I just stepped back into the house following an adventure in nine-degrees-below-zero weather to sweep thick snow accumulation from the roof, hood and windshields of my car. A pointless endeavor, you might say, with so much snowfall and sleet remaining to fall. Maybe. But I decided I'll tackle it in multiple manageable sessions, rather than wait until the end and have a huge accumulation, that might be too much for me, to deal with. I dressed in multiple layers of clothes so likely won't suffer any serious ill health effects. <crosses fingers>

No outages in my immediate area thus far, but I suspect we will not escape totally unscathed ere all is said and done.

Very wise, I'd say. It can be annoying having to clear snow every two days or whatever, but waiting it out is never a good idea as by then it can, as you pointed out, be too much to handle. Better to take it in increments, it's what I do at work too.


And good thing you still have power!

Now circa 0430 Sunday morning, my immediate area continues to escape outages. More good news; this morning's forecast, checked at two weather sites, shows precipitation ending at around 0800 rather than early/mid-afternoon, which was forecast when I retired to the sofa yesterday evening.

Thanks for checking in Decrepit. I hope everyone else in the ice-snowy eastern 2/3 of the US has power and heat.

Well poot! Our forecast is back to showing snow until early afternoon.

I just returned from what I hope is the last car snow sweep of this storm. I thought about waiting until early afternoon but am glad I didn't. As it was, snow had slightly hardened, making it harder and more time-consuming to remove. I might try starting the car tomorrow, assuming its doors aren't frozen solid. If not tomorrow, then Tuesday. I suspect the six-year-old battery might be toast, but we shall see.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jan 25 2026, 05:42 PM

When it gets cold the batteries sure are put to the test and six years might be pushing it, but it's certainly not impossible for it to have a couple good years left in it

We had sleet that turned to pouring rain = then flooding. The temps are supposed to drop tonight to the teens, meaning icy roads in the morning = but so far we still have electricity and no snow on the ground.

All the towns around here have also set up numerous heated shelters, so anyone in bad situations have options to stay warm (thank goodness). We still haven't filled the propane in the RV up yet, the darn propane stores were closed!!! Grrrr.

No thunderstorms in Maryland (it's winter) but we got a foot of snow on the ground here. Which... wow, all the kids my daughter's been friends with all these years have heard me say "Nope, this aint a real winter", as they complain or get excited about a couple inches on the ground. I've been telling them stories about cars getting buried and the snow on our street getting so deep, no regular plow truck could make it thru, they needed to get a road grader, a construction vehicle, like this, to do it. ❄🌨⛄

Totally agree with you, Renee. It's not a real winter unless your car is covered by snow up to the roof so you're not even sure it's still in your driveway

Early Tuesday afternoon, 27 Jan 2026. Today's temps are ever so slightly warmer than predicted. We've four solid hours with temps slightly above freezing and "feels like" temps in the mid-high twenties. Taking advantage of the situation, immediately after lunch I overdressed, successfully started the car, then shoveled as much ice from around it as I could before giving out. I didn't remove nearly enough, but hope that between what I did and whatever melting occurred this afternoon, I'll be able to back out of my parking slab once streets are safe to drive on. Considering the condition of my tires, who knows when that will be?

I had one mishap while shoveling, slipping on hardened snow and falling to the ground. Luckily, I fell into still-fluffy snow from an already bent-over position, so suffered no harm.

If worse comes to worst, I've enough food to see me through for three to four days, and a few days longer than that with minor rationing.

Good thing you weren't hurt, and also good thing you've made sure to stock up on supplies


It's almost like you were in the military....

Due to continued cold weather that is keeping streets snowed/iced over, I am again postponing my Spine Cervical MRI Without Contrast until later in February, Monday the 23d to be precise, when temps are predicted to be in the 50s.

Yesterday's four hours of slightly above-freezing temps had no noticeable effect on my street. We have similar temps today, but I'm not holding my breath. Tomorrow we are due to hit forty for a few hours, a good sign that might be negated by a few hours of snow that night.

We never got the heavy snow, but we DID get the freezing temps here = yesterday morning it was 3 below zero. It didn't reach zero till noon; and only reached 11 by 4 p.m. Our water was frozen solid, we had no way to water the horses other than thawing out the blocks of ice in their buckets. Dogs had to stay indoors and drink bottled water with us.

Thank goodness it warmed up over night, we woke up to 23 degrees this morning, Woo Hoo! It is 25 now, so the dogs can go out, and we have some water coming from the hot water faucets now = Woooot!!!

Despite several more hours of above-freezing temps yesterday afternoon, our streets remain as snow-laden as ever. I begin to think that the "city" doesn't plan to do anything to alleviate the situation, other than to allow nature to take its course. Not a bad solution, and certainly good for the "city's" budget. Still...