We showed up to work during snow

I live in southern California now and I don't miss the snow.  

Years ago, I really resented it when I would be one of the few (sometimes one of the two) people who made their way to work and ran the library by trading off doing clerical and librarian work all through the day. 

Got no thanks for it. 

Got no credit for doing this.  

And, by the way, I was the person who lived the furthest away from the library branch. All the nearby people refused to come in and work.

This happened over and over agin when I was working part time and also when I worked full time. In fact at one library system all of us part timers were called into a meeting where they laid down the law about us having to be on time , etc. etc. etc. And when I pointed out that some of us came in and worked when the full timers didn't during snow days, Crickets.

Memories of snow

 With all the snow (and rain) hitting the west coast, I was remembering when we were hit with lots of snow in Maryland:  

We got over 5 feet of snow once just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. It was not fun shoveling out. My husband would wake up every few hours to start up the snow blower to make a path to get the latest layer off the sidewalk from the driveway to our house. But when daylight came, we had to use hand shovels to clear off the driveway all the way up a small hill to the road. Then the snowplow would come by and block our driveway entrance with ice and snow and we had to break through that - several times during the day. 

Not to mention that my boss kept calling, trying to convince me to get to work, but it went to the recording because we were outside shoveling. When we took a break, we listened to her messages, most of which were her YELLING -- Wendie! Pick up! Pick up the phone! Stupid lady had some strange idea that we could hear her telephone recording (which we couldn't - it was being recorded) and were purposefully ignoring her. She had made it to work because she lived near the bay and the branch library where I worked was near the bay and had gotten much less snow. 

Snowmageddon

Memories of snow storms past:

It was always interesting that I would manage to get to work after a snowstorm - me who lived the farthest away from the branch - and some of those who lived closer never showed up. This happened when I worked at BCPL as well as when I worked for HCPL. 
It was lucky that we librarians at HCPL had been given a bit of clerical training, because the rule was that the branch had to have at least one person with knowledge of basic check-out there before the branch could open. So many times one year it was just Helen Evans and me. We'd take turns working each desk. 
And then there was the branch manager who yelled at me several times about not having a cell phone. (cell phones were new and expensive at that time, and she was the only one that had one) When she called my house, I was either outside shoveling the driveway so that I could get to work, or else I was creeping my way to work over ice or snow. She marked me down for not calling into work to let them -her- know I'd be late. (Sometime thereafter, she was the one who was fired, not me.)

But this year - I suggest you stay home. It seems to be a Snowmageddon year.

snow

Well, the East Coast gets hit again with snow.
Yesterday the library opened late and closed early. As per tradition, they closed the moment that it would be the most difficult to get home.

"Library's closing at 5:00pm." It seemed like a logical time. Especially since a group of workers had to complete an online training program which was being offered at 4:00. But -- from 4:15 on, customers were telling us that it was now raining. That it was now sleet with rain.

When we finally closed the library, we stepped out onto ice-covered sidewalks.
Oooops.
Back we went to get the Ice-Melt.
Sprinkled Ice-Melt in a path to our cars.
Back we went to get our bags and off we trudged to the cars.
By the time I reached Route 40, it was Slain. (Snow mixed with rain.)
by the time I reached the exit to the Whitemarsh bypass, it was a blizzard. And slippery.

Well, I did all right. I just kept moving along at 30 miles an hour. Then 20 miles an hour. Then... well, you get the picture. Other people who gunned their cars to move away when the lights turned green ended up fish-tailing all over the road.

On the other hand, I couldn't see the dotted lines, so for a while I was weaving all over the road. Finally, when I reached a pack of traffic (does traffic travel in packs?), I was able to stay in my own lane, following the lights of the car(s) ahead.

I refused to take my normal exit -- which is an uphill exit ending in a stoplight. Instead, I took the next exit which is a downhill exit leading to a smooth ride to my home.
It only took an hour to drive what is usually a 25 minute trip from work to home.

We got over a foot of snow -- wet, heavy snow. But most of the shoveling is done because my husband had put the snowplow onto the lawn mower and worked on plowing the driveway and the 100 foot brick walk until the snow ended later in the evening. Today, we're just doing touch-up.
Our Steps leading from all 3 doors.
the ends of the driveway where the city snowplows have pushed (and keep on pushing) piles of snow.
Around the trash cans.
A path to the bird feeders. (The birds feeders are snow-covered and they only have one access point to the seeds. Gotta uncover the others.)
The 300+ feet of sidewalk along the road.

