I am not sure if anyone knows where New Mexico is on the map, certainly not Miami. We were left off the map when last week's storm hit Texas to Maine. NE New Mexico was hit with a major storm, and temps were over 40 degrees below normal. I am not sure if the coldest we got was 26 below zero, but Thursday morning that was the temp before factoring wind chill. Anyhow, the snow we expected didn't really come. We got about six inches is all...enough for a couple snow days.
Saturday night it snowed again. Thomas and I left extra early for mass, so I could sing and read, and it took forty-five minutes (about twice as long). We got another three to five inches.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. I even took a short walk through town as a "lunch break", as I was in town for about 12 hours and needed to break up the day. Plus, I hitched a ride with Marie and the kids, so I was without wheels. I was delighted for the walk and the sunshine. While Thomas and I were away at work, the plow fairy showed up and "bladed" the driveway with the tractor, which made it nice for walking to and from the car. Otherwise, the snow really hadn't melted, except off the road.
(Yes, the story is still going, as anyone who knows me would expect. I can't just cut to the chase because you have to know the back story, too.)
Marie and I loaded into the van about 7:10 pm and headed home. There has been talk of a storm blowing in around midnight, but at that particular time, the sky was clear, the air was crisp, and the stars were twinkling. Oh yeah, and the wind was blowing hard! HARD! So hard, that when we rounded the corner from the "s curves", we were blinded. Worse for Marie than for me, but at one point I thought a car was driving right into us. The wind was coming from the west and picking up the top layers of snow from Sunday. We literally came to a stop a couple times because there was no sign of the road or anything else to give us bearings. The snow was so thick that the headlights didn't penetrate it, but reflected back to us like oncoming traffic. It was definitely tense for that stretch. The wind continued to blow, but the rest of the ride was okay. Marie was certainly my hero last night for getting us home safely. I was grateful not to be in my little car that might have just been picked up and blown over to Oklahoma.
This morning I decided I would drive when I woke up to no new snow. I had a meeting at 1pm a mile from the office, and I didn't want to walk. I let Marie know I wouldn't be riding with her, but fifteen-twenty minutes into her commute, she caught me still at home and told me to wait. The stretch where the blowing snow was so bad last night was covered in snow drifts that she didn't think my car could clear or get through. She thought with the morning sun and DOT clearing the road, I might be better off half an hour later. So I waited.
The road was perfectly clear as it had been the night before until I rounded the bend to the long stretch of drifts. Several cars were pointed towards me, and the plow in the middle of it had only packed one lane of snow in the first rather deep section. Other stretches were scraped to the asphalt, but many were still deep with snow. I pulled over as far as I could in my 96 Honda Civic Coupe, hardly an all-terrain vehicle, and watched as the traffic carefully passed. Ahead was the length of the hill, and it was very icy anywhere that it wasn't snowy. I took it slow and made it just fine to the top, where it gratefully gave way to clear roads before the "s curves". The rest of the way was mostly clear with a hint of drifts here and there. As I climbed up to the last curve before "Monkey Hill", there was a berm of snow in the middle of the road. As I rounded the curve to the descent, I realized I chose the lawful side of the road to be on and not the correct side. The lane was a dead end into the snow, and try as I might, I couldn't get over the snow in the middle of the road to the clear side. I tried to reverse, to turn the wheel, to rock, to anything, but my car was not moving. I hopped out (in my clogs, no less, as I had not planned any walking today) and started to dig out the front wheels. The under side of my bumper did not clear the snow in front of it my much. I tried to reverse and rock, but came up empty just as a small four door sedan came up the hill heading the other way. Eddie stopped. He offered to help push me out, but his efforts only slid me further into the ditch. Bummer!
I reached for my cell phone to call Daniel, who worked just a couple miles down the hill from where I was stuck. Unfortunately, I only had his home number, so I turned to Eddie. He called some friends at Philmont to send some help, but told them to wait when we saw a truck approaching from that direction. The truck was DOT, and when the guy hopped out, he exclaimed that I got stuck in the same place he got stuck IN THE SNOW PLOW!!! Seriously?!?! You'd think you would not leave a dead end from a snow plow on a blind curve! Or maybe I would think that because I was the one who discovered it. Gratefully there were no other people coming and going along the highway during our travails. The DOT guy grabbed a shovel and dug through the berm of snow. Then he and Eddie both pushed from the passenger side, and my little car floated right out onto the cleared section of road. Again, I was very lucky somebody didn't come around that blind curve and plow right into the back of me, as there would have been little need to dig out a wreck.
I made it to the office and put my wet feet over a heater vent. I called Daniel at work and got all the numbers I needed to put in my phone "just in case". A few hours later I was back on the road coming home with Marie. School let out early, and most offices let people go home, as the roads became a mess. Our highway was icy and packing up with snow already. By now there are easily another five or six inches on top of the old snow. Brrrr....
