Greetings, my fellow port swillers!
Well, it looks like the neighborhood of Port Swiller Manor may get its first serious snowfall in three years today. They’ve been bumping up the anticipated totals steadily since yesterday afternoon and are now forecasting anything between 5 and 10 inches.
This storm seems to have caught the wonks on the hop, because prior to yesterday morning nobody was saying anything about snow.
We don’t generally get much out of clippah systems around here, but this one seems to have spawned a secondary low off the coast. And as I was telling teh Mothe just the other day, those are your big-time white stuff machines in these parts, mistah.
The radar currently (as of about 8:45 a.m.) has the stuff still out in the Shenandoah, but it looks like its headed this way. True to form, everyone has preemptively closed down, so ol’ Robbo and family will probably spend the day in their pajamas. (Hmmm….”pajama-blogging”. That has a certain ring to it.)
Given the timing of the snow – anticipated to be heaviest this afternoon and evening – I’ll bet everything’s shut down tomorrow, too. Who knows – by that point we might be down to outright cannibalism in order to survive.
One thing I’ll have to think about is a possible name if it gets serious enough. I know TWC has already dubbed this storm Judy or something like, but that doesn’t count. We have our own special naming tradition in these parts. The gigantic blizzard we had about four years ago was dubbed “Snowpocalypse” and the next one after it “Snowmaggedon”. Then we had a couple of outright duds that got branded “Nopocalypse” and “Snowquester”.
Anyhoo, I may add liveblog updates, assuming I have anything useful to say and the power doesn’t go out – both rayther poor assumptions, btw – so be sure to check back.
UPDATE: Snow started just after nine and the ground is already covered. They’s still expecting the worst this afternoon and evening. I pity anyone trying to make their way home then. Okay, so I fibbed about the peejay thing. I can’t stand staying in my peejs once I’m up – either it’s directly throwing on clothes to go work in the yard or else hitting the shower.
UPDATE DEUX (2:05 PM): Looks like the heavier stuff is starting to kick in as advertised. I hope that the power doesn’t go out. Well, actually, I expect the power will go out. What I hope is that the outage doesn’t last long enough to start Mrs. R agitating to go check into a hotel room. This sort of thing has happened before, both in frigid cold and blazing heat. My philosophy is that we should simply hunker down and tough it out as best we can. Mrs. R does not see things in the same way.
UPDATE TROIS (5:00 PM): Well, despite the continued parade of plows up and down the street, the Port Swiller mailbox, a traditional target, remains standing. No doubt they’ll wait until after dark before attacking.
The Port Stands At Your Elbow 
4 comments
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January 21, 2014 at 9:43 am
quiltbabe
I miss real snowstorms. The only decent storm we have had this winter happened on a weekend (no fair) and didn’t drop more than four or five inches. Half an hour south, they had close to a foot – on two different days in one week. This week, the cold is back. I pumped gas in -20 wind chills this morning, due to laziness/poor planning.
Weren’t you just making fun of all the people stocking up at the grocery? Weren’t you one of them? Will pray your power stays on so you aren’t reduced to heating cans of spaghetti-O’s over the fire.
At least you know it won’t stick around for too long.
January 21, 2014 at 10:58 am
NOVA Curmudgeon
Not working directly for the government or the local school district, I went to my office (conveniently located near Dulles Terminal D) this morning. On the drive in there were plows parked at almost every intersection and the streets were almost deserted – except at the grocery stores where the parking lots were packed.
Now the hope is to get home before those with little or no winter driving experience take to the roads. Its weather like this that I think of my dad and the first wintertime driving lesson I ever received as a know it all 16 yr old.
A cold snowy Sunday morning in the freshly plowed, but snow-covered parking lot of the local strip mall. 35 mph, then prompted to hit the brakes (no ABS back then) with the expected skid and spin. The lessons in controlling slides and preventing spins followed and the knowledge and skills from that day have remained.
January 21, 2014 at 7:31 pm
Robbo
Heh, wait’ll I tell the gels that they COULD eat the stuff cold, straight out of the can, if necessary. I’ll be sure to throw in the line about millions of starving Red Chinese children, too.
I’m afraid all of my winter driving skills have been picked up on the fly, so to speak, given that there weren’t that many opportunities in the South Texas of my yoot. I will say that driving a Wrangler – which must be one of the lightest cars on the road – I’ve been forced to learn p.d.q.
January 21, 2014 at 8:15 pm
captainned
Tabasco helps if you’ve got to eat it cold.