Snowpocalypse Now Redux

Up until Saturday I had always thought of 6 inches as a lot of snow. Then we got over 18 inches of snow. We cleared off our cars, the snow plows came through, and by Sunday everything was pretty much back to normal. Normal lasted two days...

Classes at Albright were canceled last night before the first snowflake had fallen and Billie was told that she could work from home. Forecasts varied, with our area placed in the 6-12 inch band on some, the 12-18 inch band on others, and even the 14-20 inch band on one. Still, when we went to bed last night the snow hadn't started here and I thought that the forecasts may have been wrong. This morning when we got up there were about six inches of fresh snow on the ground, with forecasts saying that the worst was yet to come.

Although the snow isn't supposed to stop until sometime tonight we wanted to clear some of the snow off of our cars. When we did there were about 15 inches of fresh snow on them. By the time we had cleared them and shoveled around them a bit there was another inch and a half on top of them. Luckily (I suppose), a weather person in Philadelphia said that the chance of getting three snowfalls of this size in one year (remember, there was a big one in December that we missed because we were on our way to Michigan) is incredibly small and that no matter how old you are this is likely to be the only winter like this in your lifetime. Billie says that means we will always be able to tell stories about "our first winter in Reading." In the meantime, here are some pictures:

Here is the view of the apartment buildings. They plowed a path through the driveway about an hour before this picture was taken.

This is the view down the hill near our apartment (you can see what it normally looks like in the third picture of the "First Snowfall" post).

This is the view the other direction. Billie suggested that we go sledding on the road. Unfortunately, we don't have anything to use as sleds.

This is a view of the freeway through the trees from our apartment complex. You will notice that nobody is driving on it. That is because it is closed.

Snowpocalypse Now

In December there was a big storm and the Mid-Atlantic got a lot of snow. Fortunately, Billie and I left for Michigan the day before the snow arrived. By the time we got back a week later it had all melted. For the past several days the weather forecasters have been predicting another big snowfall. The snow was scheduled to start around 5 pm yesterday and continue through today. Schools and some businesses let people leave at 1. When I got home around 5 last night there were some snow flurries. Still, years of Chicken Little-esque weather forecasts in Indiana have prevented me from accepting forecasts of major snowfall. I thought that maybe we'd get six inches. It turns out that you shouldn't doubt the power of a Nor'easter. Here is what we woke up to this morning:

The view of the walkway that we take to get to the parking lot. We aren't going anywhere anytime soon!

Trees and some piles of snow where cars used to be.

So how much snow is there on the walkway? Only 18.5 inches!

Billie with our cars (we think).

First Snowfall

As noted at the end of our last post, the snow had started to accumulate in our backyard by the time we got home on Saturday the 5th. The snow continued into the night, so this is what we saw when we woke up on Sunday:

The warm temperatures the day before appear to have allowed a lot of the snow to stick to the trees. The amount of snow on the ground is deceiving...

Our apartment building and the trees behind it apparently blocked some of the snow because there was a lot more out front. It looked like we had about 3 inches on the cars.

If you've been paying attention you may recognize this view from such classic posts as Pennsylvanian Sunset and Fall in Reading.

This is the view looking in the other direction. The snow on the trees looked nice and I was glad that there wasn't more of it on the ground. We're still not looking forward to driving on all of these hills in the snow!

Around Reading: Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center

On December 5 we went to "Christmas on the Farm" at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center. We got to walk around the old buildings and there were some people with tables set up selling food and various other items. We also learned a bit about the Belsnickle, which is like a mean version of Santa Claus who comes around bearing candy (for the good kids) and switches (for the bad ones).

This house was so full that baby Jesus had to lay out in the front yard!

It is a little-known fact that fire hydrants have protected barns for hundreds of years.

Billie enjoying the first snow of the year.

The snow was beginning to accumulate in our yard when we got home...

Christmas Time in Reading

We put up our first Christmas tree in Reading on the weekend after Thanksgiving (sorry the picture is a little blurry).

What Else Do You Do?

Even though teaching currently takes up 100% of my time, it is only one of my three duties as a professor. The second is service, which includes serving on committees and advising students, and which I don't have to do until next year. The third is research and the presentation and publication of said research. I recently had some success in the third area when a paper that I worked on with two professors at IU was published in the October issue of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. It was nice to have the paper published, but since this is a normal part of my job it did not seem particularly extraordinary.

The paper is about gossip in the workplace and, because the topic might be of interest to people, IU put out a press release on October 28. A few web sites reprinted the press release, but the press release also led to a few newspaper articles, including the Toronto Star, Huffington Post, and New York Times, some of which mention me (and my current institutional affiliation) and some of which do not. The New York Times also talked about the paper in a blog post that is related to their article. We even got criticized by a newspaper-affiliated blog in West Virginia that obviously does not understand how research funding works! Unlike publishing things in academic journals that very few people will ever read, having research discussed in major newspapers is not a typical part of my job and there is a chance that it will never happen again. Beyond newspapers, Good Morning America inquired about using some of our video footage (due to confidentiality requirements, we told them no) and Tim was scheduled to appear on CNN but that appearance got postponed indefinitely as a result of the Fort Hood shooting. Our 15-minutes of fame are drawing to a close but it has been fun while it lasted.

Look What Came in the Mail

Although my degree has officially been complete since July 31, IU is not particularly fast about delivering diplomas and tells people that it will take about 90 days from the day the degree is posted on their transcripts. True to their word, a cardboard envelope was waiting for me outside our apartment door when I got home on October 26 that contained the following item:

This completes my set of four, so I think I'll stop now.

Fall in Reading

Despite the weather during our trip to Jim Thorpe, not every fall day has included clouds and rain. Here is a view that you might recognize from our Pennsylvanian Sunset post:

Brent and Billie go to Jail

After our tour through the Asa Packer mansion during our trip to the Poconos, we went to see Jim Thorpe's "Old Jail." Despite the boring name, this jail has an interesting history as the site of four high-profile executions during the coal mining days. At that time, the town was called Mauch Chunk because Jim Thorpe had not yet been born. The Molly Maguires, a movie detailing the crimes and executions was partially filmed in the jail.

The outside of the Old Jail.

The upstairs of the cell block. You can see a criminal has escaped from one of the cells.

Don't worry, she got put back where she belonged.

This guy is smiling, so he must be insane.

One Year In: Jim Thorpe, PA

For our one-year anniversary, Billie and I went to the Poconos (where we stayed in a normal Hampton Inn, not some kind of "romantic" hotel). Jim Thorpe, PA is where we spent most of our time and is basically in the closest part of the Poconos to where we live. The picture below is of downtown Jim Thorpe. As you can see, it was cloudy and raining on the Saturday that we were there.

Cold and rain in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Because it is close to us, Jim Thorpe isn't very far into the Poconos. This turned out to be a good thing because some people that I assume were coming from a higher elevation had snow on their vehicles, as seen on the hood of this truck. It was definitely not rafting weather!

To escape the rain for a while we took a train ride. Unfortunately, we did not ride on this steam engine.

We rode on this normal-engined train.

The train was dry but it was not warm. Billie was forced to rely on her winter "scarf over the face" technique.

Despite the cold, there were some nice views from the train.

By the time we got off of the train the rain had mostly stopped, so we were able to walk around without an umbrella. Our next destination was the Asa Packer mansion, which seemed much more intricately detailed than today's mansions. For example, the wordwork in the main hallway was hand carved by a team of craftsmen who worked for 18 months. After the mansion we went to... JAIL!