This winter just won’t leave us alone.
Here are two views across Canobie Lake, just as the storm was starting. The first pic comes complete with an ice fishing hut.
And now the obligatory front and back yard pics. It is snowing like a frozen end of the world right now. At least I saw a woodpecker in the back yard this morning.
I hate snow. I hate winter. Mother nature is a big fat stinking jerk face.
Last night when I left work at 5:30pm it was snowing like crazy. There were a few inches on my car and in the time it took me to brush it off it was already nearly covered again. The highway going North was slow. When I reached the 128/Mass Pike junction it was crawling. Five miles per hour, tops. By the time you got through Waltham, MA it started to ease up. There were actual bare patches on the pavement. When I merged onto route 93 it slowed down again, but at worst it was around 15 mph. Once you reached Wilmington, MA the road was about 75% snow-free and the speed picked up to about 40-45.
This morning, after the winter storm warnings and end of the world forecasts, I expected to look out the window and see a foot of snow. I also expected that Jen and I would be working from home today. Not quite. What I actually saw was the same mostly bare driveway I pulled into last night at 8:00pm. We didn’t get anything at all. I checked the news and saw that to the South of our home the storm dumped a lot of snow. Over a foot in some places. I figured up North in the Merrimack Valley the highways would be okay, but at some point between home and work I’d get stuck in some serious snow traffic.
Not even close. I left the house at a little before 7:00am, stopped for gas, and then hit the road. The CRV was out of washer fluid so I had to stop once to clean off the windshield. I stopped at the rest area on 128 South that is just before route 9. Have you ever driven a Honda CRV? Last night Jen tried to add some washer fluid but couldn’t find the hood release. I looked around for it this morning before I left, but I was still expecting a two hour drive so I didn’t look long. While I was at the rest stop I found the latch. It is the tiniest little thing and it is located in the weirdest, most illogical place. I probably spent 10 minutes trying to figure it out. In the end, the entire drive (including the rest stop) took slightly less than one hour.
The forecasts yesterday were calling for my neighborhood to get hit with as much as 8 to 12 inches of snow. We ended up getting a dusting. With apologies to folks living on Cape Cod (who got bombarded with snow overnight), this is exactly the kind of weather forecast screw up that I like. If you folks are going to get it seriously wrong, the very least you could do is get it wrong in a way that benefits us. Not like last weekend when we got snow accumulation when none was predicted. That screw up sucked. Today’s screw up is fine with me.
The snow showers we were supposed to get yesterday turned into a few inches of wet, heavy, awfulness. The 30% chance of flurries we were supposed to get turned into about three hours of constant snow. A little of it stuck, but not much. That’s good at least.
I hate snow.
Raise your hand if you predicted snow this morning. (Put your hand down, weather.com)
I just shoveled the end of the driveway. Pardon me a minute while I die of exhaustion…
…okay, I’m back.
The yard is most definitely a winter wonderland today. I saw three deer playing in the snow in the woods. Of course, they may have been bouncing around because the snow was too deep for them to walk. That would mean they weren’t exactly playing, but possibly struggling for survival. Still, they looked like they were playing.
I’ve seen two of my favorite back yard wilderness birds today. Cardinals and woodpeckers. All we need now is an owl and a red tailed hawk and the day will be a jackpot all around.
Apart from the horrors of the snow removal, of course. I’m going to take a fist full of aspirin now. Talk to you all later.
Jen had a training in Boston today. When word of the traffic nightmare trickled in she booked a hotel room to avoid it. Going to Boston cut my snow drive in half, so I joined her. 22 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes or so. I was stopped enough in town to snap a few pics.
Bestsy done good tonight, despite the wiper issues.
And one more from the sidewalk.
I took the kids to their Dad’s house this morning so that they could catch their rides to school. I was a little surprised by the state of some of the roads. The snow ended yesterday morning, but it still was a little sloppy here and there. Route 93 North seemed to be much icier than I had expected.
I’m working from home today, so I didn’t have to deal with my long commute. My wife, however, has to go to a training in Boston today. She left the house at 6:30am. She called me at 8:00 and she’d only made it about half way, if that. As of 8:15 she still wasn’t even remotely close.
Why?
Is this a case of the state dropping the ball on cleaning up the highways, or is it just an example of a phenomenon that occurs each year where most drivers react to the first snowfall of the year by completely forgetting how to drive in the snow. I would guess that it’s a combination, but frankly the snow fell yesterday and both things should have been cleared up by today.
Hang in there, my love. Be safe. I love you!
We got some snow in the Boston area yesterday. Just a dusting really. Not enough to mobilize the snow removal forces for most cites and towns. That means yesterday’s snow turned into this morning’s ice. The drive in was a touch on the slow side (44 miles in 86 minutes) but it could have been worse.
The evening commute, however, is going to be worse. We have more snow in the forecast. It’s another dusting, but it’s coming this afternoon. Just in time for the evening commute.
I want to warn Eastern Massachusetts that they had best stay the hell out of my way. My step daughter has a school event tonight and I am going to get there on time and I don’t care how bloody the path behind me gets in the process.
Pull over, I’ve got a Christmas show to see!
Today is March 21, 2013. The first day or Spring was yesterday.
It is snowing.
Screw you, Mother Nature!
We had snow in the Fall. We had snow in the Winter. We have snow in the Spring. Suddenly the old joke about having two season, Winter and July, doesn’t seem so funny.
I WANT SPRING!
Inside the Red Head's Head 