The Northern VA area typically averages about 10" of snow per winter... The last 5 or so winters we've been lucky to get more than a few inches. This year we got 18" in one December snow storm. We got 9" last weekend, another 4" tonight and they are calling for another possible foot plus in snow this upcoming weekend. This winter may go down as the snowiest in Mid-Atlantic history! It's been colder than normal as well, but not brutally cold for the most part. I wonder how some of the RES and other fish pushing their northern limits will fair with this weather? I am betting the wild quail population is gonna take a beating with all this snow as well.

Well, it is pretty. I'm up here on the 11th floor of Ye Olde Folks Home. The Potomac is steaming and putting a thick fog just over the tops of the heavily snow laden trees. It's kind of like a Christmas card scene.

The local TV weatherman said we'll probably need a yardstick to measure this coming weekend's snow.

At this rate, I may have to restock the pond if it ever thaws out. This is the longest it has been continuously frozen since we've owned it.

I sure hope your pond pulls through... I sure hope we aren't measuring with yard sticks! I have to work this weekend and I not looking forward to it. They already blocked out rooms at a hotel near our police station in anticipation of the bad weather. Most of of live so far away from the county, there's no way we could get to and from work in the mess they're calling for.

Pictures!

Travis - the county needs to supply you guys with these:

Lightweight Snowplow for Cars

They are only $499 each and they weight just 35 lbs. In my sick mind I can see you speeding up I-95 and the Beltway with this thing, when the roadway is covered with 2 feet of snow.

Dang, that thing is pretty sweet... If I had $499 just laying around I might just get one. I seriously might need one to get into work Friday though.

Looks like you guys got all of our snow.

I only plowed once this year back in Dec., and that was only to remove the 3" of slush so it wouldn't freeze by morning. Last year I plowed enough to cover propane cost's for heat, plus fuel, and added to the house budget. I went through, maybe a quart of diesel this year.

Normally by Feb., We have well defined channels we walk and drive through, and with the equipment, have 10-12 ft high long piles that take quite a while to melt in the spring.

Right now, probably 3" max in the shade. Sun is shining out of the west, and today was forecast as being cloudy. Tomorrow it is supposed to be partly cloudy. Ground is not even frozen to any extent.

JKB, love that little picture of CB & Snoopy!!!

I love the non-panic inspiring words "potentially paralyzing" they use for the two feet of snow we are expecting on Friday and Saturday.



Now they are threatening us with another blizzard for Monday night and Tuesday.

I don't mean to gloat over your snowy misfortune, but up here we are in a snow drought for the past 30 days, a little less than 100 inches so far.
The cold high pressure area's have atleast done some good.

With all that snow how are our legislators ever gonna do all the hard work they specialize in.

Gloating is fine -- but you guys expect a 1000 inches a year! We don't.

Actually, we secretly enjoy it. We just need something to complain about during Cabin Fever Season.

Winters like this do get all the rust off my tractor tire chains and off my snow plow.

One thing I liked about living in New England as a kid were the nor'easters that dumped up to 3 feet of snow. I sure made winter a lot less boring!

Me Too!
Ya can go do a Peanuts search or do a Snoopy search, and get lot's of fun filled memories to display on your screen for free.

Ken, looks like we're not getting hit as bad as you guys, much to my chagrin! I was hoping for another whopper like we both got in December, but our forecast is only for 6 - 10 inches and next week's snow looks like we're just getting snow showers with no appreciable accumulation, at least according to the weather channel. Heck, our ponds even thawed out and were totally open for a few days, though they got some clear ice back on them this past week.

Good luck tomorrow and stay safe!

Todd -- maybe you better come visit. I've got lots of shovels, a good snow thrower, a 4WD tractor with snow blade and chains, a 10-ft toboggan, lots of sleds, a 600 foot long hill, grandkids the age of your kids who love sledding, plenty of venison in the freezer for chili, and two real good friends with excavation companies who will make sure the roads and driveway are cleared!

Ken

Sounds perfect! Although I thought JHAP was gonna come out east and learn how to shovel snow after his log splitting lessons! We'll do the rest after he gets started on his part!

you's guysez are gonna git hammered

Only if Ken breaks out his stash of the "good" moonshine! Otherwise, just a mild buzz, I'd say!

