[katybellabug]

Oh Tamara, I am so sorry to hear that news. Big hugs xx

[cybele727]

Here we are experiencing a rare meteorological phenomenom which I think only happens here in WNY. Because we are positioned south east of one of the Great Lakes we often experience lake effect snow. (not so rare) This year the cold front that has swept across North America has swept across the relatively “warm” lake. So now, we are experiencing a particularly severe early season snow fall. Parts of our region, only 5-8 miles away are buried under 6 feet of snow in 24 hours whilst here in my neighborhood we have snow dust. (incredibly rare).

What is interesting are the pictures of the cloud front line over the lake. If you want to see a spectacular meteorological event, google snowmageddon14 and Buffalo. Some of these pictures over the lake are incredible.

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by cybele727.

[Deb]

We’re getting hammered with snow right now too from the same weather system. Everything locally is cancelled and motorists are warned not to travel until it’s over ….on Thursday?

[Nicole]

I think snow look so lovely but it must be terrible to deal with at times.
We have the opposite, it getting so hot here. We had a fire in our header last night, very scary.

Tamara, I will be thinking of you on Thursday. Please take care of your self.

[Liesl Gibson]

I was just about to ask if anyone was caught in this crazy upstate NY weather. Glad to hear that you’re home safe! The photos are astounding. Stay warm!

[Tamara]

Thankyou my dear sweet forum friends!

My ankles have decided they want to be balloons so yes, I will be taking care of myself. The last thing I want is to spend my last weeks of pregnancy in hospital due to high blood pressure!

Nicole I hope Jed was ok. How extensive was the damage?

Our header is heading for the scrap heap and we have quickly secured a replacement which will be freighted up from Esperance (eastern most coastal town in our state). It is second hand (of course) and I have fingers and toes crossed that it will last more than just three years!

You should be in for some cooler weather as we had rain (not that you would want that because we certainly didn’t) and it did cool down a bit. We are getting hot again next week.

To all those in the northern hemisphere, am I too early to say Happy Thanksgiving? Anyway, enjoy family time it the best gift we could ever have.

[jay_1965vw]

Hey all, I’m popping in very quickly to say hello. We have 2 1/2 weeks left in Canberra, and we’ve just had 3 weeks with Chris in the US. Audrey’s early birthday party is tomorrow so I’m crazily trying to get things organised for that too.

So sorry to hear about your FIL, Tamara *hugs*

[Tamara]

Thank you so much Jay. It was a great send off and we didn’t get home until almost 11pm – I don’t think the kids will make it to school today.

I was wondering where you were. Seeming to be offline for a little while and assuming life had taken over. Does this mean with the transition beginning and Chris in the states already that you have to do the lion’s share of the packing and moving organisation?

Hope Audrey’s birthday party is a real hit!

Meanwhile we are sitting watching the foxtel weather, stuffing our faces with leftover sandwiches from the wake and relishing in the best thing ever – fil’s legacy that has been bequeathed. We don’t have to worry about losing our home anymore. It is now ours!

[Nicole]

How is his wife holding up?

[with love Heidi]

Oh Tamara! That is an amazing blessing! I had been wondering how it would go with new wife and the farm. So glad that the worry over the house is gone 🙂

[Tamara]

You know it is funny, Nicole. She said to me last night that the happiest thing that happened today (yesterday) was the fact that we had finally embraced her and accepted her. I don’t know why she thought there was animosity because there certainly wasn’t. It was just disappointment at the speedy action from fil to jump from losing a wife straight into another relationship. We have been attempting to do our best to support her this last six months without stepping on toes and it has been incredibly difficult because we have been getting told off left right and centre.

She is of the generation where they hold their tears in but of course she is heartbroken and very sad. We won’t abandon her. We will make sure she is ok because this is what fil would have wanted. She shows a great deal of strength having been through the loss of a husband twice before.

He left her alot so she will be comfortable. We are all just so grateful to her for taking care of him because being the stick in the mud that he was, had he been sick out here we would have had such trouble even getting him to see the doctor. Murray actually got up and personally thanked her in front of everyone yesterday, along with some other wonderful people who have helped us out over the years. He felt compelled to do it and I think it just confirmed to her that my words a few weeks ago, even though the same as Murray’s were sincerely heartfelt. Even sil repeated it all but us girls said it to her privately. We mean what we say because we are sincere. Fil was a great one for telling us exactly what he thought on the good and bad. I have a very special personal memory I will always treasure that supports just that.

