Snow!

Boston has gotten its first real snow of the season. In fact, with one small exception, we had not gotten any snow up until Friday. It has not stopped snowing since.

When the city was canceling school and closing offices and things on Thursday night, I was certain that we weren't going to get any snow. That's usually what happens. Everyone stays home from work and school, and then we just get rain. I just remember growing up, we NEVER had a snow day unless there was at least 2 feet of snow on the ground and it was still coming down at 6am when the principal had to decide whether to call a snow day. We prayed for snow days. I think in my whole school career in Buffalo, we had just a handful of days off because of snow. So it just strikes me as sort of wimpy (if not prudent, given the traffic nightmares of Boston) to cancel everything before the snow even shows up.

But the snow did show up this time. JK^2 and I went to work (the roads were empty), and around 2pm, it started snowing pretty hard. I was in the middle of my office's holiday party. Usually, they close the office after the holiday party anyway, so people went home after that. I stayed for a little while and then went home around 4pm. JK^2 did too. I took the T home and it was a pretty uneventful commute.

So it snowed, and snowed. Friday night we sat in and put together Christmas cards for all my clients. Saturday morning, we were awoken at 6:50 by the neighbor turning on his snowblower under our window. JK^2 snowblowed our driveway (and most of the neighbors' driveways too), then we sat in most of the day. We drove into the city in the evening for Christmas parties. Cambridge and Somerville had gotten a lot of snow too, but it wasn't still snowing. We had to dig out a parking spot next to Jen's house.

This morning, it is much warmer (32 degrees) but it is still snowing. JK^2 is snowblowing again. Here is the scene outside:

From our front door, looking across the street:


From the backdoor:


There is some talk that it might turn to rain, so JK^2 is trying to clear the driveway before that happens, so it doesn't all turn to ice.

The big question for us is how we're going to get to Buffalo on Wednesday. There is supposed to be another storm then, and it is questionable whether we will have our car in time. We'll know more about the car tomorrow. As discussed in my prior post, the car has been in the shop for a week and we haven't heard from the glass shop in a few days. We're starting to think of other options, but there aren't many. We might have to drive in on Tuesday instead, but we may not have the car. The train to Buffalo on Tuesday is sold out, and air fare is unaffordable. The rental car that we currently have is a crappy Hyundai with a broken radio that is about the size of a clown car, and about as reliable. So I guess the worst case scenario is we rent a more reliable car and use it for our trip to Buffalo.

So I guess you'll all have to stay tuned on that front.

Our plans for today involve going to see the Nutcracker in Boston at 5:30, with dinner beforehand. But we'll take the T for that. All the towns are having snow emergencies, which means that parking is not allowed on a lot of streets. The T will be OK though.

I guess we're having a white Christmas after all.