YIKES

OK, well I think this is as good a time as any to express how scary it is out be out here on Plum Island tonight! Have I ever mentioned how small this cottage is? And how close the ocean is? Not to mention the river, which is even closer.

I hope the ocean is not closer than it's supposed to be ... but I was scared about that last night, too.

Oh lovely

In the four winters I've lived here, I have never had this happen ... I wonder if my roof will collapse?

I see all this stuff as fodder for my writing ... if I were to survive such a collapse, of course ...

Poor DPS Director Brendan O'Regan, who on Sat. was praying for rain.

Good morning!

Oh geesh ... as usual, my neighbor across the street gets no snow behind her car, while my little Jetta (above, on the left) is buried.

The one bright spot in all this was Scott Montminy, the traffic guy on NECN, singing a song about "here's to you, tow-truck driver" about some situation he was following in which a man (Stuck on Land Blvd. Guy) had been stuck in a snow drift for 2 hrs. - and a tow truck finally arrived to get him out.

Heat's on!

Well finally Eastern Propane & Oil turned up and fixed the furnace. Something called an igniter was shot.

I'm no expert on furnaces, but I think an igniter is probably necessary for one to function correctly.

Seriously, I should have known there was something amiss with the igniter since sometimes it would not ignite on the first attempt.

Now I'm reasonably warm and toasty, cooking up some curry and settling in before tomorrow's possible onslaught of snow.

Who needs love slaves?

I'm using my cat as a muff!

Well it's a balmy 57 degrees in the cottage right now. The furnace is broken, or the propane line is clogged ... who cares? The temp in here is falling fast!

Hmmmm ... guess I should turn on the electric heater my landlady brought over ...

... OK, now that there's tepid air blowing in my general direction, I can bitch and moan about how I called Eastern Propane & Oil more than two hours ago and was told a technician would be arriving "soonishly."

Actually, "soonishly" is a word I use and is not typical of the propane professional. He told me not to go anywhere anytime soon.

I canceled a 3 p.m. engagement for this! I could have gone, been warm and would have been back home by now!

Where are my love slaves when I need them? Bah!

Does any of this sound familiar?

Read this here story, from the Flint Journal.

It's about people not shoveling their sidewalks! Then read the comments, which mirror almost exactly the ones on stories on the DN website.

Well, except for the ones about getting mugged and/or shot while shoveling. I don't recall any of those on the Daily News site ...

Flint Mayor Don Williamson said unshoveled sidewalks are a problem all over the city -- one that has gotten worse over the years.

"Years ago when I was a kid, everyone shoveled their snow," he said. "Today, no one does it."

That's funny ... years ago I remember a little vehicle clearing the sidewalk. But then, I wasn't a kid when we moved to Flint.

When I was a kid in Michigan, we lived on a gravel road out in the country. We had two driveways and a relative with a plow on his tractor (?).

When I was a really little kid, we lived in the Tropics and ... well, no snow.

Who's to blame when an icicle gets out of bounds?

As I was making my way around downtown today, I couldn't help but notice all the smashed icicles on the sidewalk (mostly because they were in my path).

So I looked up.

And yeah, there were a lot of icicles hanging off the rooftops, folks. I've got a few giants hanging off my eaves out here as well.

But when I was trying to gain access to the Bank of America ATM (will they ever fix that?), I was slight unnerved by the number of icicles hanging over my head.

A while later, as I turned the corner from State St. (where I see The Studio* is having a closing sale) onto Pleasant, I couldn't help but notice Daily News photographer Bryan Eaton, also looking up.

I suspect there will be something in tomorrow's Daily News about icicles.

So ... forget unshoveled sidewalks for the moment and consider whose responsibility it is to clear icicles from the roofs of buildings.

Maybe the DN story will clear this up! Because I've got very thick hair, but I don't think it would stop a falling icicle from piercing my skull.

*According to a note on her website, Kim is closing the retail store but maintaining the web presence.

Snovel show

Ah, remember those days when neighborhood kids went around with snow shovels and would shovel you out for a small fee?

I do, since the neighbor kid and his friend used to shovel me out ... now he's 17 and delivers pizzas (makes a lot of dough at it, I heard from his mother....).

