So tired

I came home and couldn't think straight; I was so tired. I'm on the bus because while I managed to dig my car out of 3 1/2" of compacted snow and ice, I can't get the thing reversed over a shelf of ice in the driveway. I hate ice storms. Monday, I managed to get to work thanks to a veterans group, Camp Heroes, and home thanks to our medical centre administrator. Tuesday, the Fayette County Sheriff's Office, KY's WinterCare folks got me there and back. I couldn't go out the back as per usual because of the back gate being blocked by snow and ice, so I had to go out the front, down and up the same steps I fell off of in June, without any snow or ice. When I was driven, I had help, but I was on my own after that. I took off Wednesday, eating the occurrence, because I knew the temperatures were, if anything, going to plummet further, so it's not like things were going to get better soon, and I needed to dig us out. I did manage to open my trunk to get my little collapsible shovel out, get into the shed to get the snow shovel and a regular shovel (which was great for the ice), and get the layers of ice clear in front of the gate enough that I can squeeze into our out of the backyard's gate. I haven't been able to touch the front steps yet. I cleaned my car mostly off, and got in and ran it for a while, but as I said, couldn't surmount the ledge. I'm pretty sure my tyres are finally no longer frozen to the driveway, at least. But as frustrating as this is, I think it's the Universe protecting me. I'm having power steering issues that may be serious, and not good on the snow. It may be that I shouldn't drive until I can get it looked at, especially on snow. So I'm on the city bus in the meantime.

I forgot that they'd still be on the Snow Plan at this point and went to the regular stop, which is now a Snow Plan stop, then went to the one across the street and caught the right bus after about a half hour, all at about 9° Fahrenheit. The bus wasn't so bad except when it let me off at Shriners on a giant mound of ice and snow where a snowplough had come through. Fortunately, I'd brought my hiking poles with snow tips, rather than my cane, but even with those, you had to kind of have a leap of faith to balance on that and not fall in the street. I may get off at the Kentucky Clinic tomorrow and walk the last block despite the icy sidewalks just to avoid that in the future.

Anyway, I came home, warmed up two microwavable heating pads (I chipped at ice till 11 pm last night while working on the car, and my back is hurting today), and then I collapsed for four hours, did three loads of laundry while the temperature outside was in the double digits, and helped my friend set up another e-mail account on Outlook. They're still on the Snow Plan tomorrow, so I need to figure out when to be ut there tomorrow as that bus comes earlier than the other.

So we're about to get hit with a major winter storm

and I do mean major, followed by frigid temperatures. I mean, it's just now starting to snow, and it's 13 degrees now, but that's rather balmy compared to what it will be. Here are the alerts in effect for Lexington at the moment:

Weather Alerts- Lexington, Kentucky

Winter Storm Warning Until Mon 7:00 am EST

1 of 2

Action Recommended:  Make preparations per the instructions\

Issued By Louisville - KY, US, National Weather Service

Affected Area Portions of south central Indiana and east central, north central, northwest, and south central Kentucky

Description ...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM EST /6 AM CST/ MONDAY...

WHAT...Heavy snow mixed with sleet and freezing rain along and south of the Bluegrass and Western Kentucky Parkways. South of the Parkways, storm total snow and sleet of 4 to 8 inches with total ice amounts up to three quarters of an inch. Localized areas may see total ice over three quarters of an inch. Across southern Indiana and north central Kentucky, mainly snow, heavy at times. Total snow accumulations between 10 and 15 inches. Localized higher amounts of snow and sleet possible.

WHERE...Portions of south central Indiana and east central, north central, northwest, and south central Kentucky.

WHEN...Until 7 AM EST /6 AM CST/ Monday.

IMPACTS...Expect power outages and tree damage due to the ice. Travel could be impossible.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If you must travel, keep an extra flashlight, food, and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency. In Indiana, for Indiana Road Conditions please visit http://511in.org In Kentucky, for Kentucky Road Conditions please visit http://goky.ky.gov

 

Cold Weather Advisory From Mon 12:00 am until Tue 11:00 am EST

2 of 2

Action Recommended Make preparations per the instructions

Issued By Louisville - KY, US, National Weather Service 

Affected Area Portions of south central Indiana and east central, north central, northwest, and south central Kentucky

Description ...COLD WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT EST /11 PM CST/ SUNDAY NIGHT TO 11 AM EST /10 AM CST/ TUESDAY...

WHAT...Very cold wind chills as low as 15 below zero expectedW

HERE...Portions of south central Indiana and east central, north central, northwest, and south central Kentucky. 

WHEN...From midnight EST /11 PM CST/ Sunday Night to 11 AM EST /10 AM CST/ Tuesday.