Working in this mess tomorrow night should be piles of fun... That is if I can even make it the 30 miles in to work. By the time I leave for work there should already be 6" on the ground and the storm should be full steam ahead.

I stopped by the Road Kill for dinner this evening. Did you make your way up there Ken?

I'm gonna need a good WV lawyer if I break out "The Stash"!

No. I should have sent you a PM. I was in meetings all day.

I think that those of us in this section of WV, VA, MD, and PA should meet there for a Pond Boss breakfast or lunch sometime in the near future. Heck, anybody else in nearby states could join us if they dare!

Who knows, maybe a celebrity would show up -- like one of the PB Moderators!

We're getting more snow most of the day today and still going. No biggie. What's 2-4 on top of what we've had this year?

Is that 2-4 feet?


Me thinks we might be in for a big one!

The deer were really on the feed this evening on my way home. I saw well over 100 deer as I drove the back way through WV and rural VA avoiding the Beltway traffic mess. They must sense what is coming tomorrow! I may need to contact that car plow company and see if they can get it to me by tomorrow afternoon... I may be rolling snow over the hood of my truck!

I may be able to make a referral! Because remember the saying, a friend will bail you out of jail, but a REAL friend will be sitting beside you in the cell!

No, I'm not Canadian.


Kidding, but I got an email about a family in Canada and the snow they got and it is insane. They have their stop signs built something like 20 feet high so it's out of the snow, and just barely. At least that's what it looked like in the pictures. Pretty wild. I'll see if I can find the pics.

Snow is just another four letter word that gets people excited in different ways.

Travis, you probably won't have to chase many speeders.

Things are different here. A 2 inch snow closes the schools/businesses and paralyzes traffic.

Ken and CJ,

You must be really getting it out there as we are getting snow from the system all the way up in northern Indiana. For the predicted only 1 to 3 inches it's really putting it down right now with lots of wind.

I'll bet Theo is getting nailed too. Theo?

You guys in the Mid-Atlantic states be careful out there this weekend. I see they're predicting 30" for the D.C. area.

We're getting an inch an hour, maybe a tad more.

7-8" so far and going strong.

Yeah, we're getting it pretty good. I just came in from my 2nd two hour plowing escapade. We've got somewhere between 14 and 18 inches on the ground, and it is coming down hard. By morning I'll probably need to use the snow thrower to get to the tractor. If this keeps up for another 20 hours I may need to get a dozer or road grader in here.

Not much more than a few dusting's up here. Lake effect lost all it's meaning this year unless you are a beach volleyball coach planning for an early season.

Take care, I know what Winter Weather is all about.

Forecast here is for the mid 50's today.

I keep asking myself just why anybody.....

And then, I remember July and August.

I tried plowing last night while it was snowing heavy and blowing sideways. It felt like I was in a snowball fight with a thousand angry Lilliputians.

I'm right in the middle of that "paralyzing" area. I just shoveled a path for the dog and measured 16"+ with drifts over 24". It's still coming down and is not supposed to stop until this evening.

A buddy of mine in Martinsburg (not far from Ken for those that don't know the area) posted around 3:30 this morning to a listserver we're both on and said they've got drifts in place around his home of 5 - 8 feet and that it was coming down hard. Their local forecasts were saying it would likely be 28 - 32 inches there when all was said and done. Ken may have gotten even more because his area is a little bit more mountainous. We are only looking at probably 8 - 10 inches here, 2 hours west of Ken, so we ended up not getting it too bad, much to my chagrin! Our forecast is saying another 3 - 5 today.

28" of snow with drifts I have no idea how deep! It actually hurt to be outside in the snow last night. It was blowing so hard and the snow was just stinging your face. I was really impressed with how good snow chains worked on my rear wheel drive Crown Vic. I only got stuck once all night and that was consistently diving through 6"-10" of snow covered roadways. The best call of the night was the F-250 flat bed pushing a plow. The old truck's transmission just couldn't handle it anymore and blew up. The whole truck caught on fire! Nothing like watching a F-250 fully engulfed on fire in a blizzard!

That's a great image! I can see you and one or two others from your shift standing around, warming up by the fire, and telling the poor guy how badly you feel for him while you get toasty!

Did you have to get towed when you got stuck, or were you able to work your way out of it?

One of the guys on my squad was driving the police pick-up which has a winch on it and winched me out.

23 or 24" here now and it's still snowing.

I'm not sure I can even get out of my house.

