If you live where Old Man Winter hits you really hard & Furious..??
Please share your ROUTINE to best prepare to face the season (eg, home, vehicle, and other necessities.)
When I lived in Dallas and Old Man Winter decided to hit the street full force, I tended to leave 2 - 3 hours in advance so that I could get into the city and to my classes on time. There was no way to avoid the grid lock during the season so I had to compensate with my drive time. I also had to drive slower because the road would ice up really bad and I had to double the space between myself and the car in front of me. It was really hard when I was forced to stop, facing downhill, on an overpass since there was no traction.
I live in rural Wyoming -- starting in October (and earlier in some years) we move extra coats, blankets, a shovel, a tow rope and a bag of clay kitty litter or sand to the car.
We always have one person who knows where we're going if we head out of town, and people who live out of town inform their contacts every time they leave the house. We expect drive times to triple. Never go anywhere without a phone (even though about half of the area roads are dead spots), never try to go anywhere fast and never leave another driver stranded.
Every evening, plug in the block heaters if you have them. In the mornings, start the car up 30-45 minutes early with the heat on full-blast to help melt the ice on the windows enough to scrape. Shovel out the driveway if needed. And suddenly I realize that I could probably write a hub on winter driving here -- suffice to say, it has a significant impact on how we do things .
For home, etc...yes, I think a hub will be along shortly. I started touching up the weatherization a month ago .
Geeze, these guys are so well prepared! We get out the snow shovels and check the snow blower and generator. Other than that, it's come what may, after all it comes every year whether we like it or not.
Of course we do get out the winter clothes and make sure we have enough wood for the wood stove. It wouldn't do to have to pay a huge oil bill when we can burn wood at half the price.
Hmm, I guess we prepare more than I thought. I make sure my computer and TV are working 'cause I'm not going far in winter weather.
Tillie....You have just exposed a reality for New Yorkers. We do an enormous amount to be proactive in terms of our brutal winters. The fact is, being lifers here, we do it all automatically. Almost without conscious thought, we go into Auto-Preparedness. It's second nature to us---an annual ritual. We can do it blindfolded!
I get 4 new tires, an inspection, oil change and brake check. Have my car washed, waxed and detailed. Load the trunk with: bottles of water, my portable battery charger, blankets, non-perishable snacks, small shovel, bag of kitty litter and extra hats, scarves & gloves.
I spend about $200 to $250 in groceries and other home supplies, & stock the cupboards. I wash all windows, lock them up and hang heavier drapes. Put out all the rubber mats and area rugs and hang winter coats, jackets, hats & scarves & store boots in the hall closet.
Make phone calls or write emails to all friends and family members I probably won't be seeing for 3 to 4 months.....wish them warmth & Happy Holidays & tell them I'll see them when Spring breaks through!
Make sure my cable bill is paid, I have a good supply of reading material and word puzzles, pencils, printer paper, ink cartridges, 3 flashlights, extra batteries, candles, portable radio & hot water bottle......LOL
Last but not least I re-stock the medicine cabinet: Aspirin, decongestant, VICKS, cough drops & throat lozenges, Emergen-C, Vitamins & herbal teas.
There ya go....all set to hibernate in WESTERN NEW YORK!! The best part is, it always comes to an end eventually!
Sorry can't resist being a smart ass, but we turn our sprinklers off and sweep the gutters. Oh, but we are in a drought and we never turned the sprinklers on last summer.
I highly respect people who live in areas where winter is snowy. My sister and brother near Boston lived in California long enough to be considered crazy. My sis bought a house with a pool two years ago. Bro ran all last winter and qualified for the Boston Marathon, but it was a rugged winter.
The year my sister's family moved to Rochester, NY there was hardly any snow that winter and Boston got hammered. They moved back to Boston and Rochester went back to it's usual winter weather. She has been paying for that year ever since.
Judy......Thanks for the chuckles. Being from California, I can't imagine you need to do much prepping for any reason during any season. Isn't it a fact that California weather ALL THE TIME is the envy of the rest of the country?
Thanks for taking the comment as intended.
by runner2975 14 years ago
You could split time between two places based on the season. Summer: Northern Minnesota...lakes, nice weather, clean air, can't beat it.Any other time: Savannah, Georgia. Nice beaches, decent weather even the winter. Good restaurants. Excellent vibe.
by Elsie Nelson 12 years ago
HELP!Okay, I'm over the depressing weather in Porland, OR. I've had my last winter here, I really have. Which is so sad because there's so much we love here- the mountains, ocean, trees, desert, the open-minded attitude and our awesome friends. But, the weather sucks. I miss snow,...
by freecampingaussie 10 years ago
If you found yourself on your own suddenly and were free to live anywhere what would you do ?Would you travel in a campervan as a single person or stay in one place and just go away on holidays if you had no kids , pets etc ?
by cleofy 13 years ago
Is it really hard to loose weight?
by singlemother2 14 years ago
This world is a nasty one....it's really hard to live a typical day. it's really hard to stay upbeat! It's also very hard to stay happy for the sake of you child...all he's trying to do, is learn from US! But when the Gov't and society let us down...it's hard to keep that up-beat spirit that's...
by cincin621 10 years ago
Is moving out of the state you live in a good way to start over in life?I have been contemplating a move out of state in order to start over with a clean slate. I just feel like a change of scenery will jump start a new beginning.
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |