Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Blizzard of 2010!!

I'm no stranger to snow. I've lived in the northeast my entire life. I was a kid when winters really were winters, when it snowed before Thanksgiving and snow covered the ground all winter long. I was in Syracuse, NY, in March of 1993 when the Storm of the Century dropped 43 inches of snow on that city in 48 hours. So why did today's "Nor'easter in NJ" shock me as much as it did?

When I woke up, there were only a few inches of snow on the ground. By noon, it actually stopped snowing and it looked as though the sky was beginning to clear. Then -- Boom! -- it started coming down fast and thick. And it didn't stop. It's about 9pm as I type this blog and it's still snowing!

Here's a shot of what it looked like at around 3pm when Marilynn and I went outside to do a preliminary shovel:




There were absolutely no cars (or plows) on the road and the snow showed no sign of letting up. Here's a shot of Marilynn, all wired up by the snow and ready to shovel:




After about 40 minutes of shoveling, we managed to clear the entire driveway. At this point, I volunteered to shovel the front walks and the porch while Marilynn did a little cross-country skiing at Village Park.





By the time Marilynn returned, I had just finished clearing the porch and all of the front walks. Then I looked at the driveway ... it was covered with a brand new 4-inch layer of snow! I had to shovel it again!

Before we called it a day, though, there was one more crucial job that had to be done. For the first time in about two years, this snow was perfect snowman-making snow. The air temperature was just right and the snow was soft and easily clumped (if that's a word). It didn't take us long to throw together a snowman (complete with pith helmet and pipe) and his snowkid. We probably should have decorated them a little better, but Marilynn and I were pretty frozen at this point.



So that's about it. Marilynn is stoking the fire downstairs. We're going to pop in a DVD and ride out the remainder of this storm inside. And I'm not going to even look at that driveway again until the morning!

7 comments:

  1. Love the snowmen! Wish we had clumpable snow.

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  2. Paul, and Marilynn,,,it looks beautiful...From my computer....Thank God My Dad is with us...In a few hours the temp here in SW FL. will only be about 38, which is cold for us...We have lost many of our bushes/plants in the cold blast 2 weeks ago...What a winter..
    Love,
    Kathy

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  3. Looks like you had a great day!

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  4. Hi Paul,

    Thanks for the pictures it is lovely to see. Keep safe and hope it clears up soon.

    Kind Regards

    Carol

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  5. I am so stinking jealous!!!! We (pete and I) have been shoveling snow too, but that was any little drift we could locate that didn't get washed away by the downpours of rain 2 weeks ago. We loaded that snow into trailers to spread on our ski trails for the last races of our season, which fortunaely worked for us. It looks like late March here and our grandchildren are so disapointed!!! Enjoy what you have.,Alan

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  6. I snowshoed yesterday and plan to X-country ski for a bit after work today!

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  7. Great photos! LOOKS LIKE FUN....

    Right now I'm at Loon Lake to celebrate Karen's B'day! We will do some cross-country skiing & Ice skating ( Mary & I). Tom just came in ffrom skiing & we're getting ready for lunch. Kevin came to our home yesterday & stayed for 5 hours. He hadn't seen Glen in a while. Much love to all, Annie

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