The snowstorm has come and gone. My immediate portion of the world was not hit badly by it – we got about an inch, possibly two. With the sun today it’s nearly all melted off except for the perpetually shady spots. It was a very pretty sight to wake up to, though – the majority of the trees are still full of leaves, so there were some gorgeous autumn color over snow views today.
I’m not someone who gets freaked out by the snow, unlike so many people here. I grew up in Montana, where the first snow in October is a fairly common event. Snow on Halloween simply means that ghost costumes are ideal – you can wear warm coats and not ruin your costume! The temps aren’t that bad today and the sun is shining. I imagine in the harder hit areas it will be a messy pain. It really depends on how well the ground can absorb any more water as it melts. We’ve received a tremendous amount of rain since Irene blew through here. The snow will likely decrease quickly, but I’m not sure where the water will actually be able to go.
I’m happy, though, that I will not have to deal with snow during my commute tomorrow morning. There will be plenty of weeks of that coming shortly. Don’t allow any of them to tell you otherwise – New Englanders are atrocious with driving in snow, especially at the beginning of the season. It’s like some collective panic goes over everyone and the general rules of everyday driving, let alone common sense while driving in snow, just disappear. Hearty New Englanders? Yeahhhh, no. It’s a good front they put up, but no. :)
About an hour north of me in Worcester, however, well over a foot fell. I’ve heard of some spots getting over two feet of snow! Now granted, it’s New England. It does snow here and can snow early (even if it’s rare). But two feet is a lot of snow in one storm for any time of the year in this area. Hopefully it’s not a hint at what’s in store for us later this year.
Erich decided not to take any c hances with the weather. Early yesterday the big old air conditioners were taken out of our first floor windows. Screens were pushed up and storm windows were pulled down. Most of them will likely not move again until sometime in April.
He also went and bought a portable heater in hopes of keeping our oil bill a bit lower this year. Electricity is cheaper than the oil, after all. Despite living here for six years, I’m still amused at how we have a house – in New England – with no modern insulation. Sure, there’s newspaper wadded in the walls here and there – but none of the pink stuff. None of the spray-in foam. Our house is the first one with a bare roof after a snowstorm. It’s unfortunately not an easy “go buy the rolls and batten down your crawl space” fix for us because we still have knob and tube wiring in most of our house. That type of wiring + insulation = a big fire-risk no no. So eventually we’ll have to take out a loan, get all of the wiring redone, and then we can take care of the rest.
I tend to be the one who gets cold, so the heater will likely follow me into the rooms I wander through this winter. I foresee myself under my comfy quilt next to the space heater as I stitch a whole lot this winter. Now I just need a seriously comfy rocking chair, and my stitching crazy cat lady stereotype may just be complete!
