Blizzard, continued

This winter storm has been crazy. Although we had more snow 17 years ago, in 1993, I don't remember anything about that snow storm except sled riding and being off from high school for a few days. It's a different story when you're an adult. First there is the shoveling. See, it normally takes about 45 mins to shovel our driveway. That is, when there is a regular 3 inch snow storm. So, if you multiply that by about 7...that is a lot of shoveling. Granted, kevin did most of it, but I helped when he got tired. When you have an infant, you can't shovel at the same time - someone has to hang inside with the baby.

With this snow, it got to the point where there was no place to put it - the yard areas alongside the driveway were piled up higher than our heads. So, not only were we shoveling, but we were heaving this heavy, wet snow up and over the ridge that had piled up. Our backs are paying for it. I can't imagine what older people who have no help are doing. Our neighborhood is primarily people in their 30s and 40s except our next door neighbor who is an older woman and we share our driveway with her (obviously we take care of snow removal.)

Yesterday I went to the grocery store. Talk about the apocalypse. First of all, the parking lot was jam packed. And this is a big parking lot. I've never seen it even close to full. Secondly, there was still about an inch of snow packed onto the pavement, so no one could see the lines for parking spaces, so it was just a cattywampus mess. I parked at the very back of the lot, which is actually more for the nearby shopping plaza and hiked the 300 or so yards to the front doors, though the snowy, slushy, chaotic mess. I decided to just get the bare essentials (which of course still somehow costed $75) because I wasn't pushing a grocery cart all the way across the icy parking lot with these fools trying to kill each other over parking spaces. As I walked by drivers and pedestrians in varying stages of panic and road rage, I observed that even though the sky was blue and the sun was shining, people were acting like the end was near! I thought to myself "The storm is over - why is everyone freaking out now?" I watched people rushing through the store, cutting in line, pushing, hitting other people's carts to get the last freaking package of smoked sausage. Then it hit me - it was the afternoon before the Superbowl. People were frantically shopping for supplies for Superbowl parties. Ohhh. Since we didn't have plans to go to a party (we were just going to the same bar we always go to) it didn't occur to me that it was that night.

Driving to and from the store was also an adventure. THe four lane highway I normally take was reduced to roughly 2 lanes, with snow piled up high on either side. Occasionally, an ambitious driver (usually a young girl with her hair in a messy ponytail, looking down into her lap half the time, ie. texting - yes! Text all your friends to tell them how crazy and dangerous the roads are while driving on them! Yay for multi tasking!) would venture into no man's land - an area that could be envisioned as a passing lane...but it was much slushier and they would then decide that was a bad idea and attempt to drift back, rudely, into the right lane, causing everyone to slam on their brakes. Additionally, trees were down everywhere and, most disturbing, there were a lot of trees leaning, held up only by...power lines. I had to drive under a tree that was leaning all the way over the road, totally covered in snow, weighing heavily on the power lines. It really freaked me out. I tried to go home a different way but there was a huge fallen tree totally blocking the road so I had to go back and go underneath the scary might-fall-at-any-moment tree.

What a crappy way to die, getting crushed by a tree.

My grad school class is cancelled. I will wait a while before going in to work - at least until the crazies are done driving through rush hour. The trolley system is only partially running so Kevin may have a tough time getting in to work. Cassidy is with Grammie and Pappy. We are hearing stories of friends who have had to walk to relatives homes because they had no power. My uncle rigged up a generator to get the heat going so he could keep him, his wife, two of her adult kids and their families warm through two days of this because they all lost power. The temperatures are dropping and there is news of another snow storm coming tomorrow, bringing an additional 4-8 inches of snow. The National Guard has been called in to help get to the thousands of people who are stranded with no power.

I'm home from work today because we have been asked by the mayor to not travel unless absolutely necessary. I don't have anything snarky or particularly amusing to say - just wanted to document the Big Blizzard of 2010. My dad occasionally refers to the snowstorm that happened when he was an infant in November of 1950 - it's the kind of thing kids like to hear about. "When you were a baby..."