For all of those who work out of Denver, I hope that your sales
picked up between your storms. I’m sure we would all love to hear
how you did, if you feel like sharing.
I was in Denver for the holiday with my husband and his family. His
parents were besides themselves with frustration on road plowing
(did not happen in their area), UPS (presents still not delivered,
and they were in Denver from the 23rd on), waste management (no trash
service for three weeks in their area) delayed flights of family
coming in and leaving, and the list goes on… They are seriously
considering leaving Denver and moving out to California because of
this last series of storms.
I do hope that all the Denverites out there had a good Holiday
season despite the weather.
I am a Native Coloradoan; raised on the prairie with 10-12 ft drifts
as a kid.
No UPS - my Dad was a Rural Letter Carrier and broke many radiators
loose “jumping” ditches to get to a spot in the road to deliver the
mail - blizzards or not. Big Blizzards - 2006 is nothing - try the
one in 1946!!!
I live in Denver - my street is still passable but not plowed. I’m
not putting my trash out 'cause in these temps it won’t spoil.
We have 4 seasons here - some just last longer than others! - and
love it. Good Holiday, and we are looking for more snowfall tonight
(Thursday into Friday).
While the storm may have affected my business a bit, mostly through
delayed deliveries in and shipments out, I still had a livable
Christmas sales season (wholesale custom work to the trade) with the
month of December accounting for only16% of my annual sales.
(Normally the season accounts for about 27% of my annual sales).
Still, the rest of the year, in combination with the Holiday season,
took my sales up by nearly 30% over last year’s sales; so I can’t
complain. Most of my clients were very understanding of the weather
delays; while some obviously don’t watch or read the news. Luckily my
business does not rely on walk-in traffic to suport it. The majority
of my sales are through phone/ fax orders and email orders; but I
still need supplies and/ or customer stones to get in to complete the
jobs. Local retailers did not have a good season at all. Most are way
down on their Christams sales numbers. It wasn’t just the storms,
though, the economy and the internet has had their sales numbers down
all year.
While I can’t speak for Denverites, a little further south in
Colorado Springs (where I reside) the major roadways are fairly clear
but all the residential streets are still covered with packed, rutted
snow and ice. It’s still hazardous enough on some roads that garbage
collection is not being done in entire neighborhoods (and hasn’t been
for about three weeks running). The city claims not to have the
resources to clear the snow on “minor” streets when it first falls;
and now that it is iced, they would need road graders to scrape them
clean. Makes us wonder how emergency vehicles would get through if
garbage trucks can’t. Tonight and tomorror we are looking forward to
yet another winter storm with winds of 45 miles per hour and
(tentively) 1-6 inches of new snow. The winds will create new
drifting problems.
All in all, we and Denver have had it fairly good compared to those
south and east of us. Our snows were dry and powdery, albeit
voluminous; their snows were heavy, wet, and deep; with the high
winds drifting the snow to house tops in some places.They have had a
number of roofs collapse under the weight of the snow.There are folks
in the rural areas east of Pueblo, Colorado over to the Kansas border
who are still stranded at home (some without electricity) by drifts
across roadways up to 12 feet deep. Livestock are stranded in
pastures without food or water by those drifts. The national guard is
air dropping MRE’s ( army ration “meals ready to eat”) to the homes
that are cut-off by the snow and they are air dropping bales of hay
for the cattle and horses. It is those people that the world should
be most concerned for; not Colorado Springs or Denver.
Sales down because of the storms, just what we need in an already
crappy economy because of the most expensive rock the U.S.
owns…Iraq. UPS announced at the beginning of the week, behind in
delivering 700000 packages, expect to be caught up by end of week???
Side streets are basically iced ruts (auto luge) and my Toyota Camry
is occasionally hitting high ice with drive train. I have heard of
snow not melting till Feb. I have been here about 17 years, has only
happened three times like this, used to live in Calif., would not
trade this for fire, earthquake, or mud slides, or the high real
estate prices. Los Angeles is just not the same place where I grew
up.
Yet here in Iowa, no stranger to extended sub-zero temps this time
of year, it has remained in the high 40’s and low 50’s for weeks
now. Record setting, for sure, but not complaining.
Big Blizzards - 2006 is nothing - try the one in 1946!!!
The interesting thing is that 1946 was during the ‘mini ice age’
when, from 1940 to 1970 weathermen were frantically predicting that
the world was dipping into another full ice age and we would all
perish! Temperatures worldwide took a downturn and large areas of the
polar seas froze where they hadn’t frozen for centuries. It did, of
course, have some advantages as, for instance, shortening the second
world war - remember how Hitler’s troops literally froze to death as
they tried to invade Russia? I can well remember in my childhood
having to literally dig tunnels through snowdrifts just to get out of
the house door to go to school.
Now, of course, as the world has rebounded and warmed up a couple of
degrees, those same weathermen are now predicting that we will all
perish again due to the heat! Call me skeptical but I think the
planet is well able to take care of itself and, even though we as a
species seem bent on trying to force it into meltdown by the
pollution we produce, I’m sure that nature will find a way to
compensate. Perhaps this year’s snows are the start of that?
It is now 70 here in New York, 12:45 Saturday afternoon. Here in the
northeastern USA, we all wonder when the reality of winter will hit,
but, in the mean time, we are enjoying Spring in January.
Call me skeptical but I think the planet is well able to take care
of itself and, even though we as a species seem bent on trying to
force it into meltdown by the pollution we produce, I'm sure that
nature will find a way to compensate. Perhaps this year's snows are
the start of that?
This is pretty far off the topic of jewelry, but I feel compelled to
respond.
This year’s snows are the result of warmth. Warm air holds more
moisture-- all the heaviest snows take place close to freezing temp.
When it is really cold, it snows less, not more.
In response to the questions about what the weather has done to our
part of the world I point you to a series of pictures detailing what
it really looks like. We have had avalanches, nearly four feet of
snow, and ice storms you just can not believe. We are dealing with it
and will recover on our own.