I’ve definitely been slacking off lately. I was going to put something up about having two Fridays the 13th in a row (which only happens when Feb 13 is on a Friday and even then only when it’s not a leap year), but I never got around to it (it also happened to be exactly 8 weeks – 56 long, long, LONG days without a beer). So then I was going to pre-write something to post on 3/14/15 at 9:26 for Super Pi Day, but I never got around to that, either. So I figured I’d get something up here for St Patrick’s Day Eve to celebrate my final dentist appointment (for six months). Yay.
One reason for not posting much was that we had a rather pleasant week last week – warm(ish) and devoid of precipitation. The snow pack has declined greatly, and we’re down to probably just a couple of feet on the ground at my house. Sadly, we now seem to have resumed our regular March weather pattern – which means sunny and warm one day, and a return to winter the next. Saturday was rather pleasant (in a cool and drizzly kinda way) and I awoke to a white-out on Sunday morning with nasty-ass wind and blowing snow.
This burst of snow allowed the plow to get one more crack at my mailbox, and it took advantage of the opportunity, slamming my mailbox to the ground and turning a good chunk of the post to kindling. Good thing I was gonna have to replace it in the spring anyway. I cobbled together a repair that I hope will last a few weeks.
On the “bright” side, Syracuse is once again atop the Golden Snow Globe standings at 116″ and counting. Of course everybody’s crowing over Boston’s “record” snow year with something like 108″ which wouldn’t even be a top 25 year here, but they have a lot more people (and cars), so it must have been a real pain in the ass year for them.
It always amazes me when I look at the average annual snowfall for places you think of as getting a lot of snow. Anchorage Alaska, for instance. Sounds like a place that would get some snow, right? I mean, it’s fucking Alaska, after all. You can see Russia from there. But Anchorage only averages about 75″ a year. Fairbanks? Even less at 65″.
Minneapolis must get a lot, though, right? Nah, a mere 54″ a year, on average – which is still more than they get in Green Bay Wisconsin (about 51″). Maine? They must get a lot, right? Nah. Fargo, ND? 50 inches. Montana? Butte, Billings, Bozeman, Helena? None of them even cracks 100″. Hell, we got more snow just in February than most of these places get in a year.
Which is basically all just my way of saying I really want this fucking winter to end. It’s like 45° today, but it’s supposed to get cold again for the rest of the week.
In other words, it’s March.
Anyhow, have a good SPD tomorrow. And have a couple of cold ones for me.
The thought of more snow is very depressing. There are still 2 and 3 foot mounds of snow here and patches on all the lawns. I still can’t walk around 1/2 the deck. But, it’s melting and everyday it washes away more as more stuff appears that I haven’t seen since that first big storm.
I am really surprised by those snow total averages. I figured anchorage would get at least 12′ a year. There is a TV show about buying houses in Alaska. The houses almost always lack something vital like running water and indoor bathrooms. Outhouses seem to be common. How one would get to an outhouse in a snowstorm I can’t imagine. I wonder how much rain they get.
In a snowstorm, the whole world is your outhouse.
Oh, and by the way, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!