Snowmageddon 2013

First, I must apologize to everyone for not visiting/commenting on your blogs over the past few days. Blame it on Winter Storm Nemo.  This started popping up on Facebook a few days before.

I truly did not believe the wildly fluctuating predictions for what the Cape region was going to get, starting on Friday, February 8.  We were hearing 6" to 29".  Uh, just a little vague.  And based upon past experience, especially growing up here, Cape Codders take these dire blizzard predictions with a grain of salt because they are wrong more times than they are correct.  I was way more concerned about the wind than the snow totals.  

Russell had gotten home the day before, and we jetted into Sandwich to do our errands early on Friday morning to ensure that we were home by 10:30.  We had food in the crockpot and were like, 'bring it!'  It had started to snow hard by about noon time.  I was happily colouring and he was watching TV; we were as cozy as could be.  Gov. Deval Patrick declared a travel ban effective as of 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, announced after 3, and making a lot of people scramble to close their businesses and send everyone home.  The fine for anyone caught driving after 4 was $500.  

It started to pick up as the day went on, and was very wet and slushy. I was intending on documenting this storm with ruler measurements and photos with the times noted.

1:00 PM

4:00 PM

6:00 PM

It was really bad out though, due to the heavy, wet nature of the snow.  You went out and got soaked quickly.  There was no way I would be able to do this except shooting through the windows or standing in the doorway.

8:00 PM

8:00 PM

Next came the wind.  We were watching a movie and by 8:30 the power started to flicker really badly, so we went to bed.  That's when things really started to go downhill.  Quickly.  We saw some flashes and heard loud booms.  We thought it was a transformer blowing up but it was actually the very rare phenomena known as thundersnow.  I only remember one other time in my life that I saw it, and it was early 1977.  The wind was picking up and starting to scream.

Pepper was a mess.  She has always hated storms.  She accidentally clawed at Russell who awoke startled and in pain and that scared Pepper even more so the poor thing pooped on the bed.  Fortunately I smelled it before it got rolled in so I was able to clean it up, but he was furious and she was frightened and I didn't know what to do.  So I went out on the couch for a few hours, figuring that she'd follow me out there which she did.  I gave her some Rescue Remedy on a biscuit but that didn't seem to help her fear.  The power was off and on till about 11 when it went out for good.  The house cooled off very quickly and I staggered back to our warm bed at about 3.

We got up at 8 on Saturday and it was soooo dark out.  The wind was still blowing and it was hard to tell if it was still snowing.  The windows were coated with snow and ice, making the house darker.  I opened the door to take the pups outside and the snow was drifted up the door by over a foot.  So that of course meant we had to plow through it, sending snow into the house.  It couldn't be helped.  I tried to take pics but couldn't move off the porch at the front door; the snow was just way too deep.  Plus the damn wind.

I just about died shoveling this tiny area.

We ended up just going back to bed to doze off and on and stay warm, till nearly Noon.  So we finally get up and decide to try and shovel and get the car out.  That took quite awhile and thanks to the slush that fell first, the bottom half of the snow we were shoveling was a thick layer of ice.  The snow came off the car but the ice had to be chipped off all the windows and luckily the car started, so we had the defrosters blasting it too.  I'm surprised we didn't crack the windows with how hard we were chipping.  We tried to clear as much of the driveway as possible and then Russell managed to get the car to the front of the driveway where we could get out.  The roads were compact snow & ice, and the plow guy was actually kind enough to mound the snow near the telephone pole instead of the end of the driveway, so I was grateful for that.  It took a lot of tries with the car wheels spinning and exhaust fuming.  But he did it.  Back inside we took quick showers with the last of the hot water and decided to pack bags and dogs and try and find a pet friendly hotel on generator power.  It was a barren wasteland out there.  So quiet.  Only plows and a few pick up trucks on the road. We had no luck with the hotel thing, or the food thing, so we went home, rounded up all the blankets we could find, and went to bed at about 5:00 pm.

Sunday morning dawned sunny and clear.  Russell's dispatcher arranged to have his truck plowed out so that he could leave as scheduled, so I took him to the lot at 8:30.  The only place open in town that had coffee was Cumberland Farms, so we got coffee first.  He very sweetly offered to stay and stick it out with me but I told him no, he should stay on the truck and be warm and I'd deal with it here. I got the fridge and freezer food into the cooler and out on the porch in the snow, and I shoveled snow inside as well.  I took a few photos on Sunday the 10th, but it was still cold out and it's not like I could come inside to a warm house so that's why I didn't bother taking a walk.

