Our Turn

Snow at Christmas with us away from home, snow in Maryland with us back in Little Rhody, rumors and reports of an incoming "snowmageddon" for the Northeastern U.S., friends posting weather reports on Failbook with various New Englanders tagged therein ...

It's what we call winter up here folks. Ain't no thang.

Except when it is.

Vehicles are seen stranded and abandoned in the deep snow on the exit for Burncoat Street off Interstate 290 in
Worcester, Mass., Feb. 7, 1978, during the now infamous Blizzard of 1978. (AP Photo/Worcester Telegram Gazette)
(Source)

Same scene below in less snowy times -

(Source)

I go that way on the trip north to Mom's house.

Anyhoo, snow storms in New England (well, anywhere for that matter) can be fairly deadly. I missed the Blizzard of '78, which occurred the month after The Missus Herself and Your Humble Scribe tied the knot. So I was in the Far East at the time. (Note, "Far East" is a British term, because from where I sit, Okinawa, Japan, Korea, et al are the "Far West." Just saying ...)

Friday's snow event was a fairly low key thing here in Little Rhody, six to eight inches by my reckoning, based on the amount of snow I had to sweep off of Blue. The storm was supposed to start around 0300, when I answered a "call of nature" at 0400, no snow was to be seen falling from the heavens.

But when I awakened, different story ...

Left the neighborhood very Christmasy looking.

Two weeks after the day itself ...

Sigh.

Maybe next year.

Yes, another snow post, like Skip says, if all else fails, blog about the weather ...

Well Alrighty Then ...

So The Missus Herself and Your Humble Scribe have dwelled near the shores of Narragansett Bay for nigh on to twenty-three years now. Not once have we seen snow upon either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day here in Little Rhody.

Sure, we've been up in New Hampshire for a white Christmas or two (believe me, white Christmases are very much a New England thing, not universal up here mind you, but most of us enjoy a bit of the white stuff for Christmas) but never in Little Rhody.

Sure, sure, it has snowed the week before Christmas (all melted by the Holy Day itself) or the week after Christmas which, I mean really, what's the point?

Now most of you are probably aware that we traveled south for Christmas again this year. Though shortened by Adventures in Dentistry¹ we did have a very good time, Christmas Day was lovely, temperatures in the 60s. Though 'twas nice to get outside and enjoy the lovely sunshine, it hardly felt Christmasy weather-wise, if'n you know what I mean. (Well, unless like Beans or juvat or Tuna or LUSH you live in Florida or Texas or California.)

So of course while we were down south (Maryland is indeed below the Mason-Dixon line) it snowed on Christmas Eve in Little Rhody. So we missed having a Bing Crosby song Christmas by that much.

Now see that picture above, well that was Annapolis, Maryland on the 3rd of January, a week and change AFTER Christmas. The Nuke said it amounted to about ten inches all told. My grandson Robbie can vouch for that -

Hey Grandpa! Look at all the snow we got!

I can also report that the wee lad has learned a new word ...

Yup, that's right ...

SNOW

Now I wasn't sure if Beans had anything to post today, but I wanted to jump in and report on this meteorological event which, sadly, I missed. What I didn't miss was losing power, which The Nuke reported they had indeed lost sometime after noon. While it was restored around dinnertime (which in Nukeland is 1800ish) that apparently didn't happen until her clan had made hotel reservations and dropped a deposit for said room.

What? A hotel? Why?

Well, while they have a fire place which heats the living room very well, and having laid in a substantial amount of firewood, well ...

(Damn it Sarge, why do you keep saying "well"?)

They get their water from a well upon the property, which only provides water when there is power to the pump.

Guess who's making plans to get a generator?

I shoveled this all by myself!
(Okay, Mom and Dad and my big sister helped a little ...)

So that was interesting. It was supposed to snow here, in Little Rhody, but the storm which dumped all that white stuff upon Maryland (and other places in the environs of our nation's capital) stayed out to sea the whole day for us. High pressure in northern New England brought frigid air down from Canada and kept the storm out in the Atlantic. I know, I watched it on radar.

Did I want snow here?

Yes.

A little, nothing huge, just enough to whiten the trees and the land so I could say, "Ah, isn't that pretty," before wondering when it was going to stop.

But the weather guessers promise an inch or two Thursday into Friday this week. It would be nice to see, after all, I'm off until the 10th of January so, as the song says ...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ...

Ah well, I'm sure others would rather not have it snow, I'm okay with that ...

Bloody Grinches!

¹ To be explained at a later date, in full.