Nor'easter.

Woodsman

I've been gone for a few days this past week due to loss of power. It was restored after a day and a half, two hours later the Cable went down taking the Computer, the Land Line and TV. It came up early this AM. and I've been catching up all day,

motie2

@Woodsman -- We got power restored yesterday afternoon after almost four days, so I can empathize.....

AnantaAndroscoggin

Got about a foot of new snow here, but thankfully the power stayed on. Down in Kennebunk where our youngest lives, they got 19 inches.

pwkarch

another one tomorrow night........

Londy3

Sheesh guys!

motie2

The only electricity we had was on the third day, from a 100 foot extension cord run from a neighbor's generator. This allowed us to have the sump pump run, and power a small lamp, and the fan in our fireplace insert so we had a little warmth in the living room. Trouble with the damn inserts is you cannot run 'em for warmth in a room if there's no power. We ran out of wood quickly and there was neither fire wood nor gasoline available for about ten, fifteen miles in any direction. (No electricity; no pumping gas). Good thing our neighbor was amply stocked up). Not enough juice to run a heater, though, and man, it was cold. 

We'll see what tomorrow brings.....

pwkarch

@motie2

I am about 2.5 hours away i think......but I would bring you firewood, a generator to use and plenty of gasoline, all just to meet my friend and have a smoke.

We were lucky here lately (knock on wood), plenty of outages around us but we never lost power (thank God). About a year or so ago I installed a male and female plug inline (backwards) on the circuit to my boiler and circulator. I then ran a heavy line from my basement workshop to the basement laundry room. I have plugs outside (in a "weather box") reversed as well to opposite plugs inside the wall. My detached garage is about sixty feet or so from the house. I have heavy duty #10 extension cords (three as there are three circuits on my generator), all I need to do is run three three lines, plug them in, unplug the plug to the boiler, and plug a line already in place to the boiler and we have heat.

After the Derechio we had here several years ago, Sandy, and several other hurricanes and "storms" we got tired of no heat, lights, and COFFEE.

The funny thing is since I came up with this idea and installed and wired everything we have not lost power. Over the course of just a couple years, several years ago, we were down for weeks and weeks. After Sandy, we were back on thankfully because Alabama Power and Light came to our rescue after a full week. Talk about thankful......that's when I went and bought a Honda Generator. the eye of Sandy supposedly came ashore about six to eight miles northeast of us.

Woodsman

@pwkarch Well, if you don't want it to rain, carry an Umbrella. We were without heat for 2 nights but 10 candles around the room will keep it heated somewhat. Just don't have a cat who thinks they're shiny Air Hockey Pucks.
It looks as if there is yet another Nor'Easter inbound for Tuesday. Above freezing and heavy rain on top of the remaining 1.5' of compacted snow can be a looming disaster

Charles

I've been lucky as well.  Lots of trees fell over from the heavy wind and the the heavy snow caused branched to sever and fall, taking down power lines.  A lot of surrounding areas and towns were affected from both storms.  My neighborhood fortunately was spared both times. A lot of old trees, anywhere from 100 to 150 years old, have uprooted and fallen.  Some trees had fallen into the streets blocking traffic, and some unfortunately, on houses. 

The TV news showed that Home Depot sold out of ALL of their stock of generators, except for two small contractor units.  They said that while generators are normal stock items, they never sold out an entire stock as quickly as they had in this past storm cycle.  It looks as though this next blast may miss us here in Philly as it will be mostly on along the coast.  We can end up with maybe an inch but withe the temps up and the change over to rain, flooding could become an issue.  All depends on how the winds blow.

jim102864

The latest nor'easter (yesterday) was more of wet snow event with maybe 3-4 inches of additional snow after the foot from the last one.  I never believe the tv weather clowns, but they're forecasting yet another one for next week.  Many folks lost power from the first and second storms, but somehow we've endured without a hitch.  Only in New England.

motie2

Newspaper this morning reported that scientists say severe winter storms are going to be the new normal.

Woodsman

@motie2. I can't say that winter has been severe (He says with Nor'easter number 4 enroute) It's still warmer than earlier times we only had single digits for 2 weeks total this winter.

motie2

I spent two years in North Dakota..... of course I was so much younger then; I'm older then that now*, and 40 degrees below zero was a novelty. Now I find the cold annoying.