Here's to another snow day and all my heroes!!!
Saturday night it snowed again. Thomas and I left extra early for mass, so I could sing and read, and it took forty-five minutes (about twice as long). We got another three to five inches.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. I even took a short walk through town as a "lunch break", as I was in town for about 12 hours and needed to break up the day. Plus, I hitched a ride with Marie and the kids, so I was without wheels. I was delighted for the walk and the sunshine. While Thomas and I were away at work, the plow fairy showed up and "bladed" the driveway with the tractor, which made it nice for walking to and from the car. Otherwise, the snow really hadn't melted, except off the road.
(Yes, the story is still going, as anyone who knows me would expect. I can't just cut to the chase because you have to know the back story, too.)
Marie and I loaded into the van about 7:10 pm and headed home. There has been talk of a storm blowing in around midnight, but at that particular time, the sky was clear, the air was crisp, and the stars were twinkling. Oh yeah, and the wind was blowing hard! HARD! So hard, that when we rounded the corner from the "s curves", we were blinded. Worse for Marie than for me, but at one point I thought a car was driving right into us. The wind was coming from the west and picking up the top layers of snow from Sunday. We literally came to a stop a couple times because there was no sign of the road or anything else to give us bearings. The snow was so thick that the headlights didn't penetrate it, but reflected back to us like oncoming traffic. It was definitely tense for that stretch. The wind continued to blow, but the rest of the ride was okay. Marie was certainly my hero last night for getting us home safely. I was grateful not to be in my little car that might have just been picked up and blown over to Oklahoma.
This morning I decided I would drive when I woke up to no new snow. I had a meeting at 1pm a mile from the office, and I didn't want to walk. I let Marie know I wouldn't be riding with her, but fifteen-twenty minutes into her commute, she caught me still at home and told me to wait. The stretch where the blowing snow was so bad last night was covered in snow drifts that she didn't think my car could clear or get through. She thought with the morning sun and DOT clearing the road, I might be better off half an hour later. So I waited.
The road was perfectly clear as it had been the night before until I rounded the bend to the long stretch of drifts. Several cars were pointed towards me, and the plow in the middle of it had only packed one lane of snow in the first rather deep section. Other stretches were scraped to the asphalt, but many were still deep with snow. I pulled over as far as I could in my 96 Honda Civic Coupe, hardly an all-terrain vehicle, and watched as the traffic carefully passed. Ahead was the length of the hill, and it was very icy anywhere that it wasn't snowy. I took it slow and made it just fine to the top, where it gratefully gave way to clear roads before the "s curves". The rest of the way was mostly clear with a hint of drifts here and there. As I climbed up to the last curve before "Monkey Hill", there was a berm of snow in the middle of the road. As I rounded the curve to the descent, I realized I chose the lawful side of the road to be on and not the correct side. The lane was a dead end into the snow, and try as I might, I couldn't get over the snow in the middle of the road to the clear side. I tried to reverse, to turn the wheel, to rock, to anything, but my car was not moving. I hopped out (in my clogs, no less, as I had not planned any walking today) and started to dig out the front wheels. The under side of my bumper did not clear the snow in front of it my much. I tried to reverse and rock, but came up empty just as a small four door sedan came up the hill heading the other way. Eddie stopped. He offered to help push me out, but his efforts only slid me further into the ditch. Bummer!
I reached for my cell phone to call Daniel, who worked just a couple miles down the hill from where I was stuck. Unfortunately, I only had his home number, so I turned to Eddie. He called some friends at Philmont to send some help, but told them to wait when we saw a truck approaching from that direction. The truck was DOT, and when the guy hopped out, he exclaimed that I got stuck in the same place he got stuck IN THE SNOW PLOW!!! Seriously?!?! You'd think you would not leave a dead end from a snow plow on a blind curve! Or maybe I would think that because I was the one who discovered it. Gratefully there were no other people coming and going along the highway during our travails. The DOT guy grabbed a shovel and dug through the berm of snow. Then he and Eddie both pushed from the passenger side, and my little car floated right out onto the cleared section of road. Again, I was very lucky somebody didn't come around that blind curve and plow right into the back of me, as there would have been little need to dig out a wreck.
I made it to the office and put my wet feet over a heater vent. I called Daniel at work and got all the numbers I needed to put in my phone "just in case". A few hours later I was back on the road coming home with Marie. School let out early, and most offices let people go home, as the roads became a mess. Our highway was icy and packing up with snow already. By now there are easily another five or six inches on top of the old snow. Brrrr....
Here's to another snow day and all my heroes!!!
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