Winter Storm of Feb 1, 2015

[Scottathew]

My elderly neighbor was snow blowing his driveway, gave up halfway through, and contracted it out.

I would have done it for him, but he's too much of a man's man to admit defeat to his much younger neighbor.


My Rochester Hills neighborhood got plowed around 6:00pm last night.

[jackie5275]

I'm pretty sure we had no mail delivery today because a neighbor's mailbox flag has been raised since Sunday, maybe Saturday. That right there is a testimonial to the severity of the storm.

Our letter carrier came by on schedule yesterday, but we got no garbage pick up. I didn't even put my barrel out today. I don't know if it's going to be delayed a day or not. At this point, I don't care if I miss a week. Someone posted earlier that it seems that most of these storms hit on Sundays. Yeah, because Monday is garbage day in my neighborhood. Nothing like trying to haul those 90 gallon barrels to the curb on a mini-mountain of snow you just got done clearing from your driveway.

[Scottathew]

Garbage in Rochester Hills is currently delayed. We're being told to put our cans out on our normal time, but be prepared for collection to be a day late. This applies to pick-up days later in the week as well. Whatever they don't get during the week will be picked up on Saturday. Our collection is done by Republic Services.

[rb336]

My Rochester Hills neighborhood got plowed around 6:00pm last night.

that's fine as long as he didn't drive

[G-DDT]

Give me a big, fluffy Michigan winter anytime. Yeah, our weather changes unpredictably from day to day, but out in Boston [[uh-oh-this is where I turn it into a gripe about that place), it changes radically hour to hour. Because of this, the snow thaws, refreezes, thaws, re-freezes into thicker, smoother ice [[I hear Baltimore has the same issue). Walking is treacherous; it's puddled and icy. They get the hugest icicles I've ever seen hang off buildings, and folks at bus stops sit there unflinching and apathetic to giant chucks of heavy ice cascading from three and four story heights.

I respect Michiganders making an effort to shovel [[even going out of their way to shovel a neighbor's area or push someone's car out of the snow). In Boston, they are either lazy [[I've seen dozens of folks leave Christmas decorations up until April) or they gave up making an effort on the radical weather changes. They hardly shovel anything. You got pile ups of not just snow, but snow that has developed a hard crust of sharp, jagged ice encasing these lumpy mounds.
Imagine slowly walking in blizzardy or vision-obscured conditions down a treacherously icy sidewalk with these jagged mounds up to your chest on either side with no egress [[no one shovels driveways, since they rely on Mass transit). You go about a block or two and a half come to two houses at the end that shoveled nothing, and there is no way to climb on top of this dangerous stuff or traverse it for the remainder. Like a long dead end to a maze, you turn around and have to head back the same slow way. Over ten minutes wasted, and that's happened to me at least five times.

No one salts either [[yeah, but we have mines full of the stuff underneath us). I once pleaded with a super at an apartment building who had a giant Home Depot bucket full of salt to spare just one cup for a dangerous patch [[I had slipped on and so did five others) across the way where I was waiting for a facility to open one morning. " 'Ef I 'av ta' do dat', den' I gotta do dat' fo' averyone else." He rudely quipped. So, I spent my time waiting and warning each person crossing to "watch out there" [[most wouldn't listen and BAM!-down they go). Heck! once I almost got sucked down into the parking garage below an apartment building, because the sidewalk beveled there and was icy [[It was somewhat comedic, as I was doing the classic Cleveland Brown "no no no no no no no!").

I also find it odd that when we are told what to expect in weather, us Detroiters prepare. Within the hour the weather gets wonky in Boston, no one adjusts, and one can hear a constant choir of sirens for the next two hours as teams rush to car accident after car accident. Yet, one can chalk that up to poor Massachusetts driving habits. Well, at least I can say Massachusetts folks raise kids with just as much a big passion for hockey as we here in Michigan have, and judging by the Superbowl, that goes moreso, for football.

[GPCharles]

It's times like these that highlight the problem of having an oversized city for the number of residents. In the Connor to Alter, Mack to Jefferson area, there are numerous streets being plowed that only have 5-10 houses remaining. Now I am not saying those house shouldn't get serviced, its just that the per house cost has to be way out of whack.