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Jan. 25th, 2005 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miekecDefinitely an interesting weekend. Started off Friday with sleeping. And then some. I woke up, but felt too exhausted and sick to go to work. So, crawled back into bed at around 9, and then didn't wake up until 5-6 pm! I guess my body really needed it. And then even after all that sleep, I had no problems sleeping again a few hours later. I wish I could spread it out some, instead of sleeping "in bulk".
Then Saturday, the whole area was in a panic about the pending blizzard. Sigh. It's winter. In New England. It happens. Get over it.
I had made the unthinking mistake of going to a Home Depot to pick up supplies for the new workbench. We finally finished it last weekend (Yay!) and are now doing the final touches, like putting up pegboard (which is what I was getting) and drawers for screws and such. When I got there, I was kind of surprised to see so many people there. Until I saw the hordes at the snow-shovel aisle. And people fighting over the last snowblowers. Insane!
When I came out, it had actually started snowing. Big flakes, lots of them. But no major problem though. It was just snow. And yes, that means you have to drive more carefully, and that it may be slippery here and there. But it doesn't mean that half the drivers need to slow down to 5 mph! And drive in the middle of two lanes. Grmbl!
Anyway, once I made it to MicroCenter (big computer store on Memorial Drive), it was quite the opposite - hardly anyone there. One of the salespeople said that as soon as the first flakes fell, people disappeared. Oh well. Trader Joe's across the parking lot was similar, except that they had been almost cleaned out! I guess people were stacking up in case they would be snowed in for weeks :)
Yes, it snowed. A lot. By Sunday morning there was 2-3 feet of snow on our sidewalk, yard, driveway... everywhere. The only things we could see from the car were the CB antenna and the windshield-wipers which we had put upright. The tips were just barely sticking out of the snowbank. The whole street looked like a winter paradise. It was beautiful. There was still snow falling and blowing around, and it was quite cold. But it was still a gorgeous day. Alex and I started shoveling ourselves out. Literally. Because even though the front door opens in, the screen door opens out. Or rather, we could shove it out a little bit by pushing really hard to displace the piles of snow in front of it. Luckily we'd had the shovel on the front porch, within reach of the door. Not like a lot of the people on the street who'd had theirs on the side of the house. Out of reach. Heh. Live and learn.
I took some pictures of the huge, huge piles everywhere, and had John make some of me standing up to my waist in the snowbanks right in front of our house. Snowbanks that were there *before* we even started to shovel. After we were done, the piles were about 6 feet. You have to put the snow that you're shoveling somewhere, and you're not allowed to toss it back onto the street. And you have to clear the sidewalks. That basically leaves nothing but your own front yard.
I think I ended up shoveling about 4-5 hours that day. Between digging out the car, the backyard some to get to the trash bins, and the sidewalk, it took a while. But it was perfectly doable. As long as I kept moving, I didn't get cold. Well, except for my legs once my jeans were all soaked. But it was a beautiful day, people were friendly, and everybody helped each other. And because it was so much snow, there was little you could do other than laugh. And seeing people go for a cross-country ski break on the street is just so unusual, it's fun.
Monday morning was a little less fun. I had counted on daycare being closed, and maybe work too. But no, they were both open! So much for a snow day :( At least John was able to drop us off at daycare. That is, once we managed to get there. The commute was surprisingly smooth. Yes, roads were slippery, and narrowed because of the piles of snow. But mostly it was quite drivable. Plus, there were definitely fewer cars on the road. The only major problem we had was in cambridge, where they had not plowed Albany street for a while. And a car had gotten stuck just in front of the traffic light. Someone who couldn't drive that well, and with rear wheel drive. Sigh. And 2 bystanders already pushing. I helped some for a bit, until some other burly guys showed up, and between the 5 of them they got the car going. As we crossed the intersection, a snowplough turned onto Albany to clear it. Figures.
For the rest, it was a mostly normal day. Yes, there were people missing at work, and yes, a lot of them cam in late because public transport was a mess. But otherwise quite drab.
Then Saturday, the whole area was in a panic about the pending blizzard. Sigh. It's winter. In New England. It happens. Get over it.
I had made the unthinking mistake of going to a Home Depot to pick up supplies for the new workbench. We finally finished it last weekend (Yay!) and are now doing the final touches, like putting up pegboard (which is what I was getting) and drawers for screws and such. When I got there, I was kind of surprised to see so many people there. Until I saw the hordes at the snow-shovel aisle. And people fighting over the last snowblowers. Insane!
When I came out, it had actually started snowing. Big flakes, lots of them. But no major problem though. It was just snow. And yes, that means you have to drive more carefully, and that it may be slippery here and there. But it doesn't mean that half the drivers need to slow down to 5 mph! And drive in the middle of two lanes. Grmbl!
Anyway, once I made it to MicroCenter (big computer store on Memorial Drive), it was quite the opposite - hardly anyone there. One of the salespeople said that as soon as the first flakes fell, people disappeared. Oh well. Trader Joe's across the parking lot was similar, except that they had been almost cleaned out! I guess people were stacking up in case they would be snowed in for weeks :)
Yes, it snowed. A lot. By Sunday morning there was 2-3 feet of snow on our sidewalk, yard, driveway... everywhere. The only things we could see from the car were the CB antenna and the windshield-wipers which we had put upright. The tips were just barely sticking out of the snowbank. The whole street looked like a winter paradise. It was beautiful. There was still snow falling and blowing around, and it was quite cold. But it was still a gorgeous day. Alex and I started shoveling ourselves out. Literally. Because even though the front door opens in, the screen door opens out. Or rather, we could shove it out a little bit by pushing really hard to displace the piles of snow in front of it. Luckily we'd had the shovel on the front porch, within reach of the door. Not like a lot of the people on the street who'd had theirs on the side of the house. Out of reach. Heh. Live and learn.
I took some pictures of the huge, huge piles everywhere, and had John make some of me standing up to my waist in the snowbanks right in front of our house. Snowbanks that were there *before* we even started to shovel. After we were done, the piles were about 6 feet. You have to put the snow that you're shoveling somewhere, and you're not allowed to toss it back onto the street. And you have to clear the sidewalks. That basically leaves nothing but your own front yard.
I think I ended up shoveling about 4-5 hours that day. Between digging out the car, the backyard some to get to the trash bins, and the sidewalk, it took a while. But it was perfectly doable. As long as I kept moving, I didn't get cold. Well, except for my legs once my jeans were all soaked. But it was a beautiful day, people were friendly, and everybody helped each other. And because it was so much snow, there was little you could do other than laugh. And seeing people go for a cross-country ski break on the street is just so unusual, it's fun.
Monday morning was a little less fun. I had counted on daycare being closed, and maybe work too. But no, they were both open! So much for a snow day :( At least John was able to drop us off at daycare. That is, once we managed to get there. The commute was surprisingly smooth. Yes, roads were slippery, and narrowed because of the piles of snow. But mostly it was quite drivable. Plus, there were definitely fewer cars on the road. The only major problem we had was in cambridge, where they had not plowed Albany street for a while. And a car had gotten stuck just in front of the traffic light. Someone who couldn't drive that well, and with rear wheel drive. Sigh. And 2 bystanders already pushing. I helped some for a bit, until some other burly guys showed up, and between the 5 of them they got the car going. As we crossed the intersection, a snowplough turned onto Albany to clear it. Figures.
For the rest, it was a mostly normal day. Yes, there were people missing at work, and yes, a lot of them cam in late because public transport was a mess. But otherwise quite drab.
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Date: 2005-01-25 09:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 07:41 am (UTC)