WHAT A WEATHER BOMB!!!

If you live in the Maritimes,  you are going to get smacked with snow in the winter.  It is inevitable.  Witness the last thirty six hours.

0:00 hours (2:00 p.m. January 4)  It started to snow around 2:00 in the Chaleur area. We had been warned, so we hardy Maritimers were prepared.  Right?  By evening, it was a raging blizzard, a perfect weather bomb, with high, high winds and blowing, drifting snow.  By the time I went to bed, I knew all snowplows had been removed from the roads.  I managed to squeeze open my door enough, so Vimy could squeak out and have a pee.  He was too traumatized to do anything though.  He was back inside in a flash.

19:00 hours (9:00 a.m. January 5) 1 woke up to 51 cm of snow.   THAT is almost two feet of the white S*&?!  Furthermore, it was STILL SNOWING!   20:00 hours (10:00 a.m.) Out I went, and tried to remove some of the hard, compacted snow off  Jiminy Cricket,  but there was no point.  The WEATHER BOMB was NOT over.   We had had a bit of freezing rain with all that; I heard it hit my windows around dawn.  The path I dug out on one side of Jiminy Cricket, was drifted right back in  in less than half an hour.  However, I HAD POWER... so I was totally grateful.  By the way.  KUDOS to NB Power, for keeping so many of us warm and CONNECTED. :)

I was SMART this time.  I brought my shovels INTO the house. I didn't leave them outside, like I did at the apartment. Fat lot of good they are to you outside, when you can only open your door an inch or two.

During the early morning, the town plow had passed and dumped four feet of HARD, COMPACTED SNOW in the entrance of my driveway, like it did to everyone.  I didn't have a problem with that.  The blizzard had buried Jiminy Cricket.  I didn't have a problem with that. 

While waiting for Santa Claus (that's what I call my snow removal guy, since he looks like him!) to arrive and blow out part of my driveway, I decided to defrost my freezer. I took the same spatula that I used this spring to scrape my windshield in late April.  I tried to use it to remove a half inch of ice off the sides of my freezer, but that was NOT a good idea. My spatula blew up basically!

It is now 23:00 hours (1:00 p.m.) and Santa Claus has shown up. His son, with a half ton pick-up and a plow in front, came ahead of him, to try and move around some of the FOUR FOOT wall of snow that the town plow had left in our driveways.  I was S=0 happy to see him that when he waved, I did a "Namaste" sign and blew him a kiss. He laughed!!

The son's work done, Santa Claus arrived with his small snowplow and succeeded in clearing roughly half of my driveway.  It wasn't HIS fault, that he left me another three feet of  snow IN FRONT of Jiminy Cricket.  Jiminy was REALLY buried now.  All you could see were the wipers!   I didn't have a problem with that.

23:20 hours (1:20 pm)  The town plow passed by barely ten minutes after Santa Claus, and deposited BOULDERS in my driveway.  This scene could be from THE FLINTSTONES, I swear! I am more than a  little ticked, but .... I didn't have a problem with that. 

It took me an hour to dig out Jiminy Cricket!  I figured  I would move him ahead, so that when Santa Claus came back, I could zip out and he could properly clear ALL of my driveway.

By now, I was sick of the snow, the weather bomb and of taking pictures.  Furthermore, I couldn't get Jiminy Cricket to move. He was all cleared out, but spinning his wheels. I broke down and called Handy Bro, for advice, but of course, he jumped in his truck and came right over, bless him.  A lesson in physics later, (which I BARELY passed in high school, by the way!) and Jiminy Cricket has moved down the driveway, closer to the road.  Quicker and easier GETAWAY, I figured.  I didn't have a problem with that.

26:00 hours (4:00 p.m.)  The skies had cleared and the sun tried to make a brief appearance.  I decided to tackle the bottom of the driveway. 

The snow was so heavy, with most of it clumped together in good sized rocks, along with ONE ABSOLUTELY HUMONGOUS BOULDER.  Now, I had a problem with that!   I gave up and went back inside, now worried that I would NEVER, EVER get out of my driveway, and not knowing when Santa Claus was coming back.

28:00 hours (6:00 p.m.)  Out I went again, and tackled that MOUND of rocks and boulders of snow at the bottom of my driveway.  Damned if I was giving up.  It took me a good hour, and I had to PHYSICALLY push that boulder of snow out into the road, and ditch it on the side.  I was then able to advance JC in and out of the driveway a few times, through a very narrow opening, but I still did it.  Short of the town plow making another appearance soon, I should be okay for scooting out tomorrow morning, when HOPEFULLY, Santa Claus returns to do ALL of my driveway. 

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.  What a day! Tomorrow's forecast? EXTREME COLD WARNING = Minus 30 C.