Kitchen window

This tree startled me when I looked out the front window because I thought it was a person bent over.

 Looking down my street on Sunday morning.

It would take me five tries to back the car in, every time I came home, and that's as far as I could get it, which was just off the street.

The sun was warm and I opened all the curtains on the south side of the house that it got more comfortable, and I was able to do some crafts by daylight before my hands got too cold.  But as soon as the sun started to go down, it got freezing.  I could see my breath inside the livingroom. I decided to get warm in the car so I loaded up the pups and drove around a little bit with the heat on.  I was going to stop at one place that was open but there was no parking left; everyone had the same idea. So I drove down to Sagamore, discovered they had power and got a breakfast sandwich at Dunkin Donuts.  I lit a bunch of candles, buried myself under blankets, wore a scarf around my head and read by flashlight before giving up and going to bed around 7:30.  At about 1:00 a.m., I woke up on fire.  I thought the heat had finally come on.  I opened my eyes to the pitch dark and realized that it was me generating the heat.  Then my stomach said, 'Oh hey, you better get to the bathroom because I'm about to make this situation just that much more special for you'.  I grabbed the flashlight and darted to the loo where I tossed my cookies several times.  All I'd eaten that day the sandwich, about 10 hours earlier.

Monday is when things were really, truly starting to suck.  I remember Day 3 of the 2006 blackout in Washington as being the turning point from reluctant tolerance to despair too.  My friend Michelle had called and offered for me and the doggies to crash at her house as she had a separate apartment w/ a fireplace where we could be comfy.  She had power and hot water.  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm the first to offer help but the last to ask for it.   But that morning I texted and asked if I could take a hot shower and she said sure come on over.  She gave me coffee and fed me a blueberry muffin fresh out of the oven.  It was a miserably wet day too.  The temperature had risen and it was pouring down rain, rapidly melting the snow and causing flooding on the roads.

After my shower, I left for Sandwich to my cousin's, where my mom had been staying.  They were out of power too.  Sandwich sustained a lot of damage, especially E. Sandwich.  Sha left to go to a friend's to shower and I took mom up to her house and then to get take out food that we brought back to the house. Mom lost a lot of branches and a good part of a tree that's been on the corner of the driveway since the 1950's.

When Sha came back, I left for BBay and was crushed to come home to a cold, dark neighbourhood.  I decided to take Michelle up on her offer to stay the night because I could not cope with another freezing, dark night.  It was sooooo great to be in a warm, lit, cozy room with TV and internet.  Michelle & her family are so awesome to have taken  me and my doggies in and their generosity will not be forgotten.  Pepper & Sagan did really well being in that strange, new environment, and being able to hear her dogs upstairs.

I had to get my car fixed on Tuesday (yesterday) so I left Michelle's pretty early so that I could drop off the pups at home.  I was, again, devastated to come into a cold, dark house.  I ran into Sandwich where my car was unable to be fixed yet again due to another wrong part, which is par for the course for 2013.  This is still that broken window issue that happened the evening of January 1st.  So I went to the library to print something, then got back to pick up the pups so that I could run a quick errand in Middleborough.  Got home at 11 and was ready to tear my hair out, although I did pass two trucks right around the corner from my street so I was cautiously optimistic.  Mom called to say she was back up so we could stay there on Tuesday night if we wanted to.  I decided to hang around at home, and discovered that the sun was warmer outside than the house was inside, so I grabbed a kitchen chair and sat in the sun on the deck for quite awhile.  I went inside when a big cloud covered the sun, and that's when I heard it.  The unmistakable hum of electricity.  I steeled myself and looked at the stove.  The clock display was on. I tentatively turned on a light, it lit up.  After that I burst into tears of relief and raced around the house cranking the heat in every room.  I chilled out for awhile, then it occurred to me that sometimes they bring you online then shut you down again for a bit while they finish their work.  I kicked it into high gear and started the mountains of laundry that had accumulated.  Sheets, towels, clothes, gloves, etc.  Dishes.  I had to get all the food out of the cooler and it all seems to be fine.  A little melted, but not spoiled.  The snow inside kept everything cold.  Then I vacuumed the house and even cleaned out my car because I was on such a roll.

