Under the Drift

We've had lots of snow this week. I don't know how much exactly, but we are measuring it in feet, and not inches. When I walked in the front yard yesterday morning to rescue a snow shovel this morning, it was well past my knees, and at least another foot fell after that. As soon as I looked out the window yesterday morning, I knew that my kids didn't have school. I emailed my students to let them know we wouldn't have class, but my husband felt he needed to go to work, even though he had been making calls all morning to his staff, telling them to stay home. No matter how much snow we get, he has this idea that if he gets going fast enough, he can get his car out of the driveway. This method often works, but yesterday, he ended up stuck in a snowdrift.

We had to dig out from several million feet of snow and drift over the past few days, finally resorting to the snowblower that hadn’t been fired up since 2004. And then it broke. Now I have to go to the snowblower place for a part and hope that’s all there is to it.

I seen a snow drift coming up ahead - slowed down and then the damn thing pulled me into a ditch then a tree. No amount of all wheel drive was able to save me from doing so. My friend was freaking out and attempting to call D as she had no idea how bad the accident was - she was also yelling at her husband because - well he was the reason for the phone call - he'd been a jack ass.

Yesterday it was quite the job getting us dug out. Ferrett and I each tackled it for about an hour and a quarter. We had to work in sequence, since we only have one snow shovel, so he attacked it first, which meant that I got the real feeling of satisfaction that comes with actually finishing the job. The tough part, for me at least, was the section along the house. The driveway is a single lane wide, and there is a four-foot fence that parallels the house, so there is really nowhere to go with the snow. This was particularly true yesterday, when the wind had swept a drift against the fence all the way to the top of it. I had to lift the snow and fling it over the fence into the neighbor's side yard - which had snow in it up to the top of the fence in places.

The monster snow and ice storm that hit the Midwest and Northeast blew out to sea, leaving behind huge snow piles, frigid temperatures, highway logjams Thursday. The storm was blamed for at least 14 deaths.

In Pennsylvania, National Guard vehicles loaded with food, water, baby supplies and fuel delivered help to hundreds of motorists stranded on Interstate 78 Wednesday night and Thursday morning while crews try clear up a 50-mile backup on the icy, hilly highway.

Three feet fell in Cambridge, 30 inches in Killington and Montpelier and 18 in Woodstock as the storm, which socked the Midwest and Northeast, saved some of its fiercest conditions for Vermont. At Burlington International Airport, 25.7 inches fell, the second-highest snowfall ever.
”It was the perfect storm, if you will,” said weather forecaster Roger Hill, in Worcester.

The rules in our little town about snow demand that homeowners get their walks shoveled within, I think, 12 hours of the end of any snowfall...or else. And as a pedestrian, I can appreciate the rule. It’s no fun fearing an ass over teakettle fall as you gingerly pick your way over mounds of snow to get to the train station.

Now look, I’m not going to try to blow smoke up your ass about yesterday’s snow storm in the Philadelphia area - we really didn’t get a lot of snow. I think three inches, tops. There were no mounds. It’s the ice layer on top that made things suck. So yeah, my neighbors who shoveled their walks and put down some salt? I appreciate them and have nothing but good things to say about them.