Snow Stories: The Great Super Bowl Sunday Shovel-Out

Published Feb. 8, 2010 at 5:30 a.m.

More than two feet of snow fell on much of Harford County Friday night and into Saturday, burying cars and weekend plans, and forcing begrudging shovelers into the cold on a day when most look forward to never having to leave the sofa.

Schools, courts, local governments, and most everything else announced by mid-day Sunday that they would be closed Monday – leaving those snowed-in to contemplate spending their Super Bowl Sunday chipping away at their icy prisons, or watching the endless hours of pre-game festivities. I chose the former.

By the time the final flakes fell on Saturday, I had roughly 26 inches of snow fall in my area (Jarrettsville) and a monumental clean-up effort ahead of me.

I shoveled for three hours on Saturday evening. Long enough for the beautiful sun set to reveal just how much trouble I was in.

Doing some rough calculations in my head, I reckoned I had about seven hours worth of shoveling ahead of me on Sunday. Knowing the sun sets at about 5:30 p.m., I figured I had better start shoveling by 10:30 a.m. if I wanted to stand a chance of finishing before the weekend was over.

I was up and shoveling by 9:45 a.m. Sunday, but it didn’t take long, about noon or so, before the cavalry arrived (my dad) to help me finish up the job. Even with twice the manpower, we didn’t finish until after 3 p.m.

Afterward, my driveway and parking area resembled a canyon with four-foot embankments. Down by the street, where road crews had plowed in my driveway, the snow ended up more than six feet high on either side after I cut my way through.

Wind-burned, wet-toed, and aching, I retired early (without watching much of the football game). Once I set my shovel down, I didn’t set another foot outside the rest of the day/evening/weekend.

One of the last things I saw before turning off the television Sunday night was a weather report. Six to 12 more inches of snow are expected on Wednesday. Good thing I didn’t put away my shovel.

Other items of note from a snowy weekend:

- I have two satellite dishes on my roof and both were completely covered in snow. Inexplicably, my DirecTV dish never went out and I had television service all weekend. Unsurprisingly, my HughesNet dish remained frozen and useless, leaving me without Internet service until Sunday evening (hence this late report).

- I lost the limb of a mighty red cedar, which cracked under the weight of the snow and ice, but never lost power as the cables and wires proved more resilient than the branch of the old tree.

- None were happier to see me break out the shovel than my dogs – none of which are taller than 26 inches when standing on all fours. They’re enjoying the backyard labyrinth and the relief that came with it.

Anyone else want to share their harrowing tales of surviving an historic winter storm?

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