The Blizzard of '24

9:00am, Friday January 2024

Last week you might recall that I posted about how Winter finally started acting like Winter when we received 10.5" of snow in one drop. That snow was a beast due to how wet it was and shoveling out from that snow took three days to take care of what with dealing with snow plow remnants. Then right away after that we got another big dump of snow.

Twenty plus inches in the span of a week. I think that's a new record, at least in my reckoning. After wrasslin' with snow for three days and then seeing another huge dump - this time accompanied by high winds and drifting - I am starting to feel this "old school Winter" feeling. 

Big-time snow, winds whipping it around, and now brutal cold. This is a real Winter. A Winter that brings to mind Winters from my childhood. Except those Winters started out in late November and didn't go away until March.

Snow shoveling counts as training, right? My body thinks it is training. Sore muscles, fatigue, and mental drain are here and very real. Some people wish for Winters of old. I am glad we don't get those much anymore. "Cabin fever" is a real thing. I don't wish to experience that again. 

Yeah...I have fat bikes, but this snow will take a bit to get set up and then we'll need to have "grooming" of some sort. The local soft trails folks do their bit of grooming over in the parks where we have MTB trails, so that's nice. However; to get anywhere around where I live I have to wait for cars, people,, or preferably, the slednecks to come out. Snow machine trails are usually pretty good riding for fat bikes.  

The road West of the Isle Casino in Waterloo on Saturday afternoon.

The neighbors snowman

The second storm brought the blizzard and another round of shoveling. Two and 3/4's hours later I had both the side walk cleared and the two parking places out front for our cars. After I was done shoveling I was entertained by the neighbor's snowman making session. The place next door is being rented by the company that is putting in fiber optic cable here. They hired a bunch of Latin American folks to come up and do the work. 

I'm about 100% sure these guys next door are from Central and South America because they are fascinated by these two snowstorms. On one occasion they were outside taking images on their phones of Mrs. Guitar Ted and I sweeping snow off the car. They also built these two uniquely styled snowmen, one in the back yard, one out front. 

It was kind of heartwarming to see this fellow crafting this snowman Saturday. A grown man reveling in the wonder of snow.  We could stand a little more of that 'round these parts.