Question of the Day: Sunday, January 22

gilmargl

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☃
January brings the snow
Makes your feet and fingers glow ......

Good morning everybody,
in recent years, it has rarely snowed in this part of Germany, but when it does it causes chaos! Local bylaws dictate when and how often houseowners have to clear snow from paths in front of buildings (by 7 am in the morning until 7 pm and in between times whenever it stops actually snowing).
It started snowing here last Thursday, Friday brought the expected chaos but since then most people are sitting on their couches, taking their children out onto the hills for some tobogganing or skiing at the few overcrowded skilifts.
🎿 🏂 ⛷

As usual, when I need them, my snow shovel falls apart, the garden broom has disappeared and I'm searching unsuccessfully at the back of the shed for material which I can use to scatter on the ice. Salt is no longer allowed and cat litter leaves such a mess to clear up later.
But, today I have had luck in my misfortune.
Yesterday, having cleared my 25 yards of snow, the snow plough drove down the road and threw large clumps of snow and ice back onto my pavement. My son-in-law cleared the path again but the snow plough returned in the opposite direction and I was back to square one. However, snow ploughs use salt and they had thrown a lot of salt onto my plot - I was the lucky one this morning with a lovely clean pathway. But my name will be mud among the dog-owners who walk by and take note of which environmentally-unfriendly, dog-haters are still using salt.

I liked snow when I was younger - less traffic on the road, the light, peace and everything clean and white. Now it is simply wet, cold, dirty and grey and a lot more hard work!

Do you like snow?❄
 

di and bob

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I love snow when it first comes down. We just received a foot of it (but only a half inch of moisture) and since we are in an exceptional drought it is very welcome! Even shoveling it gives sore muscles but some much needed exercise. It gets MUCH better once you are retired. Shovel in increments, and when you want to. Winter brings a break from all the watering, weeding, and mowing, gives you a chance to catch up with housework and things you are too busy to do in the summer.
I remember when we received 22 inches years back, we were on a corner lot with curbside sidewalks and the snow plow piled up huge chunks of ice 4 foot tall all along our sidewalk since there were turning lanes next to the curbs. we were SO mad, especially since we had just dug them out! We were going to tell them if they tried to fine us, "you know we HAD them clean, you put all that ice there, YOU take it out!" They never did.......
 

denice

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I used to like snow now I just don't mind it. We are supposed to get a little today. It has been over 10 years since we got a lot of snow here. We are too far south for lake effect snow. The snows that come in from the west tend to go south of us then they go north into Pennsylvania and the Northeast. We seem to mostly be in this pocket that doesn't get a heavy snowfall. They get one to the south and east of us. The lake effect snows are common north of us.
 

Winchester

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Since I'm retired, I don't hate snow. But still not particularly fond of the stuff. Rather snow than ice, I guess.

Fortunately, when it snows, we don't have to go out in the storm. We can stay home and drink hot chocolate and watch it from the living room....or the Shed. Either one works.
 

Jem

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I'm in Northern Ontario Canada...snow is something we have like 6 months out of the year...you just have to accept it. I don't mind snow...I just don't like what it means. Cold and damp weather, bad driving conditions, possibility of getting stuck somewhere if it was a big dumping, shoveling, cleaning off the vehicles...it sucks. I don't do well with the cold so I don't really participate in any winter activities, so don't really enjoy the snow...it is pretty though, so that's a plus....I guess.
 

verna davies

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We dont get a lot of snow here, none at all last year but this week we had 2 cms. As I live on a lane the gritters dont come down so for 2 days I couldn't get my car out and naturally the buses weren't running so I spent my time gritting the lane ( grit bin at top of lane).

I love watching the snow fall and as long as I don't want to go out, inside and warm, I love it but it doesn't take long for it to become slushy and dirty and look terrible.
 

ElizabethP

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I am slightly envious of all of you (although totally appreciate the hassles that snow brings). I am a Brit girl, born and grew up there, but have lived in Africa for 30 years. We have no snow. We don't have the four seasons that I love about Europe. We have hot and dry, hot and wet, cold (and that is relative). Blue skies and sunshine can be a bit overrated!! I love the rains and I loved a snowy Christmas which I well remember from my childhood. At that stage of course I was not adult enough to appreciate the hassles of trying to get around in it, so it was just large amounts of fun!
 

susanm9006

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I usually am okay with snow but this has been a difficult year for it. Normally most snow falls when the ground and air is cold so it it doesn’t stick to the drive and is light enough that it is easy to clear. I have three blowers, battery, electric and gas powered that can handle it.

