Re: Winter's last gasp.... - Hughesnet Community

GabeU · ‎03-03-2018

Pics from yesterday morning. Thirteen hours before this there was no snow on the ground, whatsoever. We ended up getting about 18 inches, which normally isn't that big of a deal, but with it being this heavy it was awful. It's already starting to melt, thankfully.

In picture four you can see my folks' sat dishes on the roof of their garage, with the left one being HughesNet and the right being DirecTV. And just after I took the pictures a plow came through and buried my mailbox that you can see on the right of the fifth picture. The power went out shortly after.

This is some of the heaviest snow I have ever seen. My folks had a couple of trees come down, and according to my local electric company there are over 1000 crew, including those from other parts of the country, tending to the lines. That the power came back on here so quickly, relatively speaking, is amazing. Kudos to the workers.

And yes, that is the radio of my HughesNet dish on the lower left of picture three. I just noticed that I caught that in the pic. 😛

alfresco · ‎03-03-2018

we're getting a lot of snow here in Nor Cal also. Haven't got any pics yet, i've been to busy shoveling Snow between blizzards.

maratsade · ‎03-05-2018

I caught a glimpse of the snow your way on TV. Wow. Looked insane.

@alfrescowrote:
we're getting a lot of snow here in Nor Cal also. Haven't got any pics yet, i've been to busy shoveling Snow between blizzards.

maratsade · ‎03-05-2018

Gorgeous pics, Gabe, though I don't envy you the heavy snow. Hope you got your power back.

MarkJFine · ‎03-05-2018

Real nice pics.

Was up in Central NJ most of last week on less than pleasant business. Friday was no fun with high winds and wet snows going sideways. Spent a good part of the day driving around doing errands in it.

Meanwhile, back here in Virginia there was reports of high winds, downed trees, and mass power outages. Expected the worst when I got home, but was real lucky: No downed trees at all, not even the scary dead hickory that looks like it could squash a whole lot of things (think it's time to get that beast taken care of, professionally tho).

Also, judging from the times that phone messages were left it appeared as if we hadn't lost power either, if for only a blip - all the DTV boxes were on, but no appliance clocks were blinking. So there's that.

* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

GabeU · ‎03-05-2018

@maratsadewrote:
Gorgeous pics, Gabe, though I don't envy you the heavy snow. Hope you got your power back.

Yep. Power's good, now. I saw on the local news last night that only about 250 people in Western NY still didn't have power. It's probably fixed for everyone today.

I only had some small limbs come off of my trees, but my folks had quite a bit more come down. One of their willow trees had a sizable limb come off. Luckily, it just fell in their lawn, as it's big enough that it would have done quite a bit of damage had it actually fallen on something.

We also didn't get much wind, thankfully, as we were a little too far inland to be affected by it. We got a little, but nothing like they got in Mark's neck of the woods and further up the coast.

And, unfortunately, it's not melting as quickly as we'd hoped. We've also got snow in the forecast for Wednesday. Ugh. Spring can't come soon enough.

What's kind of funny is that, on the 8th, it will be 25 years since I moved from this area to Virginia (having since moved back, of course), and I remember that they got a storm shortly afterward. I wasn't used to seeing a five or six inches of snow paralyze an area like it did, and they weren't very used to snowstorms in March.

maratsade · ‎03-07-2018

Some areas that are getting bad weather aren't used to that at all. Time to adapt, I guess! I wasn't used to violent weather, because the UK doesn't get the same type of weather as over here on this side of the ocean. I remember some high winds, and there's snow in the winter, but it's nothing like over in this country.

Yep. Power's good, now. I saw on the local news last night that only about 250 people in Western NY still didn't have power. It's probably fixed for everyone today.

I only had some small limbs come off of my trees, but my folks had quite a bit more come down. One of their willow trees had a sizable limb come off. Luckily, it just fell in their lawn, as it's big enough that it would have done quite a bit of damage had it actually fallen on something.

We also didn't get much wind, thankfully, as we were a little too far inland to be affected by it. We got a little, but nothing like they got in Mark's neck of the woods and further up the coast.

And, unfortunately, it's not melting as quickly as we'd hoped. We've also got snow in the forecast for Wednesday. Ugh. Spring can't come soon enough.

What's kind of funny is that, on the 8th, it will be 25 years since I moved from this area to Virginia (having since moved back, of course), and I remember that they got a storm shortly afterward. I wasn't used to seeing a five or six inches of snow paralyze an area like it did, and they weren't very used to snowstorms in March.

GabeU · ‎03-08-2018

@maratsadewrote:
Some areas that are getting bad weather aren't used to that at all. Time to adapt, I guess! I wasn't used to violent weather, because the UK doesn't get the same type of weather as over here on this side of the ocean. I remember some high winds, and there's snow in the winter, but it's nothing like over in this country.

When I was a young kid there was this family that moved to my village from some place down south (Florida, maybe). They were talking about how they were all prepared for the winters and such, which they had never experienced. They had two kids that were near the age of my brother and myself and they rode the same bus.

When we got our first snowfall it was a sizable one, and that family was shocked that the the kids still had school. We found out from talking to the two kids on the bus that their parents forgot to buy one vital thing that people in this area need and always have..a snow shovel. They were out there, at first light, trying to clear their driveway with a spade. 😛 It was hilarious. I wish I would have seen it.

