"SNOWMAGEDDON"
Saturday, February 06, 2010 7 Comments »
At least that's what folks in the media are calling Saturday's storm here in the NE.
These were the scenes outside my front door this morning at about 9 AM. There should be a road between those trees, but the snow plows haven't found it yet.
I live a bit to the north and west of Philadelphia, so we did not get hit as hard as our neighbors to the south in New Jersey or Delaware; we still got whalloped with between 18-20" of the white stuff.
That thing that looks like a large brick of white ice cream is really our Chevy mini van.
It looked like this from the back porch.
As is customary here outside Philadelphia, stores were jammed on Thursday and Friday with people laying in provisions for the storm. They were so busy (the meat cases were stripped clean, for heaven's sake!), and the Home Depot-type stores possitively depleted of snow shovels and rock salt, it occured to me that declaring a snow storm every other weekend could really do wonders to bring us out of this recession. And a snowstorm on Superbowl weekend? Jackpot!
When my sister lived in Minnesota, they used to laugh themselves silly at her accounts of Pennsylvania pre-snow rituals. For instance, no matter how much you have in you cupboard or freezer, you must always make a trip to the store to get extra bread, milk, eggs and toilet paper.
You must always fill up the gas tank in your car.
You must always park the vehicles in your driveway in a line, covering as much of the driveway surface as possible with cars (less shoveling later). The car at the bottom of the driveway must be parked facing out.
And even if you are not a teacher and no longer have school-age kids at home, you must still listen to the school closing numbers on the radio. All morning long.
As is customary here outside Philadelphia, stores were jammed on Thursday and Friday with people laying in provisions for the storm. They were so busy (the meat cases were stripped clean, for heaven's sake!), and the Home Depot-type stores possitively depleted of snow shovels and rock salt, it occured to me that declaring a snow storm every other weekend could really do wonders to bring us out of this recession. And a snowstorm on Superbowl weekend? Jackpot!
When my sister lived in Minnesota, they used to laugh themselves silly at her accounts of Pennsylvania pre-snow rituals. For instance, no matter how much you have in you cupboard or freezer, you must always make a trip to the store to get extra bread, milk, eggs and toilet paper.
You must always fill up the gas tank in your car.
You must always park the vehicles in your driveway in a line, covering as much of the driveway surface as possible with cars (less shoveling later). The car at the bottom of the driveway must be parked facing out.
You must make sure you have plenty of reading material on hand and (in my case) a bottle or two of wine. I may not actually get around to drinking it, but who wants to take that chance?
I must have extra cat food for for Junior, (it takes a lot of energy to watch those flakes coming down), and food for Maggie the Wonder Dog, since she can work up a powerful hunger romping in the snow!
I must have extra cat food for for Junior, (it takes a lot of energy to watch those flakes coming down), and food for Maggie the Wonder Dog, since she can work up a powerful hunger romping in the snow!
And even if you are not a teacher and no longer have school-age kids at home, you must still listen to the school closing numbers on the radio. All morning long.
We started a fire in the fireplace early this morning; I made a batch of steel cut oatmeal in my handy-dandy rice cooker; I got a huge pot of Amish Chicken Corn Soup going on the stove, and I made a batch of the dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day so that I can make pizza later. All this is a little nuts since it's just me and the Mr. here at home, but that snow just brings out the nesting instinct in me.
And now I'm contemplating whether or not I should set up my featherweight in front of the fireplace in the family room. I know. It's a sickness. I can't help myself. Is cabin fever setting in? Hopefully I won't run through the house writing REDRUM on the mirrors.
More snow predicted for Tuesday.
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7 comments:
GOOD GRIEF! Stay warm!!
Reading your post actually makes me homesick. I grew up in North Dakota so I know what a good blizzard feels like.
You described it so well. I love that feeling of being snowbound in the house.. all warm and cozy.
Don't go crazy.. and stay warm!
I, too, have lived in the north and western suburbs of Philadelphia most of my adult life. But I grew up in southeast Nebraska and I still laugh and shake my head at how a few flakes of snow paralyze this area. Then again, I was one of those shoppers in the store on Thursday night, but only because we're having a Super Bowl party today and I wanted to be sure I had all the food for that.
Hope there were some young entrepreneurs in in the old neighborhood ... looks like white gold to me! - Andy
Ha Ha. Right you are, Andy! We are fortunate to have a set of 14 year old twins who live a few streets away and are "on call" whenever it snows. This time they even showed up with a snow blower.
Sounds like your snowbound weekend could not have been better. We ended up with 28 inches here in B-more and we feasted on the hulka Rod and Dad made (with mashed potatoes of course). I love how a snowstorm allows you to eat REALLY heavy meals guilt free. I also experienced Thunder Snow for the first time. Very surreal hearing thunder and lightening while its snowing! -Kate F.
Holy Frozen People Batman! Fun post. :)
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