Brutality.

Bet he was the king of the shift last night!

With any luck, you had the foresight to stock up on libations!

I'll be fine today, but I'd hate to go through Sunday. Now granted, I'd have things to drink. I'd just be out of my comfort-zone, every day drinking beer.

This is crazy. I took these several ours ago. Since then we got a few more inches of snow. The snow coming down now is very light, and I believe the worst is over. I don't really know how much we got -- but we got a lot. But, as Todd said above, I think it was worse in the Martinsburg area. My son said they've got six foot drifts and just as much snow. We didn't have the winds many others had.

My front deck from the driveway:


My front deck looking out the front door:


My back deck from the driveway:



My back deck looking out the kitchen door:


Even two of the flues on my chimney were covered.

We started a fire in the wood stove, which is opposite the wood furnace flue that is showing. It draws OK, so we've kept it going in hopes that between the wood stove and the wood furnace, the snow around the middle flue will melt. The middle flue is for the gas water heater. If it doesn't melt, I may have to shut the water heater down. We do have carbon monoxide and gas detectors on each floor.

I'm about to head out again. I was out for about four hours starting right after sunup this morning. We'd gotten another 12-16 inches overnight. The driveway is about a 1/3 mile long from the house to the main road. I never did make it out to the main road this morning. The front of our driveway is very steep and I couldn't make it up with the tractor. One of the rear tire chains came off, and I had to find it and put it back on in the snow before I could even come back to the house. I tried coming back without it, but couldn't make it up one of the other hills.

Worst of all, they are now calling for a another storm on Tuesday -- just not as big.

Stay safe and warm.
Ken

Lynda bought me a case of Yeungling on Thursday. Come on down, and I'll share.

This is a major event for you guys. Just play it safe!

19F today. Sun is shining. A couple inches of snow on the ground, and melting. And the ground never froze this year.

Luna got her first mole today. My brother tried to get out the video stuff, but it was too late. She carried it around, after it had XX eyes just to show me. He said it was totally hilarious how she would throw it into the air and catch it, then drop it and nudge it with her nose to try make it move. I told Luna to go bury it, so it is resting in the ground. I spied!

We ended up getting about a foot. This afternoon the sun came out and it was really pretty.

That is pretty Theo.

Except with Luna, Coco, and Oreo, that pic would be covered in Dog tracks, or trails carved through it. Chasing something, if not each others tails! or even their own tails!

Coco has a unique ability to spin on her keester, where ever, and she is about a 100lb+ chocolate lab.

These guy's crack me up!

Anyway, back to Snow.

Some reports say Sunil's area got 30 inches. 230,000 without power and roads closed. You still alive Sunil ?

We are here and intact, however, we are snowed in. Our power flickered many times, but we never lost power.

Minimum two feet of snow. Drifts all over and much deeper than 2'.

I got my mule high centered three times in the distance of 25'. No chance of getting down the drive way by manually shoveling.

Our hired plowing service was just too overwhelmed today. They were in our neighborhood doing the streets, and then they left w/out attempting our driveway. So sad....

You definitely have to watch out for that sort of activity - you may pull something if you haven't properly prepped yourself for such a strenuous endeavor!

Awesome pics, Ken! Glad you guys are okay. Yeah, my buddy in Martinsburg sent me some pics from his house - drifts easily 6+ feet around some areas of his place. His 4 foot mailbox is just managing to stay above the snow. He did say that they had serious winds all last night and a lot of today, so sounds like you at least lucked out a little in that regard. We ended up with about a foot. Spent the afternoon with my oldest daughter sled riding in our yard and then packed the whole family into the truck and drove all over just checking out the sights. Our main roads are pretty clear, but there's been almost nothing done in any of the areas off the main roads. Sounds like you're going to be working for awhile before you guys clear out of there! At least you have power and everything else intact. Our power flickered for awhile this morning but never went out, though a lot around here did apparently lose power. Good luck keeping warm tonight - we're getting down to around 8 or 9 degrees and I bet you guys will be even a bit colder!

Glad you hear you're all good - Sunil. It's a perfect time to hunker down, dust off some Hendrix vinyl, put on your cans and enjoy watching it fall....

My cousin in NC has been running on generator power all day long. He said that a LOT of treetops are missing, and many trees are badly damaged. He said they have 2" of ice. They're housebound as well, their driveway climbs 65' in elevation. They've taken to parking one of their cars at the bottom of the driveway so they could at least drive when the roads clear. Walking down to it will be a different story!

