David A. Kolman, editor, Fleet Maintenance

Kolman’s Komments: Freed, finally

Feb. 1, 2016
Historic snowfalls kept me captive.

The Blizzard of 2016 – which had far reaching effects on tens of millions of people from as far south as Georgia and Tennessee all the way to New England – is one for the records books.

We in the Mid-Atlantic Region suffered the most in the winter storm that the weather folks named Snowzilla. (When did they start naming weather events anyway?)

According to the weather people, the blizzard was the snowiest on record for Baltimore, the second snowiest on record at Washington Dulles International and is tied for fourth snowiest on record in D.C.

My office, located in a rural farmland area of Maryland outside Baltimore, is kind of in the middle of these places. We had 30+ inches of snow and much higher than that due to the high winds that created tall snow drifts.

Thankfully, we didn’t lose power in our all-electric house, so cabin fever was not a concern, nor was staying warm.

That is amazing, because usually, with the mere mention of wind in the forecast our power goes out. With had just two extremely short (less than a minute) outages.


I was prepared

I am firm believer in prepared: lots of firewood for the fireplace, plenty of buckets of water for washing and flushing toilets, numerous bottled water and adult beverages, fresh batteries in flashlights and the battery-powered radio and an assortment of food.

I think that may have helped with things; kind of like carrying along an umbrella when the weather forecast is for downpours and it doesn’t rain.


No go zone

Among the troubling things about the blizzard was not being able to get to HDAW (Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week) – the largest North American gathering of independent heavy duty aftermarket leaders. I look forward to this annual event in Las Vegas as it is always insightful and educational.

Because I live in a less populated area, the state plows our roads last, and in this case, it took four days. That’s a long time, but understandable what with all the snow. Surprisingly, by the time the plow came through, parts of Baltimore City still had not been plowed.


The farmer did it

The next challenge was getting our driveway plowed. Our contracted snow removal guy – Design With Nature – had notified us that we would get to us eventually due to his commercial plowing commitments, and that’s fine. At least we knew he’d show up, so we would just wait. No way was I going to shovel my driveway where the snow was more than 45 inches in some spots.

Once our street was plowed, my wife became even antsier to get out. I lost count of how many times I was admonished with: “I told you we should have bought a snow blower. You never listen to me.”

I got a call from my snowplow guy and was informed that had driven to my house and realized that the snow was too high for him to plow with his pickup truck. Not too worry, he told me, he’d get my driveway cleared.

About 15 minutes later, there was front end loader struggling to clear my driveway. It was piloted by a local dairy farmer, and it was fascinating to watch him work. He had an impressive command of the vehicle and did a yeoman’s job clearing the driveway.

It’s feels good to be “broken out,” and my wife got out shortly after Toby left.

About the Author

David A. Kolman | Contributor - Fleet Maintenance

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