Blizzard of January 2016

Like millions of other people, I was affected by the blizzard last weekend. I watched the snow come down for a solid day, accumulating in my yard to a level I've only seen once before in more than 20 years of living in the same house. The snow started Friday evening, and ended Sunday morning. As soon as I could, I went out and started shoveling my driveway and sidewalk. My neighbors joined me, and soon we were able to walk around the neighborhood. We had at least 2 feet of snow, which is a lot for Northern Virginia, rare, but not unique. I noticed that the streets at either end of mine was plowed enough to be passable. Not clear, one lane only, but passable.

So I settled in to wait for plows on my street. Sunday, nothing. Monday, nothing. I called VDOT. I gave up after 50 minutes on hold and the recording never changing from occasionally telling me that I had at least 45 minutes to wait. I sent email to VDOT. No response. I saw plows clearing other streets. I saw plows widening the cleared lanes on streets that had already been visited repeatedly. But my street, unplowed. I contacted my delegate's office. Quickly I received a response that they were asking VDOT to get to my street. I watched the real-time map. Plows came and went.

Finally I saw that they were clearing a street that intersected with mine. I bundled up and went to that intersection and flagged a plow down. I pointed to the 6-foot wall of snow that blocked my street entrance and asked if they were going to get to that street soon. The driver told me that the wall was to high (never mind he and his buddies made that wall). He said his truck (a large pickup) would get stuck. He said every time they seriously got to work on a neighborhood, they would get an emergency call to help emergency vehicles get someplace.

I asked him to get to it when he could and wished him a good night. He said maybe Wednesday morning. A few hours later, we heard the trucks on the street. The same guy, with a second truck helping, finally started clearing our street.

OK, I have no problem with VDOT prioritizing major roads. My road is and should be down the priority list. However, I have a big problem with them clearing, and then improving, other streets when they kept ignoring mine. Shame on you VDOT!

For reference, here's the view from my house TWO DAYS after the last flake fell.

Unplowed after Two Days

Return Trip to Antelope Canyon

Last year I made a trip to Antelope Canyon, and I wrote about it here. This year, I was back in the area. My family was unanimous that they all enjoyed the walk through Antelope Canyon, so we visited again.

I have a better camera this time and I was looking forward to better pictures. I used the same 24mm f2.8 lens as last time. My old camera is cropped. My new one is full-frame. The net effect is that the old one could only effectively shoot at 36mm. My new one can shoot at 24mm. So the new one can shoot a wider effective focal length and its sensor is much better in low light. So in we went with my ISO set to 1600, sometimes adjusting to 2000.

This time was earlier in the day, so it was darker in the canyon. And it was cold. We weren't the first ones in, but pretty close, so I was able to get a few shots with no people in the frame. I found myself shooting less than last time, but happier with the shots that I got. Here are my favorites.

Upper Antelope Canyon Entrance

Looking Straight Up

A Rare Forward View with no People

Near the Downstream Entrance