Snow Storm in April - What a day?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I woke up yesterday morning to a little over a foot of snow. Very wet snow, so really heavy. I almost grabbed my camera because of the beauty of the trees so laden with sticky snow that it was stunning...but I didn't. The beautiful sight was also the cause of hundreds of trees going down and taking electrical wires with them. Almost all secondary roads were closed with trees across them. It was a mess.

I knew the day was going to be bad because of the many storm warnings. My phone went off at 5:15 AM to announce that the grandkids school was closed. I thought, "hmmm...must be bad already". No sooner than that and my fan quit and the electricity shut off and there's no going back to sleep when there is nothing but eerie silence. I figured, "well...it'll be back shortly as it always does"....NOT. No morning coffee, no early morning Wordle, no spending the first hour of the day reading news...just sitting in the dark

To make a long story short - I had no power until about 10:00 pm last night. And I'm lucky because a lot of friends of mine in Binghamton still have no power. They got over 14 inches. I dug my car out and realized just how heavy the snow was and that I'd probably have a heart attack if I tried to shovel my driveway so I called my brother to come over with his tractor and scoop to dig the driveway out. I finally got out and took a drive to Cortland to hopefully find a cup of coffee. Everything was closed except a McDonalds running on a generator and the line was so long the cars were backed up to the highway so it was a 20 minute wait (so I got two cups!) It is horrible to not have coffee first thing in the morning. I make a pot of coffee before going to bed so that as I walk to the bathroom in the morning with my eyes still half closed all I have to do is hit the button and it starts brewing so within minutes of getting out of bed, I have hot coffee waiting for me. And I'm pretty much worthless without my first cup of coffee!

It was a frustrating day. I wanted to get on the internet and see what was going on with this storm, to do my morning Wordle, and to get caught up on what's going on in the world. I was forced to use my phone which is okay I guess if you have the eyes of a hawk. I went to this site, but couldn't sign on because I can't remember my own password and I keep my passwords on my computer. It eventually became to frustrating to use my cell phone so I gave it up

By noon, my mother (90+ yrs old) was in near tears because she was so cold her teeth were chattering. So I wrapped her up with extra clothes, blankets, and put one of my ski caps on her head, got her to bed and put several more blankets on her before heading out to find a way to heat her house without using electricity or using something that would create carbon monoxide. Finally borrowed a propane heater, but my tank of propane was empty. Back on the road, but the places that would normally fill it couldn't because they needed electricity to run their pumps. Finally went north to Lowes for a swap out. It was evening by the time I got it hooked up and it was a pain because the tank had to be outside and the heater inside. My brother stopped over and said that he called NYSEG and we wouldn't have electricity back until tomorrow night. My friends in Binghamton said they'd be out of electricity for three days. Anyway, I stayed with my mother until the house started to get into the 60's. Meanwhile, I emptied her refrigerator into big plastic storage boxes and took them outside in the snow

Anyway, I got her into bed after 9:30 and just as I was about to leave, all the lights came on. Never such a beautiful sound as hearing the furnace kick in and actually be able to see what I was doing without flashlights. What a horribly frustrating day! So much for the long story short - sorry



[url=https://postimg.cc/ppV7L7K4]

[T200]

I feel for you and others who had to endure that.

[MightyGiants]

and this is why I enjoy visiting upstate NY but would never want to live there

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Glad all are safe and warm now!  Was a freak storm for this time of year!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jolly Blue Giant]

and this is why I enjoy visiting upstate NY but would never want to live there

[Ed Vette]

Brian had ten inches of snow in Syracuse too. It

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Brian had ten inches of snow in Syracuse too. It

[Ed Vette]

Actually, my Dad had a big generator that looks brand new and it is still there but I couldn't get it to start and on top of that, I have no clue how to hook it up to get the furnace going which was the no. 1 priority since the cold was the biggest threat to my mother. A couple of years ago, I hooked it up to an outlet going straight to the panel and it popped half a dozen light bulbs, blew up my parent's computer, one of their TVs, my mother's sewing machine, etc. So I wouldn't try that again. I am not an electrical engineer and electricity baffles me and I always get shocked

A few years ago I helped build a couple of houses for Habitat for Humanity in Binghamton. I was put in charge of wiring all the outlets which I have done in the past. I would touch the two bare wires together - watch it spark and it would flip the breaker off and then I could continue to wire the outlets. However, other people with saws and drills and crap would see the breaker was off and would flip it back on for their own use. I don't know how many times I got shocked, but it was a lot. Surprised my hair didn't start on fire...LOL Needless to say, I hate working with electricity!

