I was born and raised in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. Went to undergraduate in Rochester, NY. Moved to New England for graduate school and stayed. Which is to say, I am familiar with winter. I have never spent a winter anywhere it didn't get cold and snow. And I am ready for spring. Follow me across pile the plow just shoved across the driveway after a word from our sponsor...
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Casa Brillig has had two major snowstorms in the past couple of weeks. The late January snowstorm (I refuse to use the Weather Channel's naming system) started like this:
Two snow days, 2+ feet of snow, and much shoveling later, we were through it. We do not own a snowblower, so things like paths got just what we could manage:
But wait! There's more! The following week, we got hit with another snowstorm that dropped another two feet of snow, beginning as we watched the Super Bowl (and ::gasp:: delaying the celebratory victory parade by a day because there was NO way anything was moving on Boston streets Tuesday). A look at Casa Brillig's view - the first is the snow pile next to my minivan, the second is the impression of Mr. Brillig's Mini-Cooper in the snowdrift:
Our Mayor said this to city residents (excerpted):
Right now, we have almost 50 inches of snow on the ground, which is the largest total over a 10-day period in the history of greater Boston [....] Here are some unavoidable facts:
Challenges
It’s February 3, it’s extremely cold, and this snow is not going away. Therefore, we are going to have to adjust in many ways, as a community, to this reality.
All of our roads are incredibly narrow, because, like on your own property, there is simply no place to push the snow.
There is a tremendous amount of snow piled up on corners, making visibility challenging. There are tens of thousands of corners in the city, so we need to prioritize removal.
After the first storm, we brought over 800 loads to the snow dump on Route 99, and we are running out of space. Removal of snow is highly regulated by the federal government. We can’t just put it anywhere.
I give him a lot of credit for saying what everyone knows and no one ever says: that sometimes, it is what it is and we can't make it all better.
Which brings us to today, and the latest snowstorm. Weather forecasts put us in the 18"-24" zone, meaning our snowdrifts are too high for me to shovel the snow onto. This is what our poor grill, and our front hedges, looked like at 4pm today... at a total of only 3" of additional snow so far:
Yes, add another 12-18" on top of that and I can officially say I am tired of snow. We have used all our snow days, as school is officially cancelled tomorrow. We are in FAR better shape than Boston, which has used several more than us, leaving parents in a lurch for tomorrow AND Tuesday. We are going to be looking at piles of snow until who knows when, which reminds me I need to find a snowpile pool to join and hopefully win a few bucks :-)).
Can you help a snow-weary Kossack out with talk of warm weather, tropical vacation destinations, and other niceties to tide me over until I have to shovel out the driveway tomorrow morning to get my car to the glass repair place. Because in all this frigid cold and snow, my had-a-chip-and-got-repaired-in-July windshield cracked completely across and must be repaired.
With grateful thanks in advance, I bring you Top Comments!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Wee Mama:
This thread started by indycam proves that kogs are crazy, but in the very nicest way. From tmservo433's Hatemail Palooza: The Response to my Roald Dahl Diary, Good & Bad.
From Puddytat and Mopshell:
Puddy says: Swallow anything in your mouth before viewing this pictoral Top Comment by muddy boots that clearly shows what Glenn Becks problem truly is.
Mopshell says: This is a delight! In frankzappatista's HAHAHA Glenn Beck HAHAHA measles HAHA DERP! was this single-line comment, with a perfect cartoon illustration
From Yours Truly, brillig:
I didn't have nearly enough time to mine tonight... but as I perused Rand Paul: Traffic laws should be voluntary, this simple statement by willard landreth basically sums up everything.
Top Mojo for yesterday, February 7th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Someone Overheard Them Planning, Years Ago by Gooserock — 130
2) Thanks for the diary- by gramofsam1 — 102
3) Over 330K views and only 60 pieces of hate mail? by CwV — 100
4) You work for big Parmesan !!! by indycam — 92
5) stupid people by Laurence Lewis — 91
6) Like him or not, on this one, Grayson was all by allergywoman — 84
7) Of all the Iraq war lies by Major Kong — 79
8) Mike Luckovich has given me permission to by David Harris Gershon — 74
9) They haven't even come clean about Palin. by Rich in PA — 74
10) The Republicans voted to put her a heartbeat away by orrg1 — 72
11) She is getting older and looks are fading...they by nocynicism — 64
12) Nah, it's gouda. n/t by ontheleftcoast — 63
13) Yes, and I get so damned sick by anastasia p — 62
14) I just want to make sure... by News Corpse — 62
15) Our helpful staff awaits you by smileycreek — 61
16) I have to share something by Damnit Janet — 60
17) Often it's an accumulation of things, and then by ban nock — 59
18) Actually... by News Corpse — 59
19) Lying isn't a scandal if you work at Fox by Dallasdoc — 59
20) Hey . by indycam — 58
21) Suck it indeed, AT&T. by zenbassoon — 57
22) Yeah, there are some crazy people by tmservo433 — 56
23) And Thank you for writing it. by karma5230 — 51
24) there are costs/benefits to FB fame by annieli — 51
25) Whenever you find yourself feeling down by Eyesbright — 50
26) He's a big fan of Daily Kos, that is. by David Harris Gershon — 50
27) WOW! Rec List. Thank you by Z51Xfire — 50
28) You expect republicans to look back? by WinSmith — 49
29) The only inevitable thing is change by MargaretPOA — 49
30) Well, I guess I hadn't thought of it that way by tmservo433 — 49
Top Pictures for yesterday, February 7th. Click any picture of a cat to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!