It was pretty miserable and I believe that NStar, our electric company, did a pretty poor job overall.  When we had Hurricane Sandy in October, the NStar trucks were poised and ready to go.  I saw them rolling through Buzzards Bay and parked in lots, waiting to restore power as it was lost.  This time, I didn't see a single one.  Saw lots and lots of plows, but no NStar vehicles except one pickup truck at the Cumberland Farms on that Sunday morning.  They were patting themselves on the back on their Facebook page, but when I stayed at Michelle's and watched the news (for the first time in eons), the lead story was the statewide frustration at NStar's slow response, so it wasn't just me getting pissed off. Those that had their power restored quickly thought the rest of us were whining.  Maybe we were, but it's goddamn uncomfortable to be without heat and hot water during the middle of winter, for days on end.  

Needless to say, we are buying a generator.  We've been saying this since the first hurricane we had the summer we moved in, late August of 2011, but we just never got around to it.  It's now a top priority.  I will not go through this again.  I just want enough juice for a space heater and a lamp.  I have to say I miss my generator and gas stove back in WA; wish I could've taken it with me.

It's so good to be back online and warm again!

Pin Semi-Win: Confetti Glasses

Here's another idea I just had to try!!  The original pin is HERE.  I also checked out the tutorial to see if there were any additional instructions, but it seemed fairly straightforward.  Just dot acrylic paints on a glass, put into a cold oven and heat to 200* for a half hour, then let cool in the oven.  This is the picture that I used as a guide.

I did a couple of votive cups using the paint pens I had to make the dots.  I should have overlapped them more but I didn't.

Then I stopped at the dollar store and picked up a couple of wine glasses and used another Pinterest idea of using a pencil eraser to dot the paint on and it worked pretty well to make even circles.  

This was only a semi-win because they don't pass the washing test.  While I'm sure people would use care when hand washing, because let's face it, the outside of a wine glass doesn't get so filthy that it needs to be scrubbed, the paint dots peel off easily.  I also don't like how the paint dried dull and not shiny.  There has to be a better way to seal the paint and/or make it shiny.  Maybe I need different paints because all my acrylics dry dull.  I have several friends interested in buying these so I'd like to find a fix as soon as possible.  I'm open to ideas!  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Pin Win: Button Ball

I thought this was a cute project for buttons on a styrafoam ball.  

Of course my version just had to be psychedelic and splashed with every colour of the rainbow.

Tie dye ribbon even!

Pin Win: Clothespin Crafts

Since I have all those clothespins left over from the candle holder project, I thought I'd try this Pinterest craft.  

For the most part, I can figure out how to do crafts without tutorials, although I will occasionally refer to them just to make sure I'm doing it right.  I was glad I checked Clothespin Message Tutorial, located HERE, because the instructions were not quite what I'd thought at all.  Still, it looked pretty quick and easy so I knocked one out the same day I did the marble candle holder.

I had a hard time with the folding of the paper and gluing it to the clothespin because of the tiny little flap that has to be glued.  But with a little practice, it would be easy to make several at a time, and could be more ornate with paint, glitter and/or rhinestones.

I saw a cute idea to do THIS too.  And with the great white problem around Cape Cod now, thanks to an explosion in the seal population, I thought this was appropriate....in a sick kind of way.  I just knocked this one together in a few minutes as a prototype.  Next time I will use cardstock instead of white paper, and add the gills lines and maybe some teeth.

BAHAHAHA  Chomp!

Pin Win: Marble Candle Holder

Here's another craft I HAD to try, since I have so many regular cats eye marbles that are my least favourite, and therefore can be pressed into service for craft purposes.  

 Here's my version.

I used a roll of duct tape in the center to keep the marbles upright.  It was my intent to do a 4th row but there was a design issue in the 3rd row that precluded me from going any taller.  While marbles may look like the same size, I ran into a few difficulties because they aren't.

Glitter candle for illustrative purposes only; a plain candle of any colour would look better.

The glass part of this flicker candle broke, but I kept the metal design inner part.

A small, and square, jar of beach glass even fits into it!  You could even put marbles in a jar.

I used E6000 glue, which can be seen in between the marbles if you look close, but I was pleased with it's holding power.  This project was a definite win.

Pin Win: Crescent Moon Pillow

I love all things celestial.  When I saw this pillow on Pinterest, original link HERE,  I decided I had to make my own, but a smaller version.

