I was actually away on business earlier this week and, along with what appeared to be half the population of New England, decided to push up my arrival so I could make it home before the storm. I actually couldn't get home on Thursday evening because all flights to New England were sold out. I got as far as DC, where I overnighted at one of my favorite hotels, the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City. Incredibly convenient to the airport, stylish, and my room had a view of the Washington Monument. If I had to get stuck somewhere, that hotel is easily in my Top 10.
I had a confirmed seat on the 6:30 am shuttle into Boston. It was rather like the last flight out of Saigon; I wouldn't be surprised if there were people clinging to the landing gear. We took off on time and landed a whole 1 minute early. My last minute car service was waiting (the service that cancelled on me later called to ask if I still wanted a ride - tacky), and I was home by maybe 9 am.
It was starting to snow, but there was still time to hit the grocery store (mushrooms, cauliflower and garam masala - I am not a bread and milk sort of shopper) before hunkering down to ride out the storm. It really didn't start until the afternoon, but when it came, it came with vengeance. This is what it looked like out my front door around 9 pm:
The plows passed through periodically through the night, so you can kind of pick out where the streets are supposed to be. I rather expected to lose power, because typically whenever the wind is stronger than, say, a sneeze, the transformers in our neighborhood start popping off like fireworks and we lose power. I pumped up the heat before going to sleep, just in case, but awoke to a warm, powered on house and even more snow. Of course, the worst of it was the blowing snow drifts. It had piled up to a depth of at least 4 feet on my back patio. The view out my sliders was like looking into the middle of an ice core:
It's a little tough to see, but trust me, it was even tougher to shovel. Which is what I mostly did yesterday. I shoveled the front walk first, since the snow was piled up to the point where I could barely open the door. Then, I had to shovel the back patio, so that I could get to my utility room in the event of an emergency. I could barely open the sliders wide enough to shovel out a little square to step out onto. By the time I had cleared the patio, the walkway was several inches under snow, so I re-shoveled that, then cleared a path to the side of my car.
When the snow finally stopped, around 11 am, and the plows came out, it was time to extract the car. Let me give Toyota a well earned attaboy here - the snow covered the entire front of the car, and I was plowed in by a 3 foot high, 4 foot wide snow berm. I turned on the car, hit the gas and *poof* out I went on the first try with no issues and, better yet, no problems with steering or control. Hooray for the RAV-4.
After all of that shoveling, I can barely lift my arms, let along go out looking for Nemo. Which is, of course, entirely unnecessary, since Nemo most decidedly found us. With hundreds of thousands of people still without power, and many coastal homes damaged or destroyed, one cannot say we got off easy. However, the decision to close roads to nonessential traffic and the advanced notice definitely prevented a disaster like the Blizzard of '78. Which, incidentally, wasn't named Dory.
Hi... I have read both of your blogs, and love them.... I was wondering what you were up to these days since it has been a few years since you posted a fresh entry....? Any update is appreciated! :) PS: I have a ton of respect for engineers, my father was one! And I have a ton of respect for great writers. :)
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