Thunder! Lightning! No, I'm not knocking on wood, but musing on THE HISTORIC BLIZZARD OF 2006!!
WOW. Never do you know what you'll wake up to. I dozed on the couch shortly after 5am, only to be stirred awake by a bigass rumble of thunder about 6:15am. And then more thunder. And lightning...LOTS of lightning! I've been in "thundersnow" before, but NEVER in my life have I witnessed something like this. It was like a midsummer storm, except with relentlessly heavy, windblown snow. PERFECT! Somehow I stayed awake again for another 45 minutes, even though I was exhausted. But as the light of day made the piling snow more visible, and the morning news shows were all on by now, I was just too EXCITED to go to bed. Shortly after 7am, though, I did.
Now I'd say about 6 inches was on the ground when I stopped "shoveling" at 4am. So when I fumbled for my remote control about 11:30am, turned on the news, and heard that some 22 inches was on the ground in Central Park, making this the 2nd biggest storm on record, I was just flabbergasted. But it only got better! Eventually, the official Central Park reading was 26.9 inches of snow...THE MOST ON RECORD!! We broke the old record of 26.4 or 26.5 set in December of 1947!! Amazing!! And it's one of those things that's just surreal...that's kind of anticlimactic, even though there's clearly tons of snow on the ground. But you kinda feel like OK, THIS IS IT?!?! This is as BAD as it gets?! I mean, I've heard stories of that 1947 storm where the snow was up to the first floor windows of houses. Were the drifts just worse then? I just expect MORE chaos, lol, from the worst storm on record, dammit. Like me literally being trapped inside my house, you know? Instead, buses were running by 4pm. So how bad could this have REALLY been? Also, ShopRite was open; I know, because I walked to it...after I shoveled the tail end of the storm's effects.
I got up at like 12:30pm to hear the roomie downstairs talking...and talking...to the landlords. Turns out he helped them shovel, and they in turn invited him inside for some 1pm wine and chatter. He also came upstairs with the by-now-standard Plate of Food For Dinner During a Blizzard cooked by the landlady. God BLESS her. Today's treat...some kind of roast beef and potatoes. MMMMMMM. I enjoyed them about 7pm after my roughly 3-hour shoveling/walking/ShopRite/Dunkin Donuts adventure. Naturally, some foreign day-laborer types in front of me took about 15 minutes to complete their order at DD, but I refused to get too steamed. I'd woken in a far better mood today, even though Dipshit was still housebound with me. Besides, the ShopRite experience was just like going into the White Light, it was so good. There were like 30 people in the entire store. NO ONE was in my way. Everything on sale was in stock. Sale dates were all sufficiently far in the future. They even had stacks of newspapers, which I didn't count on with the storm. I proceeded to glance through them all without buying one. One of the best food shopping experiences i've EVER had. It was fantastic being out in the storm, walking down the middle of streets, feeling this sense of camaraderie. There was also the brief moment earlier when the dog next door was nearly crushed by another "I can drive as fast as I want in ANY conditions!" SUV, inciting a screaming match between owner and driver, but that anecdote just ruins the mood here.
It was a good day. I work out pretty regularly, yet shoveling always makes my body feel like it went through 6 hours of pilates...a feeling I enjoy, mind you. I will sleep VERY well tonight. I called home this afternoon, too. As I could have predicted, my brother slept elsewhere last night, leaving stent-in-his-heart, 64-year-old dad to shovel the sidewalk AND a car. He wisely left the 2nd car for Baby Bro to do. Cue eye rolling on multiple counts. I was reminded of Precious Baby Furball Power today, and how much I enjoyed observing her sink to the bottom of powdery snowdrifts, as I snapped photos of her desperate attempts to stay on solid ground. Awwww, I still miss my Doggy Furball Ratbeast. It's 3am and I need to fucking go to bed. Oy, vey. The skin under my eyes needs a MAJOR spa treatment. Ok, i'm falling asleep. Peace out.
Now I'd say about 6 inches was on the ground when I stopped "shoveling" at 4am. So when I fumbled for my remote control about 11:30am, turned on the news, and heard that some 22 inches was on the ground in Central Park, making this the 2nd biggest storm on record, I was just flabbergasted. But it only got better! Eventually, the official Central Park reading was 26.9 inches of snow...THE MOST ON RECORD!! We broke the old record of 26.4 or 26.5 set in December of 1947!! Amazing!! And it's one of those things that's just surreal...that's kind of anticlimactic, even though there's clearly tons of snow on the ground. But you kinda feel like OK, THIS IS IT?!?! This is as BAD as it gets?! I mean, I've heard stories of that 1947 storm where the snow was up to the first floor windows of houses. Were the drifts just worse then? I just expect MORE chaos, lol, from the worst storm on record, dammit. Like me literally being trapped inside my house, you know? Instead, buses were running by 4pm. So how bad could this have REALLY been? Also, ShopRite was open; I know, because I walked to it...after I shoveled the tail end of the storm's effects.
I got up at like 12:30pm to hear the roomie downstairs talking...and talking...to the landlords. Turns out he helped them shovel, and they in turn invited him inside for some 1pm wine and chatter. He also came upstairs with the by-now-standard Plate of Food For Dinner During a Blizzard cooked by the landlady. God BLESS her. Today's treat...some kind of roast beef and potatoes. MMMMMMM. I enjoyed them about 7pm after my roughly 3-hour shoveling/walking/ShopRite/Dunkin Donuts adventure. Naturally, some foreign day-laborer types in front of me took about 15 minutes to complete their order at DD, but I refused to get too steamed. I'd woken in a far better mood today, even though Dipshit was still housebound with me. Besides, the ShopRite experience was just like going into the White Light, it was so good. There were like 30 people in the entire store. NO ONE was in my way. Everything on sale was in stock. Sale dates were all sufficiently far in the future. They even had stacks of newspapers, which I didn't count on with the storm. I proceeded to glance through them all without buying one. One of the best food shopping experiences i've EVER had. It was fantastic being out in the storm, walking down the middle of streets, feeling this sense of camaraderie. There was also the brief moment earlier when the dog next door was nearly crushed by another "I can drive as fast as I want in ANY conditions!" SUV, inciting a screaming match between owner and driver, but that anecdote just ruins the mood here.
It was a good day. I work out pretty regularly, yet shoveling always makes my body feel like it went through 6 hours of pilates...a feeling I enjoy, mind you. I will sleep VERY well tonight. I called home this afternoon, too. As I could have predicted, my brother slept elsewhere last night, leaving stent-in-his-heart, 64-year-old dad to shovel the sidewalk AND a car. He wisely left the 2nd car for Baby Bro to do. Cue eye rolling on multiple counts. I was reminded of Precious Baby Furball Power today, and how much I enjoyed observing her sink to the bottom of powdery snowdrifts, as I snapped photos of her desperate attempts to stay on solid ground. Awwww, I still miss my Doggy Furball Ratbeast. It's 3am and I need to fucking go to bed. Oy, vey. The skin under my eyes needs a MAJOR spa treatment. Ok, i'm falling asleep. Peace out.
posted by Gregoire at 10:40 PM
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