Snow Blizzard

Is that an oxymoron? Are there any other types of blizzards? I'm happy to report I weathered the storm quite well. Some observations:

• I need to listen to the news more. By Wednesday I started realizing that what I thought of as just a normal snow storm was a bit more. Two feet of snow - no problem. What didn’t register was the wind portion. I guess that is what takes a storm to blizzard conditions.
• I have no idea what “be prepared” means. Food and water, right? And maybe some candles and flashlights for when the power goes out. 
• I can get swept up in it all. By Friday I had drunk the kool-aid. I quickly popped into work to grab some files, wrap up some loose ends and then ran errands to get prepared (again). I went grocery shopping again, this time trying to buy food that was dependent on me cooking it or heating it up. I even gassed up my car, although don’t know why since it probably would be stuck if there was a storm.
• I’m not the only one who leaves things to the last minute - the stores were mobbed - had trouble finding a parking spot at the grocery store. But I made it home with enough food to last me a week or more. And not a drop of snow. I was starting to wonder if there really was a storm.
• I felt like I should be fine since I had different types of power for cooking - the microwave (electricity) and stove/oven (gas). And not too much concern about losing water. I did turn up the heat though, just in case, so that I had a warmer house.
• And then it started to snow Friday afternoon. Where I was, there was a ban on all the streets after 4 pm (I think). Strangely, by the time the ban came into effect, I kept wondering if we really had a storm coming since there was very little snow flurries.
• Friday evening, I started thinking of all the things I couldn’t do without electricity. I started vacuuming, doing loads of laundry, charging all my devices and everything else I could think of. I didn’t really need to do laundry, and I can live with dirty floors, but I knew that if I left them undone, they would rub me the wrong way once I lost power and could no longer clean.
• By the time I went to bed, not too much snow. About 8 inches I would guess. Decent but nothing to shut down the city for. I kept watching the news to see if there was a change in projections, the storm loosing it’s oomph or something. It was windy outside and at times when you looked out the window you couldn’t see much other than just white.
• Saturday morning - it was still snowing, but nothing too stormy. There was a gorgeous white calm that had descended upon everything. It was super sunny and so pleasant. I started on my first of the mega meals I had planned. Poached eggs and bacon and cinnamon toast and grapefruit and kiwis and OJ. Nothing like a quiet morning, hunkering down to enjoy the storm.
• Best time to catch up on Downton Abbey? During a snow blizzard! I fell behind with season 3 and haven’t had time to catch up. Unfortunately I’ve caught bits and pieces these last few weeks so knew about some of the big turns, but still - OMG - gotta love the show.
• By late morning, the storm had quieted down and everyone was starting to emerge from their houses to explore and start digging everything out. It didn’t seem like that much snow looking out from the windows, but once you’re in the middle of it, shoveling, you start to see how much there is.
• Snow blowers are not always there for you. My neighbor below me has a snow blower that lasted all of 2 minutes. In preparation he had checked the oil and gas but forgot to check the tires. Who knew?! Our neighbor next door offered to help out. They brought their snow blower over after they had done their driveway and about 2 minutes in it chugged to its end. I think it was just tired.
• Ended up clearing the snow old school style. Saturday, my neighbor and I worked on the sidewalks. It took quite a long time. It was still quite windy, and challenging to find places to put snow sometimes. But was fun, talking with the neighbors, I even went exploring a little to see what the main street at the end of my block looked like. It was completely empty, all the street lights flashing since the street ban was still in effect.
• Saturday night I crashed and was thankful that it looked like the storm was over and we never had any flicker of power loss. Good thing since I forgot where I put the candles, again.
• Sunday I woke up with a heavy head cold. I swear I had a science teacher tell me you can’t catch a cold from going outside, but I don’t know. I spend my day exposing myself to a million germs from hundreds of people, between work and riding public transportation. And it’s when I’m outside with almost no one around that I catch a cold.
• My solution to a beginning of a cold - napping extensively. By dinner time I was feeling better, but now was faced with a herculean task. My neighbor had shoveled a bit of the driveway, but not much, just around their car. And there was rain and ice on the menu for the next day. So it was now or never to shovel the driveway if I wanted to use my car in the near future.
• Why is it that I can go for weeks without using my car, but timing has it that I need my car for this Friday.
• I head out at about 5 pm all bundled up. I load up a ‘Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me’ podcast and hunker down for some serious shoveling. I look at the pile of snow at the end of the driveway which the plow had piled high and decided to ignore that part. Instead I tackle the driveway on the other side of the sidewalk. About two minutes in and I’m leaning on my shovel already.
• Throwing snow onto piles above your head is hard work. I’ve been wanting to figure out some exercises to work on the abs. For some reason my weight seems to like to sit there these days. And who knew, shoveling high piles of snow gives you an ab work out. If it was just a normal snow storm, no work out, but lifting that weight up and above your head makes you use your core - lesson learned.
• Who knew you could shovel without a jacket and mittens - the site by the wayside while I really get into this shoveling business.
