Richmond got it’s first snow of the winter on January 4th, 2018. Part of the huge “bomb cyclone” – it is seriously called that – that hit the entire east coast. It was snowing in Tallahassee, Florida, and in Charleston, South Carolina (another post about Charleston later!) My in-laws in Suffolk got close to a foot…unheard of for those parts! In Richmond, on the other hand, we got 2 or 3 inches between 10pm and 6am.
It was still coming down slightly when I brushed off my car at 7:30am – the beginning of this season’s first “digging-out”. I began with a cursory clearing of the sidewalk on the way to the car. I found that we’d gotten nice, dry powder – much easier than what we normally get, which is wet, and heavier and harder to shovel. I then went to get my car out. I am usually able to get away with just shoveling out the contact patches near my front tires – just enough that I can get traction to get into the center of the street. I usually carve a pie slice shaped piece of clear pavement, knowing I’ll cut the wheels to get out of my parking spot. It worked! With just a little rocking, I drove the car to the middle of the street.
I must not have been first to leave, because there were other tire tracks on the street. In the past, I’ve thrown the car in reverse and got all the way down the block backwards. It’s the downhill direction, so it’s often easier success; and it saves me a half block of distance, which gets me to the next street faster. The next street is a snow emergency route, and I only live two blocks from a freeway entrance. These are the real reasons I can often get to work when others can’t! I can easily get to the interstate on the snow route, and then the interstate is the first thing that the Department of Transportation clears.
EXCEPT TODAY! I was surprised at how poor the roads were this morning, given how far ahead the storm was forecasted and how little snow we actually got. I mean, it started snowing in Florida nearly twenty-four hours before it started in Virginia. I think someone must have called it the wrong way, because in the best case scenario crews would have started salting and plowing the night before. As it happened, I drove at ~30mph through slush and snow all the way to my office. It wasn’t a big deal because I didn’t encounter any sheets of ice, and the other drivers around me were all cautious.
I left work a little early in case the slush started to freeze back over, and had time before sunset to take Louie and Franklin for a short hike through the snow. A decent first #rvasnow day!
laughoftenandmuch 