Christmas 2008

Our gratitud to everybody including family and friends, who sent us nice messages with joyful Christmas cards, to whom called us from their houses or jobs... to whom wrote us e-mails, left us recorded messages to the cellphone, or invited us a lunch, a dinner. to my boss who gave the most interesting gift -the gratitud- and other nice surprises!, those persons who we never met before and were able to share their holidays feelings with us, those persons who reminded us through the distance... to Michael for the dinner that we gathered together at home... and how we are having lot of fun playing >> Scrubble!

Thank you!
Winter- December 2008, Lebanon, NH

Salt and Sand in the Snowstorm

The winter time has started yesterday, Sunday December 21 with a snowstorm since Friday 19 until Sunday in the midnight. You can imagine how big is the snow around here!. In Maine state the snow altitude is 41 inches meanwhile New Hampshire 18 right now.It is a problem in the streets. There are many trucks plowing the snow. Several bussines and schools have closed their activities due to the weather.

In theory, using salt in the roads tends to dicrease the peak frost of the water where it is disolved until -16ºC depending of the salt concentration dissolved in water. In the real life, the normal salt can decrease the frost temperature until -9 ºC -10 ºC. That is why many roads are spreaded with salt before and in the time of the snowfall to avoid layer of ice and snow. The sand is good to avoid slides, it works to reinforce the roads.

Under many snow and ice conditions, the use of deicing chemicals has became necessary to maintain clear pavements. In the United States, the use of road salt has paralelled in the size and importance of the nation’s highway system. Before the 1940s, highway departments relied mostly on plowing and abrasives like sand and cinders to keep roadways open after winter storms. Salt was used primarily as an additive to prevent freezing of sandpiles. During the winter of 1941–1942, New Hampshire became the first state to adopt a general policy of using salt.

Sunday, Dec 21, 2008-Some cars were buried by the snow.

One of the problems is during snow melt, peak chloride concentrations in some urban streams can approach half that of ocean water, far higher than many freshwater organisms can tolerate even for a short period. Chloride levels high enough to impair aquatic plants and animals may persist through the summer. This happens because some dissolved road salt infiltrates into groundwater, which then seeps slowly into streams, contaminating them long after the snow has melted. Also the soil absorbs this solution causing damage to the trees along the roads.

Another issue is the frame corrosion of the vehicles. It is highly recommended to clean the car after winter.

Monday, December 22, 2008. Parking lot (our car is in the middle)

Monday, Dec 22, 2008- front Lebanon United Methodist Church

The Beauty of the Ice Storm

Even though there are places without power, without a place to be, the hospitals were in a real emergency here in New England (USA) in places like New Hampshire an ice storm has caused several damages on the roads, some trees felt down, power lines felled leaving about a million of people in the dark, without electricity.

This storm stared last Thursday December 11. That day, I was attending a lunch at the end I drove the car in the middle of the storm... the whiteness of the road the snow plus the cold (-15ºC)... made impossible to drive, and suddenly I felt something strange when the car slid over the icy road I was loosing control. the car was going to crash against a fence along the road, I pulled out the emergency break and I don't remember exactly what else I did... I got stuck in the middle of the road and somebody who saw me came to me and told me to take the route with salt... I didn't know that.. and it worked.

Lebanon city, NH, morning Saturday December 13, 2008

Well, you know when the storms come, they carry lot of concerns, fear, uncertainty, pain specially is somebody dies. There is nothing to do, there are no controls to avoid these events. What is real is that we can see the other side of the mess, that inexplicable beauty. Now, with a simple camera I have tried to capture some pretty views of this cold place of the country.

Pines and birches covered with ice. Saturday December 13,2008

This past weekend was sunny and cold, but I could enjoy the brightness of the ice on the trees.

On Monday December 8, in Burlington Vermont, an hour and half where we live, we welcomed Ignacio Valdivia and Ana Lucia and others who came from my city home, Arequipa - Peru. They will stay in the New England area for 3 months, welcome aboard Nacho and friends!

Ignacio, Ana Lucia and me!