This year however we had alternately warm and cold temperatures, more than four feet of snow in two months and all of it has been exceptionally wet and heavy. Even my large snowblower clogs when clearing it and then the cold temps turn the wet snow to concrete that you can’t even chop through.
 

sivyaleah

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I like snow but not what comes along with it which really means my husband having to plow and shovel. I have a rather chronic arm problem so it would be impossible for me to help.

We have been incredibly lucky this year - not a single flake yet. By now we usually would have had at least a few dustings if not more.

I am not complaining!
 

neely

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Living where I do, for as long as I have, I have come to accept snow as merely a fact of life, along with the changing of the seasons. I kind of like snow, but removing it is another matter, but that's why God invented power tools.
This describes exactly how I feel about snow. :thumbsup: It snowed overnight, just the right amount, not too much but enough to cover the tree branches and brighten the otherwise dreary looking day. Carleton is mesmerized by it. He's sitting by the patio door watching the snowflakes fall.
IMG_0005.jpeg
 

misty8723

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I grew up in the snow belt along Lake Erie. Do I miss snow? Nope.

A little bit now and again is nice, and now that I don't have to go out to work anymore, and no rules on shoveling, I don't mind it.

Does bring back some memories though. Moving from NW Pennsylvania to Columbus Ohio, I would hear them say the plows were out. I was just confused because I never saw any plows. I wish I could find a picture of the old PennDot plows, they were huge. In Ohio, they were trucks with plows on the front. I guess that's the trend everywhere now.

When we first moved to central North Carolina, we got an ice storm (more usual than snow). In PA and Ohio, not much would have closed. Pretty much everything does here, but not where I worked. Office always open. So I got in my car and gingerly drove the icy roads to my job...only to find about 3 people there. I immediately collected a few things to take home to work on and quickly learned the culture. Office may be open, but that was only so if you didn't come in you better either have work to do from home or charge it to vacation. They were even open during Hurricane Fran, which came ashore at Wilmington (Wrightsville Beach), got on the Cape Fear River, and came right through here. Made a mess of everything. It was predicted to do that, so we were (or should have been) prepared. The day before, my boss asked me to work on some report the following day. I said I would, if the hurricane didn't hit. He said "what hurricane?" I'm not sure if the report got done, but not by me it didn't. I did go in with a flashlight when things cleared up enough to get some work to do from home, so I wouldn't waste my vacation days.

One other time (maybe 20 year ago?) I was at work and hubby came and picked me up for lunch. We were in the restaurant (Golden Corral) when it started to snow lightly. No big deal right? But on the way back to my office, we saw traffic was backed up at a stand still going the other way (the way we needed to go home). So I went in and told my boss about the situation and that I was leaving. He said "do what you have to do." I said okay bye, grabbed some work, and took off. The problem was that the temperature was in the 20s, the roads were untreated, so snow stuck to the road. Schools and offices were letting out early, so there was a lot more than normal traffic for lunchtime. I had my car so I was following hubby in the barely moving traffic, and It took us over 2 hours to drive 5 miles. I consider myself lucky (and smart to have left when I did), because it got worse later for those who waited; normal 15 minute commutes were taking people 6 to 8 hours. A lot of the kids (and teachers and parents who made it to the school to get their kids) spent the night in the school. It was a wake up call for this area though, and now they pre-treat the roads whenever there is any kind of event predicted, and they've gotten more plows. Most things still shut down, though, and they encourage people to stay off the roads so they can clear them.
 

misty8723

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This describes exactly how I feel about snow. :thumbsup: It snowed overnight, just the right amount, not too much but enough to cover the tree branches and brighten the otherwise dreary looking day. Carleton is mesmerized by it. He's sitting by the patio door watching the snowflakes fall.
View attachment 441771
Pretty. It's raining here, but 40s so not cold enough for snow. Supposed to be 60s by Wednesday.
 

iPappy

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I like it. I like the anticipation of a good storm, snow or otherwise. And snow is so serene when it falls, it somehow is able to make the world silent. But when the clouds break, the sun comes out, I stand outside and realize I have a lot of shoveling to do! 😭 (I also like snow a lot better in December and January, and not so much in March or April!)
 

denice

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Moving from NW Pennsylvania to Columbus Ohio, I would hear them say the plows were out
I live in Columbus Oh and we don't get too many of the real large snows. All I have seen are the trucks with the blades on the front and they spread salt from the back. I was stationed at Fort Lewis Washington just outside of Tacoma and I seen one snow in two years and it was an inch. That snow shut down everything including Ft Lewis.
 
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