I have a new theology

[pameladean]

Angels have snow-blowers.

Yes, that's all. What do you expect from an atheist?

The last storm total I saw was 17.1 inches, at the airport. We haven't had so much in one go in quite some time, but I think the real problem was the high winds.

I spent most of yesterday shoveling madly, to no apparent effect. I haven't looked at the driveway yet. I am too sore to do anything today, and I was fretting about needing to get the back cleared out because we are low on cat food for the kidney-impaired, and needing to get the front cleared out so groceries can be delivered tomorrow. Yes, other people in this house can shovel, but two of the three had a miserable afternoon yesterday: after futilely attempting to find a restaurant open so they could have lunch, they found that the alley had not been plowed, and got stuck on 37th Street and had to be rescued by kindly passers-by, so that David ended up parking miles away, and then walking home because the buses were no longer running. And the third person can't do everything. But some neighbors so bundled up that I didn't recognize them did our front sidewalk, the walk from that to the house, and EVEN WENT THROUGH THE PLOW RIDGE TO THE STREET. David and Lydy brought their cars back as the angels were finishing up, so perhaps one of them knows who they are. I didn't go out to see because my boots were still wet. But I am so grateful. If it's just the back, I expect we can manage.

I am not sure whether this storm was really so bad, or whether all the budget cuts made it impossible for the city to do its job properly. Certainly the wind's blowing painfully-moved snow right back where it had been before could not have helped matters at all.

I'm very glad neither the power nor the internet went out.

May all of you who need them have angels with snow-blowers arrive in a timely fashion.

My brain is still growing back, so I don't feel I have much other news. I'm working on a report of three short, thematically-related trips that Eric and I made between August and November, but it's coming along slowly. I'd like to have written up some of the hikes Raphael and I did, too, especially to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, but my memory is a bit spotty at this remove.

Pamela

Comments

[txanne.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had angels when you needed them! And suddenly I'm not so terribly upset about not getting that fabulous job at that fabulous school. *hugs and tea*

[pameladean]

*hugs and tea for you too*

The right fabulous school is waiting for you. I just wish it would be a little less elusive, but I know it's there.

P.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I was out, trying to get to the street, when the nice man with the snow blower came and just took care of that for me. I didn't recognize him, and somehow didn't manage to ask his name. There were two passes with the snow blower, though. Because somebody had already done the sidewalk and the walk up to the house by the time we got home, and then this guy came and helped. He said, "It looks like Claude already did you guys," about the front walk, so maybe it was Claude. I didn't know he had a snow blower. Any rate, I agree. Angels.

[pameladean]

He doesn't -- the snow blower arrived in a vehicle, so presumably Clyde (I think it's Clyde; we've gotten his mail by mistake) has a really really kindly friend.

P.

[eub.livejournal.com]

I wonder, do angels blow the snow behind them, into the future, or sideways, into an alternate timeline?

[pameladean]

If they blew it into the future many things would be explained.

P.

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

I read the first line of this entry on my f-list without seeing who had posted it, and immediately thought of Laurie Anderson's Strange Angels...which I discovered by reading JG&R. There's probably some deeper meaning in that, but I refuse to try to determine what it is.

[pameladean]

I thought of the song too, but I couldn't find my album to quote from it. I think eub above is also referring to the song.

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Expensive, and not easy to get at this point, but the WashPost garden columnist recommended a SnoWovel.

[pameladean]

I will look into it when the internet connection is faster.

P.

[jenett]

Oh, I am envious!

(We have dug out all of the driveway *except* the plowed in bit at the alley: someone on the block must have come through with a blade on their truck, because it was plowed this morning, well before the city even got to the streets near here. Tomorrow for the alley, so we can actually get cars out. Thankfully, I don't need to be anywhere.)

[pameladean]

I wish you angels too.

P.

[lcohen]

i have a snow blower that i can't get to work (and neither could jonah, when he visited, so it's not just that i'm incompetent) so i bless kind neighbors that sometimes give me a hand. i'm so glad someone helped you all. stay dry and warm!

[pameladean]

You too!

We used to have a snow blower, but it was allergic to white plastic shopping bags, and our neighborhood seems to be infested with them. We finally just gave up on it. We haven't actually had much need of one for years, but wow, this storm was something else.

P.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the budget cuts didn't help. Plus, people get amnesia about bad storms as they recede in memory. Lots of my younger friends roll their eyes when I talk about Halloween 1991; then I scare them with tales of how the Mpls streets used to have one-side only parking after the first snow emergency of the winter until April 1. The horror on their faces! "They can't do that, can they?"

I like being a keeper of stories sometimes... ;-)

[pameladean]

Hee.

They can and they did. I don't know if they will again.

P.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

I love the way I got your post about shovelling snow and snowblowers right above 1crowdedhour's post on my friendslist. And then another two posts about snow almost immediately above that, though less similar in theme.

Having got more than a touch of the sun at our work Christmas party today (tennis, urgh), it's rather lovely to read about all this snow.

Probably more fun than actually experiencing it, of course...

[pameladean]

No doubt. I like your summery posts at this time of year and all the gardening. I'm sorry the sun was too much, though.

P.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

I'm a wimp about hot weather! The sun is often too much...

city not plowing

[careswen.livejournal.com]

My understanding from what I heard on MPR Saturday morning was that, once the speed of the snow got over 1" per hour, the plows would not be able to keep up, and would be called off. So I assume it's less of a budget cuts thing and more of a "Why bother, we're doomed anyway" thing.

I was more shocked by Metro Transit shutting down, leaving who knows how many thousands of people stranded. I was lucky that I was close enough to home that greykev could come get me. On the way home, we saw people waiting at bus stops for a bus they they didn't know wasn't coming, and we picked up one guy who was walking in our direction. I suppose I understand why they had to do it (MPR says 70 of MT's 220 buses got stuck, which is pretty compelling), but it bothers me a great deal that we were all abandoned to our fates like that.

It's also making me rethink some of my own attitudes about MN snowstorms.

Re: city not plowing

[pameladean]

I guess I was including the shutdown of Metro Transit, because if the streets had been properly plowed, the busses wouldn't have gotten stuck in the first place. I wonder if they would have decided differently if it had been a weekday, with even more commuters stranded? I often feel that people who work different times and hours get very short shrift in general planning.

P.

Re: city not plowing

[careswen.livejournal.com]

I agree with your wondering. I had the luxury of a vehicle to get around in -- I think our community leaders often conveniently forget that not everyone has that luxury. Everytime I hear some obnoxious person say we should spend less on mass transit and more on roads, I want to ask them if they'd like to give my blind husband a car to drive on those roads.

Re: city not plowing

[pameladean]

Our community definitely forgets that. All you have to do is look at the comments if there is a transit strike. People who have cars and are not personally affected are strutting around as if they had conquered Smaug, rather than just behaving like jerks and being unable to see beyond their noses.

And speaking of mass transit and noses, I would love to punch the nose of the governor-elect of Wisconsin.

P.