Thursday 17 February 2011

Whiteout

photo by Greg Talecki

A blizzard has rolled into Manitoba this evening, possibly upping the snow levels to more than we need for another catastrophic flood in a couple of months. They are calling for 5 - 10 cm of new snow overnight but it's hard to tell just how much has come down so far because the winds are gusting up to 70 kph.

My yard is full of snow drifts again so I will have to enlist the help of the teenage boys next door to shovel it out. My shoulder isn't in any shape to allow me to do that. Thankfully, the storm is supposed to end by noon tomorrow.

I was out for dinner with some girlfriends at the local Olive Garden this evening, our usual hangout for soup, salad and breadsticks. Man, I love their breadsticks! Hot from the oven, with lots of garlicky butter on top. Even tastier when combined with great friends and good conversation.

The storm hadn't started yet when we got to the restaurant, but by the time we left, there had been freezing rain, which coated the entire car in a thin, hard crust of opaqueness, topped off with a layer of sticky white snow plastered over the entire passenger side. Brushing the snow off was easy, but the ice on the windows resisted all but the most vigorous and frantic scrapings to remove enough for safe driving.

(photog. unknown)

I am the only one of the bunch that actually lives in the city. The rest are country girls (I was once one of their number) and two didn't make it in at all. The other two who did had nerve wracking drives home through whiteout conditions in the dark. (See first photo, which was actually taken here in Winnipeg, but remove all traces of daylight.) No easy feat to stay on the road when you can't see anything more than 5 feet in any direction around you. One messaged me after she got home and said her normal 35 minute drive was two hours of white knuckle, headache inducing torture!

I live about a 10 minute drive from the restaurant, and it was a bit of a white knuckle drive for me... and I had the benefit of street lights and curbs to keep me on the straight and narrow home! Here's hoping this is the last storm of the season and that the spring melt is a long, slow one.

14 comments:

  1. Good gracious! We are beginning to see the first signs of spring now, which raises the spirits.
    I've had a whiteout driving home in very thick fog. I had to drive home down a country lane knowing there were deep ditches either side - took me forever.
    Stay safe, Ponita.
    Sx

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  2. yikes! stay safe, sugar. xoxoxo

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  3. Dinnae worry about safe driving hen, you're a woman. It's too late to start now.

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  4. Jimmy is just asking for a smacked bottom! He was equally sympathetic at mine.
    I do feel for you and your shoulder. It's incapacitating and debilitating and does nothing for one's joi de vivre.

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  5. Those must have been some whoop ass breadsticks for you to go out in that madness. In New York City, we're about to have an unseasonably warm day. Thank god. We need the break.

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  6. Good luck with the snow, you know that...
    sorry lost my train of thought, I started thinking about breadsticks.....

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  7. I was hoping the story would end up with everyone back at your place for a topless pillow fight. Sorry.

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  8. Scarlet: Yes, I've driven in fog like that. Had to stick my head out the window to the side to see the lines on the road. In blizzards, however, the road is covered in snow so no lines to see! Besides which, you'd freeze your head off and get a car full of snow...
    I dream of spring. *sigh*

    Savannah: I do my best! xoxoxo

    Jimmy: Didn't take you long to get back into your usual form, now did it! ;-)

    Pat: Maybe that's what he wants... he's been lacking attention for a while... ;-)

    How's your shoulder? You might benefit from a steroid injection. I've been told that works wonders when you still have full range of motion. I'm long past that stage, unfortunately.

    UB: The storm hit after we were already chowing down on those breadsticks! And we're back into a deep freeze... it's -17°C, which is almost 0°F.

    SF: The snow will go... eventually. The breadsticks will always be there!!! :-)

    XL: I offered to let anyone who wanted to stay at my place but they all had to get home. We're a tough bunch, here on the Prairies. ;-)

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  9. Yikes! Driving home to my parents' I have to pass through a snow belt. Driving through white-outs in the day is bad enough, but at night... terrifying. Glad your friends made it home safely

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  10. Here in Chicago, we had a mofo of a winter storm two weeks ago. Now? Sunny days with temps in the 50's (F) with only the remnants of snow banks remaining.

    Move south, lass, move south.

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  11. Snooze: Yeah, I remember the snow belt! I spent 4 years in Guelph... We don't get that much snow here, which is a good thing!

    Jonas: I've toyed with the idea of moving south, but to be honest, I am loathe to leave my country again. I spent 5 years down in the southern US in the 90s and realized how much I missed Canada after I moved back. Maybe I just need a different part of this country, where winter isn't so long or brutal. We do have places like that, you know! ;-)

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  12. My first thought was "Yikes!" {Sav it must be a southern thing}.

    I promise to never complain about cold weather again. You rest that shoulder up and let the teenagers do the work...tell them women think guys with muscles who help others are the sexiest kind. :)

    My WV: resto :)

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  13. As a Minnesota gal, born and raised, that top picture just scares the hell out of me. Slow and scary going, and that's for sure.

    We're expecting 5 to 7 inches Sunday night and another 4 to 6 Monday.

    Winter ain't done with us yet.

    To your health!

    Pearl

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  14. I'd stay in, hunker down and eat chocolate and wait to be dug out by helpful firemen. Take care of the shoulder.

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