Family slumber party!
Mom called just before 8 to give us an update. It's been quite a day for her family. Because of all the snow and having a garage off an alley, my mom's older brother almost didn't make it to my grandfather's; he was supposed to spend the first night with him. However, his roommate couldn't get out of her garage. If grandma would come get him, he'd spend the night. So grandma and apparently mom went to my uncle's, picked him up, then went back to my grandfather's. And, remember, side streets suck in Chicago in this weather. They don't start plowing them until the snow stops falling and the arterial roads are clear. So then they go to take my younger uncle back to his car; he'd ridden in the ambulance with my grandfather and his car was back at the rehab place. Well, apparently his car was frozen shut, or he couldn't get in, or what have you. He ended up having to spend the night at grandma's with my mom. It's been probably thirty-something years since the three of them last spent the night in the same house, maybe around forty-something. That should be interesting. They then went to Burger King by the rehab place for dinner, which was where mom saw the Super Bowl halftime show. By the time she called, they'd just gotten back to grandma's. She also reminded me that my grandfather's landline phone isn't working. The bill was paid, so they're not sure what's going on. He has a cellphone, which he's been using since he's been in rehab, but my younger uncle got him signed up for Life Alert, which goes through the landline, so that's why it's important to have that again.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, dad and I finally went out after the fighting portion of the Super Bowl happened. Holy crap, the end of that game. Amazing. That bobbly catch was almost the play of the game, up until Russell Wilson threw the next pass to a Patriot. Oh well. I didn't get to see all the award presentations afterward because we set about finding the driveway...and my car. As is what usually happens, there was a nice space from a drift on the passenger side, but on the driver's side, it all accumulated. It was nearly hip-high by my door. Some of the drifts were so high dad could hardly get through them with the snowblower. Then, when I finally got my car cleared off and warmed up and was ready to move it so we could clear that spot, there was too much snow still in front of my car and it just spun in place. Luckily I was able to reverse enough to then turn my wheels and pull out at an angle, but that was a pain. And, of course, while it wasn't really snowing by that time, we had now reached the blowing portion of the blizzard, to the point where it was useless to snowblow anything to the north, because it immediately blew back to the south. As in, you could see the blown snow curve in the air. Pretty amazing, and amusing. Also amusing: The drifts in the dog run. They're as high as the fence on one side, and on the other, they almost reach the windows of the door, except there's a slight gap of one or two feet next to the house. But, yeah, they're almost as high as the tomato stakes. Not that those are still in the ground. But almost.
We do expect there to be more snow on the ground when we wake up, between all the blowing and then whenever the snowplows decide to come back down our street. But it's way better than before, and we even finished just before 10 PM to boot. And then dad checked his messages, and his work is closed tomorrow anyway, so he can sleep in if he wants. I haven't heard anything from my job--or band--so I'll just have to leave early.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, dad and I finally went out after the fighting portion of the Super Bowl happened. Holy crap, the end of that game. Amazing. That bobbly catch was almost the play of the game, up until Russell Wilson threw the next pass to a Patriot. Oh well. I didn't get to see all the award presentations afterward because we set about finding the driveway...and my car. As is what usually happens, there was a nice space from a drift on the passenger side, but on the driver's side, it all accumulated. It was nearly hip-high by my door. Some of the drifts were so high dad could hardly get through them with the snowblower. Then, when I finally got my car cleared off and warmed up and was ready to move it so we could clear that spot, there was too much snow still in front of my car and it just spun in place. Luckily I was able to reverse enough to then turn my wheels and pull out at an angle, but that was a pain. And, of course, while it wasn't really snowing by that time, we had now reached the blowing portion of the blizzard, to the point where it was useless to snowblow anything to the north, because it immediately blew back to the south. As in, you could see the blown snow curve in the air. Pretty amazing, and amusing. Also amusing: The drifts in the dog run. They're as high as the fence on one side, and on the other, they almost reach the windows of the door, except there's a slight gap of one or two feet next to the house. But, yeah, they're almost as high as the tomato stakes. Not that those are still in the ground. But almost.
We do expect there to be more snow on the ground when we wake up, between all the blowing and then whenever the snowplows decide to come back down our street. But it's way better than before, and we even finished just before 10 PM to boot. And then dad checked his messages, and his work is closed tomorrow anyway, so he can sleep in if he wants. I haven't heard anything from my job--or band--so I'll just have to leave early.