We still have electricity.
None of our trees fell. I've heard about several falling on friend's cars, already.
Life is good.
Snowy, but good.
-wendieO

Nonfiction Monday -- The Story of Snow

The Story of Snow, The Science of Winter's Wonder by Mark Cassino and Jon Nelson. Illustrated by Nora Aoyagi. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2009. (but just arrived at our library)

Hmmmm. I do believe that a week in May, when 90 degrees is predicted, is the Perfect Time to talk about SNOW.

Snow begins "high up in the sky, in a cloud that is very, very cold." It needs a speck of something to grow -- the source of 5 possible specks are illustrated. It even could be floating bacteria.

Ah, now it gets interesting.
Beginning with a drawing showing, in 12 steps, the formation of a six-sided snowflake, the rest of the book is illustrated with a collage of photographs of actual snowflakes. Wonderful photographs!

Double-page spreads each discuss one shape of snow crystal -- stars, plates, columns -- with beautiful examples.

The fun part comes near the end of the book -- How to catch your own snow crystals!
The back endpapers contains a quote from Ukichiro Nakaya, a Japanese scientist, "A snow crystal is a letter from the sky."

This book would be great to pair with the picture book biography of Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, a Caldecott winner whose illustrator is Mary Azarian.

More Nonfiction Monday posts can be found at 100 Scope Notes. Check out the nontraditional book reviews. Lots of reviewers were having fun today with various formats. -wendieO

Digging out

I keep meaning to post a message here, but I've been too tired.
We've had two snowstorms, one 26 inches and the one several days later -- over 15 inches. It took us two and a half days to shovel out from the two footer. We haven't even tried to shovel out from this last one. Just cleared the way for our cars to reach the street and shoveled a narrow path to the door we use when we leave the house.

Maybe we'll work some more on clearing things on Sunday. However, the piles of snow surrounding the cleared areas are reaching 6 feet or more. I simply can't throw over them anymore.

I keep wondering how people handle this in Upper New York/ Vermont/ New Hampshire/ Maine. (actually, people there are complaining that they are not getting their usual amounts of snow this year -- we've stolen it.)

Oh, a funny thing happened while we were shoveling out on Thursday. A young man came by and offered to help us shovel out if we would pay him $10. We should have taken him up on this.

However, being honest, we pointed out everything that needed to be shoveled. (see the driveway -- it needs to be cleared over to those bent down spruce trees. And they have to have the snow shaken off them, so they will straighten back up allowing the rest of the driveway to be cleared. Then we'll proceed to clear the brick walkway down to that old (18th century) stone oven. The walkway continues around the side of the house....)

By this time he just stood there in shock, jaw dropping open. Then he collected himself, gave himself a little shake, and said, "Carry on." And walked on down the road. (sidewalks are covered with four feet of snow.) He was making himself a tidy sum by charging $10 and spending less than an hour shoveling cars and sidewalks. No way was he going to spend several days with us.
-wendieO

Update on SNOW in Maryland

We, my husband, the two 10-year olds, and I managed to shovel most of the 2 feet of snow out of the thousand-foot driveway. Except for that last bit. The four-foot wall of slush, now ice, pushed onto the end of the driveway by the street snow plow trucks remains.

Here's hoping that we can remove that mess tomorrow morning. Even though my library will be closed and the 10-year-old's school will be closed on Monday, so far my husband's library has not announced what it's going to do. Open or stay closed. Which is why he's in a rush to get the driveway clear.

Writing done this week?
Not so much, once the snow started.
One manuscript almost whipped into shape.
Noodled around with another.
Several speaking contracts mailed (emailed) out.
One speaking gig canceled because of Friday's snow.
-wendieO

Snow -- The Blizzard of 2010

snow:
We got over 2 feet of snow.
Many places in Maryland got more.
We worked at clearing the snow most of the day. I stopped shoveling at sunset.
I didn't feel too bad until I sat down and now every muscle and bone aches.

My husband refused to stop plowing/ shoveling until .. well, until he stopped, because he was afraid he'd never move again after he stopped. But we still haven't reached the street.
We plowed and shoveled the brick walk. He plowed 1/3rd of the driveway while I shoveled my way over to the cars and was able to partially dig out my husband's car. Mine is still under drifts of snow.

He did part of the other third of the driveway and stopped. Now he has to figure out how to get snow off the last third, which is up hill and used to have a drop off where he would push snow, but the drop off is filled up with drifted snow.
Tomorrow, I have to get out there and help him shovel the last third of the driveway to the street.

