Wednesday, February 14, 2007

la blizzard

I could feel myself get anxious on Monday as the weather folk on tv started warning us of impending doom and slaughter, or to be more specific, the onset of a winter storm.

They cried, There will be heavy snow, there will be ice and sleet, and there will be heavy winds.

At some point in the hysteria, I remind myself that weather rarely exceeds their worry. While it is to everyone's benefit to listen when they warn us, I sometimes reactly poorly to that tinge of excitement as they stress how bad it is going to be. I try to hear what they have to say but not overreact myself. Still, I cancelled my appointments for the next day and stopped by the grocery store on the way home.

And yesterday we had a lot of snow, lots of sleet and heavy winds. And because we all listened, almost nobody was out driving through the mess and almost everything in Indianpolis was closed, and we all sat in our homes and watched unrelentless sleet falling for most of the day that had followed a night of snowfall, and on local television, we watched a million reporters scattered on more corners than ones with Starbucks telling us that this was a really bad storm. One young weatherman said as he stood out in the freezing, falling sleet, that we will always remember the really bad storm of 2007. Ok. Maybe. He certainly will.

So I shoveled my walk and drive twice yesterday, once in the morning when it was fluffy light snow, and once again last night when it was hardened packed ice covered snow. And then again this morning, a mere two inches or so from late snowing and from drifting. And I helped cut-out the driveways of a few neighbors -- the snow plow pushes the snow from the street into the driveways, and with frigid temps for the rest of the week, I assumed that to leave the packed snow there was an invitation for sealing off driveways.

So the snow is all here, and only a few came into work today. The week will really start up again tomorrow.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had a great deal of cold, but not as much snow in our area. The cold, though, goes right to my bones this winter. It's been dragging me down.

Just think, soon you'll be facing New York winters. And springs, I like the east coast in the spring.

Shelley

Don said...

Shelley -- we got a lot of snow, and ice. And we're supposed to get more next week.

January was an amazingly warm month, and now in February we're seeing snow and low temps for weeks.

One constant is the moisture -- we got lots of rain in January and now we're getting lots of the cold version.

New York City is especially cold on the avenues as the wind comes whipping through the buildings. But we will live in fairly quite corner of the Island, not far from the Hudson and just above Greenwich Village. And I will only have to cross the street to get to work (I drive 18 miles each way here in Indy).

I am very much looking forward to getting there.

Carol Michel said...

I agree, I think the people in Indianapolis did a good job of staying home Tuesday AND Wednesday. As a life long resident of this area, I'll remember this as one of the worst February's we've had.

Don said...

Carol -- I don't think it's over. We're supposed to get a few more inches tonight and then more next week. This is the point where I have to strain a bit to remember the joy of digging through the dirt and working in my garden. It's out there, under about a foot of snow. The good news is that people in the townlet (I live in Wynnedale) are very good at helping each other. I like that a lot.