And then it snowed...

This photo of my walk and a buried car kind of  went viral
after I tweeted it. Like Jerry Lewis, it was popular in
 France, for unknown reasons.

March is traditionally a fickle month in most places, and upstate New York is no exception. In fact, the fickle weather around here often extends into April, and at least once we've had over 20 inches of snow in April. But anyway, back to March, specifically this March, which lived up to it's reputation. The month started off warm; we were in the 60s on March 1, but then the roller coaster began with lows near zero bracketed with highs in the 50s. On the 14th, the big snowstorm came. Big, even by New York standards. The snow began falling around 4 in the morning, then fell heavily for most of the day, ending with 31 inches, and all time record for Binghamton in a 24 hour period. A few more inches fell the next day leading to a storm total of nearly 3 feet. Unfortunately, the timing of this was during my graveyard shifts and that led to some interesting climbs up to Mt Ettrick and the Binghamton Regional Airport where our office is located. Also, it cut into my daytime sleeping as the struggle to maintain an open driveway and sidewalks were a non stop effort.

 "Troy" and I taking a much deserved break. 

My trusty snow blower was up to the task thankfully, or I would still be digging. The electric start malfunctioned, may be a solenoid but just two pulls and it fired right up. It has a 24 inch "bite" and normally that's more than enough but with 3 feet of snow. I had to keep backing off as snow fell over the top of the machine and into the motor. It took them 2 days to plow our street, and Binghamton schools were closed for three days leading to the firing of the Public Works commissioner and his deputy. That seems a bit harsh, since it was a record event but I guess someone had to pay for the road conditions and the mayor certainly isn't going to fire himself so,,,

All in all it was a great snowstorm, very pretty and frankly needed. This will give us a nice cool and wet start to Spring, as opposed to a warm and dry start that can lead to wildfires and water shortages down the road. It is probably is not enough to cause any real flooding concerns, unless we get heavy rain. So far, we've had perfect melting weather, melting some during the day, and freezing everything up at night. Ski resorts and skiers got a nice late season bonus too.

On the home improvement front, the guest room is pretty much done. We selected and I installed a ceiling fan. I was happy to find a solid attic floor joist exactly where I wanted to hang the fan and am confident the fan will never fall. Interestingly enough, the fan blades are no longer attached by machine screws and washers, but snap into place on posts with rubber grommets in the fan blade. I'm a bit apprehensive but the Hunter Fan Company must know what they are doing, right? Now it's time to turn the room over to Cindy so she can work her magic cleaning and decorating. We need to pick out some "window treatments" too so any guests we have can have a little privacy. By the way, it's Katia and Natasha's favorite room as the windows face south and west giving them plenty of warm sunshine.

I was at it again in the bathroom...wait...that doesn't sound right. What I mean is I worked at caulking the tub and other repairs. The shower wall pulled away from the room wall so I purchased, for the lack of a better description, tub glue, and glued and clamped the wall back in place. Also, the plaster walls near the base of the tub near the floor were falling apart, literally,  so re-plastered and painted the wall with a nice semi gloss paint that will better repel the water. Finally, I caulked around the top of the tub wall where my tall frame was causing water to splash and *perhaps* leak down into the kitchen. Since then, we've been dry on the kitchen floor so hopefully I've fixed that problem. If so, I can go ahead and repair the ceiling in the kitchen that has become water stained.