We came inside around 3:30 ish, after Mama cleared most of the driveway, some of the cars, and a bit of the walk to the mailbox, but none of the long sidewalk. The kids had crawled on cars, dug tunnels in snow banks, and explored the backyard, getting stuck trying to circle the house. Hot chocolate, deep dish oatmeal cookies, and King Cake warmed us all back up. I napped while the kids and Mama had a Poke-marathon upstairs. They're finishing up and I'm making cornbread to go with leftover vegetable-tortellini soup.
Outside, the wind is bitter and beginning to howl; the trees have been defrocked of their snow. It was already getting chilly at 3:30, as the shadows grew longer and the sun began to dip. Where the driveway was cleared is dry, but snow surrounds it high on four sides--highest on the street end where no plow even thought of coming through. Public Works, while working around the clock, says it could be 24-48 more hours. I'm going to say Tuesday or Wednesday before school opens, because, in addition to clearing roads and sidewalks and parking lots, they'll have to think of clearing 3' of snow off all of those flat school roofs. And I think it's supposed to rain Monday, so we'll raise things up in our basement while also clearing channels outside for the water to flow through the snow. Heaven help us if it freezes after that.
All in all it was a good but strange day. Time had almost no meaning. I think we ate lunch twice! I followed updates of friends on FB, with stories, pictures, and information about town plows; all of us so isolated and yet so very connected in this modern world. I couldn't have predicted, waking up at 6 a.m. and being unable to see out our second-story bedroom windows that Mama could've gotten us out the door much less all over the driveway by late afternoon. I admit to a bit of a panic attack seeing all that snow piled up and feeling stuck, stuck, stuck. I remember stories of Pa Ingalls needing to tethering himself to the house with a rope to find the barn safely; that's if he could even open the door! I know that even houses with fireplaces (if you could find the wood in the snow!) were barely above freezing because of the poor heat conservation. No wonder those women on the prairie went crazy. I practically danced on the black asphalt as it was revealed! I'm not as hardy as a pioneer, or most New Englanders. But still I love the snow and am rather excited to be living through an historic blizzard. And I thought the 1996 one in NYC was big! (Well, it was--5th Avenue devoid of cars, listening to thundersnow while staying with Gommie and Aunt Banana at the Waldor-Astoria, trekking through drifts to get to my apartment on W. 44th St.) Our town is right up there with the 38" record accumulation of the storm so far. And what do inches matter when you measure drifts in feet?
Church is cancelled tomorrow; we couldn't get out even if it weren't. We were supposed to go to NYC today to celebrate Chinese New Year with Ma, Gong, and Goo, who were thankfully spared the brunt of this after the devastation they suffered three months or so ago with Hurricane Sandy. I doubt we'll be able to go tomorrow, which is sad especially for Mama and her folks. The kids will be happy to celebrate whenever we do.
And tomorrow there will still be tons, quite literally, of snow to play in.
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