Winter Storm - Day 3

Well, as I can remember, this is the 3rd day of being unable to get out of the house, or off the property anyway.  The office is shut down for the 3rd day in a row but according to the news this morning, there are some very slight improvements around the city of Atlanta.  The problem is one of an almost total lack of snow clearing equipment, plain and simple.  I heard on the news that for the Atlanta metro area there are 16 sand trucks and 10 plows.  Give me a break!  And, I don't live in the metro area.  There is no plowing of the streets in my area at all.  I wrote the homeowners association inquiring as to the likelihood of seeing the plows and the response was that there won't be any plowing.  No mail has been delivered since last Saturday... today is Wednesday.  UPS and FedEx announced that they are not delivering or picking up.  I had high hopes of at least getting out to the store for a few things that I'm running low on but after a trip down the driveway to see the street, it ain't gonna happen.  The road at the end of the drive is solid ice.  I guess I could get down but due to the steepness of the street itself, I'd never get back to the driveway.

Speaking of which... it took 2 days of very hard and treacherous work but the driveway did get cleaned off quite well I think.  The first day it was trying to clear off enough of the upper pad to get the cars in and out, a bit of positive thinking pretending we were going to go out, and we made a bit of progress shoveling the top, somewhat level part, of the drive on the first day.  Later in the day we went out again and made it a bit further and I was determined to get to the bottom of the drive.  It had been raining freezing rain or whatever and I knew that things were going to get much worse if I didn't get the snow up before it became total ice.  So, I kind of put the shovel in front of me and, for the most part, slid down the driveway behind it.  Swell... now I had to get back up.  Easiest way was to plant the toe of my boots in the snow/ice and tip-toe my way back up.  I realized that I couldn't clean off the driveway side to side or I'd not have this snow to grab on to so I did one half of the drive with great caution and that was how the first day ended.  Second day we went out again and the half that was done was pretty dry and could be walked on so we finished up the second half to let it dry out.  Today, the driveway is nice and clean and dry, but we're still stuck because of the ice on the street.

See?  Nice and clean and dry.  I forgot to mention above that part of the problem was just the physical amount of space that had to be cleared.  The snow was very heavy what with the ice on top of it and the moisture below it, but it was done... hurrah!

There... you can even see the bottom of the drive.  The problem now is that the road at the end is a total sheet of ice, maybe an inch thick.  Although not as steep as the driveway, the road is quite steep, downward, until you get to the area where that car is way down there.  Then the road begins a steep uphill climb.  You can click on the photo to make it bigger just so you can appreciate the picture taking I did :)

And this is what awaits at the bottom of the drive for as far as I can see... about an inch of solid ice.  I can certainly get down the driveway easily now, and if on the driveway could certainly easily go up it.  I just can't get off the driveway because I'll never get back to it. 

So, there you have the conditions on the 3rd day.  It's very cold today... the coldest of the storm... so the ice isn't going anywhere even though the sun is shining nicely for the first time in 4 days.  Of course, if there is any melting from the sun at all it's going to refreeze tonight which is supposed to be the coldest night as well.  Temperatures in the 50's are predicted for the weekend... we'll see what that does.  A slight warm up trend starts tomorrow they say.  I hope it continues until spring/summer get here!