Snow

So Winter has finally come to Boston. According to some winter came a couple of days early (if you believe winter officially begins at the winter solstice). For those with a loser definition, it came on Friday, at least to Boston.

We had flurries a week or two ago, but no accumulation to speak of. Basically enough to put you in the Christmas Spirit, but not enough to prevent people from going shopping. But yesterday, the hammer dropped.

I had a particularly interesting day. I had scheduled a meeting with a potential contractor for a project at work. They are located in Rhode Island, just over an hour south of Boston. I had scheduled the meeting on Monday, when the forecast showed Friday as the only day during the week that it wasn't going to be raining.

It wasn't until Thursday that I realized I'd chosen poorly. On Thursday, I mentioned to a co-worker that I was going going to be out early on Friday and explained about the trip. He said I should cancel because there was going to be a storm. I suppose just about everyone else in Boston knew the storm was coming before I did. I've just gotten out of the habit of checking the weather, because if its a bit colder, or a bit warmer, it only affects whether I put on my hat and how high I zip my jacket.

Checking the predictions, the 6-12 inch band of snow covered a swath including all of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. I checked over and over, but the result stayed pretty much the same, only varying on exactly when it would hit.

But, I decided I would go anyway, although I moved it forward a bit so that I could at least get all the way there before the snow hit. On the way, I remembered some of my snow preparedness tips and stopped to get gas, even though I had a half tank left. While I was at the gas station, a news crew was interviewing the woman at the pump beside mine: "The Panic before the Storm" as I called it. They didn't seem interested in interviewing me, but then again, I'm not a cute girl in her early twenties.

My plan of getting to the meeting before the snow worked fine. I got to their facility just as the snow started to fall.. It ended up being a very good meeting. But a couple of hours had passed and when I got to my car there were three inches of snow covering it.

I cleared my car off and headed out, at a breakneck speed of ten miles an hour. I firmly ignored my GPS instructions to follow the side roads and shave a mile off the drive. Instead I took the most direct route to the interstate. Once on the interstate I got up to a whopping 30 miles an hour. At least for a little while. Eventually I hit a bridge where I barely had enough traction to keep going up. It was an intersting experience, and made me glad I drove a car with traction control!

I had to stop twice on the way to clear off my windshield. Even though the wipers were doing a pretty good job of moving the snow, it accumulated at the stops. The first rest stop I visited had a news truck waiting. I didn't see anyone near the truck, so I'm not positive what their mission was. If they were staged there to respond, or if they were waiting for someone to come in that they could interview. The second time I stopped, I actually got stuck. Luckily there was a guy clearing the sidewalks and he came over and gave me a hand getting out.

I stopped one more time on the way home to have dinner. That's when it got really interesting because there was thunder snow! It was only the second time I've ever seen it. Generally thunderstorms and winter don't mix. But occasionally they get together. It is more of a whomph than a crash, something you feel more than actually hear. There isn't the clear bolt of lightning either, but a coloring of the sky. On this occasion the sky turned a deep electric blue (the previous time I saw it the sky turned purple and green). The power dimmed a few times, but didn't end up going out.

I eventually got back on the road, and had a relatively uneventful trip in. It was rather odd though, because I saw a number of snow plows heading outbound, but didn't see any going my way, or even signs that they had only recently passed. It also seemed that the majority of people were definitely heading away from Boston and not towards Boston.

When I finally got to my neighborhood, I was surprised at how clear the streets were. I suppose the heavier traffic, and more frequent plowings had something to do with it. At least the main streets were pretty clear, the side streets considerably less so. I turned off the main street onto my street and immediately knew I had a problem. The snow plow had been through and was nice enough to dump a pile of snow in front of the driveway to the lot behind my building. Of course, there was also six inches of snow in the lot, meaning I probably couldn't have made it to my spot anyway.

So I drove around a bit until I could find a parking spot on the street. I found one a block over, but it was on the opposite side of the street. I tried pulling a U-turn, but nearly got stuck with my car perpendicular to the road. So, I drove around a bit until I could approach from the opposite direction. I plowed my car through the 8 or so inches of snow until I was reasonably close to the curb. Alright, it was until I couldn't coax my car to make any more headroom, then called it quits. Walking the block or so home.

This morning I got up, and was happy to see that the lot had been plowed! I checked some other windows to see how the roads around my building looked. That's when I found out that it had been so cold that the frames of my windows had formed ice inside! The worst was the door to my little porch, where the hinges were actually coated in ice. I'm really glad that I installed honeycomb shades, because they really did a good job adding insulation to the windows!

Anyway, I went outside and found that while the lot was basically clear, my spot was not! There was an average of a foot of snow covering my spot. Of couse, the spot next to my had been plowed (my spot and the spot on the other side were both empty allowing the plot to clear them without risking scraping a car). So I spent over half an hour shoveling my spot to get my car in. Then I had to go over and shovel my car out.

When I finally got the spot cleared and my car back on the road, I had to drive around a bit. The street I had parked on would have necessitated a left turn into the parking lot. Because of the various plowings I could only get to the lot making a right hand turn. A bit annoying, but no worse than the shoveling had been.

I ended up having to do some more shoveling to get my car into the space. Between the geometry of the lot and the amount of snow and ice left, I couldn't pull in in a single motion. When I tried to back out and realign, my car got stuck. But eventually I got it in. I'm guessing its going to stay right there for a few weeks. Maybe the whole winter, if it ends up being as bad a winter as everyone seems to be thinking.

So when all of that was done, I walked to My Diner (that's really the name, and it's just over a block away) for breakfast. I walked back to my condo on the street I had parked the night before. Another car had already parked in the spot I had vacated! Winter parking in a city like Boston is crazy.

Ahhh... Winter!

P.S. I would hate for anyone reading this to misconstrue my feelings about winter. I actually thoroughly enjoy the season. Sure shoveling is annoying and tiring, but there is a definite sense of accomplishment. Even the stinging numbness in my legs was enjoyable, in a crazy kind of way. Plus, if I were actually to complain, then I would have to stop making fun of Californians for being soft.