well that was fun....
The last time I've encountered a layer of ice on top of snow was ten years ago when we were deployed to Bangor, Maine. That's the same trip I met the wife again, it's a long story and I don't wanna get into it. Let's just focus on the snow thing, shall we?
My story starts this morning with having to move my car so the contractor could get in the driveway. There was a little bit of ice on the car. He told me the drive up was something pretty spectacular. I went out about noon to gather up a pamphlet from the VA I got in the mail. I now have VA medical care but don't understand why if all I have is what they say is a nonservice-connected disability. Again, that's another story... The car was parked just behind the truck, and as I turned to go down the driveway, I almost wound up at the bottom of it. I was able to grab the truck and not fall.
I had some icemelt in the garage, so I threw it down and made a little path between my truck and the contractor's truck, so neither of us, nor our mail carrier would fall down and bust our butts. On my way to work, the ice melt had done its job and I was able to chip a pathway down to bare concrete and make it to the car.
I forgot my badge and ten minutes into my drive, I realized it, so I turned around and went home. I was gone 20 minutes and couldn't in that span of time, get my car in the driveway.
Yeah, it's not in the driveway now, either... well not all the way, anyway, but it's not sticking out past the snow berm the city plow drivers have created, either. As many of you know, I live on a circle, not a cul-de-sac, but there's a kind of a funny bend to the road right in front of my house so they don't plow all the way to the edge of the road. They just plow in a circle and wind up creating about a foot of snow berm in the winters. I add to it when they plow my driveway in. I just shoot the snow over there with the snowblower. Good thing, because that little car of mine wasn't going any further up the drive. I barely made it up the circle.
Not being able to get the car up the drive meant I had to get me up the drive. I accomplished this by walking on the edge of the ice and plunging my left foot into the snow on the lawn. The ice is so thick on the top of the snow, when I made holes in the ice, the loose stuff went flying out into the street. I'll bet I made a hell of a racket, too.
And this is how you know there's a lot of ice out there on the snow... I saw two raccoons in my back yard just a few minutes ago, and they were walking on top of the snow. The ice was supporting their weight. These weren't your run of the mill out in the wilderness coons. These were your city dwelling, dumpster diving, twice as big as they ought to ever be raccoons. I knew there was one about, but that's the first time I've seen two together. Last year, a coon decided it would be really funny to have babies in my neighbor's chimney. He had to have a pest guy come out and remove the varmints. They didn't make it, sad to say.
Tomorrow, I gotta go out and try to do what everyone else in the world is doing... buy either salt or ice-melt. I don't figure finding either will be easy tomorrow morning, but I know what else does a fabulous job of melting ice and I know just where to get it.
I have to go out to the IFA and buy a 50 pound bag of urea.
It's not what I might want, but it'll get the job done!
My story starts this morning with having to move my car so the contractor could get in the driveway. There was a little bit of ice on the car. He told me the drive up was something pretty spectacular. I went out about noon to gather up a pamphlet from the VA I got in the mail. I now have VA medical care but don't understand why if all I have is what they say is a nonservice-connected disability. Again, that's another story... The car was parked just behind the truck, and as I turned to go down the driveway, I almost wound up at the bottom of it. I was able to grab the truck and not fall.
I had some icemelt in the garage, so I threw it down and made a little path between my truck and the contractor's truck, so neither of us, nor our mail carrier would fall down and bust our butts. On my way to work, the ice melt had done its job and I was able to chip a pathway down to bare concrete and make it to the car.
I forgot my badge and ten minutes into my drive, I realized it, so I turned around and went home. I was gone 20 minutes and couldn't in that span of time, get my car in the driveway.
Yeah, it's not in the driveway now, either... well not all the way, anyway, but it's not sticking out past the snow berm the city plow drivers have created, either. As many of you know, I live on a circle, not a cul-de-sac, but there's a kind of a funny bend to the road right in front of my house so they don't plow all the way to the edge of the road. They just plow in a circle and wind up creating about a foot of snow berm in the winters. I add to it when they plow my driveway in. I just shoot the snow over there with the snowblower. Good thing, because that little car of mine wasn't going any further up the drive. I barely made it up the circle.
Not being able to get the car up the drive meant I had to get me up the drive. I accomplished this by walking on the edge of the ice and plunging my left foot into the snow on the lawn. The ice is so thick on the top of the snow, when I made holes in the ice, the loose stuff went flying out into the street. I'll bet I made a hell of a racket, too.
And this is how you know there's a lot of ice out there on the snow... I saw two raccoons in my back yard just a few minutes ago, and they were walking on top of the snow. The ice was supporting their weight. These weren't your run of the mill out in the wilderness coons. These were your city dwelling, dumpster diving, twice as big as they ought to ever be raccoons. I knew there was one about, but that's the first time I've seen two together. Last year, a coon decided it would be really funny to have babies in my neighbor's chimney. He had to have a pest guy come out and remove the varmints. They didn't make it, sad to say.
Tomorrow, I gotta go out and try to do what everyone else in the world is doing... buy either salt or ice-melt. I don't figure finding either will be easy tomorrow morning, but I know what else does a fabulous job of melting ice and I know just where to get it.
I have to go out to the IFA and buy a 50 pound bag of urea.
It's not what I might want, but it'll get the job done!
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