Our little nor'easter started around 2 this morning. The ground was covered with about an inch of snow at 3 when I woke. There was no wind at that point. I went outside and allowed the plastic "curtain" to fall across the south side of the porch. The plan was for it to minimize the amount of snow clearing I'd have to do to just get out my front door. Yeah, well ...
I can't get an exact measurement because of the blowing and drifting that's now going on, but eyeballing it based on known heights of things and how much they're covered, I'm going to go out on the proverbial limb and say it's more than a foot of snow so far. We've got at least another eight hours of storm time to go, too. Wheeeee (not).
Then, there's that wind. They forecasted a constant 10 mph wind and they weren't exaggerating. It periodically picks up and blows at 20 and sometimes as high as 40 mph. When that happens, it sounds a lot like when the train passes through about an eighth-mile from where I live. It's that loud and sustained.
As far as my porch, well, the plastic sort of works. It keeps snow from blowing in from the south. There is also a barrier on the north side of the porch as well. Under normal snowy conditions, that would do the job and there would be minimal accumulation on my roof-covered porch. But, this is a classic coastal storm, with the wind coming in from the north and east, so there is snow piling up against the front door. I've been sweeping and shoveling the porch and first step almost hourly. Interesting, the north side of that first step is bare, as is the back of my car which is parked close to the porch. The hood of my car, on the other hand, is lost in a more than two-feet thick snow drift.
The snowplows have been through twice so far since this started. I haven't even tried to deal with the ridge they left, but I can tell you it was about three feet high and about two feet in depth last time I looked. I can only imagine what it's going to look like on the final plow-through at the end of the storm. Yeah, there's my cardiac workout sorted for maybe tonight, but probably tomorrow morning.
Most places were closed today, including both my employers. Will they be closed again tomorrow? Hard to say, but given the snowfall amounts so far, I wouldn't be surprised. I also sort of hope so, as I don't think I'm going to feel much like working after I get done shoveling.
Just think – in a month, this will likely be just a memory, and all the spring colors will be here and flourishing like it never happened. However, come March 20th, we'll still be looking at whitened ground and snow pushed up into mountains to make way for cars and people and asking ourselves, "This is Spring?"
Only 6 more days until then.
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