The Crippling Blizzard of '16

[ny biker]

I shoveled for hours today. Our condo association is supposed to plow the parking lots and shovel the walks, and we have to shovel around our cars. But they've really dropped the ball -- no walks have been touched, some lots are still unplowed and ours just had a once-over the width of one car. Some residents were out today trying to shovel the lot but it's still a mess -- I watched an SUV try and fail to get out to the street -- and the plow left a giant pile behind one car so they're completely blocked now. A few of us tried to clear sidewalks too but others dumped snow from their cars onto the walks so the snow there is now chest high or higher. So if the hired shovelers ever show up, they'll probably just leave without trying to clear the huge piles. Our side of the lot gets no sun so we won't have sidewalks again until March.

Now my arms and back ache. I will work from home tomorrow. My car is not totally clear yet so I will have to go back out again with the shovel and snow brush in the afternooon.

I'm feeling very cranky. Mostly because I pay good money for condo fees that are supposed to cover snow removal but I and a few neighbors are having to do it all ourselves.

[lauraelmore1033]

I've been thinking about you and your positive attitude about the storm as we experience what I consider to be an unreasonably wet winter, and it's made me reduce my whining by at least 75%. Hope your ordeal resolves itself soon!

[rocknrollgirl]

My husband did a round of clearing during the storm with the snow blower, and then Sat night we go 3 more inches. No big deal until we went to the end of the driveway. They plowed use in, and because we had a lot of sleet mixed in, the end of the driveway was thigh high boulders of concrete. So my husband attacked that and I did the walkway and cars, then we did our neighbors. Four hours later we were able to get out.

Not fun.

[Crankin]

NY, that does not sound right. Do you have a management company running your condo association, or is it done by the people who live there? The place where we are moving switched to a management company, right before we bought, and I am glad. If your association contracted for plowing/shoveling services, then it should be done! I understand that a storm of that magnitude has extenuating circumstances, like we had last year, but it sounds like they did nothing.

[emily_in_nc]

Yeah, that is crazy, NY. I think too many condo associations fall down on their duties and just let the fees accumulate in an account instead of using it as it is intended.

We had the opposite problem when we lived in a small, rural subdivision in central NC. We had a very low neighborhood HOA fee paid yearly, and almost everyone in the subdivision wanted to pay extra for snow plowing on the rare occasions when we had a snow, since the amount in our HOA account wouldn't cover snow removal. We didn't, because we knew that in most cases in NC, the snow will melt within a day or three, and by this time, my DH was retired, and I could work from home in case of inclement weather. We had a huge pantry filled with food stores and a woodstove so didn't suffer too much even if there were power outages, and we didn't mind being snowed in for 1-3 days; we actually enjoyed it! I guess in an emergency, we might have felt differently, but in general, we were just not so important that we had to get out. So we balked at paying extra for this, but we were consistently outvoted.

[smilingcat]

I saw the front page of NYT at Starbucks today. and OMG!! What a mess. As always, be safe and with the snow removal, please don't over do it and hurt yourselves. You are shoveling frozen water and water is pretty darn heavy.

I hope it clears quickly.

[ny biker]

Finally tonight the condo management has provided more information. Apparently a bunch of residents gave them an earful today, by phone and in person. They are saying that the snow is too heavy for the plow (attached to a pickup truck) but not for the one Bobcat that we have, so they are trying to rent another Bobcat, then get back to using the plow once some of the snow melts. Also they say that they wanted to hire 80 people to help out but were only able to hire 30. And by the way there's no garbage pickup again tomorrow. We contract for that to happen 6 days per week -- it's a neighborhood of small apartment buildings and townhouses but there are no dumpsters or trash chutes -- and it's been canceled since Saturday. I'm fine since I live alone but people with kids and dogs are probably starting to have problems. If I go out tomorrow I'll expect to see many bags of dog poo left in the snow.

The really frustrating thing is that they waited until tonight to explain what was going on. There are many long-term residents here who know this isn't normal, even after a major snowstorm. They should have provided more information yesterday instead of keeping quiet and letting everyone get angry.

Anyway. I stayed inside today, working from home. My upper back muscles are so sore from shoveling yesterday that I had trouble standing up straight and taking deep breaths today. (That did not happen after shoveling out previous blizzards, so apparently I'm not doing the right workout at the gym these days.) I also wasn't feeling well today, due to what I think were non-headache migraine symptoms. So I will definitely work from home again tomorrow. Local federal government offices are closed again as are most school districts. The mass transit system was barely running today; most trains will be running tomorrow and I guess buses will be running too though most bus stops are not shoveled out. Many residential streets are still unplowed, there are huge snow piles blocking crosswalks at intersections, main roads still have problems on ramps and we're being warned of highway lanes ending in a pile of snow without warning. At this point I expect to be home on Wednesday, too, though I have to get to a grocery store by then even if I walk there. (Of course some grocery stores have not had any deliveries since Thursday so shelves are still bare.)

On the news now they're saying a woman was just rescued after being stuck in her car, buried in snow, since Friday. That's three days!! A National Guard humvee reached her to rescue her. The National Guard has been helping local fire departments since the storm started, pulling fire trucks out of snow piles with tank haulers and providing personnel and humvees to help out with emergency calls.

They're also warning people to make sure the exterior vents for dryers, furnaces and water heaters are clear of snow to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning within the house. So many seemingly small things to think about.

So yeah, one day at a time. At least I'm able to work. I rode my bike on the indoor trainer for 45 minutes tonight. It actually made my back feel better. Maybe tomorrow I'll attempt to go for a walk.