There’s Ice and there’s Snow…

And it's too darn cold!

Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday

Prepping for Snow

Before I start talking about the weather, I'll share a nice sunset picture from Friday evening. You can see the contrails left by the jet planes. We are under a major flight path from Dulles Airport.

The forecast for a snow storm this weekend started well in advance. I went to two supermarkets on Thursday and both were crowded, with some items already sold out. There was talk about two feet of snow, but the forecast kept changing, as it usually does in the mountain-valley region. With a mountain range separating us from West Virginia, that state often gets snow that doesn’t cross the mountains to Virginia. 

As it turned out, our snow was only slightly more than ankle deep today, but covered with layers of sleet. Temperatures have been very cold and are not expected to go above freezing for a week.

I made efforts to prepare. On Saturday, I searched for the hose bib covers that I used a couple of years ago, but did not find them. I improvised, loosely following instructions seen on a plumbing advice page. I used a fleece neck gaiter that I never wore, banding it around the spigot, then doubling it back and securing it with duct tape. I had an insulated foil bag that I had saved, so I cut that and wrapped it around the fleece, securing it with duct tape also. This should do the job, and it’s on the back of the house so the lack of beauty doesn’t matter.

 

I moved the snow shovel to a convenient spot, likewise the pet-safe ice melt crystals. I had extra food and water. There was a chance that our electricity would go out, and likelihood that we would not be able to drive to a store, so everyone shopped ahead of time. Oh, and I filled the car with gas.  

The snow started last night before I went to bed. The sound of heavy equipment plowing snow on the street woke me up a couple of times. This morning, I put on boots and warm clothing to try to clear a path for Charlie to walk, but the ice was hard to shovel so I only cleared the steps and doormats. One of the mats is heated to stay above freezing. I noticed that about a third of it was not working well enough to melt the snow, but at least there was a nice clear section. 

Neighbors across the street were clearing their cars and driveway. My lawn care guy is supposed to come to clear my driveway, but I think he decided to wait until the snow and sleet stopped falling, so I hope he comes tomorrow morning.

Oh, my ice melt product had caked up into a hard block like a rock, so I couldn’t use it. I banged it around a little bit and put a desiccant packet into the container. I might be able to salvage some of it.

Charlie refused to walk in the snow and sleet. We went outside three or four times, but he never got farther than three feet off the heated mat. Then he looked around at me as if horrified, and came running back in the house.

He has walked in snow before, but it wasn’t this cold, Last winter, we only had a light snow that melted off the driveway within a few hours. 

I’ll close with a picture of a bird in a tree.

On the Day before Christmas Eve

Riley Park and Beyond

Sharing with Wordless and Mosaic

Seven Bends Skies

The days are so short now. It was almost 4:30 yesterday afternoon when I arrived at Seven Bends State Park with Charlie. I had already dropped off a box of donations at Goodwill, but I'm not sure what else I did to get out of the house so late. I do recall that I checked several items off my list and ordered some groceries.

The water level of the North Fork is fairly low, although we did have some rain the other day.

I took Charlie for a short walk, and then sat on a bench for a few minutes. By 4:45, the sun was already setting.

Orange You Glad It’s Autumn?

Golds and oranges stand out this year.

Massanutten Range from Seven Bends State Park.

Shadow Shot / Sunday Best

Long Branch Lane

Endless Caverns Road

Small Birds, Colorful Pictures

The male hummingbird finally stood still long enough for a picture. His ruby throat is vibrant, isn't it?

 The second picture has an unidentified bird on a rooftop. I spotted it while walking the dog at sunset. 

A Glimpse of an Outdoor Meeting

Seven Bends State Park

I’m still on a committee that supports our local state park, which is still under development. Our group is part of the Friends of the North Fork. Esther (in yellow) is our chairperson.

On Monday, I attended a planning meeting for an event that’s taking place next month. We met on the Lupton Road side of the park because that’s where the concert will take place.

It was a 6 PM meeting, and by the time I left, the sun was ready to set.

Unexpected

It turned out to be a long afternoon. at least I was rewarded with this sunset.

I don’t want to make this a long story, so briefly, I went to Urgent Care because I’ve been feeling off-balance and lightheaded. I thought it might be an inner ear infection because I’ve had them in the past. My physician couldn’t see me until next week. 

The doctor at urgent care felt strongly that I should go to the hospital for further tests. I think that when they see someone over 70, they become concerned about things like strokes and heart trouble so they want to rule those out. I went through a battery of tests and a chest x-ray, and everything was fine. It may be that I was dehydrated earlier. 

Lynn and her friend Barb were on their way to pick me up, so I went outside to wait and saw this beautiful sunset. 

I thought it would be amusing if I could get a picture of a whilybird for Wild Bird Wednesday, but I didn’t see one, so no “bird in the hand” for that theme. All I have is the helipad and the sky.

