There’s Snow Place Like Home
Posted on February 9, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 46 Comments
The last two days in LA were really nice and clear and gorgeous, but I am told that more rain is arriving today, so I escaped that… to come back to my house basically being encased in snow, with more snow falling today (and indeed, you can see that falling snow in the picture). To be sure, we’re not getting the same volume of snow the east coast is currently getting, which are historic amounts. But we’re getting our share. School was canceled today, as it was yesterday, and may yet be tomorrow, confirming February once again as “That Month the Kid Don’t Get No Edumacation.” She’s downstairs at the moment watching Phineas & Ferb. That’s educational, right? It does feature a mad scientist.
Anyway. Hi, I’m home.
Here in central NM mountains, that was last Thursday and Friday and the Thursday/Friday before that. And yeah, kidlet was having a Nick/Cartoon network fest each time.
As for Phineas and Ferb, that show has the best songs of just about any show I’ve seen in the last 9 years. (kid is 9 years old).
Supposedly, we have another storm hitting us this Thursday. And since trash pickup is on Friday, that can is getting full!
Has Athena read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder?
Hey, Dr. Doofenschmirtz is not mad, is… an original thinker with a bit of bad luck.
I actually like it here in Cincy better than when I grew up in Cleveland. Up there, 4-6 inches on the ground only meant, “Hey, suck up and deal with it, pal! They’re getting 10-12 out in the snow belt.”
No, you don’t get a day off when you’re less than half an hour from the dreaded [cue echo chamber] Lake Effect.
However, in Cincinnati, 4-6 inches happens once, twice, maybe three times a year. And it promptly melts within a week.
So when anything more than an inch falls…
“Hey, boss, I’m not afraid of the snow. I’m afraid of the natives here on snow. See you tomorrow!”
Sweet.
Only got 5 inches here in NE Iowa with another 4 – 6 on the way. Means all my co-workers who have to drive suddenly can’t make it into work. Those of us who walk on the other hand … we’re screwed.
And Phineas and Ferb is highly educational. By watching that show, I learned what that little plastic piece is called that’s on the end of my shoelace (it’s the aglet). Now that’s education you won’t get in school!
in MD we got 3 feet, with another 1 and 1/2 to 2 on the way. Welcome to snowy hell. The devil is over in the corner having a nervous breakdown.
I’m so glad I packed up and moved south. Really, really glad.
Time to dig out the old “Sex is like snow…” sweatshirt.
Yes. Yes it does.
The rain is still pending here in LA, but I just want to say thanks for the snow pics – I use your blog to know when to call my mom (outside Greeneville) and make sure she’s got firewood.
Also, glad you were able to find your car!
Hey, from Philly…we got 28.5 inches on the weekend, and the warm, snuggly, “let’s watch movies and play games” feeling wore off surprisingly fast, after being shut in for an entire day. Tonight & tomorrow we are supposed to get 18 to 24 inches–I think we’ll need to be in separate rooms, and pray that our Internet connection doesn’t go down.
John, someday you are going to have to patiently explain to me this whole moving FROM the Midwest TO California concept.
Er. Other way around. Earthquakes > snow.
Yeah, Washington, DC here. We’ve got about two and a half feet on the ground and another ten to twenty inches expected tonight.
My fiance the teacher (with the all-wheel-drive Subaru) is over the moon, but as far as I’m concerned, this is a stupid quantity of snow. God knows where they’ll put the stuff that’s falling tonight.
Some brilliant sledding, though.
Feh. Only 1-3 inches expected here tomorrow. Except for a minor storm last December, all we’ve gotten is the occasional piddling amount. None of the big storms have gotten near us.
My snowshoes are developing abandonment issues.
Mythago:
It’s easy: Wife said “we are moving.” And we did.
Phineus and Ferb rule. I think I like that show more than the kids. Plus, they’re from Danville! I’ve got to like them.
Well, I like the show more than the kids like it. Not that I like it more than I like my kids. Just to clarify.
mythago:
I’ve never lived in a major earthquake zone, but I could see swapping earthquakes for blizzards. I much prefer to see snowplows clearing streets to bulldozers do it.
Plus, snowshoeing is fun. Rubbleshoeing? Not so much fun, I’m guessing.
I always thought your house would look a lot more awesome if it was painted in a flat black with flames coming up from the bottom.
Can you run that by Krissy?
Mythago: Much as I’d like to live in the Bay Area (and if I ever go from publishing disaster to The Next Michael Connelly, I WILL live in the Bay Area. Wife has no objections to that), I realize there is really no good area of the US to live in.
South: Hurricanes
West Coast: Earthquakes and wildfires
Hawaii: Volcanoes
Everywhere else: Tornadoes and snow
And the hurricanes don’t always stay put. Ike hit OHIO! Which also has been clipped by two still-active tropical storms in the last five years.
Tropical systems suck ass worse than anything, now that I think about it.
9. The Other Keith: hee hee!
My almost-ten year old has a crush of massive proportion on Ferb, complete with drawing his name inside a heart.
Geek genes, gotta love ’em.
Scalzi,
What did you go to LA for? We all know you wanted an In-N-Out burger, but was there a bigger reason?
Gotta love that global warming.
South: Hurricanes
West Coast: Earthquakes and wildfires
Hawaii: Volcanoes
Everywhere else: Tornadoes and snow
“Volcanoes” is still on my bucket list. Already checked off all the others.
