Snow Days

On the heels of JT and I declaring our own "snow day" last Friday, Mother Nature revealed a certain amount of envy.  A few days later, she sent a Nor’easter that buried New Jersey in snow and bought us two days off from school, yesterday and today.  The day of the expected storm dawned cold, but not frigid, with a temperature just above freezing.  For the the first half of the day, there were cloudy skies and a light rain, but little signs of the massive storm being forecast.   Just when I began to give up the forecast as a bust, the light rain converted to giant, wet, snowflakes.  

Soon after, accumulation began.  By the time the snow had ended, we had more than a foot of heavy, deep, wet snow.  Just after 4pm on the day of the storm, JT and I headed outside to clear a path to the driveway.  We shoveled out to the road but the snow fell as fast as we could shovel and all around us we could hear the cracking noise of tree branches falling.  In our backyard, Old Man tree lost branches.  As darkness descended and the storm would down, the frightening sounds of the branches cracking began to fade, replaced by the noise of plows making their way through town, pushing the snow to the edge of the road (and packing in everyone's driveways).  We got the call we'd be off from school for a second day and I was grateful. 

Thursday dawned sunny, clouds blew past in the morning and melting continued apace, with temps in the 40s.  JT and I went outside to shovel out our cars and move the broken tree limbs to the driveway.  The snow was heavy and it took us about an hour working together to clear the sidewalks and driveway.  By the time we were done, the roads had dried.

This is the second year in a row we've had a March snow of the deep and heavy variety. Our shovels are pretty worn out and we'll need new ones for next year.  It's also clear that I will need a heavy-duty snow blower to replace this kid.