stuck again a few hundred feet later because there were clear tire tread paths, but the snow between them was higher than my car. I kept rocking back and forth without much progress, and eventually flagged down a guy in an SUV coming off the highway. He obviously had 4-wheel drive, because he went right over the snow lines and pushed me clear.

After that, I gave up on the idea of parking on the street. I drove to the Holiday Stationstore nearby and parked my car. Went in and asked about leaving it there while I hiked down to the house, and they said fine as long as it wasn't more than 20 minutes or so. Someone had cleared the sidewalk all the way down to the house, so that was easy, then I waded through the uncleared snow from the main sidewalk to the front steps. The first look was really intimidating, because the snow over the door was higher than my waist, but I realized that was because it was covering steps. It was still blocking the screen door from opening, though. I managed to push away sufficient snow to open the door just enough to slip through, and fed the cats. Getting home was a doddle after that, and I walked in slightly over an hour after I'd left.