Winter 2014 Storm #2

As I mentioned in February, we were preparing for more winter weather and boy did we get a storm!

Winter storm Pax (not so sure how I feel about naming winter storms, but we’ll go with it today) was part two of a one two punch we had that week. A smaller storm moved in early in the morning on Tuesday and moved out by 5pm or so, with the major storm beginning to move in early Wednesday morning and stuck with us through Thursday. Seeing all of the pictures today of what winter storm Titan is doing to parts of the country makes me super happy we didn’t get that one too! Here is a brief recap of our Valentine’s Week storm.

• Tuesday: It started out nasty, but I went to work. It was snowing and sleeting at my house in the western suburbs, but it was just rain by the time I made it the 12 miles downtown to campus. Several schools let out early, but my campus was determined to make it the whole day. The temps were dropping and emails went out saying certain streets on campus could be closed because of ice on hills…. my office and garage being on one of those streets. So I left around 3:30 so I wouldn’t get stuck on the interstate. Good call, because the temperature did drop and it was just yucky out. Stopped at the store and stocked up on food, batteries and some bottle water. We tried to be as prepared as we could be for some time without power. Candles and blankets were out, plenty of matches and two propane tanks for the grill to cook with as needed (luckily we only briefly lost power, so we didn’t need them).
  

  The commute into work… wet and full of sleet piled up on the window.

• Wednesday: The storm and how bad it was going to be really had me stressed out. The sleet/ice hitting the window throughout the night didn’t help either and sleep was elusive. I woke up before 8am to a winter wonderland… and it didn’t stop coming down all day. Snow, then sleet, then freezing rain, back to sleet.

The view of the snow on Wednesday morning

• Thursday: It was still coming down in the morning, and it was a mess. It stopped around noon or so and the sun started to come out… but it didn’t go away quickly! It was crazy to be out there in the morning while the snow was still coming down. It was so pretty and quiet… until you heard the sound of trees crashing in the woods from the ice. It was slightly disconcerting and I definitely sent up some prayers to not have fallen trees on power lines around me!
  

  The front yard on a snowy day, look how deep my footprints are!

  And more

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  Snow falling in the South, on the house

  And even more

Frozen pins in the South

More

Frozen garden

And another

Southern Winter Wonderland

Another pretty shot from that Thursday

Downed loquat tree from the storm

The mailbox

Frozen mailbox

The road… this is why I didn’t drive anywhere

Snowy Roads

More

So, I didn’t have a shovel… I had to make do with a canoe shovel. My mom gave me a paddle set a few years ago, in case I was ever up a creek without a paddle. I was in this case! No shovel!

It was pretty

This was close to 5pm on Thursday. The sun had been out for several hours and this is still what it looked like.

• Friday: We were closed for the third day in a row. I was slated to go to San Diego to present at a conference and I had to cancel because there was no way I was going to make it down my driveway and to the airport for a 6am flight. I spent most of Thursday on the phone with the airlines and hotel. Luckily, it all was taken car of pretty easily. According to the great people at the San Diego Hyatt, I wasn’t alone in my cancellations!  In fact, my driveway was still a solid sheet of ice at 9:45am. I made it down slowly at 2:30 that afternoon and it was all clear by that evening.

And as an added mother nature bonus, we have an EARTHQUAKE that night! In the south!      Nuts! Nuts! Nuts!!!

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  Solid sheet of ice on the hilly driveway at 9:45am on Friday

  Last pic

30 something hours after the snow stopped, there were still big piles! That never happens here!

Okay, that is my second snow storm of winter 2014 story. Lots of snow, a clean DVR and lots of soup and tea!