Snow, snow, snow

"Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow" is a popular song sung at many school-age holiday concerts. Or at least I sung it at my school concerts every year since I was around 7 years old. Well, after 24 hours of snowfall, I was singing "Let it stop, Let it stop, Let it stop"... but it wasn't listening to me and kept snowing for another 28-30 hours!

Now, I know that many people live in areas where snow is quite common and that this post is nothing too extraordinary, but I just had to write about it as my own personal sounding board and pity party :)

This was Boston's first major snowfall of the season. Typically, many, many people get all hyped-up about it. They'll talk about it for days ahead of time, raid the grocery stores like they're going to be snowed in for a week and get ready to "hunker down". And, usually it really isn't all that bad. Some shoveling, yes. But, overwhelming - not usually. Well, this storm was the exception to the norm. There wasn't much time between the first snowflake and the heavy stuff. Fortunately, employers and school administrators heeded the strong warnings this time and sent people home at noon. By 3 PM we were well on our way to having 2 inches on the ground. And, it kept coming, and coming, and coming.

My mom and little brother had driven through the night from PA in order to beat the storm. A friend let us stay in her house since she has a driveway and there's NO WHERE to park in a "snow emergency" in Somerville. ) A snow emergency is declared when there is more than 2 inches expected and you can only park your car on one side of the street. Well, in a town where parking is difficult to find when you're allowed to park on both sides of the street, parking during a snow emergency is like striking a picking the winning ticket in a national lottery (and that's not an exaggeration :) Literally, the town will come and TOW your car after giving you a $100 fine! So, anyway, we were happy to have a spot in their driveway in exchange for some shoveling. And, some shoveling we did. Mounds and mounds of it because did I mention that it just KEPT snowing!


Here's a picture of the house on Saturday morning. It started snowing Friday mid-day.
Lookin' pretty good, eh?!! If there's one thing I am proud of... it's how quickly I learned the importance of QUALITY winter gear after my first winter here of misery in the snow and cold temps. I've got the best gloves (snow doesn't go down your sleeves!) and you can only let your eyes show in Boston because the wind can be so brutal!
These are our piles late Saturday afternoon. Notice... still snowing!!! I have to compliment my mom though. She spent two hours on Saturday morning while I was out doing an errand moving snow and patting down piles so that we could pile more snow on top and it wouldn't slide off
Another pile on Sunday morning... still snowing!
My mom... as we're loading up the car to return back home to my apartment... still snowing and we had just shoveled that driveway 30 minutes before taking this picture! Note, the frustration level in my voice as if I was telling you this story in person. When I shovel I like to have the satisfaction of having a clear driveway even for just a little while.... but not with this storm! However, my mom and I had a wonderful time watching movies, eating good food and just relaxing when we weren't shoveling! That's the magical part about snowstorms. You really can't and don't want to go anywhere... so you can spend quality time together... which we did.

And, a reward for all this hard work? I just found out that we at least have a 2 hour delay tomorrow! WAHOO!!