Murray was fabulous as he got up and told some stories of fil. He was given the hurry up though and everyone was disappointed. He didn’t get to tell the story of what happened at the Michael Crawford concert. I told it later to some of the relatives and they cracked up with laughter. It was perfectly fil.

We ended up having a family dinner last night with all her children, grandies and great grandies (even her mum was there!) and believe it or not we relaxed and actually had a great time. She took up on our tradition of a family photo (which is what we do after every family event happy or sad) and even took one of Murray and I comparing bumps! I can’t wait to get a copy to put up.

It has been very difficult to take that step forward I think because we were just so close to mil. But everyone believed that we had a falling out with fil. It wasn’t the case at all. We worked very hard to try to understand where he was coming from and to support him but it did take us a couple of years because three years ago we were in the middle of losing mil.

I am confident we can find out niche and form a fresh and different relationship with this lady. There are so many families that have taken a long time to accept someone new in the family and have ended up embracing them. I am sure that in time we will think more positively and affectionately of each other.

Heidi! We are so grateful! We were so unsure for a good while. But now it is official we can actually put plans into place which is very exciting.

[cybele727]

It sounds like some good has come from this difficult time re the MIL. I am happy to hear it and perhaps there will be less stress for you.

Here we are on day 4 of school cancellations, government cancellations, court cancellations. While our half of the region got almost no snow, the teachers live scattered across the region and are still in areas where they are buried under 5-6 feet with driving bans. The schools that can open don’t have enough subs to cover the teachers who are stranded at home.

The bus companies are also located where there are driving bans and can’t get to the busses to shovel out.

My kids haven’t been to school since LAST Thursday, as Friday and Monday were parent teacher conferences. When they return on Monday, they will have had 10 consecutive days of no school. I am actually surprised no one has killed anyone yet.

Hubby is taking them to the movies tomorrow as we are lucky to live in a relatively unaffected area. And I will play with my new machine while they are gone.

Generally though, the region is handling it with good humor and helping out seniors and others who literally cannot open their doors or clear their furnace vents. Others are organizing food deliveries, where they are driving up to the ban areas and then walking food such as bread, eggs, and milk from house to house, or delivering it to EMTS who will deliver it with essential medications for people stranded at home. The problem is that there is no food on the shelves even in our open and disaster free areas. The entire supply chain was disrupted. Food is getting a touch scarce for those of us who can get to the store because the big trucks can’t.

10 people have died, mostly due to heart attacks from shoveling. That is really sad. They’ve actually told people to shovel only out to their furnace vents and hire young kids to do more. We are currently 25F during the day, but expect to be 60F on Sunday. It is all rather surreal.

I’d hate to see the overall economic cost of this storm. Ugh.

[Robin]

Oh Jenny, that is going to be horrible if the temperature gets that high. That’s a lot of flooding. Fingers crossed for everyone.

[cybele727]

They’re desperately trying to truck out the snow as much as possible so the melting won’t be too bad. But when you are talking numbers in the 100s of thousands of tons, it just won’t happen soon enough. For example, the football stadium has approximately 220,000 tons sitting in it currently. They have only successfully plowed and trucked out 25,000 in one small area affected over 4 days.

I am lucky to be unaffected. However seeing people posting on FB requesting help to get insulin, or clear vents is both terrifying and heart warming (to see the response).

The other major concern is that roofs are starting to collapse. So lots of people are getting up there to rake the roof. But there is risk in people falling off the roofs. (Although a 40 foot fall into a 6 foot bank isn’t too bad.)

Everyone is helping each other and being great. Lots of kids smiles for playing in the snow. But it is a real disaster in its own way.

[Tamara]

I saw footage last night on the news. Having a huge dumping of snow would be like having floods here – complete disaster!

I pray for the families of those that have lost their lives. It would be very tragic to lose someone just because of a huge downfall of snow.

But it is wonderful to see such community spirit with the help each other is getting. That is inspiring – you really find out who cares in times like this don’t you?!