Those glistening houses that seem to be built of snow

[austin_dern]

So, this has been a miserable winter. Long, cold, bitterly cold, snowy. Incredibly, it turns out, this hasn't been one of the snowiest winters for the Lansing area, and it's only in the top three for snowiest winter of the past decade, but the combination of snow and cold has to make it uniquely miserable. We went through a monthlong stretch without breaking through freezing, and I'm pretty sure we went through almost as long a stretch without even reaching average temperatures.

This made a little warm stretch we had last week extraordinarily good. Wednesday it didn't just reach normal, it actually went above and got into the 40s. And not the low 40s either, but the high 40s. It came back above freezing several more days in a row, and that was wonderful to feel even if it does make this week's return to frigidity the more agonizing.

It has had some merciful side effects, though. For one, it's finally allowed some of the barely-plowed snow in our street to melt. We're on a minor street, and the repeated heavy snows mean all plowing efforts went to the major arteries and they could barely get cleared before the next snow arrived. And people would park in the street rather than shovel their driveways out, with the result that we got lousy ploughing done, belatedly, and the road's just been a mushy pile of snow and ice for months. Now, though, there's actual blacktop visible, even if it's mostly potholes anymore.

Also, there's the case of the rabbit statue in the yard. This is a cute little sculpture, and the snow had accumulated to the point that it had vanished beneath the white. The tips of its ears are now just barely visible again, so, that's some progress.

It's going to be a heck of a spring thaw, though, if it ever comes.

Trivia: Although the early Baudot telegraph was capable of thirty words per minute on each line, and could have twelve sets of apparatus at each end, the accurate timing required of operators meant it typically operated at about two-thirds the capacity of 360 words per minute. Source: The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage.

Currently Reading: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the epic story of the Taiping Civil War, Stephen R Platt.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Also, there's the case of the rabbit statue in the yard.

You really ought to include photos a tiny bit more often, old chap. ^_^; (Might be fun to take a couple shots a day, and make a time lapse clip of the advance of Spring, perhaps)

We're on a minorly busy road out of town, so the road itself is always gritted as necessary, but the pavements.. well, they're rather a different story. =:P Even with a fairly few retirees around in the neighborhood, the council still doesn't pay any attention to trying to ensure people can walk safely, not just drive safely. Well, safely perhaps overstates some drivers' capabilities.. so many seem to feel a primal urge to mate with the car in front, so they'll zoom ahead, despite it not being a wide road - just a plain lane each way, plus parked cars, traffic islands, a small intersection, and a fairly busy small supermarket - only to have to toss out the anchor in a hundred feet. This lot could really do with a bit more chilling out.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I should, but I realized while shoveling today that the ear tips are under the snowbank again. We'll have to wait for some snow to melt or at least sublimate off, so, that's going to be a bit.

Our street is erratic about shoveling the walks, although at least when the snow is bad enough one of the people with gas-powered snow blowers go up and down and clean everyone's off, which is really great about the community. I do my best to shovel the sidewalk, side to side, so people can walk safely the whole way, and I think that good example is catching on amongst the neighbors.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

The roads here took until this week to get into a semblance of seeing-the-curb. It's been fairly thawful, but I think there'll be a snowpile on the driveway until April.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

We're starting to see the lawns again! In some places anyway. If we do get the several days in a row above freezing that they're forecasting we might actually get to something like normal this month.