the snowpocalypse

Kenshi

First of all, spam is forthcoming.

At first it was all romantic and awesome. How beautiful the pristine, white snow, piling up everywhere, covering up the familiar landscape and replacing it with a dreamlike scene of wonder!

Then, the beer runs out. Or the snacks or something. And you get that first feeling of being TRAPPED.

So you make the best of it....you bake bread or watch movies while waiting for the plows to come. This works for a little while.

Then the workweek starts and there is another gigantic blizzard on the way! Your boss tells you that you can work from home! Great!

Then you realize you don't WANT to work from home...you don't even want to BE home. But while you are AT home it isn't like you don't have crap to do...you've got snow drifts to fight, clothes to dry, etc. Anyway, hidden dark side of telecommuting reveals itself: office is closed due to inclement weather, but we expect you all to work from home.

Oh and the DOG. Yes, she loves it. I dug little trenches around my yard for her to go to trees and such. The first couple of days she ran herself out of steam right away and was a quiet, sweet little angel.

Then at some point yesterday, the snow got sufficiently dense / frozen over that Tomoe could get by on top of it.

And with drifts averaging around 4 feet high in my back yard, that's right in level with the fence, so...sudden nightmare as the dog is over the fence, venturing out into the snow.

I just trudged after her this morning, I feel like I may have torn something in one of my knees. The snow is way too thick to drag your feet through, so you have to punch down through it, and then pull your leg straight back up. And the surface is packed and offers a lot of resistance so you have to PUNCH your leg down through it. I wonder if show-shoes would have even be the right thing if I had them...probably snow stilts of some kind would have been the proper conveyance. Or a gigantic tracked vehicle.

So I had to chase after her for about a half mile through the open spaces of my neighborhood this morning. I'm WIPED OUT. Like I mentioned, I think I did something bad to my knee.

Anyway, Tomoe is not allowed in the back yard unsupervised until March! So sad for the little doggy, but I would much rather she hate me from her crate than be squished on the road. I can almost hear it now: "I am so sorry, sir, but I just didn't see your white dog against the snow bank!"

sukoshi_mom

What a saga. Hope the knee is OK. Maybe you need an orange safety vest on Tomoe just in case and a twenty foot long lead!

This is why my family didn't settle on the East Coast in the DC area. Crippling snow storms. Now all we deal w/ in Northern CA is the occasional pounding rain storm w/ 60 mph winds, crappy fog, and more rain. (When we have the big rain storms, everyone hunkers down and doesn't go anywhere unless absolutely necessary.)

Kenshi

We get big snow every 7 or so years here, this past week was the biggest by far though.

Tomoe managed to cut her paw the other day, and then last night she opened it up deeply while escaping the yard. $500 later and we can at least look forward to her sleeping all day.

Edgewood

Ah, no fun. I lived in VA in the 90s when they got a huge snowstorm and my Siberian went over the top of the 4 foot fence because the drifts. I went after him, but he was having too much fun (5 h later I finally caught him). No fun chasing after a dog in a big snow storm (or the reminants of one).

Reno&Rico

Well, even with less snow, my huskies always returned back home by them selves. Maybe I was very lucky they never got hit by a car or so. And once Reno needed the chip so they could call me to pick him up. But that was far away from home, in Belgium. I searched for him for a long time. In the end I had to go back home.

Kenshi

I just can't bring myself to test her ability to come back home safely from an adventure right now, not at 7 months and not when she is invisible in the snow.

Reno&Rico

Oh no, not at 7 months, for sure not. I never intended to let them walk out free, but they were smart enough to escape out of the garden. And sometimes I just wasn't paying attention. In most cases they were pretty close to the house, trying to outswimm a bunch of ducks. So I just needed to call them and they would return. It was less funny when they escapes in Belgium were they actually killed a bunch of sheep. The police went out to shoot the wild and dangerous dogs. But as they walked in the meadow, the huskies walked up to them, wiggeling their tails as super friendly dogs. That saved their lives. And I had to pay for the sheep. The owner was kind of happy afterwards, he got good money and still had the sheep to sell the meat.
So since there are plenty of people with guns in the US I guess you be better of to keep thim in your yard ;-)

sjp051993

We had the same problem this year with the snow drifts. We actually went out in the yard and dug what looks like a moat around the yard. It is wide enough that the dogs will not attempt to jump it and go over the fence. We took pics. will have to upload them tomorrow. Just got back from a dog show so I have to find the camera in everything.

shishiinu

Snow, what does that look like? Its been upper 70's for the last few days in socal. Shorts, t-shirt, and a ice cold Asahi all day long. Man I wish we had snow here.

Is it me or is global warming only in socal?

Edgewood

It must be socal only, because in the Mid Atlantic this year, we have been buried in snow (especially MD and VA, but also PA). I believe Philly, B-more, and DC all broke their all time snow records by about 3-12 inches (since records on weather were first recorded). Currently, we have about 30 inches of snow and my lovely husband has shoveled paths around the yard so my Shikoku has a bit of an easier time getting around the yard. All that snow was pretty hard for a 20 inch tall dog to get through (without big leaps and bounds).

Reno&Rico

Wow, that's a lot of snow. Here in Holland, we have some inches, in the North a few more. Than if this happens, all traffic is in deep trouble. But I kind of like it, I can work from my home place. And I can always reach the supermarket with help of the husky boys.

sjp051993

in parts of ohio we are nearing record levels. getting more snow today.