The Clean Up

The snow finally ended by 2200 Saturday night. Over 24 hours of snow! I would say that we ended up with at least 18" of snow here in our neighborhood. National Airport had a record breaking 16" of snow.

Here was the last measurement before the sun went down.....17"

The car was taller than me with all that snow!

James and I awoke early on Sunday and spent the morning shoveling the sidewalks, clearing the vehicles, and clearing our parking spaces and our neighbors extra space. It was crazy! We even made a trek out to Home Depot yesterday after the snow shovel broke. The roads were a mess. And last night the Office of Personal Management closed the federal govenrment in the metro DC area for today. And I am glad fort that after our short jaunt yesterday.

For those of you who do live where it snows alot and are shaking your head at us because 18" of snow is nothing, let me give you some reasons why it is a big deal:
1) The amount of snow we received in 24 hours is more than we receive in a winter's time;
2) Our department of transportations (in VA, DC, and MD) say they are ready for anything that comes our way but they are more concerned with I-95 than the secondary roads;
3) Many neighorhoods relay on the county to clear and as of this morning many are not;
4) Our public transportation outfits are running on limited service. Metro (our subway) closed all their above ground stations at 1300 on Saturday and only this morning reopened them (without Metro the federal government can't operate);
5) People around here do not have vehicles that are made for snow. So when it does snow they still think they can drive in the foul weather. Then they end up on the side of the road and the vehicle is buried under snow;
6) People around here cannot drive in snow or rain. Period.