Lynn and Barb soon arrived and we went for sandwiches. They drove me to Frank and Deborah‘s house because they were caring for Charlie in my absence. 

I really appreciate Lynn and Barb and Deborah and Frank helping me out. Also, Allison offered to pick me up, but Lynn was already on her way. Good people!

Red Sky Exaggerated

One evening I was sitting on a bench while Charlie rested on the grass. I took a cell phone picture of the darkening sky. The phone made the red look more intense than it really was.

When I focused on Charlie in the foreground, the camera lightened everything. The actual color of the sky was in between what you see in these photos.

Twenty Years of Blogging!

My first blog post was on June 13, 2005. Even I am amazed that I've been blogging for 20 years.

Post #1

When I started, we were spending a lot of time in our Glebe Harbor home and the Internet connection was painfully slow. They didn’t have high-speed Internet in our corner of Westmoreland County so I had to use the phone line, and it was a very old phone line. I would actually click on a link, go to the kitchen and get coffee, and return to see that pictures on my screen were still opening. And pictures back then were much smaller because many people still had dial-up connections!

When I wanted to post a page with photos, I would compose it on my laptop and shrink the pictures to 3 x 5“ size (at 72 dpi), and drive to the library which was about 5 miles away. There I would connect to their DSL Internet and upload my text and pictures. I did not post every day until after we moved back to Bryce Resort and got a high-speed connection at home. 

I’ve selected a few pictures from my early months of blogging. There were other favorites that are too small to look good on today’s devices. 

Our view at Glebe Harbor

Even then I enhanced pictures in Photoshop.

Assateague Sunset

Marie

The Sun Sinks Slowly in the West

This evening I was on my way home from grocery shopping and the sky was so pretty that I pulled off in somebody’s driveway to take a picture

I’ve been struggling with the daily news, and I remind myself to look at the bigger picture. Our troubles will come and go. The planet will continue. We need to protect what we can. 

I fear that our country has become a laughing stock. The monkeys have fired the zookeepers and taken over. It’s painful and embarrassing. I feel bad for all the people who are losing their jobs. Many of us are feeling insecure about our income and the likelihood of skyrocketing prices. 

Meanwhile, I’ve downloaded a couple of apps. One is Bluesky, a social media app. My handle is my first initial and last name. The other is 5 Calls, which makes it easier to call your elected representatives. 

Well, life goes on. I allow myself to cry, but then I pull myself together. I can only do a little, but if we all a little, it adds up.

Sunset with Water Tower

Strasburg, Virginia

This is not the first time I’ve taken a picture from this spot. When I lived closer to Strasburg, I often shopped at the Food Lion, and the parking lot has a great view to the west. Actually, it confused me because it did not feel like I’d be looking west from there. I was standing parallel to the Valley Pike, which is thought of as a north/south route. Yet it actually runs at an angle, and the valley itself runs at an angle, so you are generally traveling northeast or southwest. To complicate matters, the Valley Pike (U.S. 11) is an old road that made turns almost constantly in order to avoid river crossings and ridges when possible.

You can see the Allegheny mountains from here, which are part of the Appalachian mountains. If you drive west across that mountain range, you find yourself in West Virginia.

Snow, Climate, and Insurance

In Virginia, snow is not unusual. But this week brought snow to the deep south, including cities on the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists tell us that warming oceans have caused more evaporation of water into the air, increasing precipitation that includes snow as well as rain. 

Like most people, I am concerned about climate change. We all need to be prepared for extreme weather events. It’s obvious that we are already in a period of changing climate. I’m not too worried about the people who want to push environmental science back fifty years. Corporations have already discovered that alternative energy sources are cost-effective. They exist to make money, not to throw it away on a lost cause. We have passed the tipping point on clean energy, but unfortunately we have also passed the tipping point on climate disasters. Update your home insurance! 

Speaking of home insurance, I had a strange thing happen with mine. It got canceled and I didn’t have any for two years! The payments come out of my bank account so I wasn’t concerned when I didn’t get bills for it, and payments were still being made on my investment property insurance. Time seems to pass so quickly now that I didn’t notice when more than a year went by without hearing anything about my policy. But something reminded me; perhaps it was stories about the California fires. I went back to look for evidence that my insurance is still current. I didn’t find it. All I found was paperwork from 2022, which included a printout showing that my insurance had been canceled then and reinstated. I had written a note on there stating that I talked to Jackie at Geico about it. I recall that there had been a problem when they got my former husband‘s home insurance policy confused with mine, but I had straightened it out. There it was on the printout that it was reinstated.

Well, for some reason they canceled it again. I was horrified to find out that my home was not insured, but I was able to sign up for a new policy. That was 90 minutes I won’t get back, but at least my house is fully insured.

I hope my readers and other friends are comfortable and safe. A lot of people have frozen pipes from the very cold weather. Our temperature finally went up to 1° above freezing today, and tomorrow is supposed to be warmer.