107 Thoughts to “Is this a Blizzard? Open Thread 1/26/11”

  1. Morris Davis

    First!

  2. Lomond Drive is in bad shape. There are power lines down and abandoned vehicles on Flat Branch Hill. 2 hours ago, people couldn’t get through.

    There is a disabled snow plow on Sudley Manor Drive.

    The City is not doing well either.

    That is the report from the roving Howler. (not me!)

  3. Emma

    It took my husband 5 hours to get from Chantilly to Manassas.

  4. Elena

    http://redalertlive.com/2011/01/19/steven-tyler-breaks-down-during-american-idol-audition/

    You have to watch this if you want your faith in humankind renewed. Guy asks love of his life to marry him, while planning wedding, girl gets into serious car wreck, suffers permanent brain damage, guy stays with girl and takes care of her.

    tears streaming down my face, yes, that was me, bawlin’ like a baby.

  5. Elena

    cool Moe, first one had to buy eveyone a round of coffee Friday! Oh, did you not know that 😉 ?

  6. Morris Davis

    I just shoveled the drive for the second time. The snow is wet and very heavy. I’m thankful my wife and daughter got home before it got too bad, we have power, and no trees are down (I attached cables to the leyland pines and secured them to oaks after snowmaggedon took a couple of them down). The snow has just about stopped out here in Gainesville.

  7. Morris Davis

    Elena :cool Moe, first one had to buy eveyone a round of coffee Friday! Oh, did you not know that ?

    To quote Homer Simpson, “d’oh!!”

  8. Big Dog

    http://manassas.patch.com/articles/ice-and-snow-storm-takes-out-power-5

    Heavy snow has taken down numerous power lines and tree limbs all over
    our area.

    Grab your shovels and saws tomorrow, but not the electrical wires.

  9. Big Dog

    http://www.novec.com/

    NOVEC website states “Customers should prepare for multi-day
    service restoration”.

  10. DB

    My friend called me from the parkway at 3:20 to let me know she was caught in a traffic jam. At 10:50 she texted me to let me know that she’s still in the traffic jam on the parkway.

  11. The worst thing about being stranded in those traffic jams for hours is being female and having to go to the bathroom.

    I got stranded on GW Parkway after dropping Mr. Howler at National Airport to go to the ACC Tournament. I dropped him off at 5. It was barely snowing. I got home about 11 pm, hating his guts. I had a young howler with me. I still remember it. I just hollered to him and asked him what year it was. He remembered because of the tournie, not because I nearly didn’t make it home. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

  12. DB, I hope your friend makes it home tonight and that she has plenty of petrol.

  13. Raymond Beverage

    Just back in from shoveling a path through the deck, around the deck, and to the heat pump.

    Works much better when you get the wet snow off the top and clear the bottom so it can pull up air!

  14. DB

    Friend made it home at last. She said adding to the nightmare of stuck vehicles was that people ran out of gas and abandoned their cars in the road way. So it was only one lane in many spots and drivers had to go around the abandoned cars. Her gas light came on but she managed to make it to the gas station at Davis Ford Crossing before her car died. And she said thank goodness for the empty starbucks cup because she was forced to use it:)

  15. marinm

    Looking at the snow/slush from my house window… It’s really really really pretty. Man I love Virginia.

    Any thoughts on this? http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/26/mom-jailed-for-enrolling-kids-in-wrong-school-district/

    Please also note that she was a few credits from being a teacher herself and now the felony will keep her from teaching in Ohio.

  16. Lafayette

    At least one power line is down on my block. It sounding like the 4th of July when it fell.

  17. Need to clear the deck–dogs are peeing on it because they don’t want to walk down the stairs. Don’t blame them.

    More trees breaking out back of our townhouse. Will have none left by spring, and the HOA doesn’t plant more. I guess they are waiting for the underbrush to grow.

  18. Lafayette

    Lines down at both ends of block. Not sure when we’ll get off my block safely.

  19. Censored bybvbl

    Our power has been out since 7 last night. We’re operating on a generator and kerosene heaters. My sister left Reston at 4:15 yesterday and got to Springfield at 2 am this morning – cars all over the FxCo Parkway, gas stations closed, hotels booked solid.

  20. Thanks for reporting in, Censored. Lafayette and I have been worried about you and Mr. Censored being trapped. At least you didn’t end up at the fire station sleep-over.

  21. Big Dog

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/opinion/27collins.html?hp

    While stuck at home, hopefully you can take a few moments and think about which
    of your favorite firearms should be the official Virginia state gun. We must not let
    Utah beat us to the draw!

  22. Big Dog, I nominate my Buck Rogers ray gun – it’s harmless, stylish, and a classic.

  23. Big Dog

    Marinm #15,
    School districts have an obligation to their students and their taxpayers,
    to use resources as they are legally intended. Parents have an obligation
    to their children, to keep them safe and get them educated.

    What happens when those obligations collide?

  24. marinm

    BD, don’t disagree. It’s complex. That’s why I wanted the peanut gallary to jump in before I put in my $0.02. 🙂

    I think a state gun would be great. But, not sure if we have a connection to one. Utah has a connection to the 1911.

    Maybe this’ll encourage someone to making a 6 shot revolver called “The Virginian” and get some free advertising by becoming the Official Gun of the Commonwealth of Virginia. 🙂

  25. We only got about an inch and it didn’t stick on the roads.

    Official firearms….hmmm…

    I hang out on the gun blogs alot. I think I’ll put that one out there.

    Just as long as we don’t pick “the Judge”, I think we’ll be ok with any one…

    The Judge gets ridiculed, but the company laughs all the way to the bank….

