RPS North American Championships

The last weekend of January, Lee and two of his teammates from The Refuge competed in the 2013 New Jersey State Championship and North American Championship Meet, put on by RPS.  The meet was quite large - approximately 120 lifters competed over two days.  The girls and I traveled to Newark, New Jersey with Lee and four members of The Refuge for the weekend.  It was a very long day - rules started at 8 am and it was almost 7:30 pm when we got in the car to head home - but it was worth it.  Lee, Pete and Dave all competed in the Full Power event, which means they competed in Squat, Bench Press and Dead Lift.  Lee finished first in his division and was the best lifter in his weight class by more than 100 pounds.  Along the way, he picked up a competition PR in Squat (555 lbs) and tied his PR in Bench Press (410 lbs); by the time Dead Lift came along, he was out of gas, but did manage to pull 560 pounds, which was good enough for a new PR Total.  Pete and Dave also managed PRs in all three events, as well as their Total.  Pete's total was good enough to move him into the Pro Division (Lee totaled Pro last June).  It was a great day for The Refuge, especially at such a highly competitive meet.
As a result of his hard work, Lee moved up in the national rankings.  According to Powerlifting Watch, he is currently ranked 34th in Squat, 25th in Bench Press and 33rd for his Total.  The girls and I are so proud of him and his dedication to physical fitness!!

Sunrise in beautiful Newark, New Jersey.

Wrapping his knees before squat.

Squatting 530 lbs.

555 lb. squat - new meet PR for Lee.

The role of Emily was played by Nick....

Wrapping the wrists for bench press.

410 lb. bench press - tied a meet PR.  If you listen closely, you can hear Elizabeth say "come on Daddy" right before he lifts.  It's amazing that these videos are as clear and steady as they are because she gets so nervous when he lifts that she closes her eyes really tight (she doesn't do that when the other guys are lifting).

560 lb. dead lift.

Love this shot of Lee and his girls.

Dave, Pete, Nick, Adam and Lee

The video of Lee and his teammates that I made for The Refuge.

Snow Play

I have to say, the best thing about this storm was that it provided the girls with hours of time outside - with the added side benefit of the fresh air and difficult moving conditions sending them off to sleep at an early hour every night.

This photo, which I took with my phone (like most of the storm photos), was featured in our local newspaper and on one of the local news stations.

Not a fan of the high walls of snow that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. 

And Then This Happened

After we finished with the roofs, we were talking with our neighbors when we noticed a Canada Goose running down the street, coming straight at us!!!

This section of road was cleared by our neighbors and their snowplows.  More on that in another post.

We think that it had a broken wing.  :-( 

After spending some time in our front yard, it headed into the back and scampered across our backyard and headed up the street. 

Up On The Roof

In a flashback to late January 2011, the storm left us with a lot of snow on our roof.  A lot.  So much so that when we noticed that Monday's forecast called for rain and freezing rain, we knew we had to get to work.  Lee and spent the better part of Sunday (at least 5 hours - 10 man hours) clearing as much snow off of the roofs as possible.  As of Monday evening, 16 area roofs had collapsed - I'm so glad that we got out there when we could!!!

We haven't seen these cracks in 2 years, but they reappeared early Sunday morning! 

Clearing in the front of the house.  As he dumped the snow off of the roof, I had to re-shovel the path and steps to our front door. 

The garage and mudroom roofs. 

On to the back of the house. 

First, we shoveled off the roof of the sunroom, then pulled the snow from the main roof onto it.  As he pulled it down, I shoveled it off again.  Back breaking work. 

Not sure if the pictures do it justice, but the drifts are five feet deep in various locations. 

And now, the really tough stuff.  No place to stand but on the ladder. 

Resting in the snow. 

Cleared off sunroom roof.

*PS An update to the snow removal situation.  We believe that all of the roads in our town are now deemed "passable."  My office is open today, but all employees who can work remotely are encouraged to do so, as Hartford is still struggling with it's roads.  As of 6pm last night, only 100 streets in Bridgeport were considered passable; in New Haven, some areas of the state have police checkpoints  - if you are a nonessential employee, you can't be on the road.

The Blizzard of 2013

Between Friday morning and Saturday afternoon, a historic amount of snow fell in our town, the likes of which hasn't been seen since 1888.  We thankfully didn't lose power (finger crossed, as freezing rain is falling as I type this), but the digging out has been a challenge.

This is the "before" photo, taken around 7:15 on Friday morning.  Snow began falling lightly around 7:30 am.

For a good part of Friday, the snow fell lightly and we wondered if closing the schools and places of business had been a mistake.  Had the weather forecasters blown it?

Around 9pm Friday evening, the storm began to pick up in intensity.

And when we pulled up the blinds on Saturday morning, we knew that the storm was everything we had been promised!  This the "view" from one of our bedroom windows.

View out the front door. 

The sunroom was dark and snow was halfway up the windows and doors. 

Emily was a little worried about going out - and rightfully so - because the snow is almost as tall as she is!

We are smack in the middle of that 30-36 inches and believe that we got almost 40 inches.  Photo courtesy of NBC30.

Lee took the dogs out, but they were pretty much terrified and there was not place for them to go (no pun intended). 

He started the shoveling process because there was no point in me going out until there was room for two people. 

It took us more than 6 man hours to clear just the driveway.  We went back out later for the walks and Lee shoveled a path into the street. 

The "after" photo. 

As most of you know, we live on a corner.  A plow came down our street on Saturday morning, creating one narrow "passable" driving lane.  But really only passable if you have four wheel drive.  The other street has not been plowed yet.  Yup.  It's almost noon on Monday, and it hasn't been plowed.  Based on local news reports, it appears that perhaps only 50% of our city streets are considered "passable" - meaning a single lane.  Regular plows can't do the work, they are using payloaders with snowblowers attached.  The work is crazy hard.  The governor ordered all non-essential state employees to stay home and my office closed it's doors for only the second time in six years.  Much more to come, just wanted to get some photos up.