• I finished the first chunk and am quite impressed with myself. The wall I’m creating on the side of my driveway is much taller than me and by the end half of every snow full I throw up falls back down. Still, I’m starting to figure out a system.
• I tackle the next chunk, chuckling at Paula Poundstone and getting into a rhythm. I still curse my thinking from the previous day. What was I thinking, pulling my car all the way to the back of the driveway, to make it easier to shovel. It just means that much more to shovel!
• I take a break and look up at the stars. I see my favorite constellation, Orion. I look back down at the work I’ve done and am impressed. I turn and look at what remains and curse. I start thinking of ways around needing my car on Friday/weekend. And then it dawns on me that I need my car the next day on Monday for a work thing too. Some more cursing ensues.
• By now I’m listening to a podcast of ‘Fresh Air’ and am onto my third chunk of the driveway and in the zone - listening to a funny interview that takes my mind off the shoveling. And then my podcast cuts out for a moment and I curse again. A moment later the phone rings. It’s from Florida, but I answer it anyways. It’s my brother skyping from India. Who knew it goes through Florida?!
• At first I talk to him while leaning on my shovel but then realize I’m getting cold. I put back on my jacket and mittens. And then it dawns on me that it’s warmer inside. So I take a bit of a break which is dangerous. I unfortunately cut the call short after a little while, knowing that if it lasts much longer I’ll never make it back out.
• I go in for my last hurrah. Now I’m listening to the latest ‘This American Life’ podcast and have finally reached just in front of my car, except now, where I throw the snow, there are a ton of bushes and the snow seems to be bouncing off of them and back into the driveway. I finally clear the front end of my car and up to the driver’s door.
• Now, I must say, I had just heard on the news that morning about the deaths of the storms, one being a young boy who died of carbon monoxide poisoning when he sat in a car to warm up and the tailpipe wasn’t clear. But the more I looked at my car the more daunting it was to shovel around it all. So I mustered up my courage, jumped in the car, turned it on and quickly moved it forward. Not a problem!
• It’s amazing how little snow falls where a car is. It had blown underneath but shoveling that last chunk of the driveway wasn’t too bad. I got my car cleaned off, shoveled to the end of the driveway, pulled the car back and reshoveled the part of the driveway where I had cleared my car off. Not too bad.
•  And then it dawned on me. I wasn’t done. In fact, I had really shortchanged myself. By now I was starting to get sore, a little hungry and very tired. And I still had the part of the driveway down between the road and the sidewalk left. The worst part. The heaviest, dirtiest, iciest, clumpiest snow. One last internal cursing session.
• I put on a new podcast, New Yorker Fiction this time and buckle down for the worst. I start chipping away at the snow. Trying to throw it as far away as possible, knowing the pile at the end of the driveway will be the tallest. By now, I’m shoveling in shorter stints, pausing to rest and look at the stars and just trying to put mind over matter and not even contemplate the warm coziness of my home.
• It’s amazing how many people were out and about at night. While I was shoveling, I had good excuse to pause periodically when people walked by. I must have seen a good dozen or so people go by - on their own or in pairs. A very friendly vibe and several commiserate folks of my ordeal.
• By my second New Yorker Fiction podcast, they were only 30 minutes each, I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was getting there. I was in the street shoveling out the last of the snow and looking back at all my handy work.
• There is something very appealing to me, after it’s all done, of shoveling massive amounts of snow at night. It’s quiet out, the wind had died down so there was a nice calm. I was able to enjoy watching the stars cross along the southern half of the sky which sounds so enticing and yet I never find myself in situations where I can just stargaze. And the end result is quite impressive. The photo doesn’t do it justice. I created mile high piles of snow that you would swear was done by machinery, but it was just little ol’ me.
• I can safely say it took me four hours to shovel that driveway - since the podcasts tracked time for me. I was trying to finish by 9 pm since I wanted to catch the latest Downton Abby. But figured I’d catch the repeat at 10. I came inside, grabbed a snack, and crashed to watch the show. Except this episode was two hours and I was in the middle of it. By now I didn’t mind and wasn’t about to move. But my muscles ached and being out in the cold for so long, my legs were taking a while to warm up.
• There’s nothing like a warm shower to sooth the sore muscles and warm up limbs. And the great thing is I discovered that WBUR plays old reruns of ‘My Word’ at 10 pm on Sunday nights - one of my favorite shows.
• I’m still sore as I write this but so happy I pushed through and got the driveway cleared as the rain and ice did arrive yesterday.
• One last observation: there are some idiots out there when it comes to snow. For my Monday morning meeting I had to park in the back part of this commercial parking lot. When I came back out to my car to zip over to my second meeting, I discover that I’m trapped. Some idiot decided to park at the end of the row of cars, blocking the pathway the cars in the next row over had used and could no longer exit the parking lot. I joined another vehicle that had been trapped there for about 15 minutes already. It took about 40 minutes, before they could find a driver to move a car to let the handful of us out that had accumulated, trapped. Needless to say, I had to cancel my meeting, which was the whole reason I needed my car!