Got Skates?

The big trucks came down the road yesterday, twice with their blades down maybe hoping to either rough up the ice or break it up. I'm not sure. But it snowed last night which does provide a bit of traction. We got our cars pretty much cleaned off and running, but my wiper blades are down deep and one is incased in two inches of ice still even after getting the top chunks off. Rather than ruin my motor I won't be driving my vehicle until next week unless we're able to slowly break the wipers free of the ice. I hope to buy more de-icer to spray on them to see whether that will help. I know the deicer works almost immediately when sprayed on an icy windshield, but that ice isn't usually so thick. I'm not sure how well it will work for what I have, but it's a way to try to work on it at least. If we can't clear it ourselves, I already made an appt with our mechanic. I think ten minutes in their warmer than the outside temps garage may melt it enough to release it and I'll see whether I need new wiper blades while there.

@MarshaMusselman And lets also hope that the weather warms so things can melt. That de-icer sounds like the trick but the only problem is you have to drive out to get some. haha! Maybe you have a can somewhere?

@MarymargII I bought two cans and may take one into work with me to have in my locker. It will mean carrying it every day, but I will already have to do some work on my car before working. I have a windshield where the wipers hide below the top of the hood. That means when we get the ice we did I can't easily free them. I'm going to buy a small tarp and bungee cords to put over that area to eliminate that getting frozen again. The rest of the car may get icy, but it should help most of my windshield. It will be more work each day, before going to work and then again at home for the night, but it will allow me to drive my car which I've not done since last week as I didn't want to break the motor if they were still stuck.

I got a decent amount off the porch, steps and a portion of the ramp yesterday and into the evening. I also got the smaller areas around my husband's car done as the photo shows. After a light snow last night there was enough traction to walk on the snow covered ice this morning. I did load salt onto my walking areas. I also tried to chop some more of the ice off the ramp this morning, but it wasn't budging. I was trying to start from the bottom. Earlier today, I did get another foot or so of the ice half way up off working from where I left off last night. And, I got the bottom of the steps cleaned off as I'd shoveled the ice chips or I should call them ice blocks off the porch to the sidewalk below I was concerned the postman wouldn't know it was under the snow and fall, so I did get that moved too before working on the cars.

@just4him We have a wind chill or had most of today but it only took the 19 degree temps down to about five degrees. Still nippy but not as bad as what you had. I bought some deicer which I've used in the past and even though it's mostly for the windshields I've used it to get doors to open too. I sprayed a bit toward my windshield wipers after getting home tonight in the hopes that overnight it might do some good. Whether it does or not I will go out in the morning and spray some more on again. I'll be taking my husband's car to work for a couple of days since his wipers are free now from the ice they were surrounded by.

@MarshaMusselman I'm glad you're chipping away at it slow but sure. The ice isn't budging here either. I started the car to get it warmed up so we could go to the movie. However, that didn't happen. The car had a quarter inch of ice on it - hood, front, and back windows. I managed to get that off, but the glaze on the side windows was impossible. After 45 minutes and freezing in -16 wind chill, I shut off the car and went inside. I told my friend we would go next week. Today was out of the question. Tomorrow I will work on it again. I am going to church on Sunday. We're also getting another round of snow on Sunday morning. At least there's no ice involved this time. I came in, took a good hot shower to warm up, and am thankful I didn't get frostbite with how cold it was outside and still is as the wind chill advisory goes until 9 tomorrow morning.

@MarshaMusselman yikes that would be scary for a town or city to be low on salt for the roads and have to conserve it. I know below 10° salt doesn't work so that may be why they didn't salt. Here they use gravel to toss on the roads when it's very cold.

@shaggin I don't get the city paper so I don't know whether they are low or not, but with the amount of ice we have it would take a lot of salt to get rid of it. They may be saving it for the main streets and two highways near here.

Oh, yes. I wrote this last Thursday, and I'm guessing that it was on Friday or at least on Saturday that the big snow trucks went down the road twice but only with their plows down not with salt. I'm guessing the city is watching their salt usage as there might be a shortage for them as there already is for the consumers. The plows were down I'm guessing to either try to chop the ice some of at least give it some texture. But it stayed icy until it began snowing again this week and now it's covered. If the snow plows come down again, I'll see what it looks like then. Probably not as shiny as it is here.

Same here and I already fell on the ice on my ramp a few weeks ago when I was trying to clean it. I'd rather not take the risk again, but I also don't have any sick days left, so I'm not sure whether I'd be allowed the extra day off or not.

@MarshaMusselman ......Never know unless you ask. Hehe

@celticeagle Well, I did take today off because I had some unexpected inflammation on my knee I'm thinking because of the weather we've been having. I may try to get FMLA just in case my knee is bothered again and then I'd be paid for the time off even without having vacation or sick days left. But, I found out today that I only have five days that I can use for FMLA if approved. I'm hoping that come March this isn't a problem any longer especially since this is the worse it's ever been before.

@MarshaMusselman We are at 34 F in the morning but it warms up a lot during the day. It's not a cold winter this year.

@LadyDuck Well then, your winter this years is a lot different than our own. This is the coldest we've had for a whole month that I remember. We had below zero temps for a few days back in 2012 but not for a week and not crummy weather many of the other days that month like it is now.

We had the rain yesterday and a little warmer temps, about 36 and that helped me to work at getting some of the chunks of ice removed. Now it's back under 20 and anything I didn't begin yesterday won't budge today. If I try a little every day when it warms a little I might get it done eventually.

What you see isn't really snow but mostly ice. Ice in the yards too with water standing on the top. We got a bit of snow today, but that's not really in the picture. That's all ice.

@MarshaMusselman oh okay.

We've had twenty one days of rain before but that was back in 1986. Lately we've mostly had a lot of ice. It is raining now and our yards will be swimming in ice and water soon with no place to drain off to.