ChichaPlanet

A photo of the thermometer sensor, in degrees F (about -15C).

My parents were here for the weekend and we went tubing at Greek Peak, a small skiing place close to Ithaca.

And with it, snow and temperatures around -10C. Lovely! Now I can continue with my Winter Photo Project. Hopefully I'll have enough material after this season to make a book.

This is what it looked like this morning around 7:20.

I saw this in a parking lot earlier today. If you get it, you're one of the good ones

This week's Nor'easter has dumped a lot of rain and snow. Since the snow was denser and "wetter", this time it really stuck to the trees making things look quite beautiful.

Two days after the heavy snow, Cornell (and pretty much all of upstate) looks like this:

After Cornell closed because of the snow storm we caught the bus back home. This is what it looked like outside, and yes, that little hill of snow is our car. We got it out this morning with some shoveling and help from a small plow.

Some photos:

This morning we woke up and the car was covered in snow and it reached up to our knees. We didn't feel like shoveling or driving in it so we took the bus to Cornell. Here are two photos I took with the cell phone:

Cornell


Melissa looks cold!

After the latest heat wave, we're finally starting to see some proper temperatures. The next two days will see lows go to -15C, with wind chill easily going into the -20s (now I see it could be close to -28!). Some more snow might be coming our way.

What this means is that my Winter Photography Project can finally start. I'll be exposing lots of frames this weekend. This is great

This is what it looked like from our apartment windows:

David has posted a list of Ithaca truisms, which I am copying here:

1. There are more Subaru Outbacks in this city than anywhere else in the world. Including the Subaru manufacturing plant in Lafayette, Indiana.

2. On any given weekend, roughly 60% of the town congregates at the best grocery store in the northern hemisphere: Wegmans. Note, this is a horrible time to do all of your grocery shopping.

3. Including the Subaru Outbacks, most cars don on average 2 bumper stickers. While some do have none - like ours - others have in upwards of 30-40, making 2 the magic number.

4. The Farmer?s Market that is so widely celebrated and well known really isn?t that big physically. It?s certainly smaller than those in San Francisco and Seattle, to name a few. The price of basil at the Ithaca Farmer?s Market, however, is unbeatable.

5. I?ve never seen as many local ice-cream shops as they have here. Purity Ice Cream, Ithaca Creamery, Cornell Dairy Bar, Friendly?s, etc. It?s very good ice cream, by the way.

6. More pet lovers here than anywhere else in Andromeda.

7. Taxes are beyond comprehension. Think roughly $3500/year for every $100k of your home for city and property taxes. Sales tax at 8% too.

7a. City taxes apparently don?t go towards city maintenance - no sidewalks, no streetlights, many potholes.

8. You can?t turn on red in the town of Ithaca.

8a. All streetlights are on set timers, so get comfy if you are the first one at a stop light.

9. The city has four cabs.

10. The Finger Lakes are incredibly deep, and incredibly clean. Once in it, you?ll never want to be in cloudy water again.

11. While Ithaca indeed has its own currency that is supposedly good at any store or shop in the city, I?ve never seen it.

12. This is a relatively untouched city - very green, very beautiful. To that end, plan on rain for any given day.