snow

Winter Storm Is Over

by michaeltefft

I live in Southeastern Virginia. Virginia is a beautiful state. I have lived here all my adult life. Virginia has it all, mountains, piedmont, beaches, history, and an amazing natural beauty. Two things this area has that I don’t like are hurricanes and blizzards. Today is the morning after one of the worst blizzards we have seen in recent memory. While we got through the storm without any problems, the sub-freezing temperatures forecast for the next two days will make driving anywhere problematic.

Cabin fever is now starting to set in. I’m too old to go out and make a snowman unless it is a very small one. During the storm yesterday I spent time with online courses I am taking on Udemy.com. The courses are on Lightroom photography and Gimp 2 graphics software. They are a lot of fun and I am learning quite a lot. I managed to get out this morning and took a video of the results of the storm. I cleaned the snow off the outside unit of our heat system and cleaned up the front stairs some. Now I thought I would spend some more time writing on my blog. I don’t often post here, it is mostly a therapeutic thing for me.

The sun is out for the first time since the New Year and if not for temperatures in the low twenties it would be a great day for doing something outdoors. It’s just that you can’t drive anywhere to do anything. So I guess after I finish this I will spend the rest of the days reading, watching a football game, and maybe a movie. The roads should be ok by tomorrow I hope.

That’s about it. Just wanted to kill some time. Hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year so far. Stay safe.

Crazy Cold Weather

by michaeltefft

SnowFebruary has been quite the month weather wise. It has snowed three times with the most recent blanketing the area with 3 inches or more. But the real story has been the cold. Overnight we had the coldest temperatures in 21 years. It was down to zero degrees overnight without a wind chill. We have had numerous days when the high temperature of the day never reached freezing and the nighttime lows were in the single digits. As I write this the snow outside has been frozen into solid ice that you can walk on without leaving a mark.

We have had numerous winter weather watches and wind chill warnings along with coastal flooding and high winds. Last year we had 4 major snowfalls but never temperatures like this. More of the same is expected for tomorrow and it won’t be until Saturday that some relief from the frigid temperatures starts to thaw things out. Last nights Ash Wednesday service was cancelled as was our once a month breakfast meal for the homeless at the Oasis Mission.

I will be glad when this winter is over, if it ever ends. Damn you Punxsutawney Phil. Well at least I’m not Bill Murray and stuck in Groundhog Day.

A Wild February

by michaeltefft

This February was a wild one with regard to the weather. I think we had four nor’easters, most of them bringing us snow. The largest snowfall was 6 or 7 inches with a subsequent one bringing an additional inch. Our dogs Max and Tripod really enjoyed romping in the snow. I think it may have been the first time for Tripod. Since he is a chihuahua he had a unique way of bounding through the snow. When he fell through the snow he would splay out his back legs to keep him from going deeper into the snow.

Being the new treasurer at church has kept me busy, in fact it has kept me busier than I really want to be. But it is a job that has to be done so I am not complaining too much. I am hoping to give my job as the multimedia specialist of our church to a new member as soon as he is ready to take it.

I broke down and bought another gun this month. This time I bought a Rossi .357 magnum revolver. It is not the most expensive revolver available but I am more than happy with it. It has an impressive signature when fired and seems to be more accurate than my Glock. I did some volunteer work at the Norfolk gun show last weekend for the shooting club I am a member of. Each member is required to donate time in support of the club or pay a monetary fine. It was actually quite enjoyable as I got to talk to a lot of interesting people.

Not much else to talk about except we are planning a trip to Lexington Kentucky this April for a weekend. We may also be going to the mountains in North Carolina for a week in August to share a cabin with my brothers. Both sound like a lot of fun. That’s it for now.

I almost forgot, we got snow!

by michaeltefft

I have always loved snow and really hate that we so seldom get any significant snow here in SE Virginia. So I was thrilled when we finally got some real snow this year. As usual the snow came in March. It was not a lot of snow, maybe an inch or two, but it did cover everything and stayed around for a couple of days. I think it may have been the first snow our dog Max has ever seen, and he really loved it. I took a few pictures of the snow so that I could look back fondly on that day, escpecially during the years when we don’t get any. It seems if we want to see any real snow on a regular basis we are going to have to leave this area. In fact, that is what we plan to do by the end of this year. Looking at New Mexico right now, hopefully the northern part of the state.

snowbush1

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

by michaeltefft

Christmas officially started for us yesterday. Teresa brought down all the Christmas tree ornaments from the attic and we setup and decorated our tree. We already have a number of presents to put under the tree, including a french press, electric percolator and a nice Panasonic Lumix camera. We already have most of the presents we are going to buy as this Christmas our shopping will be drastically curtailed. The shopping reduction is not so much due to the economy as it is the fact that we think Christmas should be less about buying presents and more about family and the birth of Jesus.

As always I am hoping for significant snow before Christmas as it always feels more like Christmas if there is snow on the ground. The chance of snow before Christmas here in Virginia is not very likely but one can always hope. I have been very busy doing things like getting the truck inspected, the oil changed and going to the dentist.  Today I am taking Max to the vet to get a wellness checkup, shots and some other tests done. Tomorrow I hope to go to Nike Park and launch three of the model rockets that I have recently built and are ready to launch. It is really great to be retired and have all this time to do all these things. Doing things in the middle of the week is much easier because most everyone is at work.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at Smithfield Station. Most of Teresa’s family was there as well as my son Jason. I don’t see him as often as I would like so it was great that he could be there. His birthday is the  6th of December so I need to think of something to get him. That is about it for now. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas to you.

I hate the weatherman.

by michaeltefft

Friday as I left work I was excited as the weatherman (yeah, I know I should say weather forecaster) was calling for snow Saturday night and Sunday. Predictions were for 4 to 7 inches depending on where you were. Knowing the past record for snow predictions in this area I had my fingers crossed but did not really expect to see much snow. Well, the weatherman lived up to his abysmal record for snow predictions once again. It did start snowing Saturday evening but I could tell by the intensity of the snowfall that we were never going to get 4 to 7 inches. But to make matters even worse, it stopped snowing altogether before I went to bed. Sure enough, in the morning there was only a dusting of snow on the ground. I should have know better than to expect any significant snow accumulation for this area. Thinking maybe there would be more snow to the west of us I took a drive to Smithfield. While there was more snow on the ground in Smithfield it was still nowhere near the predicted snow accumulation. As usual the weatherman was covering his ass, saying that Smithfield had received between 1 and 3 inches of snow. Three inches my ass, maybe 1/3 rd of an inch. I guess the only way we will get any snowfall around here is if the weatherman predicts that there is not a snowball’s chance in hell of getting any snow. Then we will have a blizzard of epic proportions.