This morning I woke up and got dressed right away to go exploring in the snow. I took my camera and shot almost a whole roll of film in my 5 block walk around the neighborhood. Just as I was leaving, one of my roommates came inside from having shoveled out some of the walk so I took a picture of her. She has this orange coat that looks more suitable to an Antarctic expedition than wintertime in Boston. She told me I would need a windbreaker because the wind was blowing really hard. Bear in mind I already had my heavy coat, scarf, earmuffs, and boots on, but she said the wind would whip right through my coat. So she loaned me a Columbia windbreaker of hers and I put it on over my coat - it was a men's jacket and big enough to fit over my coat and me. She was right, I needed it. I'm sure I looked dead sexy as well.
Upon stepping outside of my door, I was surprised at the quiet. I could only hear the shhh of the snow and the whooshing of the wind. It is never completely quiet where I live. Traffic is always rushing by on the busy street 3 houses down from me, and a lot of people use our street as a quick thoroughfare from one main road to another. I walked down the middle of my street and up the hill to my car, where I took several pictures of it buried in the snow. Then I walked to the main road and only had to step aside once as a Jeep with a plow attached to the front passed by. The snow was still falling hard and I could only see about 20 feet in front of me, and after that it was all whiteness. I met about five other people out walking and as we passed each other we gave each other looks like, "Isn't this amazing?"
The people in my ward organized three Sacrament services at people's homes, so at about 1:30 my roomies and I set out for our friends' house 4 blocks away. Once one of my roomies emails me the picture we had a passerby take of us all bundled up, I'll post it to this site. Heidi in her orange jacket, Angie with 3 hoods covering her head, and me with 2 jackets on. We had a nice time meeting up with some people from church and had a nice short meeting, followed by hot cider and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. While we were there, the snow finally stopped. All told, I think it snowed hard for about 24 hours straight.
When we came back to our street, the whole neighborhood was out, shoveling walks and digging out cars. I decided I better go ahead and dig out my car before the snow froze into an ice block. All I have to say is, let's hear it for dry snow! I'm worn out, and I know my arms are going to be sore tomorrow, but at least the snow was pretty light. It took me about an hour and a half.
The problem I had was where in the world to put all the snow? Since you can only park on one side of the street, I repeatedly crossed the street and piled the snow on the snowbank on the other side. Several people had the same idea and the snow pile keep towering higher and higher. I figure it will be all melted by June or so. When I walk through the narrow shoveled-out paths on the sidewalks, the snow on either side of me is about waist deep.
I have to say how fabulous the local men with their snowblowers and snowplows are, especially the one at Chatham and Dana at about 5:30 PM tonight. I managed to dig out my car about 2/3 of the way. I figured if I could just make a spot big enough for me to back out a little and then turn and wiggle my way out, I'd be ok. I guess the city has a deal with various snowblower owners because they keep showing up to clear paths on the sidewalks. One man showed up at 5:30 and proceeded to make a path on the sidewalk running alongside my car. He came out to get something from his truck and asked, "Do you want some help?" Twist my arm. He got rid of the rest of that 1/3 pile of snow, so now my car is completely clear. Hooray! I thanked him profusely and was going to grab him some cookies one of my roomies made today, but he left right after he helped me. His karma is going to be good today.
The world is very surreal and strangely beautiful right now. I can still hear the wind whistling around my house and know it's going to be a cold cold night.
No comments:
Post a Comment