Wordless Wednesday: This is September?

Blizzard is OVER!

Well, the forecasters were pretty accurate in one regard. The snow ended right around 4:00 this afternoon!

This was what I woke up to this morning....




At 9:30 my neighbor cleared my driveway....




By 1:45 we had this much additional snow....




And after it was all over around 5:00....




Aren't these the cutest faces ever?







I do have to admit that I love the look of untouched snow....





My cousin stopped by around 5:45 tonight and shoveled the sidewalk and cleared some of the driveway up by the garage door. It was his friend that lives across the street that had cleared it earlier so he didn't have as much to clear as he thought. He said city streets weren't all that good but that's the usual around here.

I'm staying in yet tonight and we'll see how things look tomorrow. I don't have to go out, but there are a couple errands I could do.

Hopefully this is it for the year.....

but something tells me it won't be!

Beginning of a Blizzard in Ohio.....

We had a winter storm watch then warning for this weekend. Late afternoon it was changed to a blizzard warning. When I left work at 4:00 it was snowing but not too bad. The streets weren't too bad and there was about an inch of snow on the ground.

Of course, Pepper and Paige were enjoying the snow....

Here's Pepper just having fun!




Here's both of them checking out the neighbor's back yard.




And, here's Pepper playing in the backyard 2 hours later.




It is still snowing, the roads are snow covered and the plows haven't been out yet. I'm guessing we've got a couple of inches. Tomorrow is supposed to be blizzard conditions. The warning is until 4:00 p.m. Who knows what we'll wake up to!

Thank goodness I have no plans to go away this weekend. My cousin and his sons will be clearing my driveway but we decided Sunday would be OK especially since this is a storm with a 1-2 punch....

I.am.SO.ready.for.spring.

In Like A Lion.....

Out Like A Lamb?

I can only hope!

Well, not exactly true as Sat and Sun were rather nice days. In fact, On Sunday I took the dogs for a walk to check out the construction of the new swimming pool.

But today..... ugh.....

Rain all morning then it turned to an icy rain and sleet. When I left work at normal time, I had to get help to open the doors of my SUV. Completely iced over! With the defrosting going full blast inside the SUV, I attempted to scrape the windows. After about 20 minutes I got enough of a view out the window to drive home.





I made it home in one piece. Here's the SUV after the trip home on the slushy/icy streets.




Around 4 1/2 hours after I got home I went out to the garage and noticed that most of the ice was still on the SUV!!!

And, one of my favorite photos to take.... my hens and chicks although this time they are covered with ice.





Oh yeah, we're supposed to be getting snow on top of this.

And, needless to say the river is already flooded so there's a very good chance we'll have more flooding like we did in February....

Is it spring yet?

Blizzard - Day 2

Woke up this morning to hear that my employer canceled 1st shift :) Made me a happy camper especially after I looked outside.

The drifts at the garage door were close to 2 feet in places. Not sure the 4-wheel drive would have made it thru since I would have had to back out.

As the day went on, I was getting more and more upset since the guy I hired to clear the drive never showed up and he had told me yesterday he would do it again today! Not to mention the 3 closest neighbors to me are all guys in their 30's. Of course, one is the guy who flaked on me. One used to do it but stopped several years ago (when flake took over). And, in a dire situation a couple of years ago I asked #3 to help and offered payment but he refused. Today all 3 of them looked at my drive, saw that I was home but did any of them ask if I needed it done.... NO.

I tried shoveling an area for the dogs and had to quit after 5 minutes. Went back out later and just tried to knock some of the snow in the deep areas down so it wouldn't go up the exhaust pipe in the morning. Didn't get very far with that either.

But, about 5:30 the dogs started going crazy so I thought my friend might be out there. Nope. It was some guy in a pickup and I didn't recognize him. He was plowing my driveway. When done he just drove away.

For once, somebody did something nice for me without me asking....

Thank you whoever you are.

Today's pics:

7:30 a.m.















10:00 a.m.















10:00 a.m.

BLIZZARD!!!

Ohio version that is.

On Sunday, it was a winter storm warning.
On Monday, it was changed to a heavy snow warning. Tuesday 1 a.m. to Wednesday 7 a.m.

Today at 1:15 p.m. it was changed again.

Blizzard Warning until 7:00 Wednesday a.m.

My employer decided that we could leave early once any necessary work was done. Several left before lunch and the rest of us stayed a little longer. The IT guy and I left at 2:15. I wasn't worried about getting home since I have 4-wheel drive. The drive wasn't too bad since it was all in town driving. Days like this I'm super glad I live and work in the same town. The wind had really kicked up by this time so there was lots of snow blowing across the roads.

I was actually more worried about my driveway. The guy I had arranged to clear my driveway this winter (lives across the street) hasn't done it yet! Sunday I saw a friend and asked if he would do it for me. He also lives in the neighborhood so he wouldn't have to go far. He said he would. He knows what time I get off work so I was afraid that since I was early, it wouldn't be done. At first it looked like it wasn't but then I realized that there were piles along the edge of the driveway that weren't there before. He called after I had been home a couple of hours and told me he had done it late morning-early afternoon. When he called we were having very high winds and it was still snowing. I couldn't even see my tracks from 2 hours earlier! He wondered if he needed to do it again before I go to work in the morning. Luckily my employer has no problem with us waiting to come in during daylight hours so I told him that. I also said I'd just put it in 4-wheel drive and barrel my way out if needed!

Here's my driveway at 7:15 this morning....















Here it is at 2:45 this afternoon....















And, here it is at 6:00 this evening....















These 2 pictures show the bush in the front flower bed at 2:45 and 6:00.
































And this is how far the snow has drifted against the garage door a little over 3 hours.














Now I have to admit, it is pretty to look at now that I am home and I don't have to go back out. But, even with that, can I say how much I hate winter?!?!?!?

Artic cold weather...... I HATE IT!

I.hate.cold.

I.should.really.live.in.Florida.or.Hawaii.

But.I.live.in.Ohio.....

We've had the very cold temperatures here the last couple of days with wind chills below zero. I don't function well in cold weather. Heck, even my dogs don't like it outside. They go out and do their thing and come right back in. Pepper usually likes to check things out when he's outside. He is very content to spend time outside, sometimes I can't get him to come in but not these days.

Now for the point of this blog. I've got a garage and I put the garden hoses in the garage during the cold months. In October, I brought them in and for a few days there was water dripping out of them that had been in the hoses. But, I haven't seen dripping water since early November.

The scene today.....
















Dang if it ain't cold!