I traced the crescent onto the fabric, placed it into a large hoop and did all the button work.  I wish I had come farther out with the nose, and working on top of it looked like it was fine, but seeing it now it's a little short. 

Embroidered the hanger with gold floss and added a gold button.  I have a sewing machine but I don't know how to use it, so I had to hand sew the back and front, then stuff it and sew it shut.   Not perfect but not bad for a first try. 

Cruel Irony

We had a couple of mild days in January, but for the fact that the wind was blowing really hard.  Annoyingly hard.  I wanted to look for glass so I went to Buttermilk Bay Beach hoping that I'd find something that was actually worn down, but it was almost all fresh.  This is the cruel irony about that beach:  It's full of glass.  It's all over the place.  But because it doesn't get any wave action, except for the high and low tides, the glass will never ever wear down, at least not in this lifetime.  I found a few pieces that were scratched, and for the most part none of these edges were sharp enough to cut me so that's why I took them home.  There's a large chunk of some kind of crockery that's brown on one side and white on the other. I also found a very rusty spoon but I don't think it can be saved.  Those yellowish shards on the right are textured.  

So are two of the white pieces.

Pin Fail: Balloon Ice Balls

This was one of the first Pinterest ideas I ever pinned, early in 2012.  Unfortunately we had a very mild winter so I had to wait till this year.  You fill up balloons with dyed water, let them freeze and decorate the yard after removing the balloons to reveal the coloured ice balls.  Looks cool eh?

Don't die of shock, but I never filled up a water balloon before.  I had to ask my friends via Facebook.  Once that was solved, I filled my first balloon with water, then attempted to add the red dye.  Luckily I didn't lose control of the balloon because I got dowsed with red water, as did the counter.  Good thing I'd had the forethought to bring a towel.  Lesson learned:  Put the dye inside the balloon prior to filling with water.   I made the first one in red, and put it in the freezer.  

Russell saw my query on FB and suggested I try filling the balloon with a water bottle.  I dripped the blue dye inside the balloon, attached it to the water bottle, but it didn't have the pressure behind it to stretch the balloon.  I gave the water bottle a little squeeze to help it along.  After I let off my squeezing, blue dye shot up into the bottle from the balloon, then the balloon blew off and a spurt of water went so high that the drops landed right on top of my head and were all over my glasses.  I busted out laughing as I mopped up for the second time in 10 minutes. 

Eventually I was able to get a whole bunch of balloons filled with coloured water.  The balloons aren't much bigger than softballs.  I had them all in my freezer, but I got scared that once they started to freeze the balloons might burst and the slush would explode, just like pop cans have done in the freezer.  I moved them out to the deck at about 4:30 pm.

It was 26* with 100% chance of snow expected and a winter storm warning in effect.

This is at about 6:30 pm.  Not frozen yet.  I'm getting impatient, but one of my friends said it'd take hours. Overnight, even.

Then at 9:30 pm.  I prodded a couple but they were still liquid.

Woke up in the morning and checked them....nope, still not frozen!!  WTF?  So I put them in my freezer  for an hour, where my fears of the balloons breaking and floods occurring soon came true. Fortunately the one that burst was the clear water one.  I raced to get them into a pot when the purple watered balloon sprung a leak.

I got them outside and began to peel off the balloons, and each ice ball began to leak profusely, soaking my gloves.  The blue one on the far right completely emptied.

The green is almost entirely liquified inside.

Hard to tell, but that's a gaping hole in the side of the yellow, and the dyed water spilled out all over the ground.  Don't eat yellow snow!  lol

And here is where they will melt, under the tree.  That's as far as I could get them before my fingers froze inside my soaked gloves.  The blue one was the first casualty, as it fell apart when I took it off the railing.

So I believe that my experiment was a failure, but only due to poor freezing conditions.  It never got cold enough.  My friend Mary out in Idaho also tried this with her kids the same night I did mine, and because their region was in a massive cold snap with temps hovering near 2*F for days on end, hers froze solid outside.

This is what they looked like by about 3:00 p.m., all the liquid having drained into the snow below.

The bottoms of the balls with the dyed snow.

Will I try this again?  Maybe, but only if it's going to be in the teens.  Clearly this project needs the right outdoor temperature to work effectively, and putting them in the freezer isn't an option unless they are contained in a tray to catch any leaks.