Sunday, December 20, 2009

The Weather Outside Was Frightful...

We were hoping to dodge the weather bullet but no such luck, although it could have been far worse. I had to go to N. Bergen Saturday to work at another Mini U facility there and that was a 44 mile round trip excursion. It started snowing around 4:00 p.m. there so the manager cut me loose around 4:30 so I could head home before it got too slippery. Good thing as around 5:00 p.m. it started snowing much harder and the roads were starting to get a little slick. We closed our normal time at 6:00 p.m. and hunkered down for the night. The company that we contracted with for snow plowing came by about 9:00 p.m. and made a few passes to get the feel of how the site is laid out, which was good since we already had a couple inches on the ground. He and I talked and decided to have him come back at 6:00 a.m. to do the brunt of the plowing. Linda and I went to bed hoping the weather man's prediction for record snowfalls and blizzard conditions wouldn't come to fruition. Alarm went off at 6:00 and we got up and went out to start getting the facility in shape for the day. Sunday is our usual day off but we knew the day would be spent shoveling and using the snow blower. Linda figured out how to get the snow blower started. I've never run one before. I had a 4 wheel drive ATV with a snow plow that I used at my house and that made pretty quick work of any snow storm. Thank God we had the snow blower cause I spent 6 hours today clearing the areas that the snow plow doesn't get to (near the keypads, sidewalks, etc.)and also spent time shoveling the doorways. Linda took over on the snow blower for a while, while I shoveled and she fell on her keister several times.....her butt and body sure hurt tonight ! In the back corner of the first floor, near the elevator, there are two automatic sliding doors. Well, when the elevator door opens, it trips the sensor on the door, making it open. During the storm, apparently alot of snow got in the door, not allowing the door to close so the lobby was filled with a pile of frozen snow across the width of the lobby. The elevator, on one of the times when the door opened, filled the door cavity with snow and that was having a hard time closing. I spent about thirty minutes with a hair dryer getting the ice out of the automatic door so I could get it to close and get the glacier out of the lobby....what fun we had today. We're both sore and exhausted !
Linda was supposed to go to her family Christmas gathering today. She had hoped to head out early this morning but early on it wasn't clear how good the roads would be. When she did decide that she would go I went out and started clearing the snow from around the car so she could get it out to go. I thought I'd start it so it could warm up and thaw alot of the ice and snow off of it while I ran the snowblower. Somehow I hit the lock button on the key fob and the keys were locked in the car AND the car was running. Linda called our Good Sam Road Service to see if they covered that and they did. They said it would take two hours for someone to get there, as they were really busy helping emergency vehicles. Well, an hour later "Pop A Lock" arrived and using a little inflatable air bag that he used to open the door about a 1/4 of an inch, he was able insert a long steel rod and then just put the window down. Luckily I had filled the car with gas on the way home from North Bergen so it didn't run out of gas AND the car was toasty warm and all the ice was defrosted when we finally got inside..HA...what a day it was. Linda decided it was too late to start out for Chambersburg...it would take her four hours if she had good roads the whole way and it was already around noon. We've been watching the football games and ran out to get some grocceries. Tomorrow, our other day off, we'll go out and see what sales the stores might be running and just get out for a while. Linda spent a bunch of time on the phone this afternoon with one of our tenants that had trouble with the Mini U truck today so it's best if we just leave the rig for a while so the assistant manager will have to take care of things herself instead of calling us.

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