As a Hawai’i resident, I can tell you that volcanoes aren’t really much of a risk unless you live on the Big Island (so far). We on Oahu have been getting vog from the recent events at Halemaumau Crater, but we’re in no danger of being overrun.
The biggest risk you face in Hawai’i is that your expenses will exceed your income — there’s a Paradise tax, insidious but unseen.
eviljwinter@21: “Everywhere else: Tornadoes and snow”
Smile when you say that. I lived with the tornadoes in central Ohio and snow in upstate New York. But all things considered, I prefer the tornadoes.
““Volcanoes” is still on my bucket list. Already checked off all the others.”
Surprisingly, I’ve been through everything but wildfire and volcano without even leaving Ohio. The hurricane surprised me most. (“It’s what? But that was in TEXAS!”)
But then a fault line runs under Dayton. Perfect place for some hot, hot magma action.
In DC too, on the VA side. We got 29 inches this weekend, and yep, we’re getting another 10-20 today and tomorrow. I’m leaving work as soon as the snow starts, and I’m taking tomorrow off. I’m not looking forward to more shoveling, especially since we have a townhouse and not much room to put the snow once it’s shoveled.
Still, it’s fucking gorgeous, and a gread excuse to huddle under a blanker in the living room and play Borderlands for 6 hours.
Ugh, I meant “great excuse to huddle under a blanket.” Dang it, where’s that snow so I can go home already?
Ze true mad scientist does not make public appearances! He does not wear ze ‘hello my name is” badge. He has only ze vone purpose: do bad things, to good people, mit SCIENCE!!!!
Another Northern Virginian here. We invited some friends over to be snowed in last weekend (Note: when they want to go home, they will have to help shovel your giant driveway) and had a lot of fun. That said, OMG I AM SO TIRED OF SNOW. It’s already up to the windows on the deck.
Pretty picture.
On the whole which disaster is worser thing I have two points.
First EvilJwinter pretty much nailed it.
Second the media makes most of them look worse than they are.
I’ve been in San Diego my whole life. Had to evacuate for one fire in the early 70’s. Zero damage from earthquakes. 3 or 4 hasty exits from the house due to quakes in my life time. Thats 45 years.
Yet the media makes it look like it burns to the ground every year.
I will say that what you are used to will seem the least dangerous. I visited my sister in AL and there were tornado warnings. I stayed up all night glued to the tube wondering how my sister could live there without a storm shelter. Nothing happened except I was really tired for the road trip home the next day.
Pretty snow. It’s very dreary here in So Cal. The rain was coming down hard at one point. I just hope that the mountains don’t come down again like they did on Saturday morning. I’ve never been so glad to live in the “flats”. I keep saying that we need the rain after years of drought. Now I’m not so sure.
School’s closed for that? Are they so quick to pull the “no school” trigger because everyone has to drive out there? Or is it just an Ohio thang?
We had one snow day for the local schools here a couple of years ago, and the superintendent who made that call was out on his ass by the end of the year. (Well…yeah, he was an 1-year interim appointment, but he was ridiculed for “wimping out”.) And it’s been almost half a century since the high school had one.
Message from Amazon regarding my pre-ordered promised delivery on release date of Bioshock 2: Delivery of your package has been delayed due to extreme weather conditions or an unforeseen natural event.
John, if I can call you John…we’ve had some rough times here recently, you and I. Something about an unnaturally large woman giving you noogies…but anyway, I have a request. Could you please fill us in on your Wil Wheaton related California Adventure?
I found you and your site through Mr. Wheaton, so the synchronicity is overwhelming. C’mon, give us a vignette.
I feel compelled to echo the Phineas and Ferb love going on here. They have fun adventures and music. I wish they’d get rid of their meddling sister, it would be really good.
No snow here on my portion of the left coast. It has been raining but that’s normal. One way you can tell when winter leaves and spring arrives here is that the rain warms up a bit.
I saw a “Phineas and Ferb” soundtrack CD at my local grocery/misc. store today!
hey scalzi, tell athena that i said “hey! where’s perry?”
she’ll understand. :)
my friend’s son introduced me to phineas & ferb and i’m completely addicted. i keep telling them that i want a platypus – a SECRET AGENT platypus! *sigh* i know, it’ll never happen, but a girl can dream can’t she. . . .
Absolutely! Perry the Platypus is AWESOME. He’s got more than just mad skills… he’s got a beaver tail and a bill, and the women swoon whenever he makes that odd noise :D
I know I do! I suspect even my husband is secretly crushing on him :D
@bearpaw I’m yet another NoVAian, and I have to say, yesterday they had every type of construction equipment out trying to clear snow, including bulldozers. Today conditions are too dangerous to even have plows et al out, though
I love snow, but I’d really rather this have been spread out between early december and early march rather than all arriving right now. A week off work is nice and all, but being able to leave the house is also pretty awesome.
@ 38. # Justme
No way getting rid of Candice (P&H’s sister). Squirrels In My Pants song ROCKS!
I freaking LOVE Phineas & Ferb. So does my kid.
Welcome home.
Funny to hear about (and see) the snow falling in the Eastern U.S. I am living in northwestern Canada, and we are suffering (if that is the word to use) from a heat wave. The snow is melting (not fast, it isn’t that warm), and definitely not a problem for travel. Seem like the line is the Alberta/Saskatchewan border-east has the snow, west does not. I actually somebody riding a motorcycle on the expressway in Edmonton, Alberta, yesterday.
We can get snow any month of the year, but right now we are not getting it.