This morning at 8 a.m. the snow was coming down hard, but by 11 it stopped and changed to sleet. The driveway, which is 300 feet long and up a steep hill to the road was covered with a new layer of 3 inches of wet, slippery, sloppy snow. Just enough to make the roads slippery and too damned dangerous to drive on. Another job lost, but fortunately, rescheduled for later in the week. Now, the 3 inches that fell during the night was on top of the 12 inches we got Sunday - sure makes for a lot of work for an old codger.



Those of you that use a snow blower every winter know what a wet, sloppy snow does - plugs the discharge chute like a frozen cork. Consequently, you spend a lot of time unplugging the chute so you can finish the arduous task before the temperature begins to fall and everything turns to a cake of ice.

The only problem about driving in snow in this part of the world is that if there is any snow at all, the schools close. When that happens, all the high school kids with 4-wheel drive Jeeps hit the snow covered roads to have fun while driving like nut cases. They think it's neat to go busting down the road until they loose control and run into a recently harvested cornfield. "Hey, I have 4-wheel drive - I can drive under any conditions." Yeah - Right!

I was broadsided by one of these individuals several years ago - my cost, $15,000 and the loss of a half-dozen jobs. Yes, I'm fully insured, but as anyone that has been involved in an accident knows, you only get book value for your vehicle - not replacement value. My van was 10 years old, in great shape, and probably would have lasted another 5 years if this idiot kid hadn't nailed me while playing in the snow. So, the insurance company paid me $1,200 for my old van, and I had to purchase a new one, that cost $16,000.

So, my policy is as stated in the past and clearly spelled out in my contract that I send out annually - freezing rain or snow at either end means I'm not gonna go. It's just not worth it.

Yeah, I know there are folks that claim they love the change of seasons and all that stuff, but for me, the only thing white I want to see during the dead of winter is that sugar white sand on the beaches of the Florida Keys. Some white, puffy clouds in a clear, blue sky are OK, too. The only ice I want to see is just enough to keep my Margaretta chilled to 32 degrees and situated in a 12-ounce glass with a little salt around the rim. OH YEAH!





Maybe we can get a Winter Synthzone Jam set up for Marathon Key, Florida for 2015 - sure would be nice.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary, My boat won't sail that far.

We got 6 inches last week and another 3 inches a couple of days later, My driveway is only maybe 60' long. I'm not as rich as you.

Also 90% of the time the snow is mostly dry. We are between -4 and -7 at night and haven't been above the low 20's but once or twice and we won't get above freezing for some days to come. When it's this bad in December, usually January and February are more tamed with less snow.

Here in Norway we mostly have two seasons during the year, the white winter and the green winter!

Jonny, which do you do best? Play the keyboard or ski? LOL

I was in Oslo when I was a kid in the Navy - it was freezing cold there in early June. Went to Copenhagen a couple weeks later, it was a little warmer, the ladies were beautiful and I didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, the Navy had some nasty regulations about jumping ship so we left there and went to Hamburg for a couple weeks. I would have rather stayed longer in Oslo or Copenhagen, but I wouldn't want to be at either location when winter arrived.

Cheers,

Gary

Copenhagen is cool in summer, but rather mild in winter, averaging around 0C/32F. And the west coast of Norway is even milder due to the Gulf stream, Bergen has an average of 2C / 36F in January, very different to Oslo and warmer than NYC although it's so far north. But the flip side again: no real summer...
We still haven't had any snow yet here in the western part of Germany, and I haven't missed it yet.

@Gunnar Jonny: BTW, I didn't believe it one or two weeks ago when I saw on my favourite weather site that Oslo had an afternoon temperature of 14 C (57F), while at the same time some mediterranean locations like ROME had 7 C (45F) and some places in Southern Germany were even below freezing. Really upside down conditions, but it didn't last long of course...

Hehe, I really do hope I'm a bit better at the keyboard than skiing.
If not so, I feel bad for the pain of those ears who are unlucky enogh to hear me act like playng.

You know Gary, it's our beautiful ladies who keep us warm, not only when snow and ice rules, but also during the green winter to make us forget the bad weather conditions.

FWIW ... the average temp in NYC in January actually ranges between 36F and 39F depending on the source ... December and February are warmer ...