IMPACTS...The dangerously cold wind chills as low as 15 below zero could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes. 

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Use caution while traveling outside. Wear appropriate clothing, a hat, and gloves. Make frequent checks on older family, friends, neighbors, and pets. Ensure portable heaters are used correctly. Do not use generators or grills inside. 

 

Well, it never hurts to be prepared, especially if you have major anxiety issues that can only be helped with obsessive steps. I have charged my large car-battery-sized power bank (the one that can be charged either through AC current, via car adapter, or solar (that one I don't have an adapter for, but cool and that runs my CPAP for several hours a night, and I have the CPAP adapter at the ready. I have also charged every electronic device that takes one in the house. I have made sure that all five flashlights either have batteries or are charged. The crank one is in the car in case it is needed there. It also has a radio. I found the 20 LED tealights and 20 regular tealights to put in our many hoarded jars for light, as well as my five normal scented candles, plus at least two he's borrowed from me. I found a cache of matches and bought two lighting wands in addition to mine, as mine is low on fuel. He also has a few boxes of the wooden matches. The car has half a tank of gas for charging the power bank and keeping any vapour lock from happening, but not a full tank because the power steering is having issues, and I think it'll need to be fixed soon, and I may have to switch to the bus anyway after I can get out on my own. My wipers are up. I have deicer and WD-40 for thawing locks and doors, and they are in the utility room with an extra scraper/brush. I have done everything I can think of to prepare. I managed to get all of our foodstuffs except yellow onions, which I thought were pretty good. I was on the waiting list (#!0) for a service that takes healthcare workers to work in severe weather, but I've been assigned a driver, so I think I've been bumped up. I'm going to check. That'll help on Monday. It occurs to me that I did not request a ride home yet(!). Here's hoping we all get through the storm okay. 

PS I just put in my request for a ride home...it's pending. Hopefully it's not too late.

It's happening all over again

From NBC News:

Japanese-American groups blast the use of former internment camp as ICE detention center

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center at Fort Bliss in El Paso, which opened this past weekend, will be able to hold as many as 5,000 detainees upon its completion in the coming months, making it the largest federal detention center in U.S. history.

Japanese American advocates, however, say that the facility, which once imprisoned people considered “enemy aliens,” is a chilling reminder of a dark past.

“The use of national security rhetoric to justify mass incarceration today echoes the same logic that led to their forced removal and incarceration,” said Ann Burroughs, president and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Getting to work tomorrow, hopefully

The Fayette County Sheriff's Winter Care programme will still be in effect tomorrow, January 7th. I called a little while ago and they're going to pick me up at 7:30 AM from my house and take me to work since I work in healthcare. I thought about taking the bus but I think the stop, which is relatively close, is still too far to safely go there. If you need help as well, call 859-252-1771 and ask about Winter Care. So I just need to get to the street. I've got my hiking poles with the snow tips ready and snow boots with good treads. There's some snow on top of the ice now, which can be good or bad. Wish me luck!

January 2025 ice/snowstorm

Thankfully the branch did not come down on my car. I can't walk with all this ice. I called into work. They were urging people to stay off the roads anyway. There's a few more inches of snow coming today, then a polar vortex hitting us tonight and tomorrow. Oh, and another system at the end of the week. Lovely. It does look pretty, though. Yesterday I let the dogs out and they frolicked, even the one who hates the wet yard and the cold yard. Apparently both together are fun. This morning it was almost painful watching them slowly crunch through the ice and snow so they could go do their business. They were certainly not happy then.

Before

2 hours in

Going over into ice

Going towards evening

Last night

This morning

A different view

Icicles on the shed

Glazed kitchen window

Out front with a branch blocking my car

Another view

 

What a mess that's on the way!

Another Winter Storm

A lot of us are in a band of our forecasted 3-7"+ of snowfall with sleet, freezing rain and rain mixing in. It looks like more snow north and perhaps significant amounts of freezing rain and ice in the southern portions of that forecasted area. This does include Lexington.

It's amazing

How wonderful rolling a 20 oz. bottle where water has been frozen into ice can feel when your feet hurt. We're talking instant,  albeit temporary relief,  without drugs.  It's the best recommendation a podiatrist ever gave me.  I keep one here,  one at work,  and there's one at my friends' house,  too. I know come morning it will be stiff and painful again,  but this does help a lot.