I think for the furnace to work you would need an electrician to hook up a transfer switch and an outlet outside your home to power the box. Otherwise just get it serviced as the oil will need to be changed and the carburetor cleaned out. Don

[jimv]

April snowstorms in northern States are not that rare.   It happens from time-to-time.  Sorry you had so much trouble though. The one good things about snow so late in the season is that it's gone pretty quickly.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I think for the furnace to work you would need an electrician to hook up a transfer switch and an outlet outside your home to power the box. Otherwise just get it serviced as the oil will need to be changed and the carburetor cleaned out. Don

[jimv]

Jolly, I've got a Generac that goes on automatically when the electric goes off.  You might want to consider that.

[MightyGiants]

I only use ethanol-free gas for small engines....snow blower, lawn mowers, power washer, etc. I quit using regular gas several years ago after constantly taking things back for repair and got his advice. The gas in the generator is ethanol-free, but for some reason I couldn't get it to fire up. I didn't try for a long time because I couldn't really use it anyway. I was going to hook an extension cord to a small electric heater. That was the plan anyway

Gas has a shelf life even if it's ethanol-free.   You can extend that life with fuel additives but you really don't want to go beyond 6 or 9 months.  You also want to run gas-powered equipment dry if it's going to be laid up for some months.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Jolly, I've got a Generac that goes on automatically when the electric goes off.  You might want to consider that.

Sounds good, I'll check it out

[LennG]

I woke up yesterday morning to a little over a foot of snow. Very wet snow, so really heavy. I almost grabbed my camera because of the beauty of the trees so laden with sticky snow that it was stunning...but I didn't. The beautiful sight was also the cause of hundreds of trees going down and taking electrical wires with them. Almost all secondary roads were closed with trees across them. It was a mess.

I knew the day was going to be bad because of the many storm warnings. My phone went off at 5:15 AM to announce that the grandkids school was closed. I thought, "hmmm...must be bad already". No sooner than that and my fan quit and the electricity shut off and there's no going back to sleep when there is nothing but eerie silence. I figured, "well...it'll be back shortly as it always does"....NOT. No morning coffee, no early morning Wordle, no spending the first hour of the day reading news...just sitting in the dark

To make a long story short - I had no power until about 10:00 pm last night. And I'm lucky because a lot of friends of mine in Binghamton still have no power. They got over 14 inches. I dug my car out and realized just how heavy the snow was and that I'd probably have a heart attack if I tried to shovel my driveway so I called my brother to come over with his tractor and scoop to dig the driveway out. I finally got out and took a drive to Cortland to hopefully find a cup of coffee. Everything was closed except a McDonalds running on a generator and the line was so long the cars were backed up to the highway so it was a 20 minute wait (so I got two cups!) It is horrible to not have coffee first thing in the morning. I make a pot of coffee before going to bed so that as I walk to the bathroom in the morning with my eyes still half closed all I have to do is hit the button and it starts brewing so within minutes of getting out of bed, I have hot coffee waiting for me. And I'm pretty much worthless without my first cup of coffee!

It was a frustrating day. I wanted to get on the internet and see what was going on with this storm, to do my morning Wordle, and to get caught up on what's going on in the world. I was forced to use my phone which is okay I guess if you have the eyes of a hawk. I went to this site, but couldn't sign on because I can't remember my own password and I keep my passwords on my computer. It eventually became to frustrating to use my cell phone so I gave it up

By noon, my mother (90+ yrs old) was in near tears because she was so cold her teeth were chattering. So I wrapped her up with extra clothes, blankets, and put one of my ski caps on her head, got her to bed and put several more blankets on her before heading out to find a way to heat her house without using electricity or using something that would create carbon monoxide. Finally borrowed a propane heater, but my tank of propane was empty. Back on the road, but the places that would normally fill it couldn't because they needed electricity to run their pumps. Finally went north to Lowes for a swap out. It was evening by the time I got it hooked up and it was a pain because the tank had to be outside and the heater inside. My brother stopped over and said that he called NYSEG and we wouldn't have electricity back until tomorrow night. My friends in Binghamton said they'd be out of electricity for three days. Anyway, I stayed with my mother until the house started to get into the 60's. Meanwhile, I emptied her refrigerator into big plastic storage boxes and took them outside in the snow

Anyway, I got her into bed after 9:30 and just as I was about to leave, all the lights came on. Never such a beautiful sound as hearing the furnace kick in and actually be able to see what I was doing without flashlights. What a horribly frustrating day! So much for the long story short - sorry



[url=https://postimg.cc/ppV7L7K4]

Let's see if I got this right.

You had 12 inches of heavy wet snow,
you shoveled your car out
You had your brother come over and help plow the driveway
Just to drive to Cortland to get a cup of coffee?

And you didn't ask your girlfriend to help or what you could pick up for her?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Let's see if I got this right.

You had 12 inches of heavy wet snow,
you shoveled your car out
You had your brother come over and help plow the driveway
Just to drive to Cortland to get a cup of coffee?

And you didn't ask your girlfriend to help or what you could pick up for her?

LOL 

I brought her a cup of coffee! She was very grateful and rewarding