Snow and Ice

When I arrived, Klaipeda was covered with snow and none of it was plowed. Some of the lack of maintenance is due to narrow streets and lack of off street parking, But part of it is due to the fact that the lack of equipment, though I have seen people working very hard chipping ice and spreading sand on the walks.

The houses here have very steep roofs so that the snow does not accumulate on them, and it does not. It slides off, making a great noise, especially when it happens in the middle of the night. During the snow sliding season, one does not walk on the sidewalks next to the building for fear of being covered in a mass of falling snow, and possibly even injured.

When the snow slid off the roof of my apartment building fell, it covered the walk right in front of the door.

When it thaws slightly, the packed snow became ice and the thaw gives it a slight layer of water, a disaster waiting to happen for someone with an artificial knee and a bad back. So I stick to the cleared walks or the unplowed streets that offered some traction. I think I travel an extra 50% distance on days like this.

Then today I have been a prisoner in my apartment because of ice. It rained overnight and then froze. As soon as I stepped out the door, I went sliding. I tried to get to the bus stop walking carefully and hugging the wall of the building. I got about twenty feet to the corner and realized that I was not going to make it. I went back in and graded papers.