And to think he moved from Cleveland to get away from winter. This is his first winter there, and he's already sold the Bimmer and bought a Subaru Outback. I told him that he should have bought a 4x4 P.U. instead.

I am just glad the snow has stopped! This has been an impressive winter for snow!

Yeah, you guys are putting our record snow falls to shame right now. Wow.

Buncha tough suckers.

I'd take 2 feet of snow over 2" of ice anytime.

Amazing photos Ken.

+1 DD, these folks are some hardy people that is for sure.

0 degrees right now, to boot.

I think the weatherman said that we had 45" of snow for the whole winter. That's 25% less than normal. I may regret saying this, but I'm hoping that this doesn't mean that we'll have a drier than normal year.

Sunil and Ken -- you are putting us to shame. We're only tolerating our fifth day in a row of 20s, 1-2 inches of snow per day, and no wind. Wind is supposed to hit tonight, and that will "re-arrange" our snow. Roads are no fun, and it's turning into a long winter despite the late start this year.

I really don't know you guys up North do it. Two or three days of snow or ice and low teens temps and I'm ready to loose it. My hat's off to you all...du

I'm hoping to be dug out before tonight. My problem now is that I've run out of places to easily pile it. I left a message for a friend to see if he can come over with one of his big dump trucks or big loaders to widen the driveway. But, I'm sure he's been plowing nearly continuously since Friday. Time for some lunch and time to get the welder out again.

cat:

That's one of the reasons why I like the snowthrower - it gets the snow further away from the areas that need cleaning. Plus I can set it an inch or so above the surface and it won't pick up the limestone in the driveway and distribute it in the yard, which has a good chance then of getting re-distributed in the spring by the lawnmower.

Especially if they are not use to it. We just plan accordingly!

Yesterday I spotted a couple of 1" drifts in tire tracks, today they are gone. If you did an aerial shoot, you could see most septic drain fields.

It will soon be over, and I imagine, many stories to be told.

Just keep it safe!

"The cowards never left, and the weaklings died along the way."

Are you talking about a poultry/lemming Combo?, or that famous pass in Utah?

The good news is that with this last three hours of moving snow, I can make it all the way to the road with the tractor without getting stuck. Unfortunately, it is only 7-ft wide in most places, with 3-5 foot banks -- or higher, on each side.

We can now finally get out the kitchen door. I still have to dig out my truck -- which I put outside, so the tractor could be in the garage.

We've got TV back again. The satellite antenna was covered with snow. I tried to get the tractor out to it, but it was too deep. It was crotch deep through the entire front yard to the antenna. [Note to self: Get a new set of snowshoes.]



I've thought about a snowthrower for the tractor a few times. But, our driveway goes over a stream and through a ravine. The far side of the driveway is extremely steep. Even in the summer, I have to put the tractor is 4-WD just to get the bushhog up that part of the driveway. There is no way I'd be able to get the tractor up there with a snow thrower on the back.

I do have a 24-inch walk behind snowthrower. It's mouth is only 18-inches high, and I struggled with it to get to the garage. The snow was 8-12 inches deeper than the snow thrower's mouth was high.

I think (know) neither Lynda nor I will be going to work tomorrow.

Stay warm and dry,
Ken

My builder had to come over w/ his small excavator. It has a small blade in front of the tracks. Then the plowing company finally came, and they had to be pulled out with the excavator 4 times between my driveway and my neighbor's driveway.

What an ordeal!

My neighbor's driveway is only 10' wide, and it took quite a bit of digging just to find it.

Brutal.

One of the few times it's nice not owning a bunch of land to maintain... Just a small driveway and two parking spaces to uncover from the snow. I just found out the county I work for closed the government tomorrow and since I have training all next week I am considered a non essential employee, so I get paid and still don't have to go to work! For once I am happy about the snow... My fiancee is a school teacher and I don't think she'll be going to work anytime in the near future.

Some predict a baby boom in about (9) months from now.

That happened with the Midwest's blizzard of '78.' Not much else to do I guess. It's also stopped crime in Detroit 100 percent during the storm.

