Nobrainer’s Think Tank

* PRECIPITATION TYPE…SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS…10 TO 20 INCHES.

The rate of change of forecasts is alarming.

PRECIPITATION TYPE… SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS… POTENTIAL FOR 8 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW. THERE IS A GOOD LIKELIHOOD OF SNOW IN EXCESS OF 10 INCHES.

Time for another emergency trip to the grocery.

.. WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON…

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

* PRECIPITATION TYPE… SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS… POTENTIAL FOR 5 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW.

I’ll be ready.

I’ve spent several more hours today cleaning up snow. All the cars are dug out. A good amount of asphalt is visible in front of the house. The good news is that we were easily able to get Rachel’s Civic up the unplowed neighborhood roads to the more major roads.

At this point I’m exhausted. Once I lay down I might not get back up.

For now I’m drinking some coffee. Next in line is a delicious can of Yuengling. Then I’ll move on to a nice bottle of chardonnay that I have chilling in the show on the back deck.

The snow has begun here. Accumulation is probably under 2 inches at this point. Forecasts are for more than 20. My official estimate is for 32 inches of snow.

Either way, I’m following the advice from SnowpocalypseDC.com.

Update - 2010-02-05 22:30 - We’re up to about 6-8 inches of snow, and I’m up to 2 Jack & Cokes. I shoveled for about a half hour between 8:30 and 9. The snow was falling fast enough I felt a bit like Sisyphus.

Update [2010-02-06 09:48] - I woke up around 7:15 and shoveled for a bit more than an hour. I’d guess there was 8, maybe 10, inches of nice ‘n’ heavy snow. Despite being out for twice the time that I was yesterday, I only shoveled about 3/4 of the area I did last night. It is very pleasing to know there’s now a lot less shoveling to be done. It’s not so pleasing knowing there’s a lot left to do.

After shoveling I broke Grandma’s old cast iron skillet and fried up some bacon & eggs. Add in some tater tots & coffee and it was a pretty hearty breakfast.

Rachel tells me that nearly 200,000 people are without power. We’ve been fortunate to this point in having not lost any power.

I’ll probably start drinking after lunch.

Update [2010-02-06 13:50]: Shoveled from about 11:30 to 12:30. There was an accumulation of about 4 inches since my last outing. It’s really nice only have to deal with smaller layers of snow. The major downside is all the snow on the road that will have to be moved out of the way so that I can actually drive somewhere (once the road gets plowed).

With the accumulated snow, my car looks like an SUV: I think I know how people at GM designed the Chevy Traverse.

Some wise guys in a Suburban drove into our cul-de-sac. I’m not really sure why. But I am sure that they got stuck for a while. They eventually got themselves out. Their little adventure may even be a benefit because they kinda had to plow the road with the front of the vehicle to proceed.

I haven’t begun to drink yet. Not that it doesn’t sound good, but I don’t want to be too tipsy for my next shoveling adventure.

Update 2010-02-06 17:49: Spent another 90 minutes or so shoveling. The snow has now stopped. The driveway & sidewalks are clear. The cars and road, however, are hardly touched. So I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. So now I’ve started drinking. I’ll start working on dinner soon. Yum.