Coldlanta snowmageddon update
and a winter’s tale….
Like all of you, I can’t believe these wintry challenges have actually extended into an entire day and a half. Maybe even two days. There is no end in sight until this evening at the earliest or maybe tomorrow.
We got 4 inches of snow, then we had a light rain for a few hours, and the height of the snow compacted by about 50%, but it was soaking wet. Then we had another four or five hours of snow. At least I think it was snow because it was very, very tiny flakes and lightweight, but it was coming down.
All day temperatures were a few degrees above freezing with cold ground so everything that came down stuck. What was truly amazing is that decrepit old fart Rick spread calcium crystals on the steep driveway on Thursday night, which worked when the snow started coming down, and then he used one of those wide hoe things you use to pull concrete, to clean off half of the steep part of the driveway.
That is the most aerobic exercise I’ve had since before I got hurt in 2014. I was wiped out, but I got it done. And, the physical therapy on my hip has been working marvels, I was in no pain, except I thought my lungs were going to collapse and explode at the same time.
I shifted my focus to getting the Missing Linc ready to head out if needed. I pushed the snow off all the windows, and off the hood. Even though it was charged up, I put the fancy charger on it to keep it topped off just in case.
About the time the sun went down, it went below freezing again, and overnight everything turned too hard ice. To be clear, the pretty snow compacted with the rain and froze into a crusty crunchy ice lab. Then there’s a 3/16 inch thick sheet of ice on top of that, and then there’s a dusting of snow on top of that ice sheet to conceal it (God’s sense of humor). It looks like a winter wonderland, but it’s the wonderland from hell. You can slip and bust your ass if you’re walking, and you could get stuck in a car in a heartbeat.
Shoveling and pulling the snow off the driveway was not the last aerobic workout before the day was over. Lincoln and I snuggled up in the leather recliner in the bedroom, with the Gas Fireplace creating a very cozy warm, and we dozed off trying to watch the recordings of the football games. Just when I got into the deepest sleep, the kind of relaxation that comes from a hard days work, all hell broke loose.
The power jumped on and off about 10 times in a period of about one minute. Then it went out completely for about five minutes, and then it came back on steady. When it flickered back-and-forth, my alarm went off. I’ve got a pretty good loud alarm. Lincoln, a little bit startled, jumped up and turned into the Tasmanian devil. I had already gone into a deep sleep, taken my sleeping pill, and with molasses speed, I rose up in a total fog.
When the power sets my alarm off, I can’t turn it off from the bedroom panel. I have to go to the main panel in the kitchen downstairs, on the opposite end of the house.
The first thing I did in the pitch black dark, was walking straight into the table between my bathroom door and bedroom door, knocking a couple glasses and a tall glass candle holder crashing to the floor. I mean CRASHING! So now I’m in a fog, barefoot, sitting in a couple square yards of broken glass.
However, having a clear frame of reference where I was in the room from walking into the wall, I shuffled my feet over to the bedroom door and headed down the stairs.
When I reached the main panel, pretty much still in a fog, but waking up a little because my heart was racing like a 200hp outboard, I entered my code to turn off the alarm, which was deafening. It didn’t go off. I entered my code again, and again, and by this time the security company had called me, so I was trying to talk to them and provide my password, turn off the alarm panel, pull Lincoln off the ceiling, etc., all at the same time. My heart racing, I entered my code a couple more times, I don’t know how many in total. I didn’t shut the alarm off, but it times out after eight minutes, but the panel keeps screeching at you like a mother-in-law.
Having intercepted the police coming, the gal on the phone shifted me to technical support to try to figure out how to turn it off. The power was also back on. It took me a couple more minutes to realize that the whole time I was entering the code, I was entering the code to open up my cell phone. They say these are all “smart” systems, but they can’t even figure out. I’m using a valid code, it’s just not for that device.
Then the tech suggested I get the key fob alert/cut off controller and try that. So I wobble across the house, wobbled up the stairs, walk across the broken glass in my bare feet, got the key fob, and went back the same way. When I clicked the key fob, it went off. When I clicked it a second time it erased all of the codes except “CE.“. I could not reset the alarm, and the tech guy couldn’t help me. However, all of the fires being out, and now completely wide awake, I went back upstairs, sat in the recliner and spent 30 minutes restarting my TV, cable and dish before I went to bed without having looked at five minutes of the games.
I went to online searching for the code for a Honeywell system, and it turns out that CE is a communication error that is triggered when you hit more than 30 buttons in a row on the panel without the correct code. From the Internet instructions, I waited 15 minutes, everything was working fine, and the code was gone, I set it, swept up the glass, and went back to bed.
No doubt the power outage and flickering was from ice building up on the powerlines and trees, and a branch or tree falling on the wires, etc. Falling into a deep sleep, the exact same F’n thing happened about 2:30 AM. I’ll spare the details, but it works much better when you use the right code.
Everything had melted a little bit, and then re-froze before it hit the ground. That is in contrast to most of the snow on top of the brick driveway, melting to the point where it’s almost gone.
Today it’s already above 32, and there is a 12 to 15 mph breeze. When you go outside, it feels colder than yesterday, but actually everything is starting to melt because the wind keeps it slightly above freezing working on the slush.
BTW, Lincoln is a true service dog hero. Whenever I open the back door, he kind of shoots out to the left and down the deck steps right there. I don’t think he’s ever seen snow before. So he went darting out of the house, got about 6 inches from the top of the steps, and stopped cold in an attempt to warn me that there was snow. Of course, I had no idea he was going to stop cold like that, and I could flatten them like a pancake if I stepped on him, so I lost my balance and crashed into the handrail and down a couple steps, but I didn’t fall all the way. Good dog!
And he also did his part in trying to melt the snow. Every spot he designated with yellow yesterday, was melted by this morning. Today he went out, and put down some of his own warm pellets to melt some more.
I’m planning another day mostly inside the house, but it’s nice knowing that the Missing Linc is ready in case I’m stupid enough to actually try to take it out of the driveway. But it’s nice knowing that if I go out there and start it up with the heater on high, and wait a half an hour for the heat to warm the windows, and then I scrape the sheet of ice off the windows, I can dart right out there for whatever I need.
I hope this all brings a smile, and I pray for you guys who deal with this every day.
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