Hang tight ya'll....there's mo' comin'

When I was attending college at Indiana University in southern Indiana, that winter northern Indiana got clobbered by several snowstorms several weekends in a row like clockwork. The snow had really piled up. Problem was it all melted at one time right before Spring Break causing some historical flooding in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Anyway, I remember getting into the elevator at Eigenmann Hall where I was staying, and seeing a note by someone seeking a ride to Ft. Wayne for Spring Break. Someone crossed out the Ft. Wayne and changed it to Flood Wayne.

Here we go again.....

Oh to have a big diesel pickup and plow and charge "cash only."

They just upped the snowfall for tomorrow into Wednesday in my area to 10"-20" with 50 mph winds... I am starting to feel like I live in Buffalo, NY!

As Travis said above -- more snow. We finally dug out by 7:00 PM last night. I had to finish up with just my loader bucket. I irreparably broke my rear blade into two pieces yesterday afternoon. Started calling to find a new one -- they were kind of like hen's teeth. But, I did finally find a Woods RB72 by phone last night, which we had to pick up no later than 7:30 this morning. I was almost out of diesel fuel last night, and went looking for some of it, too. None last night, but one of the local stations got a load this morning. I lost my wallet and was in quite a panic. I was sure it was under 10 feet of snow somewhere in the driveway. Thankfully, it was the solution to another problem I thought I had. When I locked the differential with the foot pedal last night, the pedal didn't want to release. This morning I found my wallet lodged behind the pedal.

Ken, looks like the numbers they were calling for before may not materialize... We'll see when all is said and done how things turn out. I know my ride home from training at 9 this evening was no fun. Some guy in a Jeep passed me doing 65 with 2" of snow on the interstate while I was doing 30 and biting my nails. A mile up the road I watched him lose it, hit a guard rail spin across all 3 lanes and slam into a snow bank in the median strip. I honked as I went by as he was getting out of his Jeep looking very angry and realizing what an idiot he was... Sometimes people just need to slow down! 4wd get's you going, but sure don't keep you going straight or gets you stopped!

I had 5"-6" new snow in the drive when I got home right before dark, and the weather said another 6" of system snow tonight, then the lake effect will kick in.

My cousin sent some pics of the ice that they had. The way all the trees are broke, it looks like a small tornado went thru there. They're supposed to get some of that storm that's headed East as well. He just finished the landscaping around the house this Fall. The ice tipped over a 7' Holly plant and ripped the roots right out of the ground, and broke a lot of limbs in a Japanese Maple.

The snow quit for a couple of hours this morning, but the lake effect kicked in around 7 a.m. I just got back in from clearing some snow from around the house. The street hasn't seen a plow truck since 9 last night, and they are calling for 20+ mph winds later on today. Supposedly the 3.8 earthquake that they had 50 miles west-northwest of downtown Chicago this morning was felt as far away as 10 miles NE of here, but you couldn't prove it my me!

I had someone pass me in freezing rain once. Some of these idiots thing they are invincible when they have 4 wheel drive. Morons!

My mother-in-law who lives just east of Chicago in Hammond says she didn't feel anything either.

CJ and others,

As I have a degree in fisheries and not wildlife biology how long will it take until the whitetails in the east coast areas hit by the mega snow go into starvation mode?

I will say that the deer I put in the freezer in December was well prepared. It has the longest hair, and the most fat of any deer I think I've ever butchered.

With that said, the deer are definitely not moving around very much. I've spent a lot of time on the tractor in the past few days, and none of their trails have been used since about Friday. Around here, I think they should have adequate browse, even though it may not be real nutritious. Also, we have a lot of beef and horse farms around here. My guess is that they will be mooching the hay put out for their larger hoofed cousins.

It all depends on the habitat they live in... If they live in an area with a lot of recent logging, they will probably be OK. But southern deer don't go to yards like northern deer do. So this heavy snow for extended periods of time has to be much harder on them, that is for sure. I think there will be some dead deer this winter. Deer are darn tough though... Fortunately in my area there was a great acorn crop this year which should have packed on the fat for the deer. I will be heading to my land in PA when the snow melts back a bit to cut a bunch of trees so the deer can eat their tops. That will help them out a lot.

The deer can deal with a lot of snow, pawing thru it to eat. What they have a very difficult time with is ice. Hard to walk on, when they break thru it might cut their legs, and if it's thick enough, it will cover all their food sources up. 2 or 3 years ago in southern Wi., there were two ice storms a week or so apart, and that really decimated the deer herd. One farmer had 20 ac of corn left in the field, and while he didn't have any corn left to harvest, the deer in that area didn't die of starvation. There were deer dying in peoples driveways, looking for food.

