I was looking at the Accu-weather forecast for Dunwich. There was a special miasmal ectoplasm alert on for the area (as usual). But the temperature forecast was eye-catching:
Tonight: Clear and bitterly cold. Lo: 4°F
Tomorrow: Mostly sunny and cold; the coldest day until next winter.
That was an interesting statement. Now don’t get me wrong. Hearing that it would get down to 4°F was in no way cheery. Single digits and below is a special part of the “charm” of New England. Camera Girl and I prepare for this by stacking two hundred pounds of blankets on top of ourselves in bed and use snorkels to get air. So, no, I’m not looking forward to tonight. But to hear that from now on until next year it will not be getting horribly cold again is like being someone trapped in a flooded building where the water line is only inches from the ceiling and you’ve been dog paddling for dear life and breathing the last few inches of air for hours praying you wouldn’t drown and finally the tide begins to recede. You experience a sense of relief and victory over a horrible enemy.
It snowed today but I waited until about 2pm and the sun came out and melted the dusting on the driveway. I went around trimming back the ten foot piles of snow along the edge of the driveway just to show them who’s boss and how limited their remaining time would be. I think as I struck with my shovel I taunted the snow in a somewhat insane manner. It’s been a long winter. The other day I was able to get the snowblower working. I poured warm water down the chute and like magic it was completely functional. So, all of the horror from last week was unnecessary. But uncertainty ruled and I didn’t want to use up any time fiddling with the machine when I knew I barely had enough daylight to shovel myself out from a foot of snow.
But all of that is behind me. From now on melting snow will be the reality and preparations will begin for spring. Already we are preparing for the next milestone. St. Patrick’s Day is coming up and Camera Girl will prepare her version of corned beef and cabbage. Lately she hasn’t been boiling it. The cabbage is sauteed and the beef is pan fried but it still connects us with the patron saint of the city of our birth (before Mamdani installed the minarets on St Patrick’s Cathedral). After that Easter is right around the corner and dare I hope some lamb could be on the menu? Camera Girl despises lamb. She prefers ham or pork for Easter but every once in a while, she’ll provide a lamb alternative for lepers such as myself who enjoy a little flavor at Easter.
But all of this is premature. Tonight, I’ll add another hundred pounds of blankets to the pile and we’ll hunker down to 4°F one last time. And who knows, in a few weeks I might even start saying, “Boy I hope it cools a little, I’m stifling. Must be global warming.”
When i lived in the Champlain Valley (Plattsburgh NY and Burlington VT, we didn’t count on seeing an honest-to-Ghu spring thaw until after April 15th. Even grow ing up in Danvers MA back in the ’60s I remember several White Easters. My last year in Vermont there was still snow on the ground in May! Do you have a wood stove? This is when they pay for themselves in spades, especially with the price of heating fuel. Or, try a couple of cats on top the blanket stack with you. By morning you may find them under the blankets.
I fully expect the April Fool’s two foot Nor’easter to visit us again this year. But by then the ground is so warm that the stuff melts in place on its own. Instead of moving it I declare a sit-in and wait it out.
Living here a short drive from the Old Danvers State Hospital (prototype for Arkham Asylum)I can assure you that snowy Easters do happen from time to time. Once in the early 2000’s we were getting our two girls ready for church when all of a sudden it was snowing so hard you literally could not see the houses on the other side of the state highway. Choosing the better part of valor we threw in the towel, that whiteout went on for a couple hours. Where I grew up on the Connecticut shoreline snowy Easters were pretty rare 100+ miles… Read more »
In a warped sort of way I think I actually missed the endless snow in the last few years where it hardly snowed at all.
I guess you don’t wanna hear about us having to run AC in our cars down here?
My mother was born in and grew up in upstate Michigan and had absolutely no desire to return after marrying my deep southern Dad in the then recent post WWII .
Now with my wife gone, I seem to have quite a number of cats to keep me company. On some of the colder nights this past (for us anyway) winter, I would wake up just covered with them. Pretty pleasant, really.
In one week the forecast predicts above freezing night-time lows. The snow (other than the six foot and higher piles) will be mostly gone. And then the miracle of human psychology will allow us to forget the horror of winter and enjoy the slightly warmer uncomfortable temperatures for March and April.
Here in SC, we finally seem to be off the Fahrenheit roller coaster. The last below freezing night was last week. Now we are waking up to pea-soup fogs, and rain seems to figure it’s most needed on the weekends! I have Guard drill this weekend and it’s a sure thing if we do ground search/rescue it will be in fog and drizzle! Well, if it ain’t rainin’, we ain’t trainin’!
Yesterday we got an inch of snow followed by the freezing rain overnight. Yay! There’s a repeat performance of that result predicted for Thursday night. Yay! So I’ll run the shovel over the mess this morning and again Friday morning and let the sun do the rest.