What a day

I got to work by bus today because of the roads and the fact that I couldn't get into my car due to the ice, which fortunately wasn't as bad as they originally thought it would be. Still, ice and sleet under five inches of snow was not fun, and my bus stop is a quarter of a mile away and I have to cross a major road twice. One of my co-workers got me home, though, which was very nice. It was my first day at work with my partials in, and I still sound funny, and eating was a challenge in public. I had to excuse myself completely when a bit of roll became a problem and my lower ones popped out. I'm not supposed to use fixative on the lower ones for a bit until that one area where they pulled my tooth heals. All in all I came home and just crashed, so of course now it's 11 pm and I'm up.

Somehow

while flipping through channels during a check on current weather conditions, I caught part of Idina Menzel's performance of 'Let It Go' (which apparently won), and then caught the tail-end of the Oscars from Best Director onward. I am very glad that Twelve Years a Slave won for Best Picture, and that the director brought the audience's attention not only to those who suffered slavery in the past, but also those who are enduring it right now.

The wind is howling and it is sleeting. The cars are covered in ice, but it's not as thick as it could have been. Ice pellets cover the ground and streets, and we're heading into snow, which is expected to last until about noon tomorrow. So we could have some fairly significant snow. I'm going to try to get up early to deal with whatever mess the roads may be in then. Also, today I had trouble trying to get my partials seated correctly and so I want to have plenty of time to do so tomorrow morning. YKWIA couldn't understand a word I said on the phone this morning when he called, for example, and I was in a hurry to get over there and just forewent the partials altogether. But although that's fine occasionally, you can't do that regularly since it's bad for the gums and general oral health.

I think I'm going to head on to bed. I have a bad headache, and I'm achy all over, so I'm going to take some ibuprofen. My eyes and nose are going pretty badly, too, and my throat hurts. Generally, I just don't feel great at all. I'm not sure if I have A's cold, or if it's just allergies, but it's annoying. Maybe it's time to go back on Claritin. Hope you had a good weekend, and that you all have power and are staying warm. Be careful if you're in this storm's path. Good night.

So right before I left my friends' house

one of them said, oh, there won't be much ice because it won't last long. He said that's what the weather people said. So I drove home in the freezing rain as the roads were just starting to get slick, but mostly the problem was how heavy the rain was, leaving water in the road and the danger of hydroplaning. I got home, and everything was icing up quickly. Not five minutes after I called to let them know I got home, and just as I was about to heat up something in the microwave, the power went out--for five hours. (I called after about a half hour and gave him a small talk on what the ice was doing for me. See, he doesn't have to drive in the stuff, and they had power. On the other hand, he'll have to walk in the stuff tomorrow, as it's steadily and heavily been falling now for hours). Thanks to Kentucky Utilities, it's back one. I used their application to check on the status. They estimated it would be back on by about 1:00 am. At 1:28 they were listing ours as 'under evaluation'. By 1:35 the lights came on. I made sure the fish tank pump had water in it so it wouldn't run while dry (priming it, that is) and then unplugged anything that didn't need to be plugged in since the whole system will probably be strained. I'm not sure how much ice has accumulated, but they're thinking it could be about a half an inch, which is enough to consider it a hazardous ice storm.

I'm charging my phone as I write. I'd fortunately charged it throughout the day in the car as I took my friend to his appointment and went to mine. Then when the lights went out, I charged it on the battery backup for the computer for awhile, and put the power saver feature on. Now it's down to 30% or so. But it could have been much lower. Throughout the night people have gone out to their cars and run them for awhile, obviously charging their phones. And during the brief time I was in the bedroom, I discovered my upstairs neighbours were doing what many couples do during blackouts--all you could hear were bedsprings going and the rain falling outside, since the heat was off. :) They're still up, and I suspect most of the complex is, but it's 2 am now and I'm going to try to go to bed and actually sleep. now that I can use my CPAP. Be careful if you're being affected by the weather, and I hope your power stays on (and mine, now that it's restored. Power good.) Again, thanks KU for getting it back on. Apparently tree limbs took down some lines, according to their application. Good night.

Power's out

Decided to conserve candles and just open the curtains for a tiny bit of ambient light and go ahead and get some sleep, which will be hard to do without my CPAP. Lots of freezing rain coming down. Could be ugly tomorrow. Also there are sirens every few minutes, so the emergency folks seem pretty busy. Glad to be home, even without power/heat.  It's at least fairly comfortable for now.

This morning I gave up and rode the bus

The ice was such I had trouble getting into my car (one of my co-workers actually broke her door handle trying to do that--she wound up taking a taxi). I tried to get a couple of doors open, gauged the amount of ice and how long it would take to chip into the car, and decided to just walk to the bus stop and go in that way. The buses were on the snow plan. We got about 1/2" of ice pellets with almost four inches of snow on top of them, so sidewalks and roads were quite slushy. One of my co-workers took an hour and a half to get to work because a main road coming in from Nicholasville to Lexington hadn't been ploughed. That kind of thing. I made it to the bus, just in time, crossing the intersection where in October 2012 I was hit by a car, the first time I've done that since that time. I had to cross the road back after the bus dropped me off, and that was harder, because there's no light at the lane near the hospital I work at.

