Thank you to Owen Lackey for writing today's blog. Owen is trying his hardest to bring comfort to us all as we face another snow forecast this evening...
Old stories from before I arrived in 1985:
·
Snow so
heavy and abundant, that maintenance put snow throwers on the Wood Center roof
to remove some of it.
·
Snow
accumulation so large that drifts extended to the building roof line in a
continuous arc from the drifts in front of the Wood Center.
·
Blizzard
conditions and snow so deep
that maintenance had to go get their employees
from
their homes in order to change shifts.
When I arrived in 1985:
·
Only one
snow blower, one plow, and an old Ford tractor with a scraper blade for
equipment. Maintenance did all roads
and sidewalks: no contractors. Only one
road existed from the front east entrance around
past the Lamb Cottage to the
current laundry.
·
No Bolthouse,
Cook, Findley, Miter, A & B, Maintenance, Greenhouse, Franke, or Kuhnle
buildings or their sidewalks.
·
Residents
were expected to help with sidewalk snow removal outside their
living areas.
Winter Events I’ve Experienced:
·
Numerous,
long, night plowing shifts.
·
Walking
behind a snow thrower in a white out, finding my way back to the maintenance
building by touch.
·
Pulling
staff cars out of the front yard by Lamb because they slid off the curve on the
icy road.
·
Digging
out house-mother’s cars so they could go home.
·
Pushing
snow backwards on an open tractor seat in a blizzard with no lights.
·
Running
a Shepherds van as a shuttle bus to get enough staff here to cover programming.
·
Water
and ice flowing fast in the east ditch, almost level with the parking lot.
·
Discovering
a running spring in the open Findley basement excavation in December.
·
Burst
pipes in the Findley Center wreaking
havoc on the computer room.
·
Holding
a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood on the roof to block a strong wind, so a maintenance
man could replace a fan motor on a roof-top furnace without freezing his
fingers.
·
Opening
garage doors in the fiercest winter conditions because some staff ladies
couldn’t budge them.
·
Using a
snow thrower and six residents to empty 18” of snow out of the roofless, open
structure of the Findley second floor during construction. Jumping out of the window opening into a 10’
snow mound to the great delight of the residents watching.
·
Putting
chains on the utility tractor tires to battle ice on the road.
·
Breaking
ice in the marsh behind
Lamb so that a drain pipe could flow, allowing the
water to drain from the Wood kitchen basement.
·
Trying
to keep plants alive in the first winter in the new greenhouse before the
furnaces were installed.
·
Digging
out the Miter construction site so the contractors could get into the building.
·
Knocking
off avalanches of snow
from the Wood Center roof on top of unsuspecting co-workers.
·
Working
in wet, freezing clothes while the first set of clothes is still in the dryer
in the laundry room.
·
Pulling
the tractor out of the front yard by truck and chain.
·
If you
run out of gas with the snow thrower, you will always, always, always be at the
furthest point on campus from the gas cans.
·
A flat
tire in an ice storm; how does that happen?
·
Coming
in earlier than the airport day staff so they could get vehicles out and on the
road on time, never knowing if the residents would get to go home that day.
·
Standing
in waist deep snow, pushing on a building window from the outside so it could
be latched.
·
Water
dripping down my neck from icicles.
·
Knocking
down icicles on top of myself because others fear being impaled.
·
Falling
off of a roof into deep snow and struggling to get out.