* Apologies to the Bobster.

pwkarch

ah, the Byrds......

motie2

Rather, Dylan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywHD3_4kTRQ

And yes, the Byrds cover was excellent!!!!   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9aVDmFWKe0

Bob and McGuinn et.al. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGEIMCWob3U

pwkarch

@motie2
The Byrds did that song in'67 "My Back Pages". I can still here McGuiins' guitar in my mind.....I think I actually have that album in my collection. Mr. Zimmerman was so prolific bunches of people covered his sons.

motie2

Indeed. The Byrds were -- in a way -- the American response to the Beatles.

pwkarch

songs.....not his sons....sheesh

motie2

No worries, mate! 

pwkarch

I did not sleep last night......pain

motie2

Oy. Believe me, I both sympathize and empathize. The most pain relief I got from  the doctors was to take four Motrin/ibuprofens or four Naproxen Sodiums at a time where/when I would have taken two. It seems the prescription strength tablets of each are double the usual dose of two.

Do what you can to be the most at ease. This too shall pass......

Woodsman

My right shoulder irritates me at night, so I can only sleep on my right side with my arm fully extended and at a high angle. (OK, this is getting to be one of those exchanges.)

motie2

Morning paper says there's another nor'easter coming to celebrate the first day of spring. on Tuesday evening, with accumulating snow on Wednesday.

March comes in like a lion and goes out as a rabid wolverine?

pwkarch

Anyone remember reading "The Wreck of the Hesperis" (I cannot underline or perhaps even spell?) in English Lit Class? I have a rather high masonry fireplace chimney projecting well above my roof. Tomorrow morning I am lashing myself to the chimney and starring this one down eye to eye. Enough already.

I will take several pipes and some tobacco with me, lighting the pipes might however be somewhat of an issue. Wish me luck.

motie2

The Wreck of the Hesperus

BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

It was the schooner Hesperus, 

      That sailed the wintry sea; 

And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr, 

      To bear him company. 

Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, 

      Her cheeks like the dawn of day, 

And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds, 

      That ope in the month of May. 

The skipper he stood beside the helm, 

      His pipe was in his mouth, 

And he watched how the veering flaw did blow 

      The smoke now West, now South. 

Then up and spake an old Sailòr, 

      Had sailed to the Spanish Main, 

"I pray thee, put into yonder port, 

      For I fear a hurricane. 

"Last night, the moon had a golden ring, 

      And to-night no moon we see!" 

The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe, 

      And a scornful laugh laughed he. 

Colder and louder blew the wind, 

      A gale from the Northeast, 

The snow fell hissing in the brine, 

      And the billows frothed like yeast. 

Down came the storm, and smote amain 

      The vessel in its strength; 

She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, 

      Then leaped her cable's length. 

"Come hither! come hither! my little daughtèr, 

      And do not tremble so; 

For I can weather the roughest gale 

      That ever wind did blow." 

He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat 

      Against the stinging blast; 

He cut a rope from a broken spar, 

      And bound her to the mast. 

"O father! I hear the church-bells ring, 

      Oh say, what may it be?" 

"'T is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!" — 

      And he steered for the open sea. 

"O father! I hear the sound of guns, 

      Oh say, what may it be?" 

"Some ship in distress, that cannot live 

      In such an angry sea!" 

"O father! I see a gleaming light, 

      Oh say, what may it be?" 

But the father answered never a word, 

      A frozen corpse was he. 

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, 

      With his face turned to the skies, 

The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow 

      On his fixed and glassy eyes. 

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed 

      That savèd she might be; 

And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave 

      On the Lake of Galilee. 

And fast through the midnight dark and drear, 

      Through the whistling sleet and snow, 

Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept 

      Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe. 

And ever the fitful gusts between 

      A sound came from the land; 

It was the sound of the trampling surf 

      On the rocks and the hard sea-sand. 

The breakers were right beneath her bows, 

      She drifted a dreary wreck, 

And a whooping billow swept the crew 

      Like icicles from her deck. 

She struck where the white and fleecy waves 

      Looked soft as carded wool, 

But the cruel rocks, they gored her side 

      Like the horns of an angry bull. 

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, 

      With the masts went by the board; 

Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank, 

      Ho! ho! the breakers roared! 

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, 

      A fisherman stood aghast, 

To see the form of a maiden fair, 

      Lashed close to a drifting mast. 

The salt sea was frozen on her breast, 

      The salt tears in her eyes; 

And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, 

      On the billows fall and rise. 

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, 

      In the midnight and the snow! 

Christ save us all from a death like this, 

      On the reef of Norman's Woe! 

pwkarch

Hank Longfellow

Charles

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya
At seven pm a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'gitche gumee'
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A

motie2

Northern NJ --- March came in like a lion and is going out like a rabid wolverine. The snow started this AM and just gets heavier by the hour. The last nor'easter put us in the dark for four days at frigid temperatures. It's colder now, and whatever didn't fall from the heavy snow last time will probably come down on power lines this time. But that's only because I am a cynical pessimist. 

motie2

motie2

It's stopped for now..... (please!)

pwkarch

Still snowing in South Jersey, they now say 4"-8" by the time it stops around midnight........