  26. Lafayette

    Glad you checked in, Censored. Glad to know you and the mister are up and running off the grid. Less money for NOVEC. 🙂

  27. Lafayette, Mr. Censored just made a champagne run. We’ll see if he gets up the hill and then back again. He’s been waiting for a chance to use his generator.

    How are your streets?

  28. Cindy B

    Thank you City of Manassas – great job snow plowing & a utilities crew checked on my neighbor who had a wire leading to his house down blocking his cars, along with a big tree limb. Son of CindyB shoveled driveway and offered our neighbors (new from CA use of saws to take down limb safely. Mr. CindyB worked all night on the railroad – trains stuck due to fallen trees. As he says, “no rest for the wicked.”

  29. Lafayette

    My street is very bad. We have lines down at both ends of the block. The power line along the street across by driveway is only dangling about 6 feet above the ground. I tried posting my pictures to my webshots, but to no avail. I’ll try to post my public FB album.
    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080725&id=1188177281&l=3c19be38fe

  30. Twinad

    I am considering myself very lucky. Left Falls Church at 4:30 and got home to Gainesville at 9…so 4 1/2 hours. I was at an event in Falls Church and a friend and I were planning to stay until 6 or so figuring traffic would clear out by then, but when I went out to the lot at 4:30 to move my car to the garage, I decided I better leave then. I called my friend to tell her I was leaving and she thought I was crazy…that I should wait a few more hours. She stayed and they couldn’t leave! There was no way to leave the hotel because no one could get out of the parking lot onto the road! She was lucky and got a room to share with like 4 other event attendees. The left exit ramp to I 66 was shut down because so many cars couldn’t make it up the ramp. So I sat in that lane for about 90 minutes not moving at all until they closed it and diverted everyone back on to the beltway. Lots of trees down along 234 past the Battlefield and on Catharpin Road.

  31. Good grief. Who would think 7 inches of snow could cause this much trouble.

    I am glad I have a dutiful son who digs his poor old aged parents out each and every snow storm.

  32. WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! TAKE COVER!

    Mexican drug smugglers use mobile catapult to launch marijuana bales over the border: http://www.kvoa.com/news/smugglers-catapult-pot-over-border-fence/

    Can someone say, “PULL!”

    Wonder if they caught the ones catching them?

  33. Twinad

    Please email me. I no longer have your email address.

  34. And who says we live in a modern world. Nothing like a medieval weapon used against drones, laser, and all sorts of other high tech equipment. There is just something ironic about it all.

  35. Cato the Elder

    I just finished shoveling my driveway (almost 1/4 mile long), my neighbor’s driveway (knee surgery) and the old guy across the way. Oh, and my power just came back on after almost 24 hours and I smell like Ray Lewis’ jockstrap.

    YOU SNOW BUGS FINALLY GOT YOUR &^^$%$* SNOW. Satisfied?

  36. Big Dog

    http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/27540

    Perhaps this is why it feels like the House of Delegates is always
    “macing” us.

  37. Lafayette

    Big Dog,
    Thanks for the mace “history lesson”.

  38. Cato the Elder :

    I just finished shoveling my driveway (almost 1/4 mile long), my neighbor’s driveway (knee surgery) and the old guy across the way. Oh, and my power just came back on after almost 24 hours and I smell like Ray Lewis’ jockstrap.

    YOU SNOW BUGS FINALLY GOT YOUR &^^$%$* SNOW. Satisfied?

    Suggestion: Get a tractor with a plow. Life will be easier.

  39. Cato the Elder

    @Moon-howler

    No way, have you seen how fast those depreciate?

    Kindly get me out of moderation?

  40. Cato the Elder

    Looks like someone had a worse day than I did: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=600&sid=2251127

  41. That is horrible! Prince William County really is turning into Thugsville.

  42. Emma

    @Cato the Elder YOU SNOW BUGS FINALLY GOT YOUR &^^$%$* SNOW. Satisfied?

    Well, no, not really. I would like another snow week off like last February. Then I’m good.

  43. marinm

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/27/AR2011012707192.html

    Too good. The Cooch uses the same law that he used against UVA and the global warming (it’s a myth) professor to now protect VRS. Any lefty love for the Cooch now? 😉

  44. Interesting. No, no love for Kook. If there is wrong-doing, he should seek to rectify the situation. That is his job. Stopping the cheating thousands of Virginians of Virginians out of their money should not be a butt kissing experience.

    I will wait to see what happens.

    marin, I am really sick of the entire climate change debate being political. I am especially tired of people who lack the scientific background making absolute statements. I am not a scientist therefore I refrain from KNOWING anything.

    However, as a human being that has lived more than a half century, I do know that the growing seasons are longer. I will leave the whys and wherefores to the experts to fight out.

  45. Emma, another storm coming Tuesday and Wednesday.

    Cato, pay someone to plow your driveway. You will like life better.

  46. “especially tired of people who lack the scientific background making absolute statements.”

    You do realize that you just described the AGW crowd, right? Many of the “scientists” that state with CERTAINTY about what the climate will be in 100 years, are NOT climate scientists and some aren’t even “hard science” scientists.

    As long as the AGW crowd don’t demand higher taxes or kill energy supplies, etc, I’m fine with whatever they want to expound upon.

  47. marinm

    @Moon-howler

    I have no problem with a scientest coming out with facts in support of a position. But when the perception is that the science is done in such a way to support only one position pardon me if I’m skeptical.

    It’s interesting that the GA is fighting to get rid of the law Cooch is using to sue to protect VRS.. Oh well. Our retirees didn’t really need that money.

  48. Cato the Elder

    @Moon-howler

    MH – stop with the fear-mongering. It’s supposed to be a half-inch dusting at best. Wishing won’t make it so. You snow bugs can bite me.

  49. Cato, the dusting is tomorrow. the real mccoy comes in Tues or Wed–another storm up from the south.

    You wish I were kidding.

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