There was a good mast crop here as well, and the areas near Oak trees almost look like hogs went thru, the deer are really turning over every leaf looking for acorns. I normally spread out some corn this time of the year to help them thru the hard months, 50# will be gone in < week. The squirrels probably eat almost as much as the deer.

I watched 7 deer walk down a residential road that had been partially plowed last night. They then proceeded to following a shoveled driveway to a shoveled sidewalk where I watch them browse on that house's shrubs for the next 30 minutes. I am sure that homeowner was thrilled this morning when he found his shrubs half gone.

Even Texas is getting in on the action..in a small way! 3" so far

Whatever you do -- don't send that darn stuff this way!

Come on, Ken - could you even notice another 3"?

No!
No!
NO!
NO!

I can't stand the sound of my tractor droning in my ears under my mad bomber hat (now I know where the name came from), and I am sick sick sick of smelling diesel fumes!

NO MORE SNOW THIS MONTH!

3" more snow might cause some folks to snap around here (like poor catmandoo).

I'm worried about my pond with all the snow cover.

This sucks.

I'm glad mine had 4-5 days completely thawed before freezing over again. Let's me think they got recharged withO2 and can handle another month covered up.

Don't worry Sunil, I'm sure your bullheads will be fine!

I feel better now, Yolk.

Thanks.

I can help with that, what's your cell phone number?

Cat and Sunil, I'll give you a little tip on keeping your sanity.

Don't look at the weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday.....

Sanity! Ha! I had my lobotomy in 1973.

As for the sanity of others, I wish I could find the photo of Sunil as a tour director, crouching in front of the windshield bullet hole, with JHAP and JWHAP protecting my wife and me.

I heard some vicious rumor that we've got another 10-12" coming in the next few days. Is that what you mean, esshup?

Brutality rising.

Yes, more snow coming... Can't wait! All these people trapped in their homes can't keep their hands off each other.

I don't believe it will be a foot though. The system I see headed there will not have the moisture.

Did I hear correctly that Dallas, Tx had 9" of snow ??

Sunil, from what I saw the next storm will only drop 3"-6" of snow.

Don't worry. Be haappy.

Scott, by this morning, it is more than 9. It's a record here. Guess I should have bought a coat.

CJ, Ken,

Do you guys ever hear of acid shock to fish in some waters out east that have border line PH and low alkalinity when heavy snow melts?

Haven't personally seen it it a body of water, but I have heard of it. The pH of some the precip that falls in the east can be very low. I am sure a lot of it depending on the buffering ability of the soils where the precip falls.

When I was in NC this past summer at the high elevations in the spruce-fir forests, the acid precipitation damage was interesting to see. It has certainly affected both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in the east.

I'm familiar with the term, but I've not really seen it here.

I check the pH of my somewhat-alkaline pond water several times per year. When I do, I check the pH a number of times during the day. My pH can change from about 6 to 9 during the daylight hours, with it peaking mid-day.

If it warms enough tomorrow and I can maybe get some reasonable water samples, I will check the pH during the daylight hours. Unfortunately, most of the pond liquid will be from inflow from the forest floor, which will probably not be an accurate representation.

This just ain't funny anymore!



Yesterday morning after breakfast we were relaxing, when we experienced a tremendous avalanche, as the snow from the roof crashed onto our front deck. The cat was sound asleep near the front window, but jumped about 2-feet straight up when the crashing started. This is what it looks like out our front door right now.



That obviously cleared the bullseye painted on our roof, as the bright blue 6-10 inches is now over us.

Snowing again here in Texas.

It's a good thing nobody was on the steps!

How else is the next storm supposed to find you if the bullseye isn't visible?

Looks like another 3-6 for you Ken... Only calling for a dusting at my house thankfully! Our hunting land is in the 6-10 range though! Those poor deer need some snow shoes or something up there...

We had really nasty sun here yesterday. It was all shiny and there was a lot of glare.

Jeez, it's hard to compete with these snow threads.

Sorry to hear you guys are getting pounded. We watch the weather every morning. This winter is gonna go into the history books.

You don't need to compete, you've been snowed in with the Donner party.

And that makes anybody feel Good!