Mostly about my amusement

Tag: Snow (page 1 of 1)

First snow of the season

It’s not exactly a white Christmas, but snow fall on the 26th is close enough.

Looks like we’re going to have a lot of snow for Monday morning. It’s still coming down but I’ve already done a test run on the snow thrower.

The kids are off next week so if not today, they’ll get to have lots of fun either today or tomorrow.

Well I sure taught the snow who’s boss

All day yesterday it snowed from around midnight to at least 11:30 PM.  Several times I went out and cleared the driveway.  Around the end of my second pass I noticed that the oil cap came off on my snow thrower and oil was burning. I shut it down and replaced the cap.

Later on when I went to try the snow thrower again, the damn thing would not start. The motor is stuck and will not budge. This weekend I’ll get some oil and hope that I did not permanently damage the engine. The idea is that oil is cheaper than a new one and seriously, I just need it to work this season. That is a lot of drive way to shovel.

But I have a feeling I’ll need to buy a replacement snow thrower instead. If that does happen I’m sure I’ll keep the next one in good shape…

Will it snow this time?

Last Friday night the LIRR was talking about if 10 inches of snow fall, then they will shut down the entire train system. That only sounds bad since last time it snowed some poor people were kidnapped and held hostage against their will for many hours on a disabled train. The idea is that it is better to strand people at the train station than abandon them on the train tracks.

The amount of snow this last weekend around where I live? None, not one centimeter.  Now the weather man is predicting a ton of snow for tomorrow. I’m all ready to go and it will be great for the kids if we actually do get snowed in.

Amazing stuff this “gasoline”

So this morning I attacked the pile of snow in my driveway. The gas from last year became no good so the snow thrower was stalling like crazy. Crazy as in every minute or so. This is not news to me, I had just thought that the power of positive thinking would make the old gas more combustible.

When that was a bust, Lily and I took the gas container and filled it up. For our troubles we narrowly missed getting slammed by another SUV.  The poor lady missed us and said “my brakes didn’t work”.

Funny thing that Isaac Newton and his laws. If only she watched Mythbusters then she’d understand better. I stepped on the accelerator and she passed behind me so it was all good. When I got home and put in fresh gas the snow thrower worked fine. Now the driveway is usable and I ache like nothing else.

Wow, it’s still coming down

Looks like I will have to use the snow thrower after all. Good thing it’s all gassed up. I started it yesterday before the snow came down.

At work Friday there was some discussion about what contingency plans will be for coverage on Monday.  That’s not looking like such a bad idea right now.

Not snow again

And thus it starts.  No, the snow thrower is not gassed up. It started a little while ago; I was expecting rain.

snows-again

Sigh, it’s like Lily saying to me “Not smart enough to come out of the rain” only with snow.

All my snows remembered

It snowed here Friday, so when I got home I started shoveling before I even went inside.  My driveway is on a slope so if you don’t drive an SUV (I do) then going up the ramp is a problem.

2008 snow thrower

This picture is me 2 years ago when I had some forethought. Friday night I thought of that picture a lot. With some effort I was able to clear the driveway in short order.  It was messy but any car would be able to make it up that ramp.

It all was good afterwards, except Friday night and Saturday morning it snowed again and all my work was for naught.   On top of that, Saturday my back started to hurt.  Today I plan to take it easy and go outside and salt the driveway.  If I can I’ll gas up the snow thrower and see if that helps.

It will be fun but no matter how long it takes I need to clear that driveway.  The kids still have school and my folks need to be able to use their mini van.

Update: Let’s hear it for warmer weather, some rain, and Lily. She and I went out and scraped all the ice off of the driveway.

Driveway with no ice on it

I wanted to stop much sooner but she kept us till my folks car could come and go without touching any ice.

She’s always been much more determined than I am.