![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Not this one....
....this one:
We'll trace that trail in greater detail, but first a general update on what's goin' on around here:
When we arose, for the first time in about 48-60 hours, we could see out our front windows.
Hard to tell with the drifting, but the media estimates of four feet are probably close. Once I got out into it out back, that estimate seemed to hold.
In the wee smalls, I thought I heard a town plow going by, but that appears to have been one of my weird dreams. There, it joined my others, that included watching a PBS movie and having Goldie Gardner interrupt it for a pledge break; and then messing up an appointment with my current Buffalo therapist who was now at our former Rochester therapist's office (no wonder I messed it up).
The Blizzard portion of our storm is essentially over, but largely thanks to the hundreds of idiots who didn't listen to the driving ban (which is still on) and abandoned their stuck cars in the middle of impassible roads, it's going to take days to even begin the digout. It's probably a blessing for the sake of the cleanup that everything would have been closed today anyway- except the churches, Chinese restaurants and cinemas (sorry, M.O.T's) and, of course, the iconic Elmwood Village institution that was shown last night to live up to its name:
That report was written around 9 this morning. After caffeine and a check of the state of the world, I headed to the yard for my first foray beyond the doors in over two full days....
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: dig a path between the back doors for the dog, and make sure the furnace and dryer vents are clear.
This snow will self-destruct in five weeks.
Good luck, Ray.
For those 48 hours, Pepper's routine was to be diverted from the dining room back door out to the garage, used as an airlock to get the snow off her before returning inside. Her first trip out after the snow began, she seemed joyful- for about five minutes, until the cold and wind chill got under even her fur coat. The rest of the trips yesterday and earlier this morning were short and shit. Now, though, the sun was out and she could romp behind me as I cleared the path from the garage back door to her more familiar dining room portal and then beyond it along the house where the vents are.
We looked east.
We looked west.
And then the Big Dig began.
----
All those annoying squats and the deadlifts at the gym, along with the rowing, proved quite useful as the shovel motion went legs/core/arms and back down. Ma Nature had kindly provided a trench along the back of the house, so there was only about four feet of shoveling four feet worth before we got to it:
As the wabbit twacks proved, we hadn't been the first to get in to this convenient path. I continued up to the backyard grill, which, thanks to never losing power, we'd never had to resort to using for cooking or boiling water:
Beyond it, the back steps awaited, the wind having partly cleared them, and the vents looking clear but not for long:
After a brief stop back inside to let in the wussy dog, warm up and show off those pictures, it was time to get busy again. The clearance job was quick-
- while the sun was brilliant, the sound of nearby snowblowers was starting to fill the air, and the new patio was holding up fine-
(with a sensor out there somewhere still humorously reading 33F).
I gave the newly christened Pepper Expressway (seen way up top) one more pass before returning to the garage, and quickly checked out front:
Nope, not going out that door anytime soon. Beyond it, though, more tracks, these not of bunnies-
Oh deer. No sign of any tire tracks in the unplowed street, which remains the case some five hours later. The overall death toll from this event, regionwide, is up to at leastseven ten; over 500 cars had to be attended to on account of idiots going out when they were repeatedly warned not to; the airport remains closed at least through all day tomorrow; and the victorious Bills stayed the night in Chicago and flew today.... to Rochester, much less affected by the storm.
We have an extensive grocery list we hope can be filled tomorrow by at least early afternoon. I hadn't planned on working anyway, so that will be the main priority. Until then, we have food for us and everybody else under the roof, plenty still to watch, and after I finished that effort outside this morning, I had a very enjoyable and interesting listen through my phone.
----
I've mentioned here before that I've been a longtime listener to a Rochester radio personality who started on the air there just before I arrived in 1984 and retired from its classic rocker just last year. For almost all of my years there and all of his on 96.5 WCMF, Dave Kane shared a Thanksgiving serving or two of the Alice's Restaurant Massacree with his listeners. After we moved, at least once in pre-Internet radio days, I drove to the east edge of our own suburbs around noon to pick up the signal unimpeded by the adjacent 97 Rock. Now that things stream, it became my serenade on the drive home from the Turkey Trot, or, after he retired from the radio and I from outdoor running last year, as a special event just streamed from his home and picked up in ours. A few months ago, he stuck a toe out of retirement for two hours each Sunday, to reprise his longrunning CMF morning "Breakfast with the Beatles" show on Rochester and Ithaca's public radio FMs, which we are members of.
Beatle Christmas music, and their annual Christmas message recordings sent on floppy plastic vinyl to their fan club members in the 60s, are legendary, so I sat in after my morning workout and listened to both their holidayish songs and many others from the band and its four voices. While I always enjoy the show for the music and Dave's commentary in general, it was especially fun listening to this morning's on headphone.
Yes, singular. I’ve had shit hearing in my right ear since I was 9 years old after rupturing that eardrum. So I just put the left bud in…. and, with older or remastered albums that are still broadcast in stereo, you get two different tracks on each side. Hearing the unique separate harmonies and instrumentation on “Norwegian Wood” and “My Sweet Lord”, and switching the L and R buds into my L ear, makes these old favorites completely new again.
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. But I don’t play their records backwards at slow speed. It screws up your needle;)
I sent Dave a message during the show thanking him for coming back for these two hours a week, along with a link I just found to a documentary about a Woodstock-era concert up in Toronto that I'd never heard of before, featuring the first appearance by John's Plastic Ono Band. He much appreciated it; it has yet to achieve a US release but is playing in Toronto over the next several days. I'd consider a road trip to see it if there's, you know, a road by then.
Until then, I think I'll just enjoy what we've got here. There's certainly plenty to dig.
