Valentine's Day Storm

The big, bad Valentine's Day 2007 storm is now history. All are glad to see the end of it. What a mess it left behind. The storm came in layers for 36 hours. Snow, sleet, freezing rain, back to sleet and topped off with snow. By Wednesday night, it had all bonded together to form something stronger than granite! I was stuck in the house from Tuesday till Saturday when some knights in not-so-shining armor rescued me. And I didn't even have to let down my long hair. LOL

Knight #1 sent his wife over on Friday afternoon to see if I needed help. Since my place was still untouched and undug, that went without say. I did. I watched from my sewing room as he labored away most of the day on his own place. I couldn't believe he was nice enough to offer help to me. The reason he sent his wife is because he doesn't speak English that well. Didn't matter to me if he spoke fluent Martian. He was kind enough to offer help when it was needed. He managed to get my ramp and about a foot of the sidewalk done before he had to cry uncle and stop for the day. He wasn't able to come back over the weekend as they were going away the next morning.

Enter knight #2. Grizzled beard, pot belly and all. He was beautiful! A couple of days earlier, I had called the park office to see if they might have a list of people wanting to do that sort of work. I didn't know she had made contact with anyone. Sir Dennis showed up about 9am. He had some major equipment. A snow blower was no good on the glacier. He had a digging iron, some mean looking shovels and 2 bags of solar salt. I never on earth would have thought of using solar salt as an adjunct to ice melt. But I'm sure going to get some bags when I next go out. Since the sun was out, the solar salt softened up the rock hard snow/ice in short order and Dennis got the job done faster than I ever thought he would. It still took several hours at that. Below is a picture of the evidence. Street and drive mountains.

My granddaughter, Olivia, had her last basketball game scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I was afraid I'd have to miss it. Not so! I went out 30 minutes before I needed to leave so I could clean off the car. Since it's in pristine shape, I wanted to do that job myself. If it got scratched, I didn't want to be mad at anybody but me. The sun had warmed it up and the snow came off in 4 big sheets. Hood, Windshield, top and trunk. I used my cane to poke tunnels into it and that did the job. I was on my way to the game. Unfortunately, her team lost. But it was a close score and an exciting games. Both teams played agressively.

Now, I'm ready for softball season. ITM, O has taken up learning to box. Courtesy of her Uncle Bob. Apparently, women's boxing is a big deal these days. Who knew? They went to the gym on Sunday. After that, she had to go to cheerleading practice. The kid isn't happy unless she has 3 sports going on at all times. Makes me tired. But I go to watch all of them. What a good Nana am I.