December 22nd, 2020
Winter Wonderland? I don't think so.
Not a lot of snow since Thanksgiving. During the last two winters we have had to have our driveway plowed three times at the beginning of the season, and then three or four times at the end of the season when the new year turns.
Sunday is one of our get out and go for a drive days. It was not a bad start of the day, a couple inches of real light dry snow and temperature in the low 20's F about minus 6-7 C. No snow falling and it looked like it might be over for the day. So car cleared, started up and warming up while I am recovering and getting ready for the drive.
Pretty much as soon as we started to back out the very first few tiny flakes started to appear, We were not to concerned with it after all we were on the roads a couple days ago and all was fine. So we hit the side road to the main road and still nothing to really worry about just a little bit of foggy type snow.
That is what we came home to, about eight to ten inches of fresh snow. We had no issues driving north the roads were all still clear. While our destination had a bit more snow on the ground than our home area it was not bad at all, you could see the road. On the return trip, things changed.
below is a close up of the tracks at least as good as I could get, you can see between the tire tracks where the undercarriage of the car dragged across the snow, some areas the snow was flying over the hood as it was that deep in a few spots on the driveway.
I was not expecting the plow guys on Sunday, and really was not expecting them on Monday either, but they did make it out on Monday. We even still had a little bit of snow maybe three quarters of an inch on the car, so I quickly dusted the windshield and back window and patiently waited til it was time to shift parking so they could clean up the parking spot some.
I should have gotten a few pictures of the after plowing event, but thought I would wait. Here is what the driveway looks like now, from just a few hours ago.
Pretty much a mess, we had a Solstice Event. Sunday 20 degrees and snow, Monday 20 degrees and just clouds. Tuesday morning 38 degrees and rain and wind and well frankly a mess, and no power. It got very windy about 3:30 AM. We woke to no power, and the battery on the generator dead, and no morning coffee.
So what is one to do, well start the car, let it warm up, get dressed and go buy a cup of coffee in town and wait for the power to come back. So while out and about we decided to look for one of those uninterruptible power sources, some thing we could use to charge the generator battery or to at least make a cup of coffee with, no luck finding one of those today.
If Tuesday morning was not bad enough about half way down my driveway, I had to stop and move a fallen tree out of the way. Solstice 2020 was...if nothing else...an interesting one. The three days are done and the sun is on the rise again, perhaps ushering in a new era, or closing out an old one, who knows, I just hope 2021 is a bit more relaxing than 2020 was.
Season 3 links