jeffcovey.net -- winter 2002(3) storm 3

the big one.

click on any photo to see a larger version of it.
	01/05/2003 -- assorted showers pile up all through january so that the ground is never quite clear of smow, but that's just a buildup to... comments (0)
	02/17/2003 -- 26 inches! the heaviest smowfall in baltimore's recorded history. comments (1)
	yes, someone actually drove down the street, probably for no good reason. the state police had asked everyone but emergency workers to stay off the roads. glenn and i were smowed in for the better part of a week (the storm started on the 15th, and i got my car out on the 20th), and watched silly person after silly person get stuck on all the streets around the neighborhood. comments (0)
	looking down at my car. i had to park it on the other side of the street because the smow from the last storm still hadn't melted from in front of glenn's house. comments (0)
	babe takes a look. comments (0)
	glenn takes a look. i'd like to point out that i shoveled that deck and a path to our cars the day before, and there was no remaining sign that i'd done so. comments (0)
	looking out at the yard. comments (0)
	and again. comments (0)
	that's a lot of smow on mr. yi's roof. there were a number of roof collapses around the city, most dramatically at the b&o railroad museum's roundhouse. comments (0)
	looking up the street. look at how the smow's engulfed those bushes. comments (0)
	glenn's car. wow. comments (0)
	glenn uncovers the deck. comments (0)
	i made a path to the street so we could walk down the tire tracks in an emergency. comments (0)
	my thoroughly inaccessible car. when i finally dug it out enough to back it out on the 20th, i left a pile of smow with the vw logo from my grill clearly imprinted in it. i wish i'd thought to take a picture. comments (0)
	glenn comes around to inspect my work. comments (0)
	wow. comments (0)
	my path. comments (0)
	02/20/2003 -- wanting to check on my house, i head for lodge road. there hasn't been any new smowfall for days, but it's still a remarkably perilous journey. i get there, though, and early indications suggest that mine is one of the very few side streets which have been plowed. comments (0)
	but not so; it's only plowed to number 2a (including their driveway). they must have known someone with a plow or paid a contractor to do it just to their house. comments (0)
	the rest of the street looks like this. comments (0)
	so i took advantage of a free spot way in the back of the plowed lot of the business park at the top of the hill, and walked down. comments (0)
	and i walked down to this. i'd known there would be smow. i'd seen smow all week. i'd sprayed it with my car's wheels and somehow made it through by simply not accepting that i would stop. but somehow, i'd not been prepared for the idea that the situation at home would be quite the zhivagist wonder that it was. comments (0)
	i don't know if you can see just how unapproachable my house was. it was an island. i stood in the street for a good long time with my laptop swung over one shoulder and my overnight bag over the other. i walked up and down, looking for possible approaches, considering side attempts from the neighbors' properties and rejecting them as no better than a direct route. finally, there was nothing to do but laugh and accept that i'd just have to take a plunge and make it as best i could. comments (0)
	one more look down the street before the attempt. comments (0)
	made it! with the bags held high over my head, i struggled up, doing leg lifts like i was leaping hurdles. comments (0)
	i'd been in to my knees most of the way. comments (0)
	the smow was very heavily packed by this time, so as i shoveled, the places where my feet came through kept their shape. here, i've cleaned the smow from under one of my bootprints so you can see how far my feet were falling. comments (0)
	i laid the shovel in the tunnel to give perspective. comments (0)
	the finished product! comments (0)
	and a reverse shot. comments (0)
	this didn't come out well, but shows part of a footfall which landed just to the side of the steps. comments (0)
	looking out back. comments (0)
	a neighbor's car, not going anywhere soon. comments (0)