This is from yesterday's Daily News:

The city reminds residents that there is a law requiring homeowners to shovel the sidewalks in front of their homes. Failure to do so can result in fines.

Recycling Coordinator Molly Ettenborough said last week that the health department has issued 30 to 40 warnings so far this winter, but no fines yet. Next time, she said, they will issue the $50 fine.

Seniors are encouraged to call the Council on Aging at 978-462-8650 for a list of residents who will help shovel for a small fee.

I wonder ... is Dick M on this list? Or is he still holding out for the 25%? And why do the seniors have a pay "a small fee?" And why is the recycling coordinator in charge of residential sidewalk snow removal?

This sort of reminds me of the A-frame signs debacle (I think the City Clerk is in charge of that). People aren't going to follow the law if you aren't going to enforce it!

Photos from today

(Top photo) Rolfe's Lane/Ocean Ave. - why does it change names once it gets into Newburyport? Wasn't Rolfe's Lane good enough? It's Ocean Ave. for what, 200 feet?

(Bottom photo) Those huge icicles have since fallen down, taking parts of the cottage with them.

My lips are sealed

I would comment on some stuff ... but then THEY would get a story idea ... I know THEY are watching because one of THEM has emailed me in the past ... if you get my drift.

Speaking of drifts, why do people/cities leave giant piles of snow on corners? One cannot see around them and thus cannot see oncoming traffic when one is pulling out onto a major road.

And that's not even to mention all the people wandering around in the streets!

Must go now and try to plow through to bird feeders ...

MORE SNOW

This winter reminds me of the one we had the winter after my sister (the one who lives in Gloucester now) moved to Malden.

It seems to me that it snowed every weekend, and I recall my sister and I one Sat. slogging up the hill they lived on there ... that was a quite a while ago now.

I've been trying to get a story on an event that takes place on Sunday morning for 2 weeks now. My guess is, tomorrow will be another bust. Another Sunday ... another 6-8 inches. I'm running out of convenient places to fling any new snow.

As a sidenote, that same day in Malden, I lost one of my beloved fake pearl drop earrings. The next summer, I was standing on my sister's porch, looked down onto the front lawn - and saw something pearly glowing in the grass.

It was my earring! I guess it got caught in my scarf and fell onto their porch, which my brother-in-law was shoveling at the time we arrived at the house.

I love finding stuff I thought was gone forever.

Grump

I was outside earlier, shoveling even MORE snow (another 8 inches - just what we needed), and I got to thinking:

I lived in Boston for 20 years. I paid less rent, did not have to pay for my own heat, water, or sewer ... and NEVER had to shovel even one flake of snow on my own behalf (may have shoveled for family members). Didn't need to own a car ...

When is winter over again?

Another snow storm?

"Good fertile storm breeding ground" is how Matt Noyes is describing the area (in the midwest, of course) from whence the storm is coming - TONIGHT.

Oh sleet and freezing rain, too.

Does 2-4" constitute a "snow storm?"

It's just a weather event!

Oh no ...

22 people are stuck on a freighter in the Gulf of Mexico. Nobody can rescue them because of the conditions.

From KansasCity.com:

Ike's 105-mph winds and potential 50-foot waves initially stopped the Coast Guard from attempting a risky helicopter rescue of 22 people aboard a 584-foot freighter that broke down in the path of the storm about 90 miles southeast of Galveston, Chief Petty Officer Mike O'Berry said. The ship was hauling petroleum coke used to fuel furnaces at steel plants.

But midday Friday, the Coast Guard changed its mind and decided to stage a rescue. Petty Officer Tom Atkeson said rescue swimmers and Coast Guard and Air Force aircraft were on their way to reach the ship.

They have since aborted the rescue attempt.

The Cyprus-flagged freighter Antalina issued a distress call around 0900 GMT after it lost propulsion 90 miles (145 kilometers) southeast of Galveston, Coast Guard Petty Officer Tom Atkeson told AFP by phone from Texas. (Source: Africasia.com)

The crew cannot anchor the ship because they are in deep waters. According to a transmission CNN earlier played from the captain, the freighter is on buoys.

Also in jeopardy are the petrochemical plants and oil refineries in Houston. Someone just said that one quarter of the country's gasoline supply is refined in that area.

This is more scary than Gov. Palin. Just.