Work was quiet; we got a lot of cancellations due to the weather. School was out, so there were a lot of sledders playing out on our hills (we have 29 acres of land, much of it with slopes). Even the University of Kentucky was out, which is very rare. They were just having their Plan B employees come in. The public library was closed too. The roads were just terrible, especially early.

Of course, they were much better on the way back, but I'd taken the bus, so I had to wait for it to take me back. As soon as I got home, before going inside or taking off my backpack, I scraped the snow (the ice had melted for the most part) off the car and put the windshield wipers up. We're supposed to get rain tomorrow, but it may be freezing rain. Then I went inside. I'd left work at 5 pm and got in the door at 6:30 pm. I watched the late evening news and just decided to lie down for an hour or so and listen to music, but of course I fell asleep and woke up at 11:30 instead. So I'll probably check on the weather and head back to bed now that I've gotten some water, etc. My hand and arm are hurting, so a little ibuprofen probably wouldn't be amiss. Have a a good night.

Got home just a little while ago

on roads covered with about 1/4"-1/3" of sleet. I drove about 25 mph on the main roads, along a snow route, and still had trouble skidding just a bit on slower turns. I hope Brenda gets home okay--I just had to go about four miles, whereas she lives in the next county, to the west, and they've had even more sleet. We're supposed to get another 1/4" of sleet and several inches of snow in addition to that, anywhere from 2"-6".

But I'm home, thankfully, safe and sound. The game (Cthulhu, that is) was really good, and my character who was in danger of death actually survived, although with some odd consequences, the full import of which isn't known yet.

Okay, I have 'Downton Abbey' and 'Sherlock' recording. I think I'll listen to some music and go and rest. It's been a good yet long and at the end, nerve-wracking, day. :)

Well at least I wasn't the only one

My friend, who doesn't drive, went to go to work tonight and barely got to the edge of his yard and back. He had to call work and they sent someone to get him. Like me, he didn't fall, but it was a near thing, and I think he windmilled a bit.

Someone out front is scraping their car right now. It sounds like they're having to chisel. Don't you just love ice?

The worst thing about it today was the ice was on top of about 2 inches of snow and slush, so if you didn't slide completely, it broke and you slid in different directions. Plus, the slush of the road was bad enough that I think I went completely down into dirty slush of about 6 inches or so in places.

Ah, they got their car scraped off. As much as it sucks to be a pedestrian right now, at least I'm not having to deal with that.

Okay, let's see if there's any news.

Yay, back at last

What started out as a quick hunt for toilet paper became a much more involved sort of thing. A friend called me as I was walking through the slush at the car lot (normally I don't take that short cut, but seeing as they hadn't shoveled their sidewalk, I felt entitled) and I decided to go over there and visit. I went to Walgreens, picked up my medication and toilet paper along with one of those tins of popcorn, forgot to get stamps for holiday cards so I went to Kroger and picked up those and the DVD of Despicable Me. My friend liked it a lot. I was going to take the bus home about dusk, but their neighbourhood was worse in terms of ice and things were freezing back up (it took nearly 10 minutes to walk down his front yard, but I didn't fall, just came close). He convinced me to call a cab, which came remarkably quickly considering the weather, pulled into the driveway, and started inching backwards. I only managed to get in by holding onto the cab. I tipped the driver $5 for getting me in the ice.

All in all, though, the storm could have been worse. I'd say we had just over a quarter of an inch of ice on top of a couple inches of snow. The forecast was for as much as 6 inches of snow and a half inch of ice, depending on which way it tended to go towards (more ice, less snow; more snow, less ice). Instead we wound up kind of in the middle, and no widespread power outages as far as I know. In an area prone to week-long ice storms every few years, that's a good thing. And I managed to get through the day without falling. I didn't take the Kindle or my glasses with me today just in case I fell--I didn't want to break anything expensive.

I hope it's better tomorrow. I need to do some holiday shopping. Really, in the middle of the day most of the places I went, commercial areas, were slushy (it was only when I got into my friend's suburban neighbourhood that I had much trouble). So maybe tomorrow will be better. At least it's not supposed to have any precipitation. We're going to wait to hang a wallpaper border till after Christmas, so I'm not sure what I'm doing Saturday yet. I do need to work on notes. And there's still a couple of episodes of Tower Prep I haven't seen (I saw one today, which was pretty good. The mystery thickens.)