Unfortunately, temperatures are low -- 20s and teens, so what's left is going to freeze into an ice pack, being even more difficult to plow and shovel tomorrow. But we will keep digging, because we have to. If libraries are open on Monday, we are required to be there. (I even have a program for toddlers scheduled in the morning. Don't know if anyone will show up for it.)

I had a school visit scheduled for Friday, which was cancelled, where I was going to talk about research and revision.
I have a family night program scheduled (in Washington, DC, about an hour and a half away) for Wednesday. It's possible that'll be cancelled, too. Another storm is forecast for then. Next, I have a Reading Association event scheduled Saturday the 20th. Guess what the predictions are for that weekend, too.
Yup, snow.

It used to be that we didn't schedule programs at the library in January because of Ice and snow -- but the seasons have slipped lately and it's Feb and March that seem to have the bad weather, not January.

The 10 year old had a friend sleep over Friday night. The two 10-year olds were very helpful with the snow shoveling. (when they weren't playing in it.) But, since we never were able to reach the street, she's snowed in here and has to sleep over a second night. Tomorrow we hope we can make it to the street so that she can walk to her home several blocks away. I don't think her street has even been plowed, yet. -wendieO

Writing Week? Maybe

When I scheduled a week's vacation for the first week in February, simply to write, I didn't expect so much of the time to be eaten away with other things.

1. Because of the snowstorm on Saturday, I was not able to finish up the planning of the library's Summer Reading Programs. Therefore I have to go back to work on Monday and get them input into the programming database before the 5 pm deadline. (one day gone)

2. So far, Tuesday looks looks like the one day I can concentrate on writing projects.

3. Wednesday? I'll be meeting another writer to work on a joint project. (I'll probably be preparing this on Tuesday.)

4. Thursday -- The January library branch meeting was postponed to this Thursday. I'll be going into work to attend.

5. Friday -- School visit to my granddaughter's school where I will talk about doing research to the 4th and 5th graders. (I'll be preparing for this off and on during my 'writing' week.)

So much for having a week off dedicated to writing.
(I've put a request in to the branch scheduler for a week sometime in April. Maybe I can dedicate that week to writing -- and Spring Cleaning.) -wendieO

Snow 2

Well, the total snowfall in our area of Maryland (as computed by the snow piled on top of the trash cans by our house) was about 20 inches. The sun is out now, temperatures are hovering around freezing (up from 22 degrees last night), and the snow is compacting.

My husband is outside doing a final snowplowing of our 200 yard long brick walkway and our much, much longer driveway. We know from experience that, if we can expose the bricks to sunlight, even in below freezing weather, the trace of snow left after plowing will disappear and we will have a dry, ice-free walkway out to our cars. And an ice-free driveway up the hill to the road.

Now, contesting with the county snowplow will be the problem. County snowplow throws a three foot embankment of snow and ice across the opening to our driveway. We clear enough away to get our cars out and another snowplow blocks it up again. grrrr.

Sooo, how was YOUR weekend?
I'm a-thinkin' I'll be doing more online shopping instead of going to the mall this year. I feel sorry for the stores with no customers, but if I can't get there (or to the post office to mail packages), what else can I do?
-wendieO

Snow

Well, the East Coast has been hit with a NorEaster of a snowstorm. Think back to the blizzards you used to know. Yup. That's what is happening right now -- here. They're predicting about two feet before it's all over.

I spent all day yesterday at work complaining (off and on) that the Saturday staff had it lucky -- they would be able to do Christmas shopping and mailing of packages on Friday AND have a day off on Saturday with the libraries (etc.) closed. Whereas -- we had to work Friday and would not be able to finish our shopping and mailing -- all things that I had planned to do on Saturday.

Yes, we were hit with people who needed books and DVDs to keep them busy indoors during the storm, so at least we had rushes of business at the library. But most people were probably hitting the malls and grocery stores. We closed the branch by turning off many of the electrical things, preparing for a long closure. (We've been told that, if we turned off every computer in every branch at the surge protector, we'd save enough money to pay for another staff member. Good to know in this time of economic crunch.)

When I drove home, the Baltimore beltway was a traffic jam -- almost completely stopped in places with people trying to get home from work plus the holiday shopping crowd. (We're in the middle of Hanukkah, too.)

The 10-year-old and I added to the grocery store mob scene. We stopped there to get milk -- and supplies for making cookies. I figured that we could do the major grocery shopping for the house on Sunday when the storm is supposed to be over. But from the looks of things outside right now, I'm not sure just when grocery schools, libraries, and schools will re-open. It's possible things will be closed on Monday as well, while parking lots are bulldozed out.

My husband stayed up late putting extra wheels and the snowplow on our Gravely mower. He usually plows several times during storms like this.