Much of which will be recapped over the next several days in the traditional Year in Review segments, coming very soon to a Dreamwidth near you....
....this one:
We'll trace that trail in greater detail, but first a general update on what's goin' on around here:
When we arose, for the first time in about 48-60 hours, we could see out our front windows.
Hard to tell with the drifting, but the media estimates of four feet are probably close. Once I got out into it out back, that estimate seemed to hold.
In the wee smalls, I thought I heard a town plow going by, but that appears to have been one of my weird dreams. There, it joined my others, that included watching a PBS movie and having Goldie Gardner interrupt it for a pledge break; and then messing up an appointment with my current Buffalo therapist who was now at our former Rochester therapist's office (no wonder I messed it up).
The Blizzard portion of our storm is essentially over, but largely thanks to the hundreds of idiots who didn't listen to the driving ban (which is still on) and abandoned their stuck cars in the middle of impassible roads, it's going to take days to even begin the digout. It's probably a blessing for the sake of the cleanup that everything would have been closed today anyway- except the churches, Chinese restaurants and cinemas (sorry, M.O.T's) and, of course, the iconic Elmwood Village institution that was shown last night to live up to its name:
That report was written around 9 this morning. After caffeine and a check of the state of the world, I headed to the yard for my first foray beyond the doors in over two full days....
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: dig a path between the back doors for the dog, and make sure the furnace and dryer vents are clear.
This snow will self-destruct in five weeks.
Good luck, Ray.
For those 48 hours, Pepper's routine was to be diverted from the dining room back door out to the garage, used as an airlock to get the snow off her before returning inside. Her first trip out after the snow began, she seemed joyful- for about five minutes, until the cold and wind chill got under even her fur coat. The rest of the trips yesterday and earlier this morning were short and shit. Now, though, the sun was out and she could romp behind me as I cleared the path from the garage back door to her more familiar dining room portal and then beyond it along the house where the vents are.
We looked east.
We looked west.
And then the Big Dig began.
----
All those annoying squats and the deadlifts at the gym, along with the rowing, proved quite useful as the shovel motion went legs/core/arms and back down. Ma Nature had kindly provided a trench along the back of the house, so there was only about four feet of shoveling four feet worth before we got to it:
As the wabbit twacks proved, we hadn't been the first to get in to this convenient path. I continued up to the backyard grill, which, thanks to never losing power, we'd never had to resort to using for cooking or boiling water:
Beyond it, the back steps awaited, the wind having partly cleared them, and the vents looking clear but not for long:
After a brief stop back inside to let in the wussy dog, warm up and show off those pictures, it was time to get busy again. The clearance job was quick-
- while the sun was brilliant, the sound of nearby snowblowers was starting to fill the air, and the new patio was holding up fine-
(with a sensor out there somewhere still humorously reading 33F).
I gave the newly christened Pepper Expressway (seen way up top) one more pass before returning to the garage, and quickly checked out front:
Nope, not going out that door anytime soon. Beyond it, though, more tracks, these not of bunnies-
Oh deer. No sign of any tire tracks in the unplowed street, which remains the case some five hours later. The overall death toll from this event, regionwide, is up to at least
We have an extensive grocery list we hope can be filled tomorrow by at least early afternoon. I hadn't planned on working anyway, so that will be the main priority. Until then, we have food for us and everybody else under the roof, plenty still to watch, and after I finished that effort outside this morning, I had a very enjoyable and interesting listen through my phone.
----
I've mentioned here before that I've been a longtime listener to a Rochester radio personality who started on the air there just before I arrived in 1984 and retired from its classic rocker just last year. For almost all of my years there and all of his on 96.5 WCMF, Dave Kane shared a Thanksgiving serving or two of the Alice's Restaurant Massacree with his listeners. After we moved, at least once in pre-Internet radio days, I drove to the east edge of our own suburbs around noon to pick up the signal unimpeded by the adjacent 97 Rock. Now that things stream, it became my serenade on the drive home from the Turkey Trot, or, after he retired from the radio and I from outdoor running last year, as a special event just streamed from his home and picked up in ours. A few months ago, he stuck a toe out of retirement for two hours each Sunday, to reprise his longrunning CMF morning "Breakfast with the Beatles" show on Rochester and Ithaca's public radio FMs, which we are members of.
Beatle Christmas music, and their annual Christmas message recordings sent on floppy plastic vinyl to their fan club members in the 60s, are legendary, so I sat in after my morning workout and listened to both their holidayish songs and many others from the band and its four voices. While I always enjoy the show for the music and Dave's commentary in general, it was especially fun listening to this morning's on headphone.
Yes, singular. I’ve had shit hearing in my right ear since I was 9 years old after rupturing that eardrum. So I just put the left bud in…. and, with older or remastered albums that are still broadcast in stereo, you get two different tracks on each side. Hearing the unique separate harmonies and instrumentation on “Norwegian Wood” and “My Sweet Lord”, and switching the L and R buds into my L ear, makes these old favorites completely new again.
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. But I don’t play their records backwards at slow speed. It screws up your needle;)
I sent Dave a message during the show thanking him for coming back for these two hours a week, along with a link I just found to a documentary about a Woodstock-era concert up in Toronto that I'd never heard of before, featuring the first appearance by John's Plastic Ono Band. He much appreciated it; it has yet to achieve a US release but is playing in Toronto over the next several days. I'd consider a road trip to see it if there's, you know, a road by then.
Until then, I think I'll just enjoy what we've got here. There's certainly plenty to dig.
Much of which will be recapped over the next several days in the traditional Year in Review segments, coming very soon to a Dreamwidth near you....