The U.S. northeast is in the midst of a blizzard. And from New York through New England the snow's been a fallin' for hours. The roads are closed for all but plows and emergency vehicles, the landscape is a snow covered wonderland and for the most part, my family and I have been holed up nice and cozy in our home since last night. My wife had learned late yesterday afternoon that her office would be closed today and nervously we waited until about 7:30 pm when my work officially announced it would also remain closed due to the extremely nasty weather that was reportedly on the way. And with that we opened a celebratory bottle of wine to enjoy during dinner and toasted our first snow day- a Blizzard Day!- of 2013.
The Blizzard of 2013 was the talk of the region days before it hit. Among my friends and coworkers the buzz was all about whether or not our various work would be cancelled on Friday. Right up to the announcement of closing my friends and I were texting back and forth to see if anybody had news. Suffice it to say, we were glad to hear we'd receive an extra day on our weekend. Around here we slept in and enjoyed a tasty breakfast and then took care of some chores and just settled in to wait for the snow. Around 10am it began.
The weather predicted light snows at first and then a steadily increasing storm in the early afternoon. The governor announced that all non essential vehicles traffic was prohibited after 4pm. Around 3:30pm I took the dog for his afternoon walk. He'd been getting restless anyhow and I wanted to see how the neighborhood was dealing with the snowfall in advance of the main part of the storm. By now we had about 2 inches of snow. It was a wet slippery base and I came across a woman who could not get her car up the grade of her street. yes, this was not the weather to be driving Nissan Sentras and the like up steep hills! By the time the dog and I got home the streets were nearly empty. The town was looking more like a winter wonderland...and it was time to do a preliminary shoveling of our front walk. The dog was really starting to enjoy romping in the snow!
A few hours later, about 6pm we had around 5" of snow on the ground and it was falling faster and the wind was picking up. It was about this time that we went into the back yard to play with the dog. He had a blast running to and fro and chasing us while we tossed sticks for him to fetch. There was even a snow angle made.
Above it the dog having a blast with his favorite toy- a stick. Here's another shot closer to 7pm-
The snow is still streaming down and the wind is gusting more than ever. To say that I'm excited to get outside and walk around again is an understatement. It's been a long time since I've gotten to tromp around a snowstorm such as this. And doggie, after his nap, is going to be eager to go too once he sees me lacing up my boots. Here's one last shot for tonight...and it will be interesting to see how much more snow is out there in the morning!