But --
Once he did this and pushed the snowplow out of its storage place -- it refused to start.
Oh no!
This means that we will have to shovel snow. All two feet of it. It's going to take us all day Sunday to shovel out.
Yikes.
(added later) He tried again to start it this morning and it worked fine. However, all his nice plowing of the 6 inches of snow is now covered up with 3 or 4 more inches.)

Think of us as you enjoy your (comparatively) 'warm' day.
-wendie
http://wendieold.blogspot.com

Making snow

Now why, you are asking yourself, would someone want to make snow when there is already two feet of snow on the ground in Vermont?

Oh, I don't know.
It was an experiment.

My roommate made more bubbles this morning, wondering if they would shatter in the minus 23 F. degree weather. No, so far all the bubbles she blew simply froze. (one is still there. We are going to keep checking to see if it will last the whole day.)

Then she went on to the next experiment -- making snow.
She went outside with a cup of hot water and a cup of cold water.
When she threw the cup of cold water into the air -- it instantly made largish, hail-sized lumps of ice that fell to the ground.

But the hot water?
Amazing!
When she threw the hot water in the air, it came down as fine particles of SNOW.

Another student has told us that, when the weather is much, much colder (minus 50? who knows?), hot water will evaporate completely when you throw it out of the cup. But minus 23 is the coldest it's supposed to be this week, so we'll never know.
-wendieO

It's snowing

It's snowing in Maryland. A week before Thanksgiving. This is the earliest I remember snow happening here. Whatever happened to global warming? Not only is it snowing, but it's sticking to the tree leaves and on the grass.

The Weather service predicts a wetter than normal winter. Combined with cold means that middle states like Maryland could be in for a series of ice storms. Oh goodie. My least favorite weather. At least this year I'm working at a library near a major highway. When we had ice storms in the 1990s, I was working at a country library and was terrified driving those winding roads curving down to the two rivers I had to cross and then back up the hills, again.

The first snow storm of the year was last Tuesday. (Okay, they were snow showers.)
I drove through snow showers as I was returning home after having given a program at one of the Enoch Pratt Free Library branches about my adventures while researching the various books I wrote. (I was shot at when on an Air Force Base. I raced through a bad section of a town, taking pictures of buildings. I stood for hours taking pictures in 20 degree F. weather. (that's below freezing for those of you who only know Celcius ) And I was stalked at the Jefferson Memorial -- by a photographer for a cable program.

As I arranged the transparencies spread out all over my bed preparing for this program, I kept mumbling to myself that pretty soon I was gonna need to put all this stuff on powerpoint. Which means buying the software, the projector, and taking the time to learn the program and putting it together.
-wendieO

San Diego, I miss you already

(sign of a split personality?)

Friday I flew to San Diego, California. Saturday, I came back.
Why? Because the 8-year old had been invited to go skiing by her Aunt and Uncle.

It's been a thrilling weekend for her. When we landed in San Diego, we discovered we had flown from cold winter weather to balmy 65 degree sunshine. Lovely. And my youngest daughter was waiting for us -- for the 8-year old, actually. With a cry of, "Mommy!" the 8 year old threw herself into my daughter's arms. And spent the next two hours jabbering away at her.

Then my oldest daughter and her husband showed up to pick up the 8-year old and whisk her away to the mountains of California -- and back to winter, again. (Southern California is strange that way.) Meanwhile I had a lovely visit that afternoon with my youngest daughter.

Saturday, I flew back to winter in Baltimore. I had noticed many people watching DVDs and otherwise using their computers on airplane trips, so I decided to try doing that. However -- I got bumped off my computer (low battery) after less than an hour of working on a book project. grumpf. I wonder if that's normal for my laptop, or does it need fresh batteries? (these are the same ones that they came with when it was new, quite a few years ago.)

Now the weather here has really turned to winter here in Baltimore, with single digit temperatures at night. brrrr. So we finally began using the wood stove, along with the radiant heaters that have worked so well so far this year.

Yes, that is our house -- computers in the same room as the wood stove. Modern technology existing alongside ancient technology. What can I say? It's a 1740 farmhouse with stone walls 23 inches thick -- that absorbs the cold and radiates it into the house. The only thing that really can counter the cold walls during the winter is an open fire in a fireplace or a closed wood stove.

Tomorrow I will plow through a snow/ice storm to the airport to meet the 8-year old as she flys home. It'll be her first plane ride by herself. Since her Aunt and Uncle want her to come visit often, this trip will be a test to see if she can handle flying by herself. Wish us luck.

-wendieO