So THIS is Christmas?

Wow, what a wonderful end to the Christmas weekend. The country has been bombarded by various elements of nature the past week, and finally, New England got its taste of a good ol' fashioned blizzard. Too bad the snow didn't start Friday night for Christmas Day, but at least there was still some leftover snow from Monday to make people happy.

A lowdown on the snowdown (or raindown, depending on the case):

California is going to be its own private island providing the rain and mudslides don't stop. Earlier in the week, up and down the state, people were stuck in the mud because it rained so heavily for some counties, that some cars became encapsulated in thick mud. Others got carried away by rain, while home owners were left swimming in their basements. After doing a brief search on the Internets, I found some articles that read like Science Fiction novels - some parts of the state got hail (while the northern part snow), others got rain, someone got a tornado (oh, no, Auntie Em!), tidal surges were aplenty, and Mother Nature still ain't done! At one point in the week, the whole state was in such disarray, there was no moving and the Governator filed for a State Of Emergency in 6 counties. I think someones been smoking too much of their medicinal marijuana and forgot to shut off the bad weather tap...

Heading east, the "mid west" and southern states decided that they are tired of hot weather (the southern states), so they too got snow for Christmas. Snow covered places like Colorado must have said it's too much for them, so they sent the fluffy stuff flying. Like some counties in northern California, places like Alabama and Tennessee, who are relative strangers to cold, nasty blankets, got a taste of what shoveling means. They got buried with snow mid week and as soon as they got tired of it, they sent it further (north)east.

New England got the brunt of the bad weather the past 24 - 48 hours. If a state did not get heavy rain, they got snow. Speaking from experience this weekend, western and southern Massachusetts got clobbered with a grand total of 20+ inches. Living close to the Cape, I know we got the total amount. It's heavy, it's wet, it's back breaking. No wonder why meteorologists call this type of snow the "heart attack storm" because you can have a heart attack while trying to clean your driveway. All along the eastern seaboard, airlines are cancelling flights. If the flight wasn't grounded by Sunday morning, the passengers are definitely sitting pretty in the airports as I write this. No one is getting in or out until tomorrow morning, at the earliest, if that. Lucky ones got out, but the unfortunate are sleeping on cots and wondering how they'll be able to see family or finish their vacation. If the vacation wasn't started yet, welcome to the weekend and the start of a hassle in New England! Massachusetts is under a snow / state of emergency, so that means all non essential (aka citizens) personnel are to stay inside and keep up with the shovelling. Only governmental agencies are open, and they are on a skeleton crew. Although some businesses choose to be open today, they too, are on a limited staff because the state does not want people on the roads. To each his own. I know from experience, that last winter, when we had a declared state of emergency, my job did not close or shut down early. We had to stay and close the store. They did not turn customers away, at least the ones who felt frisky enough to go furniture shopping in a blizzard. So we stayed open all day and night, and it was a ghost town at some points. We only closed 2 days a year, and every other day in between was fair game. Lovely.

So I'm going to end my ramblings right here and provide a little slide show. I went out and shovelled a path in my driveway and back deck. Just in case I needed to get out in an "emergency". Happy trails, and stay warm!

 

Cheers,