(no subject)

[astridv]

I've been trying to remember if we've ever had a winter like this in Westphalia - not just a few hours of snowfall that leave just enough sleet on the streets to be a pain in the ass, but actual snow for weeks in a row, snow you can do something with. I saw some people on skis as I was running my trusty route! Ski envy, man. Running was nice too, the packed snow made a good surface, and everything is nicely bright. It helps that there're barely any cars on the road, and now that the city is running out of salt, they only clear the main roads so the rest of the city is white and shiny.

The media hype was ridiculous. I'm so glad my cable isn't even connected and I can at least avoid all those special bulletins about blizzards and snow chaos, complete with suggestions to raid the supermarkets and stockpile food wtf, so people can work up a good nice panic because of 30 centimeters of snow and a few gusts of wind. [okay, it looks like the North was hit quiet a bit more than we were.]

I'm glad I work from home, though. Some intrepic people are riding their bikes through that, but since I did that involuntary stunt last week, I've become suspicious of icy roads. Think I'll walk today.

Comments

[ratcreature]

Heh, yeah, the little I have seen of the weather warnings I though somewhat ridiculous in the panic level (here we only got the edges of the snowfall, so it didn't really apply to me anyway).

Though ever since my building's water main once broke I found it is a good idea to have a stockpile of drinking water on hand, because it is ridiculously inconvenient to lack running water for more than a few hours. When our water was turned off one of my neighbors called the utility about getting serviced via a truck when it became clear that it would take time to fix, and got the information that there were very few of those around, so they never offered any alternative water supply to us. They just turned the water off without warning (which was understandable as it was an emergency, and as it was the leak had washed out part of the foundation and they had to fix it and monitor cracks in some apartments, which was rather scary as that was not long after the archive in Cologne had collapsed), and there I was lacking even water to drink and cook with never mind the toilet and shower and such (of course as another result the sewer was damaged along with the foundation, so soon after the water main trouble we had to use outdoor chemical toilets until that was fixed anyway, which really sucked btw, as it was winter).

Anyway it took something like two days iirc (too long anyway!) until a temporary water connection (via a garden hose from a neighbor connected to our building's main) could be arranged, and that brought home to me just how much water I commonly need even disregarding showers, and washing, as I had to carry it all up. And that wasn't so much of a problem as expensive as the stores had open and I could just buy some, but it sucked. Now that I have a bunch of large bottles and canisters, I always keep those refilled just in case.