*Surviving The Blizzard of ‘05*
Ok. The storm is over. Sun is out, kids are playing, we are back at work. So how did we survive the “blizzard of ‘05”?
First. Preparing for the storm or any unexpected crisis.
Water, food, medicines, medical supplies, communications, power, flashlights, proper clothing, proper equipment (shovels, snow blower, ice melt). All important essentials of surviving a winter storm.
Unlike rank and file people, we, as most Rubies, were prepared long ago for any crisis. We already had on hand adequate water, food, medicines, first aid gear, communications gear (including NOAA emergency weather radios and batteries). Extra flashlights and batteries, emergency generator (4 KW and a 7.5 KW), manual disconnect switch from electric utility, gas powered snow blower (9 HP Craftsman), extra gasoline (80 gallons stabilized with PRI-G), extra blankets, propane cooking gear as back up, two 20lb propane tanks filled and ready for use. Two 50lb bags of ice melt are on hand.
Thursday, the weather reports are coming in that Saturday the storm will hit our area and could result in blizzard conditions. Friday, I go to work and the family begins final preparations. The wife buys extra bread, milk, eggs, meats, chicken, fish, and other assorted foods. All cars are topped off with gas. We prepare the snow blower and emergency generator; get both running to make sure they are ready. Decide to change the oil on both, nice to have a son who likes to do that. We use 5W30 standard oil. Friday night, we continue to listen to weather reports. Doesn’t look great for the weekend.
Saturday, the snow begins to fall at 10:00 AM. I go to COSTCO’s with one of my sons in his RAM 2500 truck. We buy some items on sale (paper products, some extra food items, some tools), then go home (just a 15 minute drive). Later, we decide to go to movies (15 minute drive) and from there we go to Pathmark Food Store (5 minutes from home) and pick up some snack food and some managers items on sale (meat reduced from $2.29lb to $.99lb due to weather and poor sales). Get cold cuts for sandwiches. Suburban living, everything is close, but it’s not a city. Starting to get really bad.
Late Saturday, the snow falls and we watch TV. Early evening, satellite TV goes down for a while due to storm. Darn. We have DVD’s, nobody really interested right now. About an hour later, the SAT TV is back up. Good ... I like my SciFi channel. 0The snow is still coming down hard when we retire for the night. Governor has declared a state of emergency and non essential road traffic banned from 8PM Saturday night to 8AM Sunday morning. Actually is good so roads can be cleaned faster and without danger to road crews or traffic.
Sunday morning, the snow is still coming down. Wife makes delicious batch of French toast with all those eggs, bread and milk we had on hand. Good coffee too! Around noon, snow stops. The boys and I go out and start the snow blower. First clean off a portion of the driveway, move cars around and continue to clean. About an hour later, all five cars done (3 BOV’s – Escape, Durango, Ram 2500, 2 cars – Stratus and Taurus). One son decides to make some money using my blower; neighbors pay him $85 to do driveways. He then loads snow blower into RAM and drives to two other locations who pay him to do the same. At least I got my driveway done. Wonder of wonders. Our dead end street actually gets plowed by the township by 1 PM.
We have fun on Sunday with the snow after the work is done, take some digital pictures and go back inside to warm up with some soup and sandwiches. Hot chocolate tastes great right about now. Both sons watch the football game. I go on computer for awhile, surf the internet, report to Rubies on the snowstorm.
No problem experienced with electric power – unusual. Perhaps because the snow is light and powdery; not wet and icing.
Monday morning, get up and go to work. We survived the Blizzard of ’05.
General
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