Okay, I think I'll get something to eat, take out my contacts, and maybe do some reading, then start on notes. Either tomorrow or Saturday--during the full 'heat' of the day--I need to do some laundry and take out the recylables (I have two laundry hampers full of the latter), plus wash dishes and take out the trash. Hopefully the weather will be fine for the game on Sunday as well. Brenda lives out in the boonies on a small farm and when ice and snow come, sometimes she has trouble getting out of her driveway, much less down the back roads.

Hope your day was fun.

Okay, they've cleared my sidewalk

And my prescription will be ready at 10 am. The toilet paper is no more. Time to get ready to go out into this mess. :(

My plan to stay in has run into a snag

I had a 'borrowed' roll of toilet paper that has lasted four days but it on its last legs (and no, I didn't have the money for more until today because of the thing with the shoes). So I will have to venture out, soon. If I do so, the aim is to go one place and come back. I'm going to check and see if any of my meds need to be refilled (I think one is) and call it in to Walgreens. I can get that and the toilet paper there.

We are in the transition area in terms of the snow and ice. North of us people got something like 6 inches of snow. We didn't get much snow but have more ice, about 1/4 to 1/2 inches. The maintenance men have been out with their little snowplough working like mad on the parking lot (I think that's what woke me up this morning, which is fine).

Charge the cell phone and Kindle, now, for ice is on its way!

We are forecast for 2 to 6 inches of snow before it turns to sleet and freezing rain, meaning up to a half inch of ice on top of snow. Joy. Fortunately, someone happened to take off Thursday and Friday due to a lecture series that means no surgery and little clinic activity in the hospital. Since I wasn't going to get much data to enter, I took off. Yay! And our department holiday dinner was postponed due to the weather. So I don't plan on getting out on ice tomorrow if I can help it. I can do holiday shopping and even laundry Friday. Tomorrow is a watch movies and back Tower Prep episodes if there's electricity, and if not, I'll read the Kindle and if all else fails, a library or other book, for I have plenty of those at hand. I actually seem to have (I don't have hard numbers, but I'm willing to go out on a limb) more books than my library does. (It's a small library, what can I say.)

Anyway, if you're caught in the weather, please be careful.

Defensive parking

First it was the ice storm; now we're encountering strong winds (up to 50 mph, with gusts up to 60 mph) and storms that have the potential to knock down trees weakened from the ice and create more power outages (and there are still people without power from the ice storm here in the state). It hasn't been too bad in Lexington today, although we had hail, but it sounds like a path equal to the highest destruction during the ice bore the brunt of today's storms, with tornado warnings, although as far as I know, none touched down.

During all of this, it's been very important to park and drive thoughtfully, avoiding trees, especially large ones. There are a couple of decent-sized trees that overhang my parking lot, for example, or the mature trees in the Chevy Chase area, where I often drive getting a friend from work. Today instead of parking in a driveway I parked in front of the next house. That house had already lost its tree in the ice storm, so there was nothing to fall. It sounded better than my car getting hit by a tree or being trapped in the driveway.

Oh, well, at least we had several nice days of warmer temperatures and a little sun but at least no rain. Today a cold front came through, so I don't know if temps will stay mild or not.

I'm ready for some boring weather.

Not particularly looking forward

to working 10 am-9 pm tonight. Oh, it could be till 10 pm, like on Monday night. But even though I got almost eight hours' sleep last night, I feel tired, still hung over from going to bed at 4 am the night before. And the roads were pretty bad last night (we had about 3 more inches of snow, and the temperature was around 10 degrees, so salt didn't do much and even the main arteries were pretty snow covered). I slid any time I was not absolutely driving at maximum attention with hands at 10 and 2. I can drive in snow pretty well but I don't really like to, and I have to admit my anxiety levels have been higher with the ice and snow. And now I get to do the whole thing again. Hopefully it's a little better since the ploughs have had time to get ahead of the snow, but it's only 9 degrees now. I'm so glad I don't live any further north. These arctic blasts are enough for me.

Given the ice storm and snow, I found this quote from Obama's inaugural speech comforting: 'With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.' One of the librarians on the MEDLIB-L list had it on her signature line and it seemed appropriate given Kentucky's problems over the last week or so.

Okay, I have to get ready for work.

PS In retrospect, I realise I am whigning, and that it should not be indulged. And working 11 or 12 hours a day is better than no job at all. And the streets weren't bad later on at all. I think I'm still just very tired from staying up too late the other night and I'm having a giant 5-year-old moment. Sorry. :)