Sweetpea3829 · ‎03-08-2018

We have some friends here on temporary Navy assignment (he is a Naval Recruiter). They are from GA and have only lived in the deep south.

Their first winter here was that wicked mild one we had in 2016.

We met them just after and they kept telling us "how cold" winter was.

We hadn't even gone subzero that winter! But the year before, we spent WEEKS in subzero temps, and I well remember because I was the one schlepping out to break water for the chickens three times a day.

Needless to say, they have not enjoyed their station here in NY and are looking forward to their return south later this year.

GabeU · ‎03-08-2018

@Sweetpea3829wrote:
We hadn't even gone subzero that winter! But the year before, we spent WEEKS in subzero temps, and I well remember because I was the one schlepping out to break water for the chickens three times a day.

I remember that winter VERY well. I developed an ice dam on the west side of my roof. It just kept building up and building up, never having time to fully melt. The even bigger problem was that the ice underneath was slowly melting from the heat of the roof and the water was running down through my outer wall and under my floor. That was awful.

Two bags of rock salt and a lot of work got the ice dam broken up, but that wasn't fun being up on that slanted roof that was covered in sheets of ice. And, of course, do I have mold in my wall? I doubt it, as I've since seen part of the inside of it and it was dry and mold free, but I didn't see all of it, so it's still a little scary. To make matters worse, it damaged the edge of the roof where it was worst, so that's got to be fixed this summer. We planned to last year, but some things came up.

It was one of the coldest winters I remember. I do remember there were a couple of nights during the winter of '92-'93 that got down to at least 22 below, but the extreme cold at the time didn't last for weeks like it did with the winter we're talking about. It was awful, that's for sure.

maratsade · ‎03-08-2018

"I do remember there were a couple of nights during the winter of '92-'93 that got down to at least 22 below,"

YIKES.

GabeU · ‎03-08-2018

@maratsadewrote:
"I do remember there were a couple of nights during the winter of '92-'93 that got down to at least 22 below,"

YIKES.

Yep. It was a bad one. I only remember it due to moving down south in March of '93, so it was my last winter here unitl I moved back in 2002. Still, it was the coldest winter, I believe, that I've ever experienced here. I had to go outside to smoke. 😛

maratsade · ‎03-08-2018

You must've turned into a Gabecicle. 🙂

Still, it was the coldest winter, I believe, that I've ever experienced here. I had to go outside to smoke. 😛

Sweetpea3829 · ‎03-08-2018

If that's not an incentive to quit smoking, I don't know what is, lol!

I lived in RI in 92, 93, etc (and for that matter, I was only 12 yrs old). Our winters there never got that cold. 20s and 30s...MAYBE down to the teens.

But I remember demanding from my husband in '15 that we move to the Azores, where he's originally from. Because the heck with that kind of extreme "polar vortex" cold. Why should we live in this when we can live in "paradise". Alas, he said we couldn't.

The kids do the chickens and ducks now, lol.

Sweetpea3829 · ‎03-08-2018

Gabe, what made you decide to come back north after moving south for so long?!

GabeU · ‎03-08-2018

@Sweetpea3829wrote:
Gabe, what made you decide to come back north after moving south for so long?!

Eh, my job situation. In the post 9/11 slowdown I ended up losing my job to someone who they could pay about 15k less. I ended up having to come back to stay with my folks for a little while (yeah, living with my folks at 30...SMH).

maratsade · ‎03-08-2018

Hey, whatever saves you money. I'm sure your folks liked having you around.

Eh, my job situation. In the post 9/11 slowdown I ended up losing my job to someone who they could pay about 15k less. I ended up having to come back to stay with my folks for a little while (yeah, living with my folks at 30...SMH).

Sweetpea3829 · ‎03-08-2018

That stinks. I was in college during 9/11 and well remember how it impacted our nation.

But, having to stay with your parents is no big deal. You do what you have to.

Personally, I'd rather live under a bridge, lol. But that's because I don't have a fantastic relationship with my folks (divorced and both remarried and I just got so tired of being stuck in the middle of their drama).

GabeU · ‎03-08-2018

@Sweetpea3829wrote:
That stinks. I was in college during 9/11 and well remember how it impacted our nation.

But, having to stay with your parents is no big deal. You do what you have to.

Personally, I'd rather live under a bridge, lol. But that's because I don't have a fantastic relationship with my folks (divorced and both remarried and I just got so tired of being stuck in the middle of their drama).

I get along great with my mother and stepfather. They immediately offered to help. I stayed with them for about two years and then moved into the house I'm in now, which they actually own. Yep, my folks are my landlords. LOL.

I didn't get along with my father and stepmother at the time, and they lived out in Las Vegas, too. It got better later on, though. Incidentally, they're gone now, with my father dying just before Christmas of last year and my stepmother, coincidentally, just last night. I hadn't seen either one in about 25 years, though I occasionally talked to them on the phone.

maratsade · ‎03-08-2018

"my father dying just before Christmas of last year and my stepmother, coincidentally, just last night."

My condolences, Gabe.

GabeU · ‎03-08-2018

@maratsade

@Sweetpea3829

Thanks, guys. My stepmother I wasn't really close to, so that one isn't bothering me that much. That's not to sound cold or anything, as I do feel bad for my stepsisters. My father's passing bothered me, but I knew it was coming, so it was a little easier to take when it happened than it would have been had I